Cdn Angler

I always fish alone in a kayak and during the pandemic I found that after a week spent working from home by myself I wasn't as keen to drive 1-2 hours to spend more time on a lake by myself.

I'm the opposite. Can't catch a cold on a fluke, but on hard jerkbaits I've caught hundreds of fish and have total confidence. Go figure indeed.

I started out fishing nothing but crankbaits, so I own a ton of them. Last year I never threw one. The lakes here are weedy or super deep/clear, so theoretically they don't make the most sense. That said, when they were all I chucked I often caught fish and the fish I caught were bigger on average. I have about 12 buzzbaits and I'm hard pressed to think of a situation where I think they are my best choice and rarely use them. If open water I throw a plopper/popper/wakebait/walking bait, if weedy I use a texas rigged whatever. I fish out of a yak so it makes more sense to work an area thoroughly than just chuck and wind a buzzbait with a trolling motor that I don't have. I can cast a whopper plopper or spook much further and pause them.

Hard to beat an easy shiner unless you are seeking something with more durability or cheaper.

As soon as you put money or competition into something it makes people do things that they otherwise wouldn't. We had a guy here in a kayak tournament take a photo of the same fish 3 times in one tournament with 3 separate measuring boards that he'd created to show the wrong length of fish. This is why I rarely fish tournaments. Between needing a $10,000 rig and inconsiderate or cheating competitors, it isn't worth my time. The tournaments I've been in I actually just paddled as far away from everyone as I could to my own detriment. I hate fishing around other people, be they fishermen or recreational boaters. I have no more right to the water than anyone, but that's my preference and I try to seek out situations where it's more likely.

Thanks a lot for the useful info. I've seen that iRod before, but I might now pull the trigger. Longer rods honestly aren't an issue in a kayak, it's more so that you have to cast way lower to the water level. If a non Shimano reel is better, please suggest. I've just always used Shimano reels so I know how they work. I'm not on a strict budget, but if I could avoid paying $350 for a reel that's preferable. If a reel at that cost is amazing, I could do it. In general I like to spend less than 250/reel and less than 150/rod.

I go to small lakes in the middle of nowhere with no pressure as I'm in northern Canada. These fish see a lure every few days, at most, so it isn't hard to catch them. And I don't catch 5 fish over 3.5 lbs, I might catch one or two, absolute maximum. We have so many lakes in Canada and so few people. If you try hard and drive far enough you can find lakes that barely see a lure all summer. The second a lure hits the water it's being bitten. Doesn't even matter what you are throwing. If it was a popular big lake with a lot of pressure, throwing top water all day is going to get you one or two decent fish and 25th place in a tourney.

That's a kitted out canoe and a beautiful SMB. I think part of my issue is that I can 70% of the time catch a 3.5-4.5 bass on topwater, so trying to get away from that. Minimal fishing pressure, decent sized fish, makes things a bit too easy.

In general I go for green, green and more green. Maybe some white and yellow. I'd actually love a 5 inch senko that's half dark green/half light green, with white flake throughout. Ours up here in Canada aren't red like that at all. 100% brown. That thing looks like a lobster!

This is why I own so much d**n tackle. If you buy 10 jerkbaits and then the 11th seems to outfish the other 10 (or cast better, don't have a treble snag the line etc.), why would you ever fish the other 10? Then you buy the 11th in a few different sizes and colours, but eventually find something better. So now it's obsolete too. I try to use the redundant lures when bank fishing, in high snag zones, camping fishing trips or when the fish are literally biting anything. I'm also happy to give them to friends. They basically have minimal resale value, so might as well keep them.

Interesting and to me most of these look like what I select for wacky fishing and are described as such. I've used a lot of drop shot specific hooks and they always seem comically small. They seem to work OK, but they suck at keeping the actual bait presented correctly, particularly the maxscent flatworm. I actually ended up putting a screwlock on a tiny hook to keep the thing in place. I'm going to try out some of these. If any of them can do double duty then all the better. I've tested a bunch of drop shot baits in my pool and the results look pretty d**n similar. The KVD dreamshot, flatworm, roboworm, keitech thin leech thing, they all look great. For some reason the flatworm does in fact seem to get bit more. Why? No clue.

Thanks A-Jay and glad to know you were once canoe bound:) Thanks for the advice. I do have an anchor and will use it periodically, but I need to get better at it with a proper anchor trolley. I often end up pointed the direction I don't want to be, which is obviously useless. Any specifics in terms of bigger deeper divers? I can see what you are saying though and it makes perfect sense as a shorter cast would necessitate a bait that goes deeper. Is there any disadvantage to using braid to 10 lb flouro vs. straight 10 lb flouro? I like your idea regarding swingheads and I have some, but haven't used them enough. The idea I like about cranking is that you can go fast and be sure what depth you are at once you've nailed it down whereas bottom hopping I always feel like I have to go slow to ensure I'm maintaining contact/depth. That might just be a me thing/not heavy enough weight thing! Thx again! Also many deep diving cranks are huge looking things. Personally I find SMB will still bite big baits, but it goes against conventional wisdom so I've been hesitant to throw a large bait like the rapala DTs. I've had SMB bite 7 inch swimbaits, 130 whopper ploppers, huge spooks, but none of that was bottom fishing for lethargic fish so IDK.

I'm admittedly not great with a baitcaster, but bordering on competent. I'm money with a spinning reel though and I'll fish jerkbaits, swimbaits, small cranks, spybaits, tubes, drop shot, ned, wacky, even whopper ploppers and spinnerbaits on a spinning reel. I don't really see any reason to switch to a baitcaster for things like normal sized jerkbaits/swimbaits, though obviously many prefer a baitcaster. I can cast them a mile, accurately, the fish stay pinned, I don't need heavy line. No worries. The reality with SMB is that they will often bite bigger lures, so I've used a baitcaster chucking bigger topwaters (spook style baits) and a-rigs. Trying to figure out deeper cranks, which would require a baitcaster and I think spinnerbaits would be better using a baitcaster and big smallies eat them up around here. They still work fine on a spinning reel, but I think there'd be fewer line issues on 1/2 oz spinnerbaits with a baitcaster.

I can catch bass on almost any colour of senko. I can catch bass on white coloured tubes, jigs, swimbaits, poppers and jerkbaits. But the white senko, for whatever reason, does not catch fish. Why? Only the bass know. Maybe a normal senko resembles in their pea brain an actual worm, leech, or insect, none of which are all-white. I have all some all white Rage Craws, but the white senko has thrown me off texas rigging them and I've only used them as a trailer. I'm not colourblind in that I can't see colour, but I see many colours incorrectly. So I'm often buying stuff that I think is orange, but is brown, that I think is dark green, but is orange etc. I'm sure it makes no difference.

I've had these and I don't love them compared to other swimbait options out there, but they'll catch fish for sure. Really any swimbait hook will do. I believe I've used the 4.25 size before. Exposed hook you could use a Berkley Fusion swimbait hook, size 3/0 for this, the matt allen swimbait by dirty jigs, same size, gama also has a nice swimbait hook with more of a slender head. Or if you want to rig it weedless go with a 3/0 or 4/0 owner beast or 6th sense belly weighted swimbait hook. In terms of the weight of the hook you have options and that just depends if you want to fish it shallow or deeper. Personally for swimbaits I have all sizes of hooks/baits depending on what I'm fishing. I think a good all arounder is a 4 inch swimbait on a 3/0 or 4/0 hook, 1/4 weight.

I'm no pro, so bare with me. I started off as a crankbait fisherman as it was simple and caught fish, but this was exclusively shallow diving cranks. I'd throw these small/light baits on a spinning reel on 10 lb flouro and I still think that's a good enough option as I can cast them a mile. I'm talking the smallest of cranks here. I've since gotten a kayak and I'm trying to target deeper bass by cranking. The issue I have is figuring out a good rod/reel/line/lure setup that works. I went straight 12 lb flouro on a M/H/Fast 7 foot rod, shimano curado, and tried fishing a 3xd and a 5xd. My issue was twofold: I couldn't cast them all that far and the flouro seems to produce far too many backlashes if I loosen things up. So I'm not casting them as far as they need to go to work correctly or I face line issues. I'm not amazing with a baitcaster, but I have zero problem throwing other lures on braid, particularly heavier lures. I've successfully thrown the 3xd super far on a spinning reel and caught fish (mostly pike), but this is not at all ideal as it's too much on the reel IMO. So I'm kind of back to square one in terms of trying to figure this out. I'm also in a kayak so you get drag that takes you to the bait, so casting as far as humanly possible is imperative. So I'm looking to buy a setup specifically for this purpose and any crankbaits with a weight transfer systems that cast extremely far and are heavy would seem to help. The strike kings and Rapala DTs don't have this so I find they don't launch THAT far. Any recommendations? I was thinking something like an SLX reel (I'm on a budget and use Shimano exclusively), a 7'6 crankbait rod, 15 lb braid to a 10 lb flouro leader, and then whatever crank dives to 15 feet or so and casts the furthest. Does this make sense at all? If it matters I'm mostly targeting big smallmouth in natural lakes, decently clear water, rocky, in the 12-20 foot range. For crankbait lures I always prefer something more slender/less shad like since we don't have shad here and smallmouth eat smaller baits. Think more of a goby/perch/shiner/crayfish shape. I've caught fish in these situations on spybaits, drop shot, ned rigs, tubes, small swimbaits, but I'd like to use something that can cover water more quickly as all of the above are slow fishing options mainly and as SMB here are pretty bitey if you put a lure right in front of their face. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

I'm actually from rural Canada, but was in SoCal on vacation so the contrast is so stark. I can usually find a decent sized lake within an hour or two and I'm the only person on the lake fishing half the time. What's better than that? Absolutely nothing. So for everyone else fishing somewhere other than SoCal, why would you want to end up like SoCal? You add enough people to the mix and that's the final destination. As you said, it's the crappiest place to fish. I'd like to keep my local waterways pristine and fishing pressure low. Even here during Covid there were many waterbodies where you could go in the city previously and catch a 4lb SMB or a 40 inch muskie, with some regularity. They are now effectively dead water as there's literally dozens of people fishing these spots all summer, all the time and the fish are all dead or have been caught multiple times.

I keep all my ned elaztech in one tiny plano that only has about 4 tiny rows. Different colors mixed together. Have never had a melting issue or colors bleeding together, though the colors are all similar. I keep it in a pocket on back of my kayak so it's been subject to heat too.

Thanks for the replies, many legitimate and interesting perspectives. For the record I'll tell any local angler where I catch fish and what on. I'm happy to help out and it'd make my day if they catch fish. I am 90% self taught as a fisherman, youtube and this website aside. I like fishing for solitude. A million bass boats and no available shore to fish from aren't that. I've gone to some great lengths to get away from people and fish. So if if random person X wants to try fishing, golf, tennis, going to the gym, running, I'd prefer they take up the other options and hopefully have just as much fun doing so. I don't see a need to promote the sport per se. I guess in the USA it's a bit different as the fisheries are more managed and there are conflicting agendas. Most the lakes here are just lakes untouched by too much humanity. Since covid our urban fishing has been hammered to the point of not even being worth bothering. My ideal day of fishing is a lake with not too many people, fishermen or otherwise, and some bitey fish. Call me selfish I guess. I'd never want to restrict access, not at all, but if I get 200 people a week going to my favourite 2-3 lakes, they are effectively ruined to me. Just my 0.2. as it irks me when people say we need to grow the sport, when I think the driving force behind that sentiment are those making money off of it, not conservationists or non-tournament anglers. I do a ton of backcountry camping and likewise I see no need to promote the activity. It isn't like basketball where you can just build more courts.

I continually see this comment on this board and elsewhere. I understand if you are a bass tournament fisherman looking for bigger purses or if you sell fishing tackle and want more buyers. But as the average bass fisherman? It makes 100% no sense. There is only so much water and so many fish to go around. The more people you get fishing, the worst the fishing gets. I come from Canada. I seek out lakes that might have 1-3 boats fishing per day, often zero, and im talking lakes that are a decent size. It isn't "easy" but I know I can catch fish most days/good ones (3-4 lbs) and I don't need sonar, a bass boat, 50 rods to do so. I was recently in Southern California. Fishing report after fishing report is people getting skunked, catching one fish a day, barely accomplishing anything on the water, fishing cheek to jowl with others. And these same people want MORE FISHERMAN. It makes zero sense to me. The only rationale is that it helps build the fishing industry so we get better lures. This is total nonsense. You don't need crazy lures to catch fish if they aren't getting hammered by thousands of people a week. Bass will bite most lures if they don't get 1,000 lures/week in front of them. I can go out on a Canadian lake with a $4 Cotton Cordell spot or Big O and catch 5 fish, more times than not. And decent ones too 3-4 lbs or more. And we have less fish total as it is so cold and they can't eat 5 months per year. As a bass fisherman you should want as few other people on the water as possible, for solitude, catching and overall enjoyment. I'm 100% in favour of helping fellow fishermen and I'll give up my spots, but I have less than zero desire to attract new people to the sport. The interests of 6th sense, river2sea, rapala, do not align with those of actual fisherman.

I haven't been able to fish a ton this summer, but my highlight was trying to get a choppo out of a tree when a stand up paddleboarder came over and whacked it out for me. I didn't need it, I was mostly just bored from catching nothing, but a bank guy who looked down on his luck a bit came by and I have it to him and he was stoked. Flet better than catching a fish.

My go to for SMB in this is to throw the smallest, shallowest diving crankbaits, cast downstream, retrieve just so it doesn't get snagged. Has basically never failed.

I'm in a kayak tournament Friday. I have no electronics and haven't fished this lake before. It is mostly LMB in the 2-3lb range. The lake is over 18 kms long and fishing thus far has been fairly slow. Total length to beat is 90 inches for 5 fish. My guess is the lake is fairly weedy (dying off) with patches of rock and hard bottom. Moderate water clarity. There are many bays and pockets, as well as main lake. No inflows or outflows really. Avg depth is 30 feet or so. Location: Canada. Avg water temp my guess is 65 degrees or so. Where would you guys focus? What lures? I'm flying blind and in my experience the fall fishing is basically random in terms of where the fish are early and mid day. I have from 6 am to 5 pm. Usually the evening bite here starts at 6pm so not in play. My best guess is to junk fish around Islands and points, erring towards deeper spots. It is supposed to be on the back of high rainfall,/winds, temp dropping from 73 to 64, still windy though.

I don't think anybody is going to dominate. A lot of ppl, if they didn't have normal life pressures and unlimited budget, would be competitive.