Boomstick

Yeah I forgot today was daylight savings time. And apparently not allowing users to join at any time also means others couldn't join. My apologies, hop on if you can.

So I was able to get a site on the water on the Fish Creek Pond campground. There was only one left, so I figured I'd better jump on it.

Welcome to my neck of the woods! Onota and Pontoosuc can be tough fishing, but they do have some big ones no doubt. Pontoosuc can be quite obnoxious if you are on a kayak or canoe because the boaters there really don't watch out for you and that seems to be the norm.

I haven't used Gulp in a few years now, but I will say that it works.

Yeah, 10-15lb braid to 6 or 8lb fluorocarbon leader.

If I could have 3 rods for bank fishing, most of the time it would be a 7' MH/F casting rod a 7' M/F casting rod and a 7'M/F or ML/F or ML/XF spinning rod. If there's thick weeds, replace the spinning rod with a H/F casting rod. It's hard to generally recommend something without knowing more about the specific areas you fish.

Sufix Siege has been the best I've used so far. I have some Sufix Advance Mono to try this year.

Personally, I only throw lighter jigs, 1/4oz and under on spinning gear, but you should be fine with a MH for a 3/8oz jig. If you want to throw 3/8oz and 1/2oz you're probably going to want a heavy since most spinning rods run lighter unless you can find a MH that runs on the heavier side.

In the cooler months, I'll go in the middle of the day when it's warmer. I don't think it necessarily matters for the fish but they're also less likely to feed at dusk and dawn. Once it gets hot, I usually head out later in the afternoon and stay out as late as I can see to night fish since I'm not a morning person. Fishing at dawn is even more productive if you can get up that early.

It seems we largely have more people who might be able to make it Sunday than Saturday, so let's do Sunday at 11am.

Well I have nothing to say here, only to second that finding them can be extremely difficult, specially on lakes with a ton of good structure. This is like Smallmouth Bass Fishing 101 along with 102 and Advanced Smallmouth Bass Fishing rolled up into one post.

What was a pain for me was buying them in New York. NY now has a system where you have to create an account. For me, that's great. For my kids, that's not so great. Maybe in a couple years when they can buy their own fine, but for now that's less than ideal.

Saturday or Sunday? So far we might have one more for Sunday.

I would spend more time on this site and the Youtube channel than I would with magazines. Glenn's videos are usually short and to the point and he covers all sorts of various technique and structure there is As for the boat, buy what you can afford. Budget in potentially pricey repairs, new or used. And you're fishing on smaller water bodies, you may want to go with an aluminum boat instead of a much more expensive fiberglass boat as well. As for a state to fish, I'm not sure what Ohio has for bass fishing, but north of you is Lake Erie. Michican, Minnesota and Wisconsin would be up there at least when it's not frozen. Texas, Florida and California would also have to be on the list for large fish. Tennessee isn't so far south they don't have smallies and has some amazing lakes. And of course my fishing grounds, Vermont has a lot of quiet lakes to fish on. Too hard to choose just one.

@Bluebasser86 said it perfectly. Most of the time it's going to be 1/8oz or 1/4oz for me too, but if I'm fishing on a MH rod then 1/4oz usually gets the nod simply because it just casts a Powerworm or Senko significantly better than 1/8oz on the same rod and it gets down quick enough for most situations but not so too quick for shallower water. If you're targeting them solely in deeper water, you might want to go up. Sometimes they hit it when it falls faster, and sometimes slower is better.

The 704C or 734C would be what you want for spinnerbaits. It's listed as a H/F, but it's really a MH/F by other manufacturer's standards. The 703C is pretty good for light spinnerbaits (up to 3/8oz) but the 704C/734C is better for 3/8oz and up.

When would people like to do the next one? I actually really liked Saturday at 11. EDIT: I meant Sunday, brain fart.

Very cool! What are the free sites like? Most free sites I'm aware of are a long hike in. Also what's the fishing like? I hear most the lakes up there have a lot of fallen trees.

Is that a Booyah Flex 2 squarebill? I have one in that same color that my youngest son always ninajs from me but he's caught a ton of fish on it.

I have the following ready to go this season. I'm sure I'm forgetting some. 5" Senkos in Watermelon Red Flake 5" SK KVD Ochos in KVD Magic 7" and 8.5" Berkley Power Worms in Green Pumpkin, Watermelon and Tequila Sunrise 6" X-Zone Deception Worms - One Houdini and I can't recall the second color, maybe 309 5" X-Zone True Center Stick X-Zone NED Zone Green Pumpkin Purple & 309 Z-Man TRD in several colrs 4.5" and 6" Roboworms in Aaron's Magic, Aaron's Morning Dawn and Aaron's Pro Magic

The 703C or 733C fishes square bills very nicely, especially in grass when you want that faster tip rod, but you'd be limited to 3/8oz chatterbaits. The 704C/734C is a much more ideal for chatterbaits, but the only squarebills I'd throw on that is a larger 2.5 size with larger hooks. Both rods do make a versatile two rod pairing as well. Finally, if you can afford the extra money, the Sierra is worth it over the Fury. Or maybe the Kaden.

Mono goes for me every other year, braid and fluorocarbon when it runs low, and if it's fluorocarbon and three years old or was showing signs of aging or bad memory, it gets replaced I can usually get two years on a spool of fluorocarbon.

Well I finally sorted that box of new lures out as best I could. My soft plastics went into three open compartment 3700 trays that can come with me on camping trips. One is anything I would use as a jig trailer, two is anything I would typically throw on a EWG hook and the third is finesse with as little overlap as possible. I need to get one more to pack with me on the kayak for day trips so I don't have to carry all three, although I can grab a few bags and throw them in my storage tray under my seat. I'm waiting until the lakes to thaw before replacing last years mono so it wont freeze on my porch. Most of my reels with fluoro should be good and late in the season I hit a telephone pole and birds nested horribly so it already has the line off of it. I also cleaned out my double deep 3700 box that I keep spare line in and bring with me on camping trips in case of birds nesting. For the first time ever, it's real clean.

Daiwa almost always runs on the heavier side. The ML rod, rated for 8-14 line is called a medium by some manufacturers, and there Medium rods would be Medium Heavy by some manufacturers as well. I'm pretty sure the ML would be very similar to my Mojo Bass (which is actually lighter than other Mojo Bass rods, they usually run heavy too) and that's a great rod for what you're looking for.

A Daiwa MH is usually a fairly stout rod, best for casting at least 3/8. The Med. Lt Howell rod should be similar to a medium rod that runs on the lighter side like my Mojo Bass 6'8" M/XF and that is about as light as I would go on casting. The only thing that would be out of place on that rod is a 3/8oz swimbait head, but everything else says true medium. I use the Mojo Bass M/XF for jerkbaits, poppers and small swimbaits and it will work for crankbaits too, and I wouldn't step it up just for that one heavier jig head, just fish that on another rod. As far as the reel, I would say go with the Tatula elite for better distance, or the Tatula SV for better control. Lighter lures can be difficult to cast far and more difficult to cast in general, so either would benefit you over a Tatula 100.