Boomstick

I just picked up this book at my local bookshop. It covers the basics from smallmouth biology to the gear and equipment and lures and when to throw them. I largely would think the same thing, but if they do a good job of explaining where the fish are, that's still invaluable. That's the thing especially with smallmouth is they move around a lot. You may get on the bite of your life one day, and then come back another with the exact same conditions, weather patterns, moon cycle etc and all but they're just in a different part of the lake at that time. The best advice I can give is look for areas with no weeds, hard bottoms and lots of rocks. I found a rocky shoal that essentially had smaller rocky shoals on top of it on Lake Champlain last year and sure enough I pulled out a good one there. I've also caught a few in laydowns. Getting on a smallmouth bite can be both fun but also quite frustrating. I often end up across the lake skipping docks and flipping weeds for largemouth after a while.

The only way I'd sell a rod or reel is if I don't really use it. For example, I may sell a 6.1:1 reel for a faster one.

So the older St Croix MH rods especially on their low-mid range lines are a bit of a broomstick of a rod. The Victory series has a bit more bend (and still runs fast) so it should be in the lines what you're looking for. That will have significantly more effect than 3" of length. The 7'3" MH/F (The Marshall) is a pretty good all around MH rod and it will definitely cast better than your older Avid X. The 7'1" Grunt would do even better. It's a little bit lighter powered but has a 3/4oz upper end weight limit so you won't be using it for larger spinnerbaits, chatterbaits or football jigs, but for senkos and poop baits it would be perfect! As far as being tip heavy, the Victory rods are generally pretty light so they'll still be a little bit tip heavy especially with a light reel, but they aren't so tip heavy where I immediately think about how tip heavy it is.

I haven't used these rods. My favorite jerkbait rod is actually the St Croix Mojo Bass (older gen) 6'8" M/XF topwater rod. It doesn't have a lot of tip, but bends all the way though (it's not as powerful as the other St Croix mediums), but I find that when they bite on the twitch I can still feel it where with rods with more backbone and softer tips I don't.

I started off doing it by attaching it to a scale and having someone read off the scale when it hits a max of 30% of the line strength or the max recommended line strength on the rod. Now I am usually able to do it by feel. In most cases, the proper drag is right around the point when the line starts to dig into the line on the spool regardless of the line type and strength I'm using.

I have always said it's the most unbreakable state bass record (probably because it wasn't caught in MA. Look at records from surrounding states. CT is 12 lbs 14oz (they have more herring in CT too), VT is 10lbs 4 ounces, NH is 10lbs 8 oz, New York is 12lbs 6oz, and Maine is 11lbs 6oz. None of that is close to MA. I'd wager I have a better chance of catching a 12 pounder in Vermont than I do in MA as well, part of it is they have all of lake champlain, but they probably have Champ eating all of the big ones.

I went to the Springfield Sportsman's Show a few years. That was a lot of fun. But I forgot about it the past few years but I probably won't make it this year because not only do I not have money to buy anything, but I probably can't even afford the admission price since I went from zero to two car payments.

I shore fished around 30 degrees a few times. Didn't last long.

It’s very similar to Fishing Sim World (I think that’s the title) from the same publisher. There’s definitely far worse fishing games, but it leaves much to be desired. If you fish obvious places that you would in real life like main lake points, you’re pretty much guaranteed a ten pounder in a short period of time. But it seems not every player has figured this out as I’ve used this tactic to win some online tournaments.

I've used double unis for years and the only time they fail me is when I want them to, like when I snag a rock and can't get my lure back. The alberto is worth learning as well because it's fairly easy to tie.

I'm trying to think a scenario that fits me, as I target largemouth and smallmouth. I could flip and the only thing that comes to mind is time a day. I'm not much of a morning person, and the fact that I don't sleep at all some days from back pain makes it even harder, but if I fished mornings, that would certainly be beneficial.

I generally use 12# fluorocarbon which is the best all-around rod for crankbaits, as I can pull them out of a little grass with 12#. Sometimes I have a second reel with 16# that I can use for squarebills in grass, but that may be used for other things. If I had two reels dedicated to crankbaits, I would run 10# and 14#, but that would require another reel, and do I really need another reel? For rods, I have two Daiwa glass rods that get the job done. A Tatula 7' M/R (they call R regular, basically the M side of MF) which gets used for shallower crankbaits in open water and casts them a mile, and a 7'2" MH/R rod for deep divers and square bills in grass. Frequently I just take the 7'2" rod with me because I can switch from a deep diver to a square bill and it'll still work.

Belated Merry Christmas to everyone! I largely stayed offline yesterday and watched my annual showing of Krampus and cooked the surf 'n turf (rib eye and lobster tail) while my wife did potatoes and salad.

With serious back pain, I'm starting to feel old and tired as it gets in the way of life a lot. But that said, I switched from drinking coffee to tea, overall much less caffeine on a daily basis and I feel more energetic than I have in years.

It's like pop-punk metal meets folk metal or something. Not really my thing, but he has a voice that is fitting for it for sure. Here's me at the open mic on Wednesday!

I have this rod. It's my goto for soft plastics. It will throw them weightless pretty well if there's no wind, and it will throw them with up to a 3/8oz weight into some light to moderate cover. I usually run 12# on mine like 90% of the time and I have a reel with 16# for cover if it's available, although I may try 14# next year as I've gotten my line damaged dragging it over rocks a bit and that should be a happy medium If you're throwing it alongside weedlines and brush piles and not into them, you should be fine. It still has a fair amount of power to turn their heads and pull them away.

How long have you been using baitcasters? It took me a full season to be able to cast one reliably (and another couple seasons to really get skipping down as well). But I'm glad I didn't give up. I can cast a casting setup more accurately and further than a spinning setup, and even with an occasional backlash I still come out ahead. The backlashes I do get these days are usually minor, but I'll just say it happens to everyone time to time, maybe you didn't see that low hanging branch or something. I'll still use spinning gear for lighter lures. If I'm dead sticking soft plastics, I'll often do that on spinning gear too.

I'd go for a higher end rod 365 days a year. I have a high end reel, it casts further and brakes better than it's cheaper counterpart while being two thirds the weight, although newer versions of the cheaper reels have decreased significantly in weight as well, removing most of the weight difference. But at the end of the day the rod is just more important.

I'm trying to break this down into a categorial sense, so only one focusing on a location, one on a bait style, one for organization. Try to not flip, lose anything or drown. Try to go more often. Catch larger bass. I largely did good last year in numbers (on the kayak anyway), but not a lot of larger bass. Learn the Crown Point area on Lake Champlain better. There was only one spot I was able to get bit. But I love that area, incredible views! Fish more jerkbaits. Find a cooler that fits on my kayak so I can keep a few. For my organizational goal, I only have one last year, largely after having maybe a dozen last year, which is move all of my soft plastics from an empty 3700 box and 3 KVD bags into a YakAttack Bait Binder, which should be a nice upgrade on the water and save a little time as I can fit it in my Blackpak and I wouldn't have to take out all my rods and then take it out of the bottom of my Yakima Topwater to stick it below my seat.

The only lake I can say that I know 80% of is a small 20 acre lake (but it has 3 35-40ft pits in it, so it still has a lot of water). But being so small I can loop around it several times in a day.

I haven't learned taking water, but that's definitely something I could do. I do play Stratosphere Blues - I Believe In You as part of my set as well as Sitting on Top of the World as played by Billy Strings. Once I'm done learning Christmas songs, I'm going to work on Molly Tuttle's San Joaquin next.

I do play Church Street Blues in the style of Tony Rice. There is a fairly noisy clip of that on my channel on under shorts as well from a gig last month. I play something like 5 Doc Watson songs and I just need to learn the words and work out kinks to Deep Water Blues and it'll be 6.

Here's me playing at the open mic. Not the best version, it was my first time playing the full song as I learned it earlier that night.

The SLX MGL 70 would be a great reel for casting them weightless or if you're trying to get max distance. If you're looking at skipping, I would go with a Daiwa. I would strongly recommend trying to find a deal or spend a little more on a Tatula SV.

I obviously have my day to day budget. In the summer, I try to keep as much of my additional paycheck available as I can so I can do some extra fishing and not have to worry about eating out on the way for example, or maybe if I grab a couple of cigars when I'm shore fishing. For line, rods, reels and tackle, I usually try to find deals, usually black friday or spring sales. I'm mostly set on rods and reels but would like a faster reel for prop baits but have been putting it off as I don't throw them that often. Buying whatever I need on Black Friday sales is nice because if I do it right, I don't have to buy anything during the summer and can then use that money towards fishing more. This year I sadly have no black friday budget between buying music gear as I've started to land some gigs but have to pay that down, plus I went from no car payments to two almost overnight. But the good news is the only thing I will need for next year is monofilament line, 2.75" tubes, senkos and baby brush hogs, and bladed jig trailers and maybe some jig trailers (not sure). I stocked up on everything else pretty well the past few years.