Mbirdsley

I like the kvd’s. I need to get some of the 3-6 ft ones as most of mine are the 10-12 ft ones. I feel your pain on loosing them. I don’t use jerk baits much as I’m not good at it. Finally worked up the nerve to put on a perch mega bass ito 110 and started killing the bass. Landed 5-8 in a row untill a not so friendly northern pike took it. I watched him grab it lifted the rod slightly and the mega bass jerk bait was gone. off topic but the mega bass make jerk bait fishing easy. I tried using some lc slender pointers 112 mr’s and didn’t care for the action. 6th sense makes a good jerk bait too

Yeah that’s what referred to unofficially as big crystal. Which, is only 10 minutes from my grandparents. This ( little ) crystal is only 45 minutes from my house.

Days re cap. So in celebration of getting a new job I used the day to do some fall fishing. Day started out at a balmy 45 degrees and never got above 50 degrees. Water was still 56 degrees. Fished crystal lake in Montcalm county mi Started out with a mojo rig with a zoom yum dinger water Mellon pearl which caught a 14 incher and about 4 other bass. Than decided to finally try using jerk baits. Put on a $22 mega bass ito perch jerk bait and start killing it. I caught probably 10-12 13-14 inch bass on it. I had originally purchased this lure last spring but, was to afraid of loosing it. Which, is exactly what happened to it. a medium sized northern took it. One of those deals you see the pike grab onto it and just barley lift the rod tip and mega bass jerk bait was gone Mega bass jerk baits are definitely worth the hype. They make using a jerk bait easy. Jerk baits however, are the only lure I have an issue with getting bit off. . Luckily tied on a #5 perch colored shad rap and nailed the biggest of the day a 14.5 bass and some other smaller fish. Last pic is match the hatch. Not a bunch of big fish but, Not a bad day for not getting above 50 degrees

I’ve got 2 mvp’s this year. 1st this strike root beer crank caught the biggest bass of the year in August which, was about 4.5 lbs I think. 2nd mvp was a a black and blue flake curly tail worm on the titabawassee river. Brand didn’t matter as I had success with both Berkeley and BPS versions

That’s basically any of of the old style bombers, thunder sticks, rebels, any of the floating or plastic rapala’s. Growing up we never knew you were supposed to jerk them. We either trolled with them or just casted out and retrieved them slowly. Caught a lot of fish. That’s how I still fish small streams with the j-7’s bombers were a mainstay for trolling for steal head back in the day on my grandpas charter boat. He would run 5 a side with planer boards

Glad to see people catching fish. My place of employment has been imploading from within. Which, has caused a lot of OT. Also been looking for another job . Sooooooo…. I’ve only been out once over the last month and caught one sheep head and smallie. Only thing worth taking a pic of was this little smallie from the titabawassee river about 2 weeks ago. Caught on a Berkeley black blue flake ribbon worm. I only went out due to calling in and being po’d from work. Hoping the decent weather holds before and after deer season.

Fished the Shiawassee and saginaw rivers. Not much in the bass front to day but, did land this nice 29 inch northern pike. Caught on a bps black/blue flake curly tail worm. Also caught about a dozen 13-14 inch bass I think the pike are starting to put the feed bag on trying to get fat for the winter. Historically this is the time of year I catch more numerous and bigger pike

Yes I’d agree with this. It seems the more the worm gets beat up by fish the better it is.

I like it

I have many favorites depends on conditions March- late April shad raps rule!!! These have been my biggest consistent crank producers so far this year. The spro flat sides were killer late April-mid June. The single strike king has been killer the last few weeks in clear and ultra clear water basically clear water and sunny: I've been running flashy silvers and green/root beer clear and over cast: black Sunny and dirty water: flashy silver, sexy shad, or chart dirty water and over cast: black my biggest regret was not purchasing spro’s sooner. Little bit more money but, worth it.

That legalis might be something to look at and put, on my dobyns colt rod.

I have 3 pfluegar reels and I have had issues with all of them now. I’ve kinda always herd that they were good for the average guy who fished every other week. However, if you start getting serious and fishing 1-2 weeks you just need to buy better equipment

I bought the spinning reel 3 years ago as another trout set up as it came with a 5ft5 rod. It’s a size 30. However, this is the first year I have actually used it. I used it a lot in the spring but, lately not as much. Trip plunger seems like it is moving freely not getting binned up I think it has something to do with this little plastic piece. it’s getting late I’ll dig out my schematics tommrow

Kinda rough week equipment wise FML. First, last Sunday I was throwing cranks with my phuelgar supreme 5;4:1 bait caster. I’m just bombing cranks out there. bomb the next cast out. I start to reel and all of a sudden the reel feels really lose like it wants to fall off the rod. I start to screw down the foam piece on the rod to tighten the reel. hear a pop, look down and the reels only being held by the fishing line spooled through the eye lit. Somehow the ears on the frame that connects the reel to the rod broke. They were made out of some sort of metal not plastic. Sucks because, breaking the frame means it’s terminal and up until that point that reel hand been a work horse. I dunno if had a tiny stress cracks in it from something previous that just got worse over time or what. I don’t baby my stuff but, I don’t beat or abuse it either. finally yesterday I’m using my president spinning reel throwing wacky rigs in my dobyns colt and reel is working fine. I set the rod down pick up the crank rod. Come back to the wacky rig rod throw out a cast. Go to flip the bail back to the reel position and nothing. Awesome, bail won’t flip back or forth. Sweet 2nd reel to die In a week. Luckily I had my abu premier with me so i didn’t need to tear it down. I’m thinking the bail spring hopefully some how just slipped out of position. Should be a fairly simple fix. I was going to buy $250-300 heavier jig rod/reel and $250-300deep cranking rod/reel this winter so I’ll add another higher quality light cranking reel and probably a better spinning reel to the list. I’ve had decent luck with the other Korean made reels however, pfluegars not so much. going to be a expensive winter haha

That was the most intense drop off I’ve fished. Probably went around at least half the lake. All The fish except the last 2 which, were shallow were caught in 10-12 ft of water. If I could find a like 10-15 step midway down the drop off before it went deep I could mark and catch fish. Didn’t even mark any thing on the drop off that went right to 30ft

I swap most of my trebles out to kvd triple grips extra shorts extra strong. Only time I don’t is for instance spro’s already come with gamas installed. If they already have good hooks installed even though, it’s not my preference brand I’m not going take the time to put the triple grips on. I’ll wait until the originals are dull or damaged the Berkley hooks are pretty good for being a stock hook. I hate the hooks that come on the strike king or strike king kvd cranks

Best bass day of they year as far as size and weight. Fished little field lake in Isabella co Michigan. I think this lake was a old gravel pit the drop off goes almost straight down like a cliff from 2ft to 30 ft of water. Water very clear can see almost 16-18 feet down. Caught a 4lber on a strike king 5xd ( forget the name but pictured). The rest came on a arkie jig I make with a googan summer craw bandito bug for a trailer. Glad I took a half day off from work to come up here

I believe I could get the bigger size to fit on a 4/0 hook. smaller size probably 2/0

They work just as good as any craw. I used to use them river fishing for smallies. You can either use a round jig head or t-rig them. I think they work better for more finesse stuff in clear water

Like I said anything spro has been on fire this year. Including the little John’s

Dickerson lake Montcalm county. First 3 photos: came while punching pads with my handmade/home made jig with 6th sense stroker craw green pumpkin burst for a trailer. Fish were 15,15, and 16 inches 4th picture is my punch jig I make. 5th photo is my jig next to a dead craw dad that the 3rd fish ( biggest fish) fish puked up, match the hatch!!!! Photos 6 and 7 are fish I caught while dragging the drop offs with a green pumpkin Arkie jig that I make . Also used a 6th sense striker craw trailer in color green pumpkin burst Last photo is a pike I caught while punching the pads punching pads is probably one of my favorite things to do while, bass fishing

Jig and craws really come into their own late July, August into September. However, when I think of the dog days I think of pitching/punching heavy cover with heavy jigs.

I had some of those storms too. Those were part of what I gave away. ive broken a couple of the circuit board ones before back in the day but, that’s only because it took a direct hit on rock while casting it a 100000mph. Not the cranks fault I guess I should pick some more up. Anything spro has been killer this year for me. They have been worth the extra little bit of money. Plus they come with decent gammy hooks and I don’t swap them out until they get damaged

I do a lot of bigger river fishing. With lots of snags. So there are times I do get hung up a bit. I guess I’d rather loose the jig or t-rig rather than something happening to my rod

Biggest reason I use a leader on my braid rods is just so it is easier to break off if it gets snagged. When I am in northern mi there are a lot of gin clear waters. So a flourish leader is a must imho. Regular water probably not