Vilas15

You had a 70 lb 24v and weren't happy with it, so you're asking if just an additional 10 lb thrust would be enough? I think you can answer that one. Personally I have an 80 lb 24v for fishing lakes and have never killed the batteries, even on windy days.

Oh. Well I'm not much help, if I want minnows I stop at the bait shop and pick which kind I want.

When im trout fishing i find creek chubs in the muddier muck bottom portions of streams where the water moves slower, vs the trout in faster moving rockier areas. Not sure if that translates to creeks with smallmouth.

No help to me, but this is very cool. Also love the name Possum Kingdom!

Heard somebody was asking for pics on a ruler?

They eat spiny fish head first so they slide down. Muskies will grab live bait and run with it, then stop to flip it around before attempting to eat it head first. Back before the invention of quick-strike rigs you'd wait for them to do this knowing when they swallowed the hook so that you could start the fight (obviously this killed the fish which is why single hook rigs are banned). They also prefer soft fish like suckers because they don't have any spines at all which makes the whole process easier for them.

Slip bobbers make it possible to cast further and easily adjust your depth. When you go to cast the bobber is down by the hook allowing you to leave minimal line out and cast like a bullet. Once it lands the hook or jig falls and pulls line until the bobber hits the stop at your desired depth. The type of bobber has nothing to do with setting the hook. As with all bobbers you need to move a lot of line to tighten up on the hook, which gets worse the deeper you set your bobber. The line runs to the bobber then downwards meaning you don't have a straight connection to the bait. Slip bobber rods are typically 7'6"+ to get good hooksets when you're setting your bait 10'+. The process goes like this. Put line through the tube and slide the stopper knot onto the line, pull it semi tight but leave it loose enough to adjust the depth. Put your bead on the line. Put your bobber on by feeding line through it. Tie on your hook (i like a 1/8 oz lead head jig so that i dont need splitshot). Set your stopper knot where you want and tighten it down. Youre good to go but if you want to add split shot to a bare hook make sure you put it between the hook and the bobber, probably no more than 1' above the hook. If you put it above the bobber it will act as the stopper and you'll get no depth.

That'll work!

I like crappie, bluegills, perch, walleye, pike (not in the summer), and have eaten smallmouth. They were fried up and tasted great. Can't say Ive had largemouth but I dont catch them so I don't have the chance. There is a canoe only lake Ive been to that has plenty of small bass, maybe I need to go there and give it a shot.

Plenty of people do this. Rip it off the bottom and let it fall aka snap-jigging. They'll be on it when you go to rip it again so the hook set is automatic.

Sorry i mustve gotten confused. I thought you were saying you mostly bought from walmart and academy, which obviously contradicted the other post. I avoid walmart whenever possible in general. And lately ive been disappointed with cabelas replacing every product with BPS brand. Mostly get rapalas straight from their website, i need to make a better effort to get to the tackle store near me.

Huh?

Lol. Im not mad because people are here to discuss even if the topic has been covered before, but I can stil fish here up north (still above freezing) so I thought we could make it another month before winternet.

Dang is it winter already?

Literally the same thing, except one is harrassing a fish trying to spawn. Also can't compare a 2 lb smallie to an 8 lb largemouth, of course the bigger fish is more exciting. I only target smallmouth because there are very few largemouth in the lakes I fish.

The tactical bassin guys on youtube are in musky country now in TN. Perhaps you saw a recent video where they were bass fishing a river in kayaks and occasionally throwing a hard swimbait at muskys they saw swimming by. Part of me wanted them to hook one knowing the absolute ****show it could become since theres no chance theyve got the cutters, jaw spreaders, or long pliers (no net either of course). It'd be hell on the fish too which would be unfortunate. But then maybe everyone in the comments saying "I've got musky in a river by me, I'm gonna give it a shot" would know what they're in for and go more prepared. I also thought if they ended up mangling a fish and killing one accidentally there's no way they'd put that in a video anyways.

Off topic but i have to laugh at whoever came up with a "rig" name for vertical jigging a standard lead head jig the way fisherman have done for 100 years just because they put a plastic on it instead of a minnow. No doubt it would work though. Slip bobbers are great as well if you know exact the spot youre trying to hit and arent trying to cover water. Adjust the depth until you find them.

PB smallmouth about 5.5 on a new wiggle wart...but i thought only the pre-rapala warts catch fish? ?

Same. Theyve got to be a lot of energy to digest with the shells compared to a minnow or small perch. Ive also heard the invasive rusty crayfish are bigger with harder shells thus more difficult to eat for smallies which only helps them proliferate. I hate those d**n things, ruined the cabbage weed beds in every northern lake so we mostly have milfoil.

The rubber would be fine as long as you stick to the smaller sizes. Mini-medussa would be a good one. Medussas/bulldawgs/tubes (red october is a good brand) are all fished with a pull/pause retrieve or in warmer weather it becomes just rip it as hard as you can with the rod and crank up the slack, then repeat. Im just warning you if you stray into the bigger rubber it's just tougher on the rod, but also the reel more so because of the risk of backlash, not so much do to the retrieve. After looking at the stats the Calcutta 200 would be a better option than I thought. The main downside is the line capacity which means at the beginning of your retrieve your spool will be low and combined with a low gear ratio your retrieve speed will be very slow. Do you already own the calcutta? If so I would give it a shot. If not, the citrix 354 should also work if you can get a good deal. You can always add a 400 Tranx down the line when you get the musky bug!

Don't even think about a double cowgirl (double #10 blades). You might be able to get away with a double 8, which I can do fine on an Abu C3 Ambassadeur 6500. You'd likely be in the range or single 8 or smaller which is not a bad thing. A single 7 blade is a good bait any time. The other baits that pull very hard are big cranks, but you could probably handle medium sized cranks just fine, I'm a fan of something like a rapala super shad rap. The rubber baits do not have much resistance at all, especially given the fact you rip or pull with the rod and crank the slack line in between pulls. A big paddletail like a chaos posseidon or musky innovations swimmin dawg would be a different story since they are more straight retrieve but a regular sized swimmin dawg might be OK. I'd stay away from the rubber in general, even if they have little resistance if you backlash when one of those is flying through the air the reel may explode. I backlashed a magnum bulldawg (8 oz) and snapped 80 lb braid. Luckily that was on a 400 size reel. Even if you've got downsized tackle make sure your leader is up to the task, and that you've got you jaw spreaders, long pliers, hook cutters, and a big enough net! Keep the fight short especially in warmer water. 50 lb braid is just fine with a decent leader (I use 14" Stealth Tackle 130 lb fluoro), I caught a 39" the other weekend on 50 lb power pro. I use 80 lb Sufix 832 on the big rod.

Good points, though I disagree with the part about 10 thousand casts. Lakes in my area average about 40 hrs per fish caught based on creel survey data. Thats 2400 minutes. If you can cast once every minute thats only 2400 casts, maybe you could fish faster but not cover as much water with shorter casts. Funny enough Ive spent exactly 120 hours to catch my last 3 muskies after I started keeping track and I feel like Im on a hot streak. Thats all purposely using baits and going to lakes/spots where I have the best chance so if youre not trying then yeah itll most likely be way more than 10000 when you luck into it.

My two trips in September worked out pretty well

Fair point. OP, Id go with the Abu Garcia maxtoro. Low profile and only $150 retail.

There are advantages and disadvantages to spinning and baitcasting reels. Baitcasters are better for musky fishing. Period. They have differences when it comes to bass fishing too. I like mostly spinning, but nobody prefers to fish a 10XD on a spinning rod for a reason.