Mbirdsley

That’s a nice lure. Sure it would be a northern pike magnet. I did order a pack of Berkley gillies in sunfish. I’d like to try either the savage gear or the bio lab gill also.

That makes sense

I’ve been using 24 gage. I like the black painted/tinted wire the best

Is there a difference between screwing a belly weighted hook into the swim bait or having one already in it like this one

I’m running a 6ft6 mh fast Falcon Jason Christie spinner bait/square bill rod that I bought at Walmart on clearance for $40. Paired with a 6:4:1 slx reel. 10 lbs big game mono I mean I’m talking I wasn’t even getting bites when using flouro for spinner baits or chatter baits. I dunno if mono makes everything vibrate just a tad different or if it’s somthing I do during my retrieval cadence While, using mono

i had some success in the past with them but, I didn’t know there were finness spinnerbaits and such. also for whatever reason mono line has worked very good on spinner baits and chatter baits. It changes my catch rate over flouro. I don’t know if it causes a differnt vibration or what

Snap. Even with a split ring on it

I may use my deep cranking rod that I built. It’s a 7ft8 Bushido cranking rod. Tip is soft but plenty of back bone. It’s 17 lbs flouro on it but I could use a mono leader. 1 1/4 oz is the limit on the rod 2nd one is a 7ft mh fast rainshadow blank that I built. It’s rated up 3/4 oz. That has 45 lbs braid Lastly my 7 ft 4 bass x heavy fast that has 65 lbs braid. jigs as heavy as 1 1/2 can be used so I’ll figure it out between these 3 rods.

Zebra mussels shouldn’t be to much of an issue for me. Though I do fish the Great Lakes connecting waters occasionally. I like the idea of mono leader. I’ve got some 15lbs mono.

That’s a possibility

So in a incoming package I have some belly waited 5/0 screw in Trokars coming. I want to try those big plastic blue gill swim baits. im not going to go buy a rod specifically for this. Some of them are 1oz. What is everybody throwing them on? Heavier jig rod with braid ? I’m sure I have a rod a reel that will work.

So in a incoming package I have some belly waited 5/0 screw in Trokars coming. I want to try those big plastic blue gill swim baits. specifically the ones with paddle tails. I know Berkley and savage gear make some. What are others that are say under $20.

I honestly just buy it regardless if it rattles or not. I buy square bills and regular cranks based on situations and certain lakes/river systems in mind. I’m more interested in color and what kind of diving/retrieve action that it has. Same with regular cranks. If I’m picking a dirty water color I’ll make sure to specifically find one that rattles. I have more regular cranks that rattle than non rattles. Square bills I have more silent ones.

River was packed with tubers and kyakers too. It was still a good time haha

Boat is up north getting some work done to the motor. So I decided to kick it old school and fish the Shiawassee river with my canoe. River was higher than normal and a ton of weeds were floating. Making it impossible to use inline spinners or rapala’s. I havnt floated the river since my first boat. So about 5 years Only caught 4 fish. missed a really nice one for the river. What the fish lack on size as they make up for in spunk. I forgot my zoom tubes at home which, the smallies love. I don’t know how well they would have done rigged on a tube jig any how. found success with a mojo rig running some type of sinking strike king finnesse worm that was black and blue flake

Went hard in the paint on square bills this week. Ones still in the package just came in the mail. The ones out of the package came from shop n save up north. Shop n save is a grocery store that has a really nice home goods and sporting section. All are strike king 1.5’s and except the lone LC 1.5 also trying out some magnum moon juice rage bugs

Okuma did for a while. That was only ten years ago. I bought a couple of avengers from Walmart and both came with a spare plastic spool

For leader material I go cheap. The kast king or pline flouro clear is all you need. They are both flouro coated co-polymers. I’ve used both in lakes with 20 ft visibility. I believe they both cost about $10 for 220 yard spool

Yes I believe pouring/ making your own stuff is worth the hassle. It’s kinda like they say in the reloading/boolit world “ you don’t save money doing it. However, your money goes farther” you get way more jigs for your money rather than buying them. apartment may not be the best place to do it unless you have acess to outside balcony or outside space

I really like my 7ft fast M/L st.croix premier. I use it for paddle tails, mojo rig, Ned rig. Perfect balance of feel and strength IMO being American made is nice too.

I’ve used the kvd and the cabelas/ bass pro stuff. They both work. There are sometimes I don’t need to use. However, there are other days I use it a ton. More do on spinning reels.

At the current moment. Lipless cranks. Kinda went all in this winter. Built a rod for lipless and bought some LC 3/4ozer which, are like $15 a pop. Also bought 6th sense 1/2ozers and some other random ones. I used them twice this spring. historically probably my rapala DT’s. I can’t buy a bite with them. I’m actually thinking of getting rid of them as they are taking up space in my crank box

Yeah you can wade fish the buelah end of the lake. Once your in the lake your legal to walk aways north and south. There is public access/ beach where cold creeek comes in. Almost down town buelah. You will be able to cast a drop off Into a 10-12 foot drop off 10-15 yards from shore. I was down there fishing today

Fished big crystal again in benzie county. So I caught a 4lbs 20 inch smallie on a tube. However, I forgot the phone in my truck . So I have no picture proof of it. Ran back to the launch and I happened to find my brother there who was launching a customers boat. He ran up the big hill for me and grabbed my phone. Caught another smallie on a tube fishing the 8-40 ft drop off on rail road pt. after I moved down to the east end near buelah and started nailing smallies and rock bass on spro rock crawler. Basically I was fishing isolated rocks or rock piles. Biggest smallie down there was 18 inches 3.5 lbs good day . Crystal has the biggest rock bass you will find. They even give head shakes making it seem like there is a small bass on

It’s not a good bank fishing lake. Big issue is there is no cover shallow. It’s all sand. The drop off is around 8 ft to 20-40 ft. But, it’s all sand to the drop off. your best bet would be the best east end of the lake where cold creek comes in buelah. There is a fishing pier and more cover down in that area shallow