Mbirdsley

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First large mouth of the year from Murphy lake michigan on Easter Sunday. Makes it even sweeter that I caught it on a chatter bait I poured ( do-it mold), painted, cured, and assembled. Jig is silver, skirt silver and black, with a 2.5 inch twister tail for a trailer. I lost another about the same size. Made it all worth while is both nailed the lure as 2 separate group of guys came motoring up to ask how I was doing Heres a close up of the chatter bait . Now I just need a differnt mold to enminate the split ring

I would go co-polymer my self. I like braid for everything but hard baits ie cranks, jerkbaits, spinners, and chatter baits.

I grew up trolling for salmon and trout on lake Michigan. that is the only trolling I do. trolling is boring but, to get to feel the surge and reel killing pull of a 30 lbs king it is worth it to troll. Walleye I see as purely a food source. walleye don't really fight unless the are huge so there only purpose for me is to be eaten. I like eating fish however, the wife does not. So there is really no point in me keeping a bunch of fish for the freezer. If I keep a couple of fish a year I am happy. I love to fish and This is where bass fishing comes in. At this point in my life and my work schedule ( work all the time) bass fishing fits. Large mouth are abundant in the lakes and smallies are in the rivers. They are not a delicate fish so 98% of the time if you know what your doing they can be released unharmed.I have always since a kid been intrigued with bass lures and bass fishing in general. I come from a very out doors family and yet most of them don't get bass fishing. They don't understand fishing just to throw them back. Most people anymore don't understand anything hunting or fishing related any more. last week my wife said " people who fish all the time are weird"

Actually I can’t remember why exactly I bought the Mitchell but, it was a good reel I liked it. I might buy another Mitchell or phlueger trion for it. I only used to have 2 rods this one and the other berkley rod. I used this one for swurms, straight reeling rapala’s abd other rapala type baits, chucking spoons basically the bigger stuff. I’m newer to bass fishing grew up chasing salmon and steel head on Lake Michigan and fishing small rivers for smallies. Last spring I bought my first 2 bait casters. This is only the 3rd having the boat. Last summer I spent a lot of time on Saginaw river and tittabawasse River. I have caught a lot of small mouth but, I don’t take the boat on bigger lakes unless conditions are ideal and than not very far off shore. Hoping to do more exploring on more lakes this summer. I’ll have a bigger boat either end of the summer or next year. What you have listed are good ideas. That’s a good idea about spinner baits, could be a frog rod and or a swim jig rod. I don’t have anything bait caster wise for swim jigs at the moment

Like I said I have a medium heavy berkley tactix I use for wacky rigs that I absolutely love and is one of my oldest rods. That one feels more like a medium rod and is my favorite. This one the thread is about even though it says mh imho is a heavy very fast rod and it just seems like a odd ball. Maybe I will use it as a stop gap top water rod. I fish from a 14 foot tin boat so the shorter length might be good for that. I hate just throwing stuff away. It’s been used and has river rash so isn’t worth a whole lot of I sold it.

Hoping these are my last major purchases for a while. Realized I didn’t really have a finesse rod. everything I had currently was way to big. So I sold stuff I have not used it forever and bought a dobyns 7ft m/l colt rod. Also bought a Okuma cemar-30 to put on it. The rod is nice for the money. That reel seems really like a steal for 40 bucks. I’m impressed. If I hadn’t bought that I would have put a Pflueger president reel on it. also won a auction for 50 swim baits ( kinda forgot about it actually untill the guy told me I won) so I have 50 of them In Houdini, perch, and black and blue flake. They seem good quality. These wil go with the kietechs I bought on the same day Swim baits

Yeah so I have just bought my 3rd rod and reel set up since December. One is a crank bait rod, the one I just bought is a ML dobyns for finesse stuff and finally I bought a light action 6ft4 president combo for strictly wading and bass fishing rivers. Really the only necessary one was the river rod as I sold my other ones and didn’t have any thing light enough. Before, I tried getting by with just 2-3 rods and honestly I hate taking the time to cut and re-tie. Worse case scenario now is either swap out cranks or change plastic for the most part. I’m only into the 2nd summer of consitrating on bass fishing . There will be many more rods to come after I buy a bigger and newer boat next year.

You can get a plunger president combo for 80 bucks. I have 2 president reels a size 20 and 30. I just bought a light action 6ft6 president combo for river/creek smallies. I was very impressed with quality of the rod. However, I think they run lower in power than what the say. IE a medium is more of a light action rod

So I have what I would consider Is a heavy fast action MH 6’6 gander mountain guide series spinning rod that I bought back 2011. After I destroyed the Mitchell advocet reel while trying to clean it ( I’ve now learned taking reels apart is not my thing) about three years ago. The rod has basically just been sitting on my rod rack with nothing to do. What can I use this rod for I’d probably just slap 40-50 dollar reel on it. I have 7ft m skeet Reese crank rod ,6ft6 m/fast black max combo, 7ft mh berkly shock rod for heavy t-rigs, a 6ft6 mh ( acts more like a medium)Berkeley tactic spinning rod I use for wacky rigs and light stuff. Input would be appreciated

There is somebody on one of the Facebook bass auction pages that is selling what looks like to be a Knock off yum craw bug but, solid. I’ll try and find a pic

Been a while since I’ve been around but, been busy getting ready for spring. About 3 weeks ago Walmart had the skeet Reese crank rods 50% off so I picked it up and paired it with a 5:4:1 phleuger supreme bait caster also so picked up some clacking raps. Never used those before but, I am looking forward to them this spring Picked up the zoom bundle on eBay for 12 bucks with free shipping from Hawaii. I really wanted to try the caffeine shad. It’s 1/2 and 1/2 of sealed and opened bags but, for the price gives me a opportunity to try trick worms, shaky worms, yum dingers/baby dingers, and yum craw chunks. Also up graded my fish finder to a Garmin Striker 4 cv which hasn’t arrived yet. It will be perfect for my 14 Tin boat. When I get a bigger boat next year I’ll use the unit for ice fishing

Well I think this might be one of the last large scale tackle purchases. As hunting season is around the corner. I’ll still replace the stuff o run out of like worms, trailers, and such. Okeechobe tiny paca chunk big bite baits 2.75 black neon chunk green pumpkin and blk blue shadow Christie critters ( have been good to me this year t-rigged and worked like a t-rigged worm) green pumpkin trd gama 4/0 offset worm hooks ordered from tacklecware house

Here is the jig from the last post that I lost three smallies on including the big one. I painted, added weed, guard, and put the skirt on. The skirt is from fishingskirts.com

So I put the boat in in off of center street in Saginaw on the Tittabawassee River. The Day started off fast but, I missed 3 smallies right off the bat and the one was a nice one. Than it slowed way down but, I was able to pick up this 17 inch smallie on a pb&j jig with a green pumpkin paca chunk. I didn’t pour this jig but, rather I bought a bunch of unpainted arkie and football head jigs from a guy on the forum. I did powder coat it, add weed guard, and put the skirt on.

I was just thinking of changing the rusty bearings out before it locked up on me while on the water. Factory replacement ones are very little money.

What is the Ball park figure for up graded bearings For spinning reel? Or does it depend on the reel? I have a favorite spinning reel that I’ve have had for 8 years and noticed this spring that the bearings on the oscillating shaft had some rust in them. The reel works fine but, I’m wondering if this winter I should replace them?

Lead is not harmless but, it is not the boogey man that is has been made out to be. with common sense precautions it is not dangerous. Yes if high levels of lead enter the body it can mess you up and be fatal. However, it takes certain sets of circumstances for this to happen. Lead becomes dangerous once it oxidizes. lead paint for example is nothing but, oxidized lead. Lead in most cases ( I wont say never) will not oxidize in water and break down. It is a natural element found in the earth. The only way non oxidized lead is dangerous is if you eat it ( if you were casting sinkers and don't wash your hands before drinking or eating). if you had a open wound it could possibly get into the wound if you are really carless and do not wash after words. The issues with the birds is mainly comes from lead shot from shot guns. the shot will hide in the water weeds and ducks ingest it while rooting around and eating lake weeds. Most sinkers will just get sucked up in the mud never to be seen again.

No, I am just implying that I can not catch a fish on a senko to see how durable they are.

I’ve grown up fishing Lake Michigan. I have seen some ridiculously stupid things on the lake in pursuit of salmon. Boats like mine trying to fish out to the bank which is 2-3 miles out of Frankfort where it goes from 70ish feet of water to sbout 140 in 5 foot of length. I Figure my fishing radius is about 2-3 miles from shore while fishing most of the bay on a really really good day. Ive done 4-5 miles out before in the boat from quincassee area but,I wasn’t alone and it is shallower on the south end. I still had my hand held marine radio with me though. I don’t have a problem following the coast for a long ways I figure if weather came up worse case is I could beach it untill it blew through. however, being way out there in a 14 footer isn’t for the faint of heart.

Thanks that is it. It is a fairly durable worm I was getting 3-4 fish per worm. If it keeps working I will get rid of my senko’s and use these instead.

Well it was a killer on Saginaw bay rigged wacky style last Thursday.

So I bought this pack of worms at Dunham’s for 2.99 for 20 of them. It is made by zoom but, the store had all the mfg ID covered up with thier own UPC codes. It is about 5-6 inches long ( havnt measured it exactly). Closest thing I can find is a trick stick or finesse worm. However both of those worms have a taper towards the tail this one does not. I’d like to get at least one more color for dirty water.

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I don’t think I’ll make it out there in my boat