Westcoast

Love myself a small profile finesse jig. Small trailers would be net bait tiny paca craw, a x- zone adrenaline bug jr, definitely the twin tailed grub, sometime a single tail grub, a baby menace or a reaction innovations baby beaver. The list goes on and on but number one is the baby or tiny paca craw.

I have a full box of siebert outdoors jigs. I really like the smaller jigs with the finesse cut skirt for trailers , I mix it up with a small craw, beaver, or double tailed grub depending on how much action I want.

I’m the same. I bought into the bright colours for smallmouth. But I always go back to naturals. Watched a couple things where they swore on yellows/chartreuse but when I threw them, I think the fish just laughed and swam away.

I would think that inserting a tube and leaving it free sliding above a weed less wacky hook or octopus style hook would be a good method of rigging . That way it slides up the line away from the fish avoiding loss and damage. You could put a bobber stop above and below so it doesn’t separate itself from the hook too much.

I fish a bunch of 15# on bait casting. The best I’ve found in my opinion is the daiwa alpha platform. They have tons of spool options out there so you can make your reel as specific as you’d like.

If you were bass fishing, I’d say no. But for what you’re doing, it’s the right rod. Has good power to set the hooks home and a strong butt section to horse them in when you need to.

For what you are describing 3/16 oz Texas rigged plastics would be a 2 power or 3 power loomis rod. If you are always in that 3/16th range I’d go with the two power. I like the longer length of an 892jwr for casting distance and the amount of line you can move on the hookset. I do fish an 802 on occasion but I use that for close quarters where I’m pitching into defined pockets around structure. The 893 fishes almost the same but with just that bit more strength for casting heavier baits or when you need the power to push a thicker hook through the plastic and into the fish. As for models pick your price. For the best, go with the nrx+. It’s lighter, has greater sensitivity and a bit quicker recovery on the blank. But I do have the 892jwr in the series one of the imx-pro and I love that one too.

The best casting reel for distanceand accuracy is still the reel with no brakes or electronics. The more brakes or the more active anti backlash devices that are active will always shorten your cast distance. Best thing is to train your thumb to be the best brakes out there. Your thumb knows exactly what you are trying to accomplish with every cast. That said there will always be backlashes, just part of the fun.

Dont get too obsessed with weight or balance. It may feel nice to balance it on your finger at home but on the water there are so many variables that you’ll never notice. With that i tend to like a lighter reel for an overall lighter set up. With smallmouth a heavy duty saltwater drag is not essential either so any middle of the road reel will suffice. But for me I do like a quality reel. A well made reel will last forever and hold value. I tend to like Ross reels and abel reels but can be pricy. May find a Ross animas in your price range which is an excellent reel for any purpose. Lots of guys like the lamsons, the danielsons, even orvis reels are good now days. So many to choose from so my advice would be to pick a known brand thats been around for a while, that is in your price range and you like the looks of. And bobs your uncle.

My jerkbaits rod’s all have braid to leader on them. 20# braid to 10# flouro leader. But like you if I’m trying to save space. I would either just swap leaders from flouro to mono. Or just load reel with #10 maxima ultra green and be done with it.

A 5/6 for smalls in a creek is great. Smallmouth in the streams fish just like trout a lot of the time. You can nymph stone flies, hellgrammites, craws and any generic nymph patterns. You can fish them under a bobber just like nymphing for trout too. The other way is to cast and strip streamers. You may not be able to throw the huge patterns but that doesn’t really matter most time. Try casting and stripping black or brown or olive or yellow or white or any combination of woolly buggers or leechy type flies and you’ll be set. Next ones are surface patterns, like trout again, you can match the hatch if you have hatches of stones or mays or caddis that the fish key on. Another thing is terrestrials like any insects that may fall in the water, hoppers are great, Beatles, frogs, mice and poppers are all good to try. Don’t over think it , take what you have and go fish. You don’t need specialized anything to start with.

I too can’t see the dark green braid at all. Most of my reels have switched to the yellow. I always fish a leader but will darken some of the braid with a black sharpie as well. Just gives me more confidence that the yellow is out of the fishes cone of view.

I went with the 2024 twin power 2500. It feels great in the hand and is smooth as ever. Can’t go wrong. Buy from Japan and price is great too.

I’ve tried them all as I like mono for my salmon and steelhead ,and bass. I’ve always wanted a line with the least stretch and greatest durability. Hands down I alway go back to maxima ultra green from 4# on bass dropshot to 40# on heavy chinook leaders, it never fails.

I find electrical tape works fine too. In fact , pretty much any tape works.

I love the alpha platform for a small jerkbait reel. I must have half a dozen of them, all ordered direct from Japan.

If your back lashing often. I’d suggest using the features of your reel such as the adjustable mag or centrifugal brakes. When adjusted properly it can make it difficult to backlash, at the expense of some distance. So as you get more proficient slightly loosen the brakes as you go and you’ll have your thumb trained up in no time at all. And line makes no difference, just mono is cheaper to refill with.

I like my Curado dc. It’s a smooth and great casting reel. There are better reels in refinement and performance such as the new 24 met dc. What keeps me using the Curado is the extra capacity as I use it for salmon and steelhead.

Noodle rods used to be the rage for east coast steelhead. They were made for small hooks and light line. Hook sets were reeling up slack then a long sweep of the rod. When fighting fish you have to lean all the back to get into the rod butt before you have any power and when you do you can land some large fish quite quickly. They are not nearly as effective in the west coast’s steep and fast rivers and even in the east they have been replaced by modern more effective rod designs.

To cover weedy areas fast, I like to swim a worm like a zoom ultra vibe speed worm. You can buzz it on the surface over weeds then let it drop into holes or crank it just under the surface with a wake. Next up would be a toad, even if you don’t hook that many the toad will let you know where they are so you can follow up with something slower moving.

I lost interest after my divorce for a few years. I have always gone fishing as a way to keep the outside world out of my mind. I find the act just consumes my mind, that’s why I prefer more technical fishing. Like fly fishing on water that fish are educated and very specific in the tiny bugs they eat. It’s all about the perfect presentation with the right pattern, in the right place at the right time. Same in bass fishing , I never just like to fish randomly, I want to be able to figure out what bait and presentation that the fish will key in on. This clears my head immensely. But for that period of time the outside world would find its way into my train of thought and took away all the relaxation and enjoyment. As I began to get over and accept the divorce, my mind settled and I was able to get back into fishing again. What really sucked is for a couple of those few years I took a job in an area that the fishing was spectacular and I missed out on such a great opportunity. I still regret that.

I really like the x80 for my smallmouth fishing. Great action and does get down even though it’s not a deep diver.

I’ve fished small beavers like the baby rodent for smallmouth all the time. I either put them on a small football jig with a finesse skirt or on a shakey head. The shakey head is definitely the killer of the two though. Seems to get big ones too.

I’ve had no problems with mine. Should cast those Jerkbait a just fine. I’d spoil it up with 10lb sunline fc for that. It has a pretty big capacity so I keep mine filled up with 14-16lb to fish jigs etc. Or filled up with mono and use it on a rod for steelhead and salmon.

I find that sunline super natural has a crazy amount of stretch. I use maxima as my mono. Not the least and not the most stretch but has great durability and lack of memory. Or at least it loses it memory easily with a good pull on the line at the start of the day.