Mbirdsley

Me too. I like my stuff to look like it’s been used and fished hard. Not to be confused with the beat hard and neglected look.

First time in very very long time that I’ve had multiple 3.5lbrrs caught on the same trip. First big one was 19 inches 3.88 lbs. the 2nd one ( last photo) 18 inches 3.5 lbs .Also the first time in 2 years I’ve been up at 6 am to fish for bass. All the bass came from a wacky rigged general green pumpkin party. All caughtvwhile sight fishing in 3-6 ft of water. Also, caught 14 pike two of which, were 25 and 26 inches. Good last day up north at peach lake

Yesterday the family and I hit up peach lake in west branch. First 1.5 hrs was fishing for blue gills. My daughter caught her very first fish by her self ( made the cast, set the hook and reeled). Wife also caught some blue gill I caught. I caught one bass on a wacky rig before we went back to my grandpas cabin. today I fished clear lake also near west branch. I was lucky to grab 1 of 3 parking spots at the ramp. Spent a little over 4 hrs on the lake. Hour after I started fishing the lake turned into a zoo but, I still knocked out 3 smallies. All came on GB Hayes spine craw. The first fish was a bed fish. I had made the cast before I realized I had stumbled upon on some bedding smallies. caught the one than left the rest alone. I’m not judging any one for catching bed fish but, I just can’t do it. So I released him and continued on. Even with all the rec traffic still caught 2 more and lost 2 more.

Only time I get bit off from pike is when fishing drop offs when I’m using plastics. Usually it’s when I’m using a t-rig, wacky worm , or a tube. It’s always on the initial fall when I have slack in the line. I feel a bump go to set the hook and nothing but, air on the hookset. Unfortunately it’s just the cost of doing business up here. I havnt lost a moving bait IE crank, spinner bait, chatter bait etc etc in a long time.

Northwoods whole sale finds which, we stopped at on our way up north. Swing heads in 3/8, 5/16, and 1/2 oz were $1.99 a pack. Terminator spinner bait $2.99 regular priced stuff j-walker, 5xd pro blue, maxx scent Gp tube, watermelon red Flo super finnesse worm

Yeah I was in the no rod sleeve camp for a long time. However, once I started having multi $300-400 combos. I wanted to protect my investment. I don’t have rod lockers on my boat . So my combos either get laid on the main deck or my truck bed when being transported. There is a difference between “the years of fighting fish look” on gear rather than “ my rods have been sliding around in the truck bed “look. I usually take 7-8 combos with me: it takes about 5 minutes to get them out and into the sleeves.

Yeah I don’t get how the could prevent people from the camp ground going to the other of the lakes. Yeah the public ramp parking is small. I’m definitely lake you need to hit on the week days and be early. Can you pay to launch at the camp ground? I had a slice of pizzia and cheese bread at the gas station down the rod from the lake. It was so good. Definitely stopping there again. . I’ve got that whole side of the state gas stations memorized based on wether they sell pizzia and how good it was.

It’s a doyo clone but, This is the 5th season that I’ve had mine. I bought the rod and reel combo on sale for $174 right after Christmas 2019. Honestly, I have nothing bad to say about it. I’ve use it so much that’s it’s time to change out the drag discs and I’m upgrading to carbontex. It’s one of my most used reels. I’d feel better about buying it if you can snag it while it’s on sale. Buying At full price for the reel you’re getting into better reels for the money

The local Walmart has 2 boxes of various yum soft plastics on the bottom shelf in the fishing departmen. There are no names on any of the plastics and it seems to me the count per bag is lower than usual. There 3-4 differnt types of soft plastic mixed together. Walmart is selling it for like $2.99-$3.99 a bag

Other than what was said above. Be prepared you may go a couple trips with out catching any thing or that 5 lber is the one fish you catch all day. Usually makes up for it though when you do connect.

We need to fish some time. I should have spent more time on Lincoln but, waisted a lot of time on the northern lake. Most of those bass came from emerging pads next cat tails on blue west basin. I can see that Lincoln all 3 lakes would be a disaster come summertime weekends. With the camp ground and marina in lincoln.

I may look into these. I think it would fit what I do. I don’t have patience for super finnesse stuff. What are common weights to have? Assume I just bang it off the bottom ? Some times I don’t have the patience to drag a jig out deep

Hit up Lincoln lake Kent county Michigan. So this is a cool lake first time I’ve been there. There are actually 3 separate lakes that are connected via a canal/river. I caught most of the fish on the middle lake. I lost a 3lbs ( guesstimate) smallie on the eastern drop off on Lincoln. I am so close to taking the next step I can feel it. The next step would be consistently catching 3 lbers the pike came on a mega bass deep 6 on the very northern lake. Everything else came on a spine craw t-rigged in the new color GB Hayes

Down this next rabbit hole. I call this Saginaw as that’s pretty much where I’ll use it. All of the rivers that form the Saginaw river have visibility on a good day of around 6-8 inches. I bought pre plated spinner forms. The top spinner #5.5 hammered brass Willow which, is a tad bigger than what I usually see on spinner baits. Bottom blade is a #4. Just a regular black skirt. I’ve got more blades coming and I need to settle on a spinner body style. I have some hammered Indiana blades I want to use too. Eventually, I want to paint my own whether it’s powder coating or with regular paint with a air brush. I’m sure it will need small tweaks.

Ive seen these at Walmart. I want to buy eagle claw. I use them for making jigs. I’ve used the offset worm hook and ewg’s about ten years ago. They used to rust just looking at them. Maybe they have gotten better.

New fishing hat finally came in. I really wanted the blue camo but, we’re sold out. It’s cool I like it. also bought a blue gill DT-10 from miejers. I’ve never had any success whatsoever on the DT series. Like zilch, Nodda,and nothing Maybe this one turns it around

The ugly sticks fills a specific purpose. You have to remember 50% of the fishing population uses live bait. The other 40% trolls exclusively. The other ten 10% which, we are in included use artificial baits exclusively for bass. the ugly stick is built and sold for the 80-90% of fisherman who use live bait or trolls. Which, it excels very well at. My brother is thinking of switching all of his downriger rods to ugly sticks for salmon. that new red all graphite rod isn’t a bad set up for 60-70 bucks. I’ve felt it and it will go up against any other rod in that price range.

Walleye especially and really any fish really are notorious for just nipping the tail on a plastic split tail or other plastic . If the plastic gets beat up enough. they can suck it right off the hook Lake trout are notorious for slurping wacky rigged stick worms off the bottom. That had fallen off the hook

Thank you. I will check these out. That green barb wire glitter looks pretty good.

It doesn’t have to be the zman green shad. I’ve seen the pattern put out by a couple different companies.

So I’m looking to replicate Tennessee shad/ green back shad spinner bait. This is for my own personal use. What color green shad skirt tab would be close to the one that enclosed in the photo. The white could probably be some sort of shad/ white translucent color. I’ve been looking around at my normal skirt places and having trouble located a shad green I guess I’ll call it. What color green powder paint watermelon maybe?

I’ve done a lot of experimenting to find the right hook and hook size. 2/0 for me seems to be the best size for t-rigging and getting it to look and fish right. Bigger hooks I can’t keep the hook point or the round bend of the hook in the tube. I prefer a Mustad kvd elite 2/0 EWG. another thread I said I liked the plastic keeper on the kvd elite hook. However, that plastic keeper is starting to attract a lot of weeds around the front of the tube. a 2/0 offset round bend will work if that’s all you have/can find. Anything bigger and it doesn’t like to stay put on the hook.

Definitely realizing that I missed the spawn this spring. I think the fish came up in early April when we had that week of 80 degree temps and never left the shallows. fished long lake Ionia county. Water temp 62 degrees. Pretty much anything anybody wanted to throw today would work. It’s almost like 2 differnt lakes in one. 1/2 the lake is 5-8 feet deep and weedy than the other half is 20-30 ft deep with no weeds. Seemed like most of the bigger fish were sitting right outside the weed edge right before the drop to 20 ft. I caught my first spinner bait fish up in 5ft of water a nice 2.4 lber. Caught a decent fish on my new DD22. Caught one t-rig summer craw shimme stick. Caught 3-4 on a Berkley max scent tube on 3/8 oz tube jig. Pulled the last 3 fish out of the same area in 9ft of water next to the weed edge. I always wonder why I abandoned fishing tubes. They always catch fish.

Thank you Thanks, it’s still a ways off I won’t be up there untill there untill the 9th of June through the 13th. No telling what phase they will be in as it’s a massive deep lake ( I’m sure as you know). they could be all spawned out or still spawning at that point. However, I am feeling the need to catch some nice smallies. I’m getting jealous seeing all of these pictures from lake st.Clair. I’m thinking I really need to go down there next spring.

In preparation for my fishing trip up north to big crystal lake in benzie county Michigan I made up some 3/4 oz football jigs. I’ll use them on other lakes too but, that’s main lake. I don’t have the mold yet so I bought 10 unpainted 3/4 oz football jigs off of eBay. They are poured with victory hooks. surprised I actually had to hunt a while on eBay to find unpainted jigs. I know from personal experience of selling jigs on ebay. That eBay really socks it to people on the fees. That could be a reason. 2 magic craw heads with light blue and green pumpkin. 2 variations of black and blue 1 Gp head with 2 tabs of Gp and 1 tap of light blue 1 peanut butter goby 1 dragon fly blue head 3 Gp heads with chartreuse smoke polka dots mixed with Gp taps