JWall14

I saw them starting to make beds last week so quite soon around me.

Not a bad tourney for a new lake. My partner and I missed about 5 more bites that would have put us in good shape. Also caught two 20+in walleye. More details in my log post coming.

Please get a pair of fish grippers to weigh them with. It’s not good to tear their mouths up with a bare hook. Nice fish though!

Your good lol. I hit the quarry again today and broke another A-rig off at the leader knot. I think it’s the blood knot and the 80lb braid to 25 shock floro leader. It’s just cutting the floro so I’m going to try another knot. I got one but broke off when a fish took it when I was getting the line off the tip of the rod. I hand lined one hook set and it just cut easily. I was really mad at that knot for a long time. Especially since it came off on a fish. I think double uni would be better for this yeah?? Anyway, I kept the skunk off with a pre spawn male but missed 3 other bites- probably from small males short striking.

First trip of the week. I hit my home water which is a quarry lake. The cold weather along with the increasing grass had them acting funny but managed 6 for a 13.5lb bag. All on the A rig again. Only 2 were females which means the spawn in coming in hot. Big change from last week. Last week I had a week bag of 23lbs with a 5-6 big all on the A rig. By far the best week of fishing I have ever had. Interesting to note I caught NO males and the smallest was over 3lbs for the whole week. It was even tough because everyone else I went with caught nothing but I was ok with that. I also have not told my friend who fishes there regularly. He only knew about a 4-4 so I guess I'll just keep the A-rig thing a secret. The grass was almost non-existent and the females were relating to the rock wall so I got to see almost every bite. They seem to have moved off of it now that the grass has taken over the hard surface. I am not sure how to get em between now and the spawn. Any ideas where they are?? There are good reeds around the lake so maybe they moved into there?? The grass is that really thin hair-like stuff, I don't know what it's called.

I got a BRAND NEW P5 destroyer for $350 that retails for $499

Way more durable than keitech so I use them a lot for smallies. They are very similar in their action too.

I’m in Chicago but the Kalamazoo is good enough for me to mark put in spots, so your not on a bad river by any means. Honestly now can be tough especially after rain. I almost leave my rivers in the spring because it can be so tough. Ned rigs, tubes, wacky worms, flukes, 2.8 swimbait. I would start out with Ned/tube it doesn’t really matter which. If your getting plants all the plants ime switch to a Ned it comes the rough the grass better. If the Kal has good plant growth already (like mine do), target lay downs/places without grass.

I'm going to start this to write and clarify my observations. I think its a good idea because this year I want to focus more on catching giant bass, not just numbers. I hope to post after each outing and make a post every Sunday for a "Week bag"- best 5 of the week. I am doing this because I have school and sports so I can't fish for longer than 1-2 hrs on weekdays. I was going to do this on a word doc but decided why not here because it could help others and myself more. I will start for last week as it was the best week I have ever had and post later today about it.

Anything over 40 and fish can be regularly caught on moving baits. It may be harder than summer but still doable. You probably have to go deeper or different locations than you are used to. 47 (as long as water is clear enough) screams Jerkbait to me...

I'm fishing rip rap in a few weeks for a tournament and my partner and I are going ned rig, neko rig, and multiple 3 in swimbaits. The swimbaits will not get hung up as much as the ned rig and smallmouth destroy small swimbaits. Tubes also are good as they will get bigger bites (9 times out of 10) than the ned and get hung up less.

And another successful hour of A rig fishing. The smallest was a low 3, then a 3-12, and 5-0. The 5-0 ate with about 6ft of line out which was quite fun. In order: low 3, 5-0, 3-12

Very true about the deals. Lefty reels are the last to sell out as well.

I am a righty and use right hand reel casting reels. My brother is also righty and uses lefty castings reels and neither of us notice anything drastically different except his reels are in stock more often.

Had to go out again. They are really biting an A rig right now as I pulled another good one. This one went 4-9 and I added two other smaller ones. I had one pulling drag on a locked out curado DC and ended up pulling a single fish scale. Probably snagged but it still hurt for a while.

I'm at a school of 4000 and we made announcements about our club's first meeting over the PA. 5 of us compete in tournaments. One of my friends dad has a ranger and the other's grandpa has a tracker. We compete in an Illinois High School circuit and have a sectional and state tournament. I just happened to find kids who fished by hearing them talk about it. I'm in a big sports school in the Chicago burbs so I bet you will be able to find people. Also is there a thread for high school reports??

Where are you fishing?? Lake, creek, river??

Hit the lake again today. I wasn’t about to miss the chance to throw the A rig again and I wasn’t disappointed! New PB largie that went for 5-6. Not bad for northern Illinois. I ended with three in under 2hrs with the smallest over 2lbs. The two pics are of the 5-6. I think I may spend any free hour I get this week at this place-the bite is that good. That’s a 4-4 and 5-6 in back to back visits.

First time fishing an A rig and well it works. I may have had to go swimming to retrieve it but it was worth is for this 4’4 chunk. Got to see the bite which was cool. I’d say I’m hooked on A rigs now.

I LOVE a 1/8 oz guppy head with a 2.8 Keitech. A 2.75 Rage Swimmer is more durable if you don’t have super glue. Smallmouth will smash it and it has become one of my go to baits. They have landed a couple hundred smallies for me easily.

Those are some BIG fish! Congrats!

I'd go a jerkbait-specifically a Vision 110 in GP stain reaction.

cork

It’s a high school tournament. I will let you know how it goes.

I use encounter waders with ultralight boots. If you can get a good sale they are amazing quality. Especially the boots. It literally feels like I have normal shoes on, not boots. They also last along time and Orvis is just top of the line in terms of waders. IMO they are really worth the extra money. I feel like Cabelas or BPS wouldn’t last the two years these have lasted. I’m hoping for 5 for the boots and maybe another year for the waders.