Bdnoble84

This year I decided to focus on using boottails more (fat impact style) ive had some success, but ive pretty much stopped throwing grubs. What situations do you throw a grub versus a boottail. I mainly fish rivers.

Very cool.

Ive pretty well converted to braid to leader on everything. Mostly because i like the sensitivity. The sponsiveness, the fact that i can easily remove backlashes. Ive gotten pretty goodcat an Fg knot. Its a convinience thing for me, plus i like the bait control i have due to the lack of stretch

Walking bAit 3 in keitech fat impact on an underspin or homemade safety pin spinner.

Still a reaction, just because it is less of a reaction, its still a reaction. The only way there would not be a reaction is if a fish did not see or sense the bait. We get hung up on what we can visibly see, but there is always something going on underneath.

i’d like to get into that someday, but at this pount in my life, its one bridge (or 500) too far. Honestly right handed people would never notice because the threads would self tighten.

Thank you, nakes perfect sense

I have a fenwick hmx spinning rod that I really like, but the reel seat is a rear twist. Being left handed, it will work loose over time, especially when fighting fish. Is there something I can put on plastic threads to help it hold without making it permanently tight?

I agree, fish have tempers, even when its not spawn. When the swipe at it, bump it, dont even have their mouth open.

Those look awesome love the detail. New skirts came in. Im busy, but I atleast had to tie something.

Lost a 3-4 lber last saturday exact situation, just with a spinnerbait. Couple weeks before, exact same type of bite. Just with a swimjig and a northern (he bet me off because i couldnt react fast enough). Had to of hit both of them in the head with the cast. I feel like im in my functional behavioral assessment class trying to nail down a operational def for a specific behavior. ? I wonder if i can log this convo for practicum hours. ?. at this point can we all agree that the term reaction is very general, but we can all kind of figure out what a pro or whoever means when he talks about it? Im much more interested in talking about the aggressiveness and power river fish will hit a bait.

That is a good point, experienced it yeaterday. I was working a jerkbait in a shalow spot in the river, i tryed several different twitching cadences over the same spot. Started straight reeling it on a cast kind of wuick, as soon as i sped up, this guy smashed it. Had to of went past him a few times. Foul hooked him but i think thats because i got him too (wait for it) react aggresively to an abnormal occurence in the bait. Side note: found out why amazon trebels are so cheep. You can see i broke a hook.

Flathead would think its too small to waste its time on lol.

No offense. But you havent lived the full smallie experience in my opinion until you have one absolutely slame a spinnerbait moving mach20 or ripping a jerkbait so fast your arm hurts after the fifth cast. But thats just me and what I love.

Don’t you fish for smallies all the time? Youve never caught one burning a spinnerbait or ripping a jerkbait?

There is absolutely no purpose to this conversation regarding the semantics of the term reaction strike. But it sure is fun to disect. at the end of the day, what matters is that there are times you need to fish more agressively and other times you need to be more methodical. I take the IN-Fisherman approach of start fast and aggressive first because that is the more efficient way to fish, then slow down and be more methodical as needed.

I agree. I think at this point we are arguing the same thing to an extent. As I said every event, even as small as blinking is a reaction to something. But to go back to tge beginning, i think while reaction can be misleading, it is still valuable in fishing. As i said it would be better termed impulse or aggressive to describe the nature of the bite and the method used to elicit a bite that has been classically been classified as reaction bite.

Yes but is it an impulsive reaction or deliberate reaction.

Why do the semantics matter. Yes, literally everything we do is a reaction to something no matter how infintesimal the causation. Me blinking my eyes is a reaction to a chemical change in the brain. however, in this instance reaction is used to describe impulsive action by a fish just as the example earlier of reacting to the fly is impulsive. A feeding bite, such as when a bass inspects a wacky rig and decides it is hungry and eats it is deliberate. It is thought out, calculated. It is deliberate. I mean if it really bothers you that much we can change it to impulsive bite versus deliberate bit. I just want credit for the terms lol.

So you are saying we were all reaction strikes. We weren’t hungry. We weren't looking to feed. But we were triggered by something and coaxed into reacting aggressively. That is a reaction. Hmmmmm. ?

I almost always start reaction. This means burning spinnerbaits, fast twitching jerkbaits, ramming frankbaits into rocks, even using a jig or texas craw to steadily bump rocky bottom, only stopping if the jig hangs up to pop it free. Its the most efficient way to cover water. And its a great way to pick off the most active fish quickly. If those dont work. Thats when I slow down, and fish a feeding reaction with wacky worms, finesse jigs, neko rigs, plastics, hair.

2.5in smallie on a rap dt3 lol

Thanks everyone for the advise. Ive seen the wildeyes, i should just pick some up. Probably just get 1 darksleeper just to see what the hype is about

Im leaning Donko and Shirou. Be cool if they had a true shad pattern.

Cool, Im going to school downtown and have considered hitting somewhere along lakeshore to give it a try.