Black Hawk Basser

Early Sunday evening, my wife and I were cruising around outside of town waiting for a Subway online order to be ready. When we approached a bridge over a creek that connects to our local river, I noticed that I had a pole in the truck, so I told my wife "I bet I can catch a fish here within 5 minutes". She said "Go for it!" So, I trotted down to the bank with a coppertreuse TRD on a gold 1/8 oz ballhead jig. Within 2 minutes, I landed a skinny walleye. Mission accomplished! The creek is clear and shallow enough to see fish roaming, and although I couldn't tell exactly what the fish were, I kept on casting at them. Boy, am I glad I kept at it for a few more minutes. By no means is this a beast by some guys' standards, but it is a very respectable smallmouth for our area, and especially for the little 10 foot wide creek that he was/is in. She put up an awesome fight, jumping four times before I could get her in.

Here, here. Big props to Glenn, and the mods do a great job of keeping things in order. As much as we all differ, we can all come here and share stuff about our common passion. It's a cathartic experience for me.

Don't care about the name, I just hope they continue to suck for years to come. Die hard Philly fan here.

I've done well in creeks with Matzuo Nano Minnow. They have a really subtle action and they are supposed to suspend, but that depends on water temp & line type/size.

I think the combo of the tight wiggle, and the unique buoyancy characteristics of balsa make the Shad Rap a really effective bait for all species. They are on my short list for early spring search baits, but they don't stop catching fish once the water warms.

Low water in streams/rivers really tends to scatter the fish. They treat it like a big long pond once it gets really low. If that is the case, I'd cast to every possible piece of structure or cover. Even a little drop-off lip on the downstream side of a sandbar could be key. Ned rigs have been killing them for me in streams, but I am getting smallmouths. There aren't any largemouths in any flowing water around here. My advice could be totally moot, I don't know if the same applies here since you're considering the green bass.

Gotta love those cloud events.

I had never been a big fan of fishing frogs until I got a Booyah Poppin Pad Crasher. My fish-per-hour rate went way up and now I have much more confidence when throwing the Poppin PC.

I've mostly given up on curl tail worms. I've done great with finesse and cigar worms, but I've blanked on the curl tails the last couple years. I've not had much success with jerkbaits this year but I won't be giving up on them. I don't get the spinnerbait thing either - they are one of my main "moving bait" options.

KastKing braid. Does not seem much different to me than Sufix 832. It's waaay cheaper.

I just use a 2/0 EWG worm hook. Sometimes I pinch on a 1/32 oz Water Gremlin Bull Shot right at the nose of the bait, just to get a little more casting distance, and to give it more of a chance to sink on the pause if I want it to.

I've always done pretty well on circle hooks in 1/0 or 2/0 for catfish with cutbait and I've also caught a bunch of bass. I think a live 4" bluegill would be fine on a 2/0 or 3/0.

Do they sink or float? I destroy walleye and smallmouth in creeks with a #5 Countdown. I don't do nearly as well with a floater.

Haha no way man, I'm in it to protect my clients! Nothing wrong with that. My salary is very light on commission, so I don't have an insatiable appetite for sales. I've only done this for two years and I love it. I did manual labor jobs most of my working life. Very sunny event here today, too. ?

I'm an insurance agent, and I call them hail events. Lol.

My theory is that they waaay overfill their spinning reel with the 50 lb mono off the bottom shelf at Walmart and they have a big POOF at some point.

I've gotten musky strikes on mostly spinnerbaits and topwaters like Whopper Ploppers.

I may have to pick one up. Thanks.

I'd give it a go, but there is absolutely no where that I fish that allows for a sinking bait with treble hooks in the summer.

Top three lately gotta be purple-ish (morning dawn or plum), chartreuse pumpkin, and motor oil. I don't throw a ton of worms, but these have been my 2020 choices and they've worked.

Ditto on the PB in a foot of water in July. Mine was on a Sammy, right in between two islands at 7 pm. I know you're not supposed to "fish memories", but man that one is hard to forget! That experience always makes me try super shallow topwater in the summer evenings.

I've had somewhat of a tough go lately for bass, but I've been destroying the walleye in the river. I'll be harassing the walleye again tomorrow in my attempt to catch a couple smallmouths.

Bomber Square A generally dives less than 3 ft. The smaller 1 5/8" version may go 2 ft or less if you keep your rod high.

We'll, I probably didn't explain in the best way, but I meant that the Grass Pig doesn't behave much differently on a keep weighted hook than it does on a jig head. I don't think you can say the same thing about a Keitech or something similarly supple. Heh, alliteration is fun.

I'd suggest throwing a topwater during the last hour to get a big fish or two. I generally don't catch sub-keeper sized fish on topwaters. Buzzbait was suggested, I agree with that. I'd also try a buzz toad or Zoom UV Speed Worm over and around any emergent grass.