Bdnoble84

Absolutely love a 3” kalins in green pumpkin or watermelon red on the back of a 1/8 ball head for my beatle spins. What size wire are you guys using for making yours. Ive been looking into making my own as well.

Those look great, ill have to give that a try

Count me in as long as i have alittle bit of time yet to get started.

I managed to catch alittle walleye on the jerkbait before burying in a rock down by the dam. That thing had an awesome action i was pretty ticked. Lost the bladed jig testing it out. Did have some luck with the plastics. Just didnt really have much time to fish hard this year and when i did get to go i found myself grabbing my old standbys because time was limited hopefully i can plain around with some of the skirted jigs more this year there was a black one in there with a fine cut skirt that should get bit hard

I love this. Is that an o-ring you used? Trying to jab hooks through a hard tail gets annoying and i dont have the best hook up rating either

2” curly tail on 1/16 oz head with a very small safetypin spinner (or just a couple beetlespins). small smallie magnet. Also the smaller rebel wee craw

Thanks for all the advice. I clamped my 50lb transom mount on the bow and worked in some moderately strong current. Definitely see what you guys are saying bout going bigger. I was constantly on 3 just to make headway into the current. 4 got me moving good. Struggled with control. Spent about 2hrs slipping the current seam casting for smallies then running back up to the island point. Only used 20% of the battery. Expected it to be more. As i said the current was only moderately strong in that area. Having said that my buddy wants to sell me an mg 55 for 100$. I have to see if the shaft is too long though as it came off a 16ft smokercraft. I’m probably going to go for it and live with the lack of performance for now. Hoping to upgrade boats in next year or 2.

I’m trying to figure out trolling motor as noted in my recent post. My buddy wants to sell me a mg 55lb for 100$. I might take him up on it, gotta see how long shaft is. I know for a fact a 70lb would be better for the river fishing i want to do as suggested by Scott F. but ill make it work for that price. I only plan on being in this boat another year or 2. I would like a second depthfinder but we will see how my budget lines up.

Anyone on here fish the rock river around oregon/dixon?

As i said im green when it comes to tm tech. Do the digital motors give you more control over speed?

Im going to do the same thing to my little 14ft alumacraft. Im debating between aluminum pop rivets or aluminum self tappers fastened to the gunwale. I was going to run a couple 2x2s underneath to stiffen it up. Not sure if this is the best way to do it but that was the route i was thinking i would go. Not sure if i can mention other forums on here but tinboats.com has a ton of builds like we are doing. Great resource for that sort of thing. If this isnt kosher i will remove.

I’m in the market for a 500$ or less bow mount trolling motor to put on my little 14ft alumicraft v-bottom (expecting bOat weight to be under 1000 lbs after mods if not considerably less) i am looking to get as much bang for my buck since i’m going to be building on a deck as well and adding a decent si or di depth finder. I’ll be using it primarily in a medium size river with moderate to heavy current. Im thinking i need atleast 55lbs thrust for holding in the current and am not opposed to stepping up to 70lb/24v if budget allows. I’m also thinking i want something digital due to better battery consumption and ability to control speed? Are reconditioned motors really as good of a deal as they appear? Also, am i overthinking this and could i get away with 45lb thrust in moderate to fast current? I am not brand consious, seems like mk and mg both have quality units. Im new to bow mount motors, i ve had my 50lb transom minn kota for 12 yrs. so im really green on some of this.

They are a rocker style head. I think they are advertized to stand up but they do fall over in my experience if you put slack in the line. I use them for swimming as well as walking over rocks. They do surprizsingly well worked through some nasty rocky areas. I use 50lb braid and a med heavy rod and its a challenge to loose one in my experience. ive had some hook up issues with the widegap hook. Mostly its me trying to really drive it. A sweeping hook set seems to work better. Once they are on though, its been pretty much money for me.

I live in illinois so pretty much similar experience with limited use for flies since i really dont feel like getting into fly fishing. I tie alot on 1/16-1/8 oz heads with marabou (think fieder fly) and bucktail. I’ve gotten fairly creative tying regular bass jigs with silicone as well on 1/8-3/8 poison tails.

You most certainly can. I understand why WRB is suggesting to keep it finesse since that is the point of hair fishing but for me fishing smallmouth in a nasty rockstrewn river, its very disappointing to bury the hook in a rock a couple casts in when i just spent a decent amount of time tying it. I’m also not fishing clear water. I/ve done a few like this this year in 1/8, 1/4, and 3/8. Havent had a ton of time to fish thwm but they do look good in the water. Ive played around with bucktail and marabou with rabit strip trailers as well as straight bucktail, marabou, and craft fur and using a small chunk trailer. One note with the bucktail and craft fur. Go shorter than you think u should. I did some that i thought was plenty short, but when i put the trailer on the hair was pretty well covering it up and it is a no no to trim your hair at the tip, it kills the action.

I second the poison tail mold. It is excellent in rock in my experience. Particularly the 3/8 version. I have to really work to get one hung up permanently. Thats saying something in the water i fish.

You would be well served to burn a spinnerbait accross the faster current in the skinnier water as well. Many a big smallmouth has crushed my spinnerbait after repeated casts ripped accross. You do it enough times, they will get ticked and bite.

In my experience, a Northern you can see is even harder to get to bite than a smallie. As for the leader issue, i avoid leaders as much as possible in my northern infested waters. I want to keep from inhibbitting the action of the lure as much as possible. I feel like with moving baits such as spinnerbait, swim jigs and crankbaits, the odds are lower for the northern to ingulf the bait. I will admit though, when there is the threat of a northern biting me off, i am less apt to slow down and pause the baite and i more ready to swing at the slightest tap. This is more the case however with my spinning tackle using 6-8lb line than it is with casting tackle and 12lb+ line. 12lb line seems to provide significantly more protection against those teethy critters.

Not familiar with streams in that area. I know the fax has some potential. Not sure on much else though

What part of Northern illinois you talking? There are a few

The jigs is the round painted piece of lead with a hook molded in. The curlytail is the plastic assortment of yellow and pink/ orange lures and the spinner is the safety pin looking deal with the concave piece of metal attached. With this lure you will want to cast it out retrieve it at a moderate pace. You may get snagged a few times. Dont get discouraged if you break some off, you will catch more fish if you are around cover than if you are not. I would suggest practicing know tying before you go out, tying a quality knot is important and you dont want to be wasting time on the water learning.

Since you have never fished before, i would say you are fine trying out what you have. Where are you fishing, the fox? A curlytail and spinner on a jig has caught me more smallmouth than any other bait i have thrown. As you get more experienced you can try other baits

They just bought the place. I was under the impression that it was solely a cigar bar. Guessing they are just getting rid of left over product. If i ever stop working so much d**n much i’ll pop in and see what they have going on.

Thanks for the advice. It gave me some things to think about. Its not something i would be doing within the next couple years but its definitely something i wanted to start thinking about now. Alot of what my fears would be have been voiced on here. And yes mr frost, that is the location. I havent been in the other place yet. Hadnt even heard of it until 2 weeks ago.

What kind of tape are you using? Masking tape?