roadwarrior

I repaced a couple that G.Loomis sent to me for free! Their instructions were to warm the old one with a cigarette lighter, but don't burn the blank. Clean the blank tip with alcohol. Re-glue with just a little dab of Super Glue and let it dry for 15 minutes. If you lined it up straight, you're good to go.

No, no, nooo... #1 All Time Producer: 5" Senko, the real thing, not a knockoff. #2 GYCB Fat Ika. #3 XXXXX, never mind. Start with those two and we'll talk about something else later. Fish these baits on light line, 8 lb test or smaller. Use a Gamakatsu 4/0 EWG. Fish them slow, weightless and weedless around cover and structure. As I stated in the previous post, you need to fish at least a medium power rod with a fast, firm tip.

Welcome aboard!

Yes. I keep my pet smallmouth in the Tennessee River. I try to exercise them on a regular basis. Otherwise, they get fat and lazy and turn into largemouth. I keep my pet largemouth in ponds around town.

Shad will overpopulate small bodies of water. Striper were introduced to reserviors throughout the country primarily to control the gizzard shad population. No fresh water fish will eat a mature gizzard shad, except stripers which are actually saltwater fish than are able to survive in freshwater. I suspect the restriction on fishing with shad is intended to prevent them from being introduced into those particular waters. Once established, shad are very difficult to control.

I fish hard for five different species (largemouth bass, smallmouth bass , striper, brown trout and rainbow trout). In 2005 I caught my personal best in four of the five species on heavily fished public water. I ain't that good and I'm not retired! Four out of five as a recreational fisherman. Just for fun I'll add two more PBs for buffalo and drum. Numbers? Well, the reason I don't fish a 5" Senko is because I catch too many bass. That's right, I don't want to catch smaller fish. I ONLY fish for big fish, seriously. My fishing is the very best it has ever been and I just hope it stays that way. The key is fishing waters that nuture big fish. You can't catch 'em if they ain't there. Find water that holds big fish, fish deep and slow and with a little patience you will catch fish and some of them might be huge! If you can find them, you can catch 'em.

Well, my experience has been quite the opposite. The fishing in terms of both size and numbers seem to be better than ever. I only fish Lake Michigan for one week a year, but over the past fifteen years, the smallmouth fishing has improved for me about 300%. Here in the Midsouth, we're catching more fish than ever before and the average size has improved dramatically. I also fish "old" reserviors, like Bull Shoals (circa 1932), and although there was a major largemouth bass kill several years ago, the smallmouth, walley and stiper fishing has never been better. Things change, especially in reserviors. The easy cover fishing that "new" lakes provide may make it seem to shallow water fishermen that things have gone downhill, but for deep water structure fishermen things have gotten considerably better. I think the overall improvement in water quality has been a major factor. Catch and release may be another factor, but I don't attribute that to being important to the overall population, just for larger fish. As a matter of fact, I think we should all keep small (legal) bass. I think the advent of electronics combined with fishing science, especially pattern fishing, has made catching bass much easier today than ever before. Catching bass is easy, finding them is the challenge. Todays technical advantages and informational resources like BassResource.com make today's fishing "Better Than It Ever Was".

Soft plastics on ponds are my strong suit. First of all, some of your "strikes" may have been rocks or branches. A "hit" is almost always a double tap. I generally reel down and set the hook with a snap hook-set, which is "weak", mostly wrist, not a Bill Dance hook-set. There will be lots of opinions on what are the right color for the situation, but I ALWAYS fish natural colors. About as wild as I get is watermelom with black and red flakes or black neon. My main color is "Dark". Specific recommendations: Gamakatsu 4/0 or 5/0 EWG. I can't say enough about how important the right size and a sharp hook is in putting together a rig. You MUST have a fast action rod with a firm tip. Soft plastics are about a quick hook-set. I think you need no less than a medium power rod with a fast, firm tip. BTW, Welcome aboard!

Ooooh Grasshopper, You are a sly one. The operative word was "lakes". Okay, now I see.

Hmmm.... That surprises me. Maybe I should stay planted here in Tennessee.

Avid, Been there, done that. I have promised myself it will NEVER happen again!

Another good point Matt_Fly. "Average" depends a lot on where you fish. I bet Raul doesn't catch 2 lb average fish in Mexico either.

Very interesting and there is no doubt in my mind that it's true, but... Another good reason for being a recreational fisherman. We can (usually) catch more and bigger bass because we have more options: 1. It is a huge advantage fishing the same water most of the time. This isn't meant as an argumentative point, I realize that one of the best parts of competative fishing is fishing at new lakes. 2. We can fish late afternoons and at night whenever we want. 3. Live bait. Well, I could have made that #1 and just stopped here. 4. We can hire guides to put us on fish. Rick Clunn has stated that finding fish is what seperates the men from the boys. We can take the shortcut. 5. Recreational fishermen can fish for trophy bass only if they choose. Larry Nixon spent two years proving you cannot do that at the professional level. Recreational fishermen have an edge. We can do things, legally, that tournament fishermen just can't do. Using the right bait at the right place and fishing longer improves the average size for our five "best" fish a day. If we could use those numbers against the pros, I guess we win a lot of money and most tournaments. Imagine that.

On most lakes, including Table Rock, bass always relate to crawfish and bugs even if they are not "in season". The jig bite is the best example I can think of. During the fall there seems to be a particular preference for shad or threadfin or other baitfish due primarily, I think, to the abundance of maturing fry. I have had better luck at that time with lures that are slightly different than the prevailing size, color or shape of the natural prey. An example is fishing a Norman Fat Boy, bluegill pattern when the baitfish population is dominated by chubs, gizzard or threadfin shad (yellowtail). This applies to live bait, too. In late summer and fall there seeem to be a few billion 2-3" yellowtail schooling throughout the Tennessee River system. They are easy to catch in numbers with a throw net. This bait is effective and most importantly, free! However, we have much greater success in both numbers and size fishing store bought shiners. Shiners are native to the region, but not the quantity that we see with other forage. Smallmouth show a tremendous preference for the shiners. So, I don't think natural forage is as important as many have been lead to believe. There are times, like in the fall, when certain lures may be more effective (minnow immitators), but I haven't found "matching the hatch" to be key.

Oddly enough, I had my best smallmouth day last year (1/08/05) on a rising barometer and east wind. Fifteen smallmouth, seven over 5 lbs. Go figure. On a river, current is everything, but my very best day striper fishing was on one generator, about 6000 cfs. We had almost decided to take the boat out and fish the lake, but decided to make one drift. I don't know exactly how many we caught , but we landed ten over 20 lbs, the big fish of the day weighed in at 33 lbs.

I like In-Fisherman, but I haven't had the experience you just had. I wouldn't subscribe if that had happen to me. Here is a suggestion: My favorite fishing magazine is Gary Yamamoto's Inside Line. Triton_Mike and JT both write for the magazine. Trust me, it is NOT an infomercial. The last issue featured an extensive interview with Rick Clunn. Every edition is packed with regional information, product reviews and personal interviews with the pros. Very little content is focused on GYCB baits.

I'm with GobbleDog, anything with a hook. Since you never know exactly where or when they are going to appear and it seems that they're always just a little too far away, something heavy and/ or aerodynamic comes in handy. Something like a 1/2 oz BPS Strata Spoon, narrow body, high density blade is ideal. They'll just about hit anything if you can get it there. Another advantage of this style bait is that you can sink it quickly and pick up some fish even if they go deep. A disadvantage is that if it actully reaches the bottom, you may not get it back. If you dedicate a rod so that you are prepared, make it heavy equipment with stout line.

RoLo, Yeah, striper fishing is my passion, too. Maybe that's part of the reason I didn't think of McClintock as my first recommendation for a smallmouth guide on this thread. I associate him with big stripers. We have caught some pretty nice fish on the Tennessee River, but nothing compared to the Cumberland or the kind of fishing you were doing in salt water. Most of our striper fishing starts around the first of April and lasts into September, but by then I'm ready to hunt the brown fish. Matt_Fly, Back to the thread...My partner, Speedy would be a good choice. He furnishes G.Loomis Bronzeback rods matched with Shimano Stellas. It's a high quality experience, but I think your guys would have a big time fishing with one of the legends. The other guides we have mentioned are featured in the magazines all the time. You probably can't go wrong with any of them.

Pretty informative and straight forward. I'll summarized my post on this thread from pg. 1, "Studies have confirmed that there is no negative impact from bed fishing on the overall bass population." Agreed? I understand the science, but I'm still not going to fish spawning beds. Maybe I just think that's bad karma. I know taking a few smallmouth out of the river won't hurt the population, but I'm not going to do that either.

RoLo, I'm glad you mentioned Fred McClintock, Mr. Multispecies! I would like to fish a week with him on the Cumberland fishing for monster stripers, Cordell Hull, Old Hickory and Dale Hollow for smallmouth. He also guides for musky and probably walley. Talk about the ultimate freshwater guide! He might give the Lindners a run for the money. I haven't fished with McClintock, but I plan to. Excellent suggestion.

David Hayes holds the World Record, 11 lbs. 15 oz. Dale Hollow, 1955.

The late Billy Westmoreland is generally recognized at the Greatest Smallmouth Fisherman of all time. A couple of names that are recognized these days are guides, Steve Hacker and Jim Duckworth. I fished with Hacker several years ago and he's the guy that really got me interested in smallmouth fishing. I fished the taiwaters of Wilson Lake, or the upper portion of Pickwick Lake. We caught about twenty fish in three days, the largest was 6 1/2 lbs. We only fished jig head rigged single tail grubs and spent most of our time hung up. It was quite a trip.

My partner guides on the Tennessee River. $300/ day plus bait and tip, he furnishes the equipment and you fish out of a Bay Ranger 2180. "Speedy" Madewell, cell phone: 901.553.5377. BTW, This is the guy that caught the 10 lb. smallmouth 11/03. I netted and weighed it, he released it. Forum member, J.D. guides in Pennsylvania. I think Cedar1 guides on Lake Erie. Two other guides you might want to contact are Steve Hacker and Jim Duckworth. They fish here in the MidSouth, are well known and get a lot of press.

You don't need to know anything about small bodies of water except when they were originally stocked, how they were stocked, who stocked them and if there are still big fish in that body of water. You can't catch 'em if they ain't there. But if there are good size bass in the pond or small lake, you need to fish EVERY square inch until you eliminate a few areas that just never produce. In a small body of water, bass, especially big bass are forced to troll the entire pond in search of prey. Sure, structure and cover are important, but not like you would expect on big water. I assure you, big bass can be found almost anywhere in small water. That doesn't make it easy for you, but you can fish it like every cast counts. My method is this: I select one technique per trip. If it's soft plastics, I'll take several styles, but usually only fish one or two. Otherwise, if I decide it's crankbait time for example, I only fish one lure. There is an opportunity to get better at different techniques by focusing your practice on just one presentation. Over time you will learn a lot about the underwater structure of a pond and this will provide some insight on what to try next. You will catch fish most of the time and have fun with some stuff you just might not have used very much. This works for me and I'm sure it would work for you.

BassMaster359, Hire a guide for a day or two at Dale Hollow and you will be set for life. I think that technique was invented there. More importantly, all of the documented 10 lb smallmouth have been caught at that lake. Maybe you'll catch #4 or maybe the next world record!