Jleebesaw

I'm probably not a big help. I only fish crappie during the spawn and use bobbers and jigs. So I use medium light rods. I'm not overly concerned with sensitivity and I use 6lb test. Just crank them in and get the bait back in the water. I do know a lot of guys use different techniques that require lighter equipment though.

Went Monday and Tuesday on the north end of Lake Champlain. Got a bunch of smallies in the shallow protected bays using jerkbaits. Looks like they are getting close to spawning. Didn't really see any on beds on the lake. Found some in the great chazy river bedding. Caught several spawners on senkos. We went to the Vermont side and got some LM on spinner baits in the weedbeds. Also a few smallies in similar fashion as we did on the New York side. Shallow, warmer bays with jerkbaits.

Lol! I went crappie fishing Saturday. First time out this year. No problems with the light spinning setups. Monday and Tuesday I went bass fishing. I spent as much time fixing backlashes and getting lures out of bushes as I did fishing! It was ridiculous. Happens to me every year!

I use rattle traps A LOT for smallies. Not sure if the rattle is doing anything or not. I never use them on plastics. Super spook junior is my favorite smallie topwater bait. It's got a clanking deal inside it. I guess it depends on the water too. I fish a lot of clear water but also get smallies in some pretty dark water. So it couldn't hurt in murkier lakes or silty rivers.

So I just moved. My old house had a whole bunch of small lakes within a half hr drive. I used to fish several spots that were around an hr to an hr and a quarter. Now, I'm about 3 minute drive from lake champlain. Depending on where I want to launch, it's 3-30 minutes. I drove 2.5hrs one way to go crappie fishing last weekend though.

No pic of mine. I went fishing for 2 days this week in lake champlain. Caught a bunch of them but nothing I felt like I needed a pic of. My biggest one weights 3lb 11oz. Those first bass of the year always seem bigger than they are! Lol! I weighed it because i thought it was huge! My inner scale is messed up from all the crappie and perch fishing!

I'm no expert, but it seems that the water temp thing is a general guideline. I fished bedding smallies on lake champlain 2 days ago. The water temp was ranging from 46degrees to 54 degrees depending on the wind direction relevant to the bay. The main lake is only 43. We got into a feeder river and pounded them in 58 degree water. Anyway, we were seeing snallmouths on beds with a 12 variance of temps. So I'm not too sure about any "rules" that they follow as to when to spawn.

I lost a bass at the boat one time when my knot failed. My buddy caught it later that afternoon close to where I had hooked into it. I got my super spook junior back!

Not foolish at all. As long as the stakes aren't too high. Lol! I do this all the time.

I fish the st lawrence river and more recently lake champlain as well. Super clear water on both. I agree with what everybody else is saying. We have a lot of rocky bottom areas holding smallies. Soft paddle tail swimbaits on 3/8 jigs and the good old Carolina rig are my go too lures offshore. Also, you can't go wrong with jerkbaits. Use fluro leaders. If you are in an offshore spot and know bass are there, drops shots and ned rigs work well. If I'm beating the bank, I use the same techniques as I do in murkier water. Nothing changes for me as far as using jigs or t rigs.

The old bent pole pattern! Nothing unethical about it. If nobody is already there, fish it. If you have seen hundreds of boats there, it's a community hole anyway. If it's next to a bridge, there's probably some old concrete down there or an old bridge piling. I fish water that has all the big name tournaments on it. I will take a few days off during the week the elites are there and ride around seeing where they fish. Guess what. For the most part, they are fishing known community holes. With the low cost(relatively) electronics available today, there are no secret spots on public water anymore.

I have seen and experienced it many times on the st lawrance river in my bass boat. It's not a problem with the boat. I just make sure I'm not sitting on a deck seat when the big wave hits. Either standing on the deck or sitting in a console seat. Personally, I would not be out in the river channel of the st lawrance in a kayak. That would be pretty dangerous. I'm getting a kayak for the upcoming season. I will not be using it on big water though.

If you want something on the river you are about 6 months too late. Water tourism has exploded since the plandemic started. I have a co worker who owns 3 rental cabins in waddington that have been completely booked for this summer since last october.

I used to use scales with a hook. I always used a set of plastic jaw clamps and zeroed the scale with them on it and then clamped to the lower jaw. Bass pro shops sells the plastic jaw clamps for $3. They are kind of like non adjustable plastic vice grips. I fish waters with muskies and northerns so every boat has jaw clamps in it anyway!

Not really. I do have a love hate relationship with black lake ny. It's close to my house and i fish it a lot. It has a lot of rental camps on it, it's a well know lake that gets people from all over the northeast showing up, it has a nice public launch, and it has a lot of bass and crappie. That combination makes for some great days and some terrible days. LOTS of traffic. I avoid it on holiday weekends!

I'll also vouch for the carbon lite rod. I have one for a crankbait rod and I really like it. I got an awesome deal for that rod with an abu revo sx on it for $169 last year at the spring classic sale!! My friend bought 2 of them. Great deal. I had a bionic blade and would buy another. For the money it was pretty good. I broke it though. The tourney special rods suck. I've never tried their reals but I'm sure they are OK. There is one real that people rave about that they have but I can't remember what it's called.

This time of year I would start with the creek for sure. When I starts warming up that point someone else mentioned looks good, but I would definitely work the hump between the 2 holes just above that point to. That's probably the best spot on that lake in the summer heat. Sneak up on the point from one side or the other so you are moving toward open water with the point on one side of you. Cast out towards open water and when you get to the tip of the point, stay to the side and cast across the underwater point. Don't approach points from open water towards shore. I see lots of people do that, but I feel like it's a bad idea. Once you get past the point, just keep moving out and cast across that hump. Drag lures shallow to deep. Circle around and do the same thing from the other side from beside the point, all the way over that hump. That's what stands out to me on that map anyway. Also, there is another hump between 2 holes on the upper part of the lake too. Now that you have a graph, you are going to want to play around fishing offshore. I know I did. Now it's my favorite way to fish.

I like having someone with me. That said, I do fish alone quite often. The 2 guys who usually go with me are good anglers and don't really cause me any annoyances. Bit if I can't get one of them to go I still fish. I like all the joking and ***ting that goes on out in the water. I notice that I tend to fish better when I'm alone though. I'm sure my line is in the water more when I'm alone. Also, I'm more willing to try things that I'm not sure will work. Not being concerned with a slower bite means I can experiment and try new techniques or tactics. I learned about offshore fishing alone. Didn't want to try it and get skunked if somebody else was counting on me to put them on fish.

Sorry bud. Not trying to make anybody mad. I really dont know about the teeth. Ive never seen them aggressive enough to do that. As others have said on here, from lake to lake they have noticed differences in the teeth. I havent noticed any that would do that myself. There was a reply with a close up of a bass mouth with much more pronounced teeth than im used to seeing. So it may be a regional thing or have to do with what they eat as others have said. I really dont know. Didnt mean to get you mad, just having a little joke.

If i didnt have a boat at all, i would definetly go with the johnboat. Its just easier to fish from a boat. You can bring more stuff. You can have 2 people in it. There are many obvious advantages. Does the johnboat have a trailer? If not, the kayak will be easier to load and unload. It may not seem like it initially, but handling a small boat without a trailer sucks! I just noticed you said 18'. It must have a trailer. Some fishing spots cant be accessed with a boat but a kayak can get in them. They are small enough to get places boats cant. Plus even some lakes are carry top access only, meaning most boats cant be in them. Kayaks certainly have appeal, but i personally wouldnt own one without already having a boat.

Im sure that nationwide largemouth are more popular. Smallmouth arent in the water in many places, so that obviously contributes. I live right on the st lawrence river and can tell you that a lot of people prefer smallmouths around here. I have never caught a LM in new york that was more than 6.5lbs. But catch smallies in the 6-7 lbs range all the time. You basically cant cash a check in derbies on the river with less than 25lbs. Its not hard to average 5lbs at all. So in this niche part of the country, smallies tend to be bigger. Thats a big part of why so many people here prefer them. But i think the style of fishing can be a big part of it too. Unless its during spawn or late fall, smallies are usually on the move and in deeper water. Sometimes thats just not very fun. Skipping docks and running shallow weedlines for largemouths is more fun in my opinion. Dragging tubes or dropshotting over waypoints isnt as fun to me. Of course my experiance with smallmouths is in very large bodies of water, not streams like the OP mentioned. I fish LM ans smallies in the same lakes and rivers. Just different places on them. I think most people dont really prefer one over the other. Some days ill want to target one, the next time the other. Just depends on my mood i guess. Or weather. If its windy i usually target LM. Lm are easier to find in places with protection from wind than smallies. I personally dont enjoy being out in the big waves all day. Id rather find calmer places where im more likely to find largmouths.

Well, i dont know if this is a great strategy or not, but i dont look for big fish early in a tournament. I just started doing them this year. I go out at the start and just try to get my 3 or 5 bass first. Then i can focus on the more isolated cover and less obvious places to cull fish. Its surprising how many teams dont get the limit during the tourneys. Its been workin somewhat for me. Weve gotten into the money a few times.

Imagine the hrs spent dragging bottom to find structure and cover back in the days before electronics. I know i never fished offshore for bass before i had them. I would think that if you knew a few good offshore spots back then, you could really catch them because few others would know those spots. No secrets out there anymore.

I guess so! Ive had my thumb get scratched up, but never saw anything like that. Thats how my hands look after handling camshafts from dumptrucks!

This again? You florida guys beed to up those bags if you you want to get back on the lists! With bassmaster magazine, i think a lot of why mine just get shuffled through is because its just not information i need or dont already know. When i was young and didnt have as much experiance, i got a lot more out of it. Over time we try all the new stuff and listen to the pros. Before long, there just isnt that much new stuff. I know i rarely see something in a magazine that i didnt already know about or at least have a reasonable understanding of. I imagine most of the people on this forum are in the same situation. Someone who is fairly new to bass fishing can still get a lot out of reading them, im sure.