TOXIC

I will confess I knew about the double tap to get out but I will also confess I didn’t know you could tap the turn signal stalk and the signal would blink like 6 or 7 times. 😂

Question needs to be a bit clearer… Do you use only braid on all of your setups? Or…. Do you use straight braid or braid with a leader? I see answers to both.

On combos (both spinning and baitcasters) that I use braid, it’s straight braid. Everything else is straight mono. Braid rigs are flipping/pitching, frogs, Wong rig and rattletraps in heavy grass. I don’t do the braid to leader, it’s never made sense to me and I’ve tried it.

A little information to consider. This guy works on everything from exotics to compacts.

Until I see a reason to change, Bass Pro Excel in blue photochromic purchased during spring and fall sales has been fine.

With all that you have been through lately, it couldn’t happen to a better guy! Congrats! 👍🏻👏🏻

😂😉There’s a reason 297 is Yamamoto’s #1 color. It works. If you take color selection out of things you have to consider, it eliminates one piece of the puzzle and then you can concentrate on things like shape and size and presentation. 297 works universally in gin clear to coffee stained water. I’ve fished it from Michigan to Wisconsin to Florida and a lot of areas in between and it’s a producer. @Brian11719 I have used different brands of mono for so many years, I have refined how it works on all of the techniques I like to throw. For example, with mono if I want a crank to run deeper, I throw it on 10lb. If I want it to run shallower it’s 12lb. Mono will absorb water as the day goes on. Fluro sinks better so I will use that for deeper running cranks. I’ve used co-poly and other blends but never noticed a big enough difference to switch vs the cost.

I have pre rigged high percentage baits and I have Plano boxes set up for where we normally go. High percentage is a dropshot, Senko, crankbait, DShad and Ned. Another 4 or 5 un rigged combos in both baitcaster and spinning left open for specific conditions.

@KHNC, in 21 years, we only went one time in summer. Most summer action shifts to the Canadian side, rivers and deep water haunts. The recreational boat traffic is 50 times worse than the fisherman traffic when we go. I would suggest you keep up on a few lake specific sites. One of the members here @Hollada has a lake specific Facebook page.

All depended on the depth we were fishing. We fished 3 ft to 13 ft. Weightless was in weeds and shallow fished out to about 5ft traditionally by casting and letting shimmy to the bottom, reeling in about 3 feet of line and letting it repeat, it was a toss up between that and a DShad many times both worked equally, nose weighted was in deeper where I wanted a fast trip to the bottom and football head was for deeper and dragging. Keeping in mind none of the smallmouth were suspended, all were relating to the bottom. I’ve covered this in many, many posts and it’s all my opinion. I have many reasons why “I” like mono and don’t discount others reasons. I occasionally use fluro on my crankbait baitcaster and I use straight 30lb braid on flipping/pitching/dragging and frogs, but for me, mono is what I have the most knowledge of as far as rigging and action for specific baits. Quality mono has always performed well, has great knot strength, abrasion resistance, castability, float/sink action and on and on. I’m not fishing for $100,000 and don’t have a line sponsor to promote, so I fish what works best for me and most importantly, I consider myself a finesse fisherman as much as possible and get great enjoyment out of doing a good job matching rod/reel/line to my fishing style and not overpowering the fish. The thrill for me is in the fight as much as the catch. As a side note, I very, very, rarely break off. My one complaint about our last trip was that Yamamoto is coming out with a lot of new offerings and with only a week on the water, it’s hard to try all of them out. Especially when I have an abundance of baits I know work.

Thought I would do a little rundown on what I used for the week we were on St Clair (05/17-05/25). Any rigging or other questions feel free to ask. Here’s a recap of what “I” used on St Clair to catch “My” fish. There were 5 other anglers in our party who also caught 50-60 fish a day using some of the same, and some different baits/colors. I am primarily a plastics fisherman so my catches reflect that. It was amazing to me how different groups of fish would bite different colors of the same bait in different locations. Every color I threw caught fish but not necessarily in the same locations. If I listed the color name/number once, I did not repeat it for every bait, I just used the number. 5 inch Senkos in 297(Green Pumpkin/Pepper), 305(Baby Bass), 306(Natural Shad), 901(Watermelon/White Laminate), 967(Goby), 968(Perch). Rigging was Texas Rigged weightless and Texas Rigged with a small screw in nose weight. 4.0 Gamakatsu EWG hook, 8lb mono, spinning rod. For pitching and dragging, a 1/4oz Gamakatsu football head jighead hook exposed, no skirt, 30lb braid, wide spool spinning rod. 4 inch Senkos in 297, 305, and 925(Green Pumpkin/Small Red). I rig my Ned rigs with this bait. I like the extra bulk of this Senko. Buckeye Lures Ned, 1/8th oz, 6lb mono, spinning rod. 5 inch Pro Senkos in 297, and 208(Watermelon With Large Black And Small Red). Rigged Texas style on a dropshot. #1 Gamakatsu EWG , 1/4 oz QuickDrop dropshot weight, spinning rod 8lb mono. 4 inch Paddle Tail Zako in 981 (Green Pumpkin/036 Laminate) rigged on a Buckeye Lures, The Shocker light wire jig head. Baitcaster, 10lb mono. 5 inch D-Shad in 297, 9006(Pro Blue) and 364 (Pearl White) rigged weightless on a 4.0 EWG Gamakatsu hook. Spinning rod, 6lb mono. 3 inch Shad Shape Worm in 297, 305, 306, 9004 (Smallmouth Magic), 967 and 968 all rigged on a dropshot, Texas style with a #1 Gamakatsu EWG hook and a 1/4 ounce Quick Drop dropshot weight. 3.5 inch Yamatanuki in 297 and 363(Green Pumpkin/Blue) rigged weightless on a 3.0 Gamakatsu EWG hook. Other baits I threw were a combination of Bill Lewis and SPRO crankbaits in various sizes and colors. Those were all thrown on a baitcaster with 12lb mono. Plastics ruled the day most of the time. I did throw 3/8 oz SteelShad blade baits for a limit of walleye. I vertical jigged them in 35 foot of water in the St Clair river with a spinning rod and 10lb mono. I have already posted up pics but wanted to follow up with specific baits.

I’m with @Bird on the fluke, more specifically a Yamamoto DShad. On my trip to St Clair last week, we were in a bay packed with pencil reeds throughout in addition to pads and arrowheads closer to shore. I rig them Texas style on a 4.0 EWG Gamakatsu hook and spinning gear with 6lb test mono. We got largemouth, smallmouth, rock bass and pike. They are heavier than your average fluke/super fluke and I can cast them a mile.

On our last trip to Okeechobee, we were going to run up lake from the south end and rather than getting in the rim canal we decided to take the shorter route straight up the lake. It was rough and I was in my partners boat with my rods strapped flat on the rear deck with the butts to the rear and the tips along the gunnel pas me. We use 2 mounted bungee straps to hold them in. For some reason the front one let loose and I realized gear was taking flight when a rod hit me in the side of the face on its way out. I lost 5 combos and would have lost more except for a rattletrap that snagged the line of a couple on the way out. You can see how they are stored in the pic. Never have had any escape before or since.

All very good advice given and none wrong. When I was teaching clients to maximize their casts I always told them it has little to do with brute force. Just like a baseball bat, and a tennis racket, you get more power when you find the “sweet spot” of a combo (spinning or casting). Arm strength and technique help also when used correctly. Snap your wrist with a spinning rod and it’s a good thing, do it with a baitcaster and you are guaranteed a backlash.

Odds are good that it was a live bait catch. Trophy nonetheless. February will be our 3rd year going down. We only use artificials and have a blast.

Another interesting fact, you can’t just order one equipped like that. The owner of BassCat, Rick Pierce, has to approve the sale. On our recent trip to St Clair, one of the first timers brought his boat. A Bullet with a 300 race 2 stroke. Thing sounded like a NASCAR unit when he fired it up. He kept his need for speed under control and it did well but stacked against a Mercury 4 stroke 250 and an Evenrude 2 stroke HO, he learned a new thing about fuel consumption. He ran it out of fuel once. 😂

@Junk Fisherman don’t get me wrong, the braid craze is strong and alive and I don’t disparage anyone for using it but for me, mono has outperformed braid in finesse. Maybe it’s because I am so accustomed to it that I don’t feel the added sensitivity and when I did try the braid leader combo on Ned and dropshot, I got waaaay too much feedback through the line. I don’t need to feel the cracks on rocks and every individual leaf on a milfoil plant. The light wire hooks I use in both situations don’t require a hefty hookset and with most of my finesse applications, I’m not casting 100 yards. I guess just generally I feel that finesse isn’t finesse anymore and fishing a Senko on 30lb braid with a 15lb leader isn’t anywhere near finesse. I’m about to do an article for Yamamoto that really asks the question…”Is Finesse Fishing Dead?” Because, that’s how I feel. I feel like we’ve lost the art of pairing the right equipment with the right line and presentation in favor of just overpowering every fish that bites. Pet peeve at its highest.😂

I’ll be the boomer here and go against the group think of everything needs to be braid. A Ned rig is finesse and there’s nothing finesse about braid, nothing. Just because braid has a smaller diameter than mono or fluro doesn’t make it better. Mono has memory you say? I use a line conditioner and periodically feed out line and let it relax. Braid cuts through weeds you say? I’m not fishing a ned in weeds or pads but if I do encounter them I haven’t had a problem other than fouling the hook. Regardless of leader length, braid floats and affects the action. And finally, no matter how good your knot tying skills are you’ve just added another failure point to your setup. I do use braid for some techniques but anything considered finesse, is off limits. Here are some catches on a Ned with 6lb straight mono.

I never have my boxes in the direct sun no matter if I’m on my boat or someone else’s. I have had crankbaits paint “crackle” due to heat while in my lockers. If you want to be picky enough, I have seen them replaced free by the makers. I haven’t seen a difference in the catch rates. If they split open, that’s a whole different issue.

Also, the DShad is made from the same plastic as a Senko and as a result is heavier than most other fluke style baits. I can cast it a country mile weightless but I throw it on straight 6lb mono.

Yamamoto’s fluke bait is called a DShad. Just got back from Lake St Clair and in a bay filled with pencil reeds we cleaned up on largemouth, smallmouth and pike with DShads. Below is a pic of my box and the colors I throw.

If you order directly from Yamamoto they have a special free shipping promo going on right now.

Is this what you mean by “Silver Bass”? There’s so many different names for the same fish.

@gimruis we always get into Rockies. This year we caught some brutes. @ol'crickety I just picked out a few of the hundreds of pics. St Clair is truly smallmouth Disney Land.

FYI, that Pike pic is not blood on its side. It was actually red. I’ve never seen that.