Mbirdsley

This is how far I’ve made it with my mh843 blank. I cheated on the handle this time and just a pre made cork handle from LPO. The reel seat is a R3080 American Tackle Colored Blank Exposed PVD Coated Hood Casting Seats. I have a silver winding check to finish it out.

Fished muskrat lake which, is a small lake In Clinton county. Water temp was 70 F. Fish were in the emerging pads chasing shad. I caught one 15 incher fliping a yum dirt purple lizard. I had hooked about 3 more but, lost them in the pads. Caught the 2nd fish on a yum sonar minnow with a 1/8 jig head. Sonar minnow is showing promise. lost a bit of terminal tackle in the pads. Havnt done that in a while.

First spring throwing lizards. I’m using yum lizards. They’re available around here and I like the colors. Haven't gotten bit yet though

Uncle frank from BTL got me again. Yum dinger In blue smoke. SPine craw in GB haze. Lizard in dirt purple. Lizard in watermelon pear laminate. Norman DD 22 white black green. I wish lure net had that color in a shallower crank

Basically, it’s jigging for walleye in the middle of the water column. Where with walleye your slamming the jig off the bottom with a split tail

That’s my issue too. I like getting bites even if it is a 1 lbs fish

I had it my head that the big ones were going to be shallow. So I didn’t even bother looking deep. The bigger fish came out of 5-6 ft. I probably should have been looking 10+ ft atleast. Matt from Btl made a comment about this mental scenario the other day at the end of the show. fish the moment not what you think should be going on

King ? of the 1.5-2.0 fish. Fished back and crystal today. Caught around a dozen. First smallie of the year. Shallows are full of males again. Some were in beds. Saw a lot of empty beds. Bigger fish came on a green pumpkin w/blue flake spine craw free rigged in 6-8 ft of water. Caught the smallie and a couple others on LC ghost pointer 78. Caught a couple on a general baby bass wacky rigged. i might fish the Saginaw/titabawassee/Shiawassee rivers Friday.

I’m very happy with curado K 200 that I bought last week. I think it blows the tatula’s out of the water. From now on I think I’m buying curado’s. I do like 150 Slx dc and my regular slx too but, the curado is a better reel. im not looking at adding another reel this year but, never know. This winter I may move my tatula 150 and 103 tw sv for curado’s

Always with a snap. I started doing a Experiment this spring to see if taking the split ring off while using a snap would yield better results. I caught just as many fish with split ring left on while using the snap as leaving the split off while using the snap. It seemed to not matter either way with my cranks or jerk baits while, using a snap.

I have about 10-15 each in tungsten 1/16, 1/8, 1/4,3/8 and 1/2. I only have 2 each of the tungsten 3/4 and 1oz. I bought them for flipping and punching into brush but, I usually use the 3/4 and 1 oz for Carolina rigging. I prefer to use a jig when punching pads. im usually pretty good about getting t-rigs back. Jigs are another story and luckily I make those.

. The Berkley shock lighting rod. the older generation with orange and black blank with cork handles. I paid $50 for it from Walmart in 2017. I’ve caught a lot of fish with it. I’ve moved on to making my own rods now but, I still keep it in the rotation. I use it now as a Carolina rig rod or frog rod. It kinda has sentimental value as it was my first bait casting rod that I bought. it will probably be replaced this winter when I build a dedicated Carolina rig rod. I’ll probably keep it around as a frog rod though, untill I build a frog rod.

You know it’s a bad day when the fish either totally ignore a wacky rig or run from it. Fished a new lake to day called derby lake. It’s a small deep lake in central Michigan. I saw a lot of nice large and small mouth bass along with a ton of crappie and a big pike. I threw everything at them cranks , deep cranks, Carolina, free rig, mojo rig, wacky rig, lipless, swim baits and jerk bait. I’m sure I’m forgetting what else. managed one 14 inch bass on a mega bass jerk bait. With weather in the 70’s next week the spawn should be on in central Michigan

2/0 EWG Mustad kvd elites ( with the plastic keeper) is the best hook I’ve found for Texas rigging a tube. If you don’t want or have the Mustad kvd’s any 2/0 EWG seems to work the best. 2/0 seems to be the best size for keeping the tube on the hook.

Are 70’s and 150’s for smaller baits ? I’m confused on what 150 Mgl and 70 are for. Sounds 150 is a lighter reel and the 70 for BFS?

Thanks. It’s definitely a trip worth taking. I need to get back down there with my boat and do some bass fishing either on the river or on lake St.Clair. that’s just a medium sized one. We picked a bad day as far as ship watching as nothing was passing through. I know it gets real interesting when there are thousands of people fishing and they think they have the right away over a 700-1000 ft lower laker. My grand father was a charter captain for a while, and always instilled in me “ tonnage has the right away”

This is not bass fishing related but, here is a couple of cool photos I took on the Detroit river showing a salt water vessel anchored in the river and the Detroit skyline. We pounded out 7 keepers. Not a good fishing day by Detroit river standards but, we had fun. I make jigs for this guide we used who also, happens to be one of my brothers friends

Slx with out a doubt. I do like my round reel 5500 abu revo rocket. It’s on my deep cranking rod and will throw those big cranks a mile. If and when I get a new light cranking combo I’m thinking about the blue abu that you posted. I know a couple round reel abu fanatics and they say the Swiss made ones are way better than the china made ones. However, you can still find the silver ones used that were made in Switzerland for $50ish-60ish if you keep your eyes open.

My curado 200 k 6:2 came in the mail yesterday. Just from palming it in my garage This is definitely the nicest reel that I own. It feels amazing. I’m going to put some 40 lbs braid on it and put it on my rainshadow rx6 mb844 1/4- 1oz 7ft 2 in rod. I’m going to use this set up for swim jigs and soft swim baits like sleeper gills boom boom jr swim bait etc etc. I’ll probably put my 8:1 slx dc 150 that’s currently on the rod on my new mhx 843 blank that I just ordered.

Goal 1. Get to a point where I’m averaging 2.5 lbs a trip. goal 2. beat my personal best confirmed on a scale. I believe my current is 4.5ish lbs. by scale. my biggest by length is 20.5 inches I caught march 2020. I didn’t have a scale to verify but, I’d guess it was around 5lbs . so again PB verified by scale. Goal 3. Get a Mi DNR Master angler patch for any species. But, especially for smallies or large mouth. Which, would be 21 inches for both large and small mouth. I could kill 2 birds with one stone. goal 4. Enter and fish in a local tournament. goal 5. Fish the upper peninsula again.

I believe it’s both helping the fish to locate the lure. But, here is a wrinkle some days the little John with circuit board lip does very well and it doesn’t rattle

How deep of water and water clarity are we talking ? 1-3 ft deep yes very difficult unless your using a regular rapala like a crank bait. Probably go with swim baits. 3-6 ft depending on water clarity and time of year would dictate between two. 1.5 square bills and bandit 100’s work well stained to dirty water. Clear water swim bait. Toss up deeper than 6ft pretty much all cranks start coming into play in stained to dirty water. I’d prefer a crank in this situation. Clear water probably the swim bait

I was hoping my new curado k was going to be in this picture. I ordered it along with hayabusa hooks. My bad for just glancing over the shipping email. I didn’t noticed just the hooks shipped. That’s my fault. However, I was very surprised when I went to the mail box and first felt the box. I was like this feels light for a reel. Opened it up and just hooks. I very quickly and politely called the company. Both items shipped separately. After getting in touch with C/S the curado I ordered was apparently on back order but, magically a shipment came in yesterday and the reel will go out today. He did call me back within 5 minutes. so for today hayabusa hooks and two variations of boom boom jr swim baits. I’m going to use the curado to throw smaller swim baits and swim jigs

I just ordered a mhx mb843 in light blue metallic from lureparts online . It’s a 1/4-3/4 oz rating 7ft mh. I’m hoping it’s a a good lights worm and jig rod. Also in the description it says it will be a good spinner bait rod. Which, will be the back up plan if I don’t think the tip is fast enough for worm and jig fishing. I rarely throw anything heavier than 3/8 oz worm or jig. I’m fairly positive I’m going to throw my slx dc 150 on it. I already have a seat and I’ll be using cork with light blue speckled in it. I did order a crb elite casting guide set and a tip top for it. it’s amazing once you build 2-3 rods. you realize your factory rods are not going to cut it any more.

Played hookie from work tonight. I literally called in at 6:30am this morning ( 10 minutes after I punched out) today was going to be the last decent day in a week and a half. They are calling for rain the next 6 days. I was rewarded on crystal lake Montcalm county Michigan. I finally found some size. Almost all of my fish were 2-2.5 lbs. water temp is still 52f however I feel like the females are starting to creep up. I caught my first 2 fish of the day using my graph ( first for me) I found a school in 13 ft of water off a drop. Jerk bait rules the day again. This time a chrome and blue back deep kvd 300. Luckily I had two in my jerk bait box as I lost one on a break off that could have been a pike. I also caught 2-3 fish on 3/4 oz lucky craft lipless working it like a jig in the retrieve. I also tried my sleeper gill. didn’t catch any bass but, had 2 pike absolutely smoke it. I tried Carolina rigging a lizard but, it didn’t produce. Pretty much all my fish this spring have come on the 2 rods I built this winter it was a good day. Sunday my brother and I are taking a guided walleye trip on the Detroit river. Supposedly going to be miserable conditions.