Mbirdsley

Forgot my phone at work today so no pics but, fished the Tittabawassee this morning untill almost 3 . Bass are still busting Shad every where. Took a pretty nice 27-28 inch northern 2 bends north from m-46 on a lucky craft 8ft crank. He was a filled out and looking good. I know since the flood there has been some talk of the pike being down in numbers. took him on a lucky craft silver 2.5 crank. I was cranking and actually went to mess with somthing for a couple of second which made me stop reeling. As soon as I again started he hammered it Caught a keeper smallie on a home made chatter bait. Right after catching that fish I proceeded to throw chatter bait into a tree. Luckily I can make a lot more Caught a really nice white bass maybe 12-14 inches on a crank, caught 2 more 12 inch smallies. Lost a huge fricken smallie on a kvd flat side crank. He hit so hard I thought I snagged untill he started taking line. In fact I didnt get a good hook set because, I thought I snagged. One jump and a head shake he was gone. I was not pleased. I think this skeet Reese crank rod days are numbered. I’m just not a fan of how slow the action and how whippie it is. this is the kvd crank. Somthing about this color I have has good success with. First time using this flat side crank but, I’ve caught a lot of fish with the same color in a 300 kvd deep jerk bait

Sucks there was epoxy in the eye

I handled the ugly stick carbons at Walmart the other day. That is as nice of a 60 dollar rod that some one is going to find. Probably be great for moving baits like cranks, chatter baits, spinner baits, and square bills. I’ve got an older brown lighting shock rod with cork grips that I bought 3 summers ago for my 2nd bait caster. Now it is kind of like an extra rod. For 50 bucks I don’t have any complaints but, I’m sure for that price bad ones will slip out unfortunately.

I usually use heavier weights. Standard weight I use would be a 1/4 oz. any thing over 12-14 foot use 1/2 oz. it will still kinda spiral down with the heavier weights but, it is a lot faster. In deeper water I can still get it to glide and dart a short distance. for fishing smaller rivers 1/8 Oz is my normal weight for 1-5 feet. Anything smaller than 1/8 and the current takes it down stream to much

Yeah I could see that. I’d mean if you put a 1/8 oz tube head jig in a tube. you can get it to do some wicked glide motions and work it like fluke Or soft jerk bait. It’s just going to take forever to get to the bottom but, it’s going to be a very very slow spiral down.

Okuma in general is pretty good stuff. I’ve never had anything that expensive from them. but, I have had a lot of their $40-60 spinning reels. I currently have a cemar c-30 on my m/l finesse rod and I think it’s a better/cheaper option than a president for most things. We have a bunch of okuma level wind reels for salmon fishing on Lake Michigan and they have never skipped a beat with basic maintenance once in a while.

Owosso super Walmart has pretty much been totally restocked on baits. Especially soft plastics. They are also now carrying Ozark trail soft plastics. I never knew Walmart had thier own brand of soft plastics. also has some reels in but, still lacking in that department. Ton of 40-60 dollar bai caster rods. Only thing they don’t have are the cheaper spinning combos

Zoom green pumpkin 4 inch tube is the only tube you will ever need

Chatter baits made from a 3/8 do-it Arkie mold. Line ties could be better. But, they do work.

Limited success with jerk baits but, my favorite have been the kvd 300 deep divers. All I have are the kvd deep divers. I would like to get some shallow ones. I also of some smith wick rouges in both suspending and non suspending. Most of my shallow jerk baits are rapala’s. Picked up some lucky craft 112 mr ‘s to try that I am excited about. Next to months I would like to devote to jerk baits. Than try some walleye trolling before it iced up and than put the boAt up bombers and rebels I have more success just throwing them out and cranking them like a crank bait honestly

I like a 1/4 for pitching at anything over 5 foot and deeper with no current on a bait caster. Any thing lighter I’m usually throwing a senko style worm or swamp crawler on a spinning rig using 1/8-3/16 in open water. Fishing the Tittabawassee River the way the river has been up the last couple of years. I use 1/2 oz to get down 4-14 feet. Been thinking of going 3/4 oz possibly next time though with all the rain we have had for the deeper holes.

There are deals to be had on eBay right now on brand new lures. Just have to be patient

2nd to last box of eBay winning showed up. Probably won’t get to use these untill next summer though. I need a deep cranking rod or somthing better than my skeet Reese crank rod. norman DD22 in Texas Shad. Won all 3 for 17 bucks shipped

Flint river in Michigan ? Could have been a sturgeon if in Michigan. The Saginaw river has them. I have herd reports of stergeon In the Shiawassee near Chesaning in the fall.

Give it 2-3 years and there all these newbies will be gone and crap ton of equipment available cheap. The only place I have seen the bite die off at has been the easy to get to places. I’m looking forward to the cooler weather and these new people will hang it up for the year. Deer hunting I’m predicting will be a war zone on the state land come the gun opener on nov 15th There is one place I have sworn off. The lake is called sleepy hollow state park/lake Ovid that just has had way to many people on it for my liking. I like to be in semi solitude while I fish. Another lake is 10 minutes from there to the west and smaller but, to do well you need pitching and flipping gear. Most weekenders and newbies won’t invest in a flipping pitching set up to use a couple times a year like I would.

Bass fishing is alot like baseball. If you have a bad day There is always tommrow or the next trip to look foward too. Had a couple bad fishing trip this week. I only caught a bunch of hammer handle pike Sunday than a dink Thursday. I was ready To put the boat up for the winter. Guess what 6 hrs later I was planning my next fishing day

My next net will be a rubber one like that. All I have is a Walmart telescoping frabil. I’ll use it untill I need to replace it though. Think this is my 4th year of it.

Actually I fished a lake 2 days ago that the bubba rig probably would have been good for. It’s a smaller lake but, I thought it was a hard bottom. However, kept trying to throw a Carolina rig after the pads that ring it were a no go. I kept dragging up clay and Black Sea weed/Algea with the Carolina rig

Usually it says on the original cable how long it is. In this instance the original was too long already so that doesn’t help. The boat shop or mechanic should know what length cable you need. I would go by their suggestion

I agree with everything said in this thread. However, there are a lot of people out there that shouldn’t own a pedal bike let alone a boat. Don’t know how much money we have made off of the tourists on crystal who buy a junk bay liner for their kids to destroy than want us to piece it back together Every year. Keeps the fiberglass guys in business as most people on the lake apparently don’t know that reverse is a thing and you can use it while coming into a dock.

Recent eBay winnings have arrived won 2 booyah white 3/8 vibra wire spinner baits for $7.50. Won 2 war eagle 3/8 chartreuse white lime spinner baits for $15 dollars not a great deal but, the same seller had the booyas so I saved shipping. won 3 lucky craft 112mr jerk baits In American shad, bone pro blue, and Tennessee shad. Won those for 25 bucks shipped. Still more stuff inbound in the mail need to start throwing jerk baits. Took the L today fishing

I have experienced this with all of my rods. Seems like they become just a tad bit limber than brand new. I like the way a broken in rod feels. It just bends differnt that brand new and seems like the cork gets dirty and the “feel gets better”. It is a beautiful thing

My phluegar supreme did this to me just recently and I remembered that it did it to me after I broke it totally down this winter. I oil/greased ( what ever way you do it) the level wind worm gear up front. After oiling it up the problem was taken care of.

You would be good to go on the Saginaw bay with that rig. Just pick a good day. I dunno about running the charities in a flat bottom boat but, the smallies are close enough in May and June where you wouldn’t have to run that far out

Even in the summer They will come up shallow to feed. However, that window gets shorter and shorter as summer progresses. In June that window may run untill the 11am in August it may only be 8:30-9am or sooner. When they are shallow run a 14 ft leader of flouro carbon and drag a gp tube ( or other gobey looking Lure) now that I have a bigger boat. My goal next year is to chase Lake Michigan smallies around the Pt. betsie/platte Bay Area on Lake Michigan and the charity island on the Saginaw bay. also don’t discount the drowned harbor mouths. Before the gobeys got real bad as kids we could catch nice smallies on a worm and bobber off of the stub piers in Frankfort in August. Gobeys get to the worms first now