Mbirdsley

Fished the titabawassee river today. Caught 5 a mix of smallies and large mouth. Actually my first smallies I’ve caught on the titabawassee since the dam failures 2 years ago. First one came on a 2.5 KVD sexy shad chrome square bill. The rest came on a the arkie jig that I pour/make. Black and blue flake head with black and blue fire tip skirt. Used a black and blue strike king rage menace. Looking like I wont be back out untill this time next week.

I started rummaging around my fishing cabinet. Found some Mustad KVD 3/0 EWG’s that I bought probably 4 years ago on clearance from Walmart. Seems like they will work better. I only have one pack so I’ll buy different hooks to experiment with.

That would work but, I need 1/2 oz weight to deel with current depth up to 14 ft feet. Water clarity is only about a 1-2 ft. I may just try the ewg’s. Or see if I can find some heavier weighted internal weighted ones.

I struggle with this every time I try to t-rig a tube. I really would prefer to use a tube jig however, that isn’t possible fishing the titabawassee or Saginaw rivers. I would be leaving a ton jigs in the river. The bigger 4.0 zoom tubes I don’t have as much of an issue. I just use a 4/0 Or 3/0 offset worm hook. Still not ideal but, it works. Using the strike king 3.5 pro tube I’m struggling. 3/0 is a little to big. I feel like if I use a 1/0 or 2/0 offset hook. the hook won’t be strong enough for what I’m doing Which, is basically power fishing a t-rigged tube behind a 1/2 tungsten weight. Like this is not what I’d consider a finnesse approach. as I’m using my carbon light 6ft9 bait caster combo with 30 lbs power pro to a 20 lbs flouro coated leader. Is there a better tube hook for the 3.5 inch class tubes the way I am fishing them?

I have a garmin echomap uhd73sv. My lake mapping has stopped working. When I hit the bottom on the lake mapping to start mapping nothing happens. I swear it was working in April. I did a software update in late April and it doesn’t work anymore. Maybe I did it but, I don’t remember messing with those settings. I can’t even get any of the previous mapping to show up from previous. Any ideas. ?

The ones I make. I haven't used a store boughten jig now in probably 4 years. Well i take that back I do buy tube jigs and Midwest finnesse jigs . A decent tube jig isn’t that expensive to buy. I havnt been fishing the bed enough lately to justify buying the mold

I have back ups for lures that have proven Them selves. However, I’ve been buying a lot of 2 packs off of eBay too. Winning auctions and basically getting 2 for 1 price. I don’t usually carry the back ups with me though . notable exceptions include and can change depending on where I’m fishing. Summer craw bandito bugs I always carry 2 packs probably have 6 total packs. Blue and black flake chigger craws. If I’m fishing the titabawassee/ Saginaw river I always carry 2 packs out of my probably 20 pack stock pile. Black and blue flake curly tail worm currently, I’ll fish the Berkley or bps version interchangeably. other than that though I don’t carry back ups it becomes a space issue. If I loose it I open the new one and replace it when I get home. Usually if I loose it I’ve got something similar in color or action.

I like all of my abu’s weather it’s my black maxx, silver max, my round reel pro rocket or my revo pro premier spinning reel that was $250 but, bought on sale for $150 from Bps

I’m actually jealous that you caught a gar on a regular lure. I’d like to have one mounted. The ones in Michigan are pretty Fished on Saginaw today in the Shiawassee and titabawassee rivers. Nothing too impressive. first fish came on a 1.5 kvd sexy shad square bill. 2nd fish came on black and blue flake swim jig That I pour /make. Got zip on a black on blue bps curly tail worm which, I killed them on last year. Next decided to try a strike king black blue blue laminate tube. Lost a big fish around green point because, I thought it was a snag and didn’t set the hook. 3rd fish came on the tube. 5th fish you arnt fishing the Saginaw area unless you catch a sheap head. set a new speed record of 36.1 mph with my 1985 sea nymph and the tower of power merc 90 hp

I played football and basketball in high school. Played college football for almost 4 full years ( decided graduated was probably a better idea than D3 ball). I was also a general sports nut from the time I was a kid untill 2017. Basically, I think I was burned out from sports and I acquired my first boat in 2017. I had gotten back into fishing for the first time since high school in 2011. From 2011-2017 it was maybe a once every other week thing. I always day dreamed about fishing but, when I got the boat in 2017 is when I left sports in the dust. In sports I was always trying to be the best that I could be. So fishing was really no differnt. Except at this point instead of watching. I could actually do it. I’m fairly competitive by nature any how. It was just a natural progression and gave me imho a better use of time than watching millionaires who give a crap about any one but, them selves.

I had 2 phluegar reels die on me last year. 1 was a 3 year old supreme bait caster ( I really liked the real too) on my crank rod. The metal ear/knob that the reel seat screws on to broke while screwed on to the rod. I made a cast reel felt loose tightened it down made another cast and the reel fell off the rod. It’s basically the frame So it was terminal. 2nd one was a president spinning reel. Reel was 3 years old at the time but, hadn’t been used much. Somthing in the bail failed. I was fairly disgusted with it as the reel hadn’t been used much. I could have probably figured it out and fixed it but, I bought a diawa legalis 3000t and never looked back. The legalis has been a work horse on my dobyns colt. Paid like $55 shipped on sale for it. I’ve got one more president on my UL panfish/trout st.croix premier. Honestly, it’s been a problem child since day one. I’ve replaced parts on it more than once. I’ll keep it untill it dies than probably buy a BG to replace it for trout and panfish. phluegar was once a heck of a reel. The president was legendary around here at least the older ones. However, if you put in any serious time fishing they go to pot. So yeah I’m not impressed with phluegar at all any more.

Took the family out for panfish on Clifford lake in Montcalm county. Didn’t do to bad considering I rarely fish for panfish. We caught a lot of little panfish and caught 4 keepers 2 sunfish and 2 crappies. One of the big crappies came in a Beatles spin along with a couple small bass. I based fish for the last hour only caught some little ones on a wacky rig. We eventually put the 4 panfish back at the end of the day. Wife and daughter had a good time

Getting more of my deep cranking game on. I ordered 2 spro DD 70 cranks and 2 bullet crank 7+100’s come in the mail. I didn’t realize how big the bullets were. Only issue is I don’t know if my current deep cranking rod will handle the bullets. If not I guess I know what I’m building this winter !!!! I’d probably go for a speed cranking set up. Like what they talk about in tactical bassin. My current rod should handle the spro’s. I know it will handle 8xd’s in bound I have 2 13 fishing troll hunter deep crank baits coming along with a mega bass deep 6 300 and a deep 100.

We troll silver plated spoons that have either fully been painted on the front side or half and half on the front. Back side is always left painted. We troll for salmon any where from 20-120 ft deep on Lake Michigan. Fish can see the flash that deep. Lake Michigan is ultra clear now. even if the water isn’t clear fish still have to eat in stained water. If they can find bait fish they will find your crank.

So yesterday while fishing little platte I snagged some braid. I start hand lining it in and there is what I believe is a cotton Cordell lipless crank. What makes this even better besides the cheap snap swivel and multicolored 30 lbs braid attached to it. I was litterally fishing 1.5-2ft of water when I snagged it. Crystal clear water and a sand bottom. I’m sure who ever was fishing this was just bombimg it out there and giving it $&@@. Not know what he was doing. It was attached to a pad. So I do t know if he just said screw it cut off 60 ft of braid or what ill probably put some new hooks on it and put with the rest of lipless cranks that I never use

Boat was finally ready. Had to replace both switches boxes on the motor. I was only running on 3 of 6 cylinders. It runs way better now. Gained 3 mph First fish is a smallie from crystal lake in benzie county. Caught it on a maxx scent Gp tube. Also, caught a bunch of 10–11 inch rock bass rock bass. I saw one 20ish inch fish zooming around. Wouldn’t bite however. rest of the fish are from little plate lake. I finally caught a fish on a rod I built. That was pretty cool. I was punching pads and bite one of my jigs that I pour. Rest of the fish came on a 1.5 kvd square bill. Biggest came on a strike king summer craw stick bait

I like the Berkley 100 % flouro. I use it on both my spinning rods and my deep cranking rod. Cabelas was running a deal in April for 400 yards of it for $24.99. I picked some 17lbs test for my deep cranking rod

I have a dobyns colt. For the money it is a very good rod. Mine is a m/l 7fter I’ve had it 4 summers now. I use it for wacky, rigs, tubes, jerk baits, and shad raps. The m/l is a little on the heavy side. I’ve got plenty of back home when I wack a bass on a wacky rig. i like the st.croix rods starting with the premier on up in the price point catagory. For the sub $130 price point I think dobyns are better.

That’s kinda how I feel about it. However, once it’s been established as a good fish catcher I would buy multiples. lately on eBay I’ve been buying 3 lure kits if the same color. Most times when I win the auctions all 3 lures are the same price if the were regular priced in a store.

I net almost every fish that I catch including pike. Right now I’m using my old Walmart frabill nylon net. only reason I can see for not netting a fish would obviously be during a bass tournament. I’m not trying to un-needlessly hurt the fish or break a rod flipping bass. I don’t have one yet but, the best bet for cranks are the rubber ones. Bunch of different companies make the rubber nets. A lot of them are made in the U.S.

I would much rather pay a couple bucks more for better hardware.

Been buying swim bait stuff over the last 2 weeks fishlab bio black crappie fish lab bio gill Berkley sunfish gillie trokar 5/0 swim bait screw in hooks vmc screw in 5/0 hooks

Usually June is when the t-rig and wacky rig bite usually really starts heating up. mid to end of June I’ll start throwing jigs always start if with cranks. As long as the waters above 50 degrees it’s Never a bad time to throw a crank

I buy 90% of my tackle off of eBay anymore. Either through auctions or eBay stores. I have been buying some stuff from tackle direct though lately.

Who makes those z-boss-22? What depth do they run ?