Mbirdsley

The NASCI FD is probably one of the smoothest spinning reels I’ve used. I bought a 3000 a month ago. I have Fished it once so far and it’s one of the better spinning reels I’ve used regardless of the price point. Shimano did a good design job with this reel. I’ve obviously not tore it down yet. So I can’t comment about the internals just yet.

Black and blue is all you need in highly stained water. Black and blue works Even over cast days in semi clear water.

Which, reminds me. I’m still running off last year’s Michigan License. I need to get the 2026 license. I took the April 1st off from work to fish for walleye. April 1st also happens to be the 1st day that we need a 2026 license.

is it possible to see the actual eggs that the male are guarding? I have come upon males locked on beds. However, I’ve never seen fry balls or anything that looked like eggs. Seems like whenever I do fish a lake with spawning activity it’s either the very early part or the tail end of spawning.

Berkley Chigger craws. I used black and blue chigger craws both as a jig trailer and on a Texas rig in the bigger rivers around Saginaw. I used them pretty much exclusively in 2018-2022 and caught a ton of bass on them. In 2023 like a light switch the bass were done with them. I don’t think I have caught a bass on them since 2022. I loaded up on bags and I think I still have 3-4 bags left. Yum spine craws have replaced them.

First large order in 2 years showed up. Everything either came from the rod locker or lure parts. Spro fat papa’s in sizes 55 and 70 were on sale for at the rod locker for $8.99. Both in the bass crushing cooor of Goby. Picked up some jack hammers in ghost hill 3:8 and hites hot craw 1/2. Blue gill shad rap #7 Rapala maverick 110 in metallic gold. Definitely a little smaller profile than a strike king kvd 300. 3/4 oz strike king 2 tap red eyed shad in Smokey chrome blue. 1/2 oz strike king red eye shad in pro blue Crush city Ned but in Smokey shad. Yamamoto shad shape worm In GP light green purple flake Finally 2 packs each of 1/8, 3/16, and 1/4 tube jigs from 2.5 inch tubes from lure parts online

in my 17 sea nymph which, is a older lund type deep -v aluminum boat. A sustained 15 mph wind either on an inland lake or a Great Lake is about my limit of what I want to deal with. At 15 mph the spot lock has a hard time spot locking. The spot lock wants to point the boat directly into the wind. It’s gets really bumpy fishing from the bow on my boat at 15-20 mph if I had a heavier glass boat it wouldn’t be so bad probably up to 20 mph depending on where and how I’m fishing. Even on a river once the wind hits 15 mph it starts just funneling the wind right down the river bank. Generally speaking if the wind forecasts says 10-15 mph I’m going no matter what. 15-20 mph I won’t go. I have enough days off now that I can go another time. Luckily Michigan is a big enough state that one area might be blowing 20-25 mph but, an hour north might only be 5-10 mph. I’ll drive to 5-10 mph wind spot and fish.

Michigan has 1000’s of lakes and mid-Michigan is almost void of lakes. I did do some wading last year for the first time in forever. Shiawassee river is a known great smallie river and only 10-15 minutes from the house. Next closest lakes are sleepy hollow/lake Ovid ( I avoid like the plague) and muskrat ( very big pond )which, are 30 ish minutes south west of me. Saginaw river in Saginaw is 30 minutes north. The Saginaw river averages 10-14 deep and heading north by boat another 4-5 miles the shipping channel starts and it’s dredged to 28 ft deep all the way to The Saginaw Bay IE The Bay, The river for whatever reason has been very slow for bass for me the last couple years. I don’t know if the low water has me off or what. I can be to the southern end of the Saginaw bay in a hour. Bunch of launches on the river in Bay City and on The Bay proper. Northern reaches of the Bay are 1.5 hrs roughly away which, would be Au gres on the west side and Wild fowl bay on the eastern thumb side. I’d like to try Port Austin ( Lake Huron )some time at the tip of Michigan's Thumb but, that’s 2 hrs roughly. To the west Crystal( we call it little Crystal) Duck, loon, Pratt, Long, Clifford and some trout streams are all about an hour. Once I’m an hour north or west there are lakes every 5-6 miles on average. If I’m at my dads side of the family in West branch. I’m 15-20 miles minutes from a ton of small to medium size lakes. When in Frankfort seeing my mom, brother, and grandparents. I’m 15 minutes from some of the biggest inland lakes in the state IE Crystal ( big Crystal) Big Platte , little platte, upper and lower Herring and of course Lake Michigan.

I have 4-5 Mega Bass Ito 110’s, 3 Mega Bass deep-6 cranks, and I think mega bass 300x . I just have to be careful where I throw them or else I am sacrificing them to the northern pike gods. I don’t throw those baits in lakes with high populations of little hammer handle pike. I will throw them in lakes if there is a chance of catching a 30+ northern along with bass. Generally speaking, I don’t get bit off by bigger pike. Plus the trade off of losing one is worth it by potentially catching a big pike and bass

That mb843 is definitely a medium heavy. It’s weird.it’s not good for bottom contact but, I can feel a fish breath on it. Why I’m going to use it as vertical jigging rod for walleye. Which, it does really excel at. I thought I was going to like stupid tubes but, I like fishing regular tube jigs better. To combat grass and other junk fouling the hook I’ve learned to just go as light as weight as possible to try and ride up and over the grass. Sometimes though it still impossible to not get weeds on the hook. I probably wouldn’t use the rod I just built for stupid tubes either. However, it will be fine with regular tubes, neds, and occasionally a wacky rig.

Yeah that’s my biggest point of this. Same with the box of jig patterns. I get bored in the winter time and just make up random patterns and guess what? I keep throwing the same 4-5 colors every season 3 skirt tabs with a collar already on would only take say less than a minute to get out, cut tabs, cut skirt length I want and slide on jig. There’s times a finesse cut skirt catches a lot of fish. However, it is not an all season deal. Under the old system I would have to make a bunch additional jigs with skirts cut finesse length in 1/4 and 3/8 oz ( I’ve been getting away from 1/2 is jigs ) on top of all my regular jigs. When using them they have to be stored somewhere. Usually, jig color doesn’t change. I use GP, black, black and blue ( if I’m feeling real rebellious) and white ( very seldom used and only on a poison tale swim jig) I’ve made up some cool blue gill and perch imitating jigs but, I haven’t really used them. I’m going to give this system a try. I haven’t worked out all the details yet but, I have time. Jig season usually won’t get going for another 2-3 months around here.

For my self personally it depends. I learned a long time ago if I’m going to afford to hunt and fish. I need to be able to make and fix all of my equipment whenever possible. This is including guns, rods, reels, boats and whatever odds and ends things that break. I’m building all of my own rods. I get significantly reduced rates on components while sale through my jig side hustle. I can afford more but, it’s hard to justify it when I’m only fishing 1-2 a week and not using the equipment to make money. I’ve bought and used +$275 spinning reels. I like quality things but, I don’t need extravagant things. I fully understand why I pro or guide would buy the best that is out there. As of today I feel like I’m in the $200-$225 bait caster category. $120-$150 spinning reels. I feel like you get more bang for your buck on spinning reels as the technology is older. A lot the old high end tech is trickling down into the more affordable rods and reels. I have the ability to fix my own rods and reels as long as I can get the parts. Just finished up service my oldest reel that is almost 15 years old. However, my quantum’s may be SOL soon. A s I see there are zero parts out there for them

First 2 bass of 2026. Even with last weeks warm up Mid-Michigan and Central Michigan still has roughly 18-22 inches of ice on the lakes First 1 I actually caught around the first of the year on a tip up with a sucker minnow. It may have been 14 inches. 2nd photo I caught this little guy along with 3 big pumpkin seeds, 1 blue gill, and 1 pike. The bass and pike are fun to catch with a 32-36 inch rod with 3 lbs test. I’m betting we have ice around here until at least mid-march. Farther north may be the end of march. I like ice fishing but, open water can’t get here fast enough. Once the night time temps get above freezing and we get some rain. The ice will go quick.

I plan on using rubber collard bands. I’ll just put the bands over 2-3 skirt tabs . I probably wouldn’t cut the skirt tab’s until I’m on the water or the night before. Seems like this way too if you need to adjust a skirt color combos. I can now look at the current lake I am fishing and adjust the color. Rather than guessing months before hand. I understand why people tie rubber skirts onto jigs but, I’ve never found it necessary to tie them that way.

This year I’m thinking of trying something different to with my bass jigs. I have a bad habit of especially in the winter months of making a bunch of jigs up when I’m bored. Boredom is a bad thing when you have gallons of zip lock baggys full of skirt tabs. Basically, not putting the skirts on the jigs until I’m on the water. I only use maybe 4-5 different jig colors GP, Black, some variation of black and blue, brown and maybe white on the poison tail swim jig mold. I’ve heard of Frank Scalise doing this with spinner baits. I’m sure others do as well. I could pour and paint my 3-4 main colors of jigs and put the skirts on the jig depending on water clarity, weather, and season etc etc etc. keep some skirts with rubber collars in either the Plano box with jigs or in a separate bag. It seems like I make a ton of jigs up with skirt color combos that I’ll probably never need and running out of the jig patterns I actually need. Rather than a box full jigs I’ll never use. Any one else do this? How does it work out for you ?

Just finished a rod geek 7ft3 m/l extra fast rod. Used American tackle hi framed Ti-Forged high framed air guides. Put a sk2 split seat with split grips. I built this as another finesse to go along with my 7ft st.croix m/l premier. Today my new Shimano 3000 NASCI FD was delivered by UPS. I’ve owned more expensive spinning reels but, this NASCI feels amazing. I’ve never played around with the original NASCI. So I don’t know if the FD is a big upgrade over the original. The FD is also $25 more than the original NASCI. I could definitely see my self buying more of these

My new reel showed up today. Looks good on the rod. I have had a couple more expensive spinning reels but, this one is definitely one of the better ones I’ve put my hands on No I did not use color preserver over the nylon wraps. I haven’t used CP on my last 2-3 builds. I was thinking of building her one of the color series rods from mhx which, off the top of my head are 6.5 ft long. I don’t trust her with a super expensive rod yet. Figured it would be as close as a do everything rod that I can find at that price point. I’ll set it up as a spin caster. I’ve taken her fishing before and at this point she likes the idea of fishing. However, she also has a short attention span. I can build her better one down the road

In the beginning of my bass fishing journey I had a lot success using my home made bladed jig ( can’t say chatter bait or zman will kick my door in 😂jk) with just a simple 2-4 inch twister tail grub. I just matched the twister tail color to the skirt. I believe I only used 3 colors white, black, and basically a watermelon pepper. I caught multiple 4 lbs bass in 45 degree water mid march here in Michigan. using twister tails on my home made bladed baits Now I kinda just use paddle tails.

Kinda long post. First post in this section in a while So here is my first rod build in almost 2 years. I built my last rod right before my twins were born in the spring of 2024. As you can imagine life kinda got in the way. I still had time to fish some but, the extra stuff kinda got put on the back burner. The 2nd last rod I built was a MHX SJ 843 which, turned out to be a great vertical walleye jigging rod. It was not what I was looking for in a finesse bass spinning rod. I built the SJ843 thinking I’d be fishing heavy tube jigs in deeper water. However, with the twins coming along. Using the SJ 843 for what I had envisioned never really happened. As those lakes 3 hours north of where I live. What did end up happening though, is that I got onto a heck of a Ned rig bite all last year on the Saginaw Bay for Large mouth and smallies. I was looking for another rod to go along with my 7ft st.croix ML premier for Ned rigs and other finnesse rigs. I really contemplated just buying a factory rod. The last rod I had built ended up running into some issues. Plus the new twins kinda really put a damper on wanting to build rods for a while. However, I decided to give building a rod another shot. I’ve come to realize that even with my fast and extra fast rods. I like a fairly soft tip. I like the tip action of st.croix rods. Even though my mhx sj843 is super sensitive it feels like a broom stick in my hands. The start of the build I wanted to keep things simple but, that never lasts. I bought a Rod Geek 7ft3 m/l extra fast SCIII MXJ073mlxf blank. I compromised with my self with a fugi sk2 split grip. I limited my self to just an under wrap on the hook keeper, some simple inlays, and non metallic trim bands. Trying to focus on the basics. I bought dark burl cork rings from tackle zoom ( I can’t remember the specific name of the cork) and made the split grip and top cork piece. Each piece is made out of 3 separate cork rings which, were glued and sanded down to the shapes I wanted. I mounted the sk2 split seat upside down. with the cork on top of the seat instead of the bottom. I did an inlay between the 2 reel seat pieces. An under wrap on the hook keeper. For guides I used American Tackle high frame Ti-forged air guides. I tied the wraps for the split grip and between the reel seat first. Put a light coat of epoxy down first on those wraps. Then I dry fitted, epoxied the split grip and reel seat down. Next I did the did the hook keeper and the rest of the guides. Other than on the sk2 split grip. I did not use winding checks on the cork. I tried it on the SJ843 and really like the winding check less look. So I continued it on this rod The only mistake I made was using colorfast 822 ( silver grey) underneath the nylon 428 at the hook keeper. I believe, I knew that would be an issue but, forgot being away for 2 years. The color fast thread kinda bleeds through the nylon over wrap a bit. That’s a learning moment I’ll remember in the future. I really like these Ti-forged frames. They are super light. I love the look of high frame guides on spinning rods. The rods that I already have the high frames on seem to cast farther but, that’s just my opinion. With the exception of the color fast underneath the nylon. I feel this is probably my best build to date. Like I said earlier in the post. I always say I’m just going to a basic non decorative build but, I always end up trying to add a ton of decorative wraps. I feel with this rod I did a fairly good job of a straight forward build with enough personal touches to make it mine. For the most part I feel the wraps are good. I don’t have any wavy wraps or football looking epoxied guides. The sticker looks good which, sometimes is 50/50 proposition. Tomorrow a brand new 3000 shimano NASCI FD arrives for it. Next up is an ice rod for my dad and building my oldest 8.5 year old daughter a rod. Photos of cork handles with out winding checks.

No one’s keeping bass any more. Maybe around the population centers. We have too many other fish to catch and eat. I rarely run into other people fishing for bass on the inland lakes. Unless it is a popular lake near the population centers or the Saginaw bay.

I don’t personally care for bass. However, as long as some one is legally harvesting bass. I say eat them. At least in Central and Mid-Michigan we are getting to the point that we need to be keeping more of them. A lot of our lakes are inundated with 12-16 inch fish.

Yup, 100% I would turn it in and not be sorry. It’s a once in a lifetime event. Luckily we have 1000’s of lakes in Michigan. I’d finally have that vindicated moment with the wife. See this is why I fish all the time .

Pradco has done a really good job re-invigorating the Bomber line up of cranks and Long A’s. Over the last couple of years

This is essentially how I am storing soft plastics now. Main thing is it forces me to be selective on the amount of colors and type of plastics that I carry. Realistically I can get by with 3-4 colors depending what type and style of soft plastics that i’m using. Tubes and boot tails are the only soft plastics That I have multiple boxes of sorted by size. I have T-rig craw box and than a flipping/punching creature box. When I was Using the Tackle bags to store soft plastics. The bait monkey was forcing me to buy as many soft baits as I could to cram into the tackle bags. Which, was a lot. I’ve realized after doing this for a while, a majority of the different colors I was buying were never getting used. Eventually I would just end up throwing them away.

That’s a very good idea