Mbirdsley

heck yeah crawlers catch bass. Growing up that is the only way we did it. We didn't have money for any of that artificial stuff as kids. We caught the majority on them bottom fishing in the rivers. Even sucker fishing we rarely gut hooked a sucker. You just need to be on your game and don't let them swallow the hook. Me personally, I would try using a smaller sized circle hook maybe in the 6-4 size range with a worm hooked once or twice in the tail and a split shot about 12-24 inches above the worm. if river fishing find a deep run throw the crawler up stream and let it drift down. In the river I would only use half a crawler. That way they don't nip the tails off and waist your crawlers ( another trick we used as kids to make the crawlers go farther). Adjust split shot to river current. If fishing a lake I would probally fish it like senko cast it out and let it slowly fall to the bottom. Enclosed is a pic of my brother and his son ( who caught the smallie) who took a nice C & R smallie during a kids sucker tournament. *Legal disclaimer* No bass were harmed during this post.

they are still on going. so I will have to check it out tommrow. But, to put it this way last summer after torrential rains and the river was over flowing the banks, it was still barley flowing and looking more like a lake still than a river.

I have Friday off and I am heading out fishing. I live in Michigan and for the last week we have had weather between 70-82 degrees. Friday when I head out it will be possibly raining on and off and a high of 52 degrees ( right now severe thunder storms are rolling though). I don't think I can remember fishing with a temp swing of that much within 24 hrs. Historically I have always fished on nice days. where I am fishing Friday the river has a very slow current river. I liken it to basically a really, really long narrow lake. its average depth is 4-8 feet ( might be a little higher now) so I can get my boat down it on plain. the water is usually murky/dirty. I'm thinking of at least starting out with jerkbaits. the fish depending what body of water have been either staging to spawn or getting very very close to spawning. I'm sure the fish will not be that active after this cold from pushed through. Any other thoughts?

I burn it. However, I also live in the country and we burn everything that isn't food, real heavy plastic, and large quantities of Styrofoam. I always stir it up and makes sure everything burns. I dump the ashes in my field once the barrel is half full. I figure its better than everything going to a land fill. Also, gets the paper and boxes back to nature quicker ( atleast I tell my self that)

Ned rig also works good this way too. just throw it upstream and let the current take it down stream reeling slack as it goes down. Once it gets just past where you standing reel it in and repeat.

I just bought two packs but, in 2/0. Where are you guys getting the value packs online?

I like what you are doing. How are the ebay shakey blades working for you have you had any issues with them? what about the jigs you are buying are generally of good quality off of ebay? I have been kicking around the idea of getting a bass jig mold to go with the other molds I have. I enjoy pouring my own stuff. However Pouring, painting, curing, and dressing takes time. Some times I have the time for it sometimes I do not.

When I got back into fishing after college all I pretty much did was work and fish the Shiawassee( one of the best small mouth rivers in Michigan) river, as I lived two blocks away from it in town. I quickly learned that small mouth and other fish love inline spinners. Inline spinners are also easy to fish. The only real problem is that mepps( the gold standard) spinners eventhough, they work. Are imho very expensive for what they are at $5-$6 dollars a pop. So I have started making my own from kits. If you are serious about fishing in lines I would look into making your own. Both Janns netcraft, mudhole, and others sell inline kits. I think for 20 bucks you can make almost 20 spinners. My go to blade size is a number # 4 French blade. French blades IMHO are guaranteed to spin every time whether they are fished fast or slow unlike the other types of blades . Certain Colorado's will work and are good switch up but, the blade needs to be deep cupped and made of metal. I have never been a fan of Rooster tails even though, they are cheaper than Mepps. I have issues getting them to spin all the time. I am currently looking for either a light fast action rod or medium light fast action rod. Currently, until this year I was using my Berkeley Tactix MH fast action rod( I think it is lighter weight than what they say it is). What ever you decide on, I would definitely go with a fast action tip. I like longer rods but, I am a tall guy. My go to lbs test for river smallies is 8lbs. 8 lbs is a good compromise between strength and diameter. Like I said other fish like inline spinners like Northerns and big ol Mr Whiskers. Most rivers are also full of snags and rocks. I made this spinner ( this ones actually a duplicate the original is beat up) last year and I absolutely killed the small mouth with it. I was just messing around one day, throwing stuff together and came up with this spinner. The #4 orange blade is from lureparts online, the black dots I put on it with a black sharpie. I tied the orange maribou on the treble hook. The body is from mudhole and I think the beads came from janns. You Just put it all on the wire shat and bend the wire with round bend pliers to finish it. I would cast it around where I though a bass would be and than burned it just below the surface as fast a my spinning real would go. the Small mouth would blow it up with vengeance. My theory is they don't know what it is so they are trying to eat it before the strange thing eats them

I’ve always wanted to try live craws. Seems to me you would want the craw suspended with a bobber a few inches off the bottom. If you let it just sit on the bottom. Wouldn’t the craw just jet too or burrow under the first rocky crevice they could get to?

Green pumpkin tube 3.5-4.0 inches .

For my larger 3 hook rapalas and other similar baits that I use for casting/twitching( not trolling). I like to remove the very front treble so that there are only 2 trebles on it instead of three. I do this for two reasons first: it seems to cut down on snags and grass collecting up front. Secondly when the fish is flopping around it prevents all three hooks from getting stuck somewhere in the fish and unintentionally tearing the fish and or net up

Zoom tube in green pumpkin 4.0 inch. Around here it either looks like a goby or craw in the rivers.

That is a good point. I could see the chances of gut hooking a bass while using the offset hooks would be substantially higher than using either a wacky or octopus hook.

This may have been beat to death but, I am new. When selecting a hook for the wacky rig. what is the difference in using a hook designed for the wacky rig IE a Lazor Trokar wacky worm hook and a octopus style hook IE a Gamakatsu octopus hook? could a circle hook or similar also work? I mean I guess in reality any hook would work as I have seen people use offset worm hooks while fishing them wacky style.

I thought it might be a matzuo zander shad shallow diver mzs9s. But, the mzs9s only has two hooks. it looks like something matzuo would make with the flared gill plate

yes, Walmart has been having a lot of fishing tackle in there clearance section. I bought up a lot of the owner offset worm hooks for a dollar a pack. They also had Zman crawdadz greenpumkin orange claw 10 pack for 3 bucks (I only see them in 6 packs and not ten packs) I don't know if they pulled them from other stores because, I haven't seen them at that particular store. I also picked up two packs of mustad KVD duo-lock snaps 25 pcs for 50cent. Right now they have a lot Mustad KVD hooks but, they still want three bucks for em, I'm cheap ill wait until they go cheaper

I need to get back into the reloading room too but, for the last month my brain has been wired for fishing. Also, I need to get my t/c triumph receiver striped, painted and get the scope mounted. I have the mounts, scope, and all the tools to mount it I have just been putting it off. Even built a spray booth to paint the receiver and than like I said than I got fishing on the brain bad.

thanks for suggesting to change the size of the picture in the paint program. Worked like a champ.

so the weather is finally starting to break in the great state of Michigan. After fishing for the first time with the boat last week there were some things that I thought should have had with me. However, I did not have certain things. Big thing was that the lake I went too, when I arrived and started launching the boat I noticed a whole bunch of shad either dying or dead at the ramp. The Material about the lake that I had been studying said nothing about shad. I really have nothing other than cranks that mimic shad I made two stops yesterday on pay day 2nd picture is form Walmart where, they are still clearancing out tackle in the bargain section. from that section I picked up two packs of mustad KVD duo-lock snaps size 2 for 50 cents each. Also they had 10 packs of zman greenpumkin/orange craw crawdadz's for $3. From the regular section I bought Berkley pogy swimming shad in the white shad color( dead ringer for shad I think). Continuing with swim baits I bought pro blue red rage swimmers. Some Berkley blue black chigger craw for jigs or T-rigging, strike king blue/black 1/4 Minnie king spinner bait, eagle claw stand up jigs in 1/8 and 1/4, ad finally some 1/2 oz water gremlin worm slip sinkers for t-rigs 2nd stop at Duhnham's 1st pic. I bought a rapala husky jerk (HJ10) in Helsinki shad ( silver with a chartreuse stripe down middle) and 2 Booyah Boo jigs 3 /8 oz in greenpumkin and black/blue. These are the first bass jigs I have ever bought. I think I'm going to put the blue/black jigger craw and the greenpumkin crawdadz on the corresponding color jig for trailers. I am Going fishing either Sunday or Monday on the Saginaw bay. I am not sure yet if it will be for walleye or C&R small mouth yet. Decisions, Decisions

How do I post pictures. Every picture I try to up load I get a error that is says file is to large. How do I make a smaller picture file after I take it so it will post? I have tried cropping the photos smalle but, it will still will not let me. I'm alright with computers but, this has me stumped

I just need the eye to punch through the plastic to tie on to it. Then after tying it on the plastic. The plastic will close on the eye and the jig will sink back down. All you really see is just the line entering the top of the tube. This works for me.

So... how do you tie the fg knot out in the boat if you have to keep the braid tight? Using your teeth to keep the braid tight with your teeth will work? Looks like a good knot

No your right I did not wet the two knots before I pulled it tight. I have used the double uni knot For, braid to mono, two different monos of differing lbs together, or to splice line in after a break off. But, I do like the ease of the Alberto knot. It took me a lot practice to get the double Uni-knot to work.

I just finished up setting up my wacky rig/ really finesse rod and just stumbled on the Alberto knot. the knot is silly simple to tie. I usually use the double uni-knot when joining two different lines. The double uni-knot however, does not work very well with connecting braid to fluoro. the braid will cut through the fluoro like a hot knife through butter after tightening the knots. The Alberto knot seems very strong and also keeps a very low clean profile as it is going through the guides. This isn't groundbreaking or anything and I'm sure most here knew this. I was just pleased to learn something new.

Only real reg that sticks out that might be different from other states is that you cant drop shot on rivers or drowned river mouths. On the lakes you are fishing you wont have to worry about it. The only place you would get into trouble if you ventured into the channel that connects lake Charlevoix to lake Michigan. Any plastic that is green pumpkin ( I think they hammer it because it looks like a goby) or any thing that resembles a goby. Some data has indicated that the increase in smallmouth size is due to the fact that they have been gorging on gobies. Also, the bigger sizes could be due to the fact that the water has been clearing up due to various invasive mussles. On the deep cold lake like the one you plan on fishing the small mouth may or may not have even spawned by the time you are up there. This spring has been a very cold one even in mid-Michigan. Crystal lake (a deep 7 mile long lake) has not even lost its ice cover yet.