Cdn Angler

Personally I start any small river or stream fishing with any shallow running crankbait. Nothing fancy needed, a Cotton Cordell Big O, Rapala J-9, small lunkerhunt crank etc. Anything that runs shallow, if fishing shallow, as usually the case from the bank. Can cover a ton of water and they get bit. Easy to fish for a beginner: chuck and wind, maybe stop now and again. Do well in mild to moderate current. If loads of sticks or other people's old line, can be problematic due to snags.

senko. 5 inch. green. Boring, but has outfished anything else I've tried by a significant margin.

No right answer on this one. Same as golf, some people think newbies shouldn't start with a driver as one more bit of complexity. But some new people love ripping big drives. Can't argue with that. Is one answer the "most efficient"? Probably, but is my goal to be the most efficient angler of all time? Nope. I started off with a couple inline spinners and one crankbait bank fishing and was pretty thrilled to catch a fish per outing. I still haven't fished a drop shot or a carolina rig as I don't have any electronics on my kayak and I think those techniques go better when you know there are fish/exact depth. Still have fun and have caught loads of fish. If I get bored with that I'll get a fish finder. Everything is personal preference unless you are a derby competitor.

I've never considered a life of crime, but the thought of breaking into your tackle shed has me reconsidering.

I had a lot of success with the duo realis rozante. I used the 77 size, but it comes smaller. Even the 77 is a very small profile. Casts far, only dives about 2 feet, suspends, gets bit. I used it in the spring when wanting to use a jerkbait ultra shallow or over top of weeds.

Comes with the territory. Sometimes they just don't want to bite. Personally I try to understand why so I can avoid fishing in those conditions. I don't fish tourneys so I try to time my outings with when I'm going to get bites.

My biggest LMB have been on: a) a white tube -fish was busting bait b) spinnerbait - dropped it on its head c) tiny jerkbait - during spawn so super shallow The main thing was luck + the lake having big bass. No big bass = not catching big bass.

River2Sea Bling

Whopper plopper Wacky senko Small-ish swimbait Jerkbait T rigged whatever craw I'm confident, around here, that fish will bite these.

Any study of muskie around here has found that bass are basically not on their menu. They may compete for food though.

I've caught hundreds of pike/muskie while bass fishing using flouro or braid. I've probably been bitten off less than 5% of the time. If I hook a pike I usually land it and get my lure back. If you are fishing small plastics you are a bit less likely to interest a pike, but more likely to be bitten off. If you get bitten off it is a $.50 bait and maybe a $1-3 hook/weight. The type of bait makes a difference as to whether teeth hit line. If I'm fishing a small keitech a small pike can engulf the bait and break the line. But if I switch to a spinnerbait pike never break me off. They hit it from behind and there is wire preventing access to my line. An A rig would usually be the same, as an example. If you are fishing topwater same thing. A tiny popper might get broken off. A 110 whopper plopper is big enough that a normal non huge pike can't engulf it. Jerkbaits are probably the most dangerous as just sitting there and small. A bigger lure helps. I've probably caught 20 pike on spybaits on 8 lb flouro and never once bitten off. For whatever reason. The equation changes if pike in your waters are 10-20 pounds. Usually big pike or muskie are rare enough relative to bass though that you are not going to encounter tons of them. More likely a lot of 2-4 pound pike. If you are hooking up with 10 lb pike/muskie that often then I'd advise you to start targeting them:) Also you can use leaders other than steel. A higher test flouro leader is far more resistant to abrasion then its braid equivalent.

I flipped what I thought was my unflippable kayak (not when the seat is on properly dum dum) and proceeded to dive for 2 rods, my car keys, my wallet, various lures and God knows what else. In about 12 feet of water. I somehow found all but my wallet and had to tear apart my car to find enough change for gas money to make it home. I now carry goggles just in case. And yes I've swam for snags from the bank a few times. Usually only if at the end of the day so I'm going home anyways. The last time this happened I was ready to go home skunked and I snagged like a $3 swimbait jig head. I wasn't willing to make the trip a total negative, so in I went as it was clearly stuck on a tree limb near the surface.

I did the same to a blue heron a few years ago. Flew right as i cast, took the lure, still flying and i have a spinning reel so i have to let it take my line or flip the bail. Flip the bail, sure enough the bird crashes down into the water. Luckily it unhooked before I had to handle it and it was unharmed.

I like the smallest/lightest Gamakatsu swimbait head. They are the best I've found that don't tear up the head of the bait. I use these with 3.3's.

When it has taken a while to unhook I often notice that a bass will go immediately to the closest cover (the bank, a log etc) and just sit there. I presume to recuperate. I've noticed the same thing with muskie, to the point that you can come back 15 minutes later and they are still there.

I've got a peg board with all my hard baits in the basement. Plastics in bins from ikea. On the water I have two of the big/deep planos for hardbaits: 1) crankbaits and spinnerbaits/chatter (I just cut out the middle section of the plano box - you can then lay like 10 on top of each other) 2) Topwater / Spybaits One Shallow Plano: 3) Jerkbaits I then have two plano edge boxes: 1) Terminal tackle (hooks, bullet weights, tube jigs, pegs, swimbait heads etc.). I put tiny stuff in little plastic screw top jars from a craft store. 2) Jigs and anything pre-rigged like worms, jigs, swimbaits etc. I remove this at end of summer. I carry about 10-20 soft plastics in a mesh camping bag that does up: - senkos - craws - tubes - swimbaits - something to go on a shaky head Last I have the tiniest box you can buy for ned rigs/TRDS. This all fits in a kayak no problem and isn't that heavy. I don't think it has weighed me down. I rarely am missing anything.

I was fishing for muskie with the 130 whopper plopper and got a big blow up, super excited...channel cat. dang! Also first time i got a cat on top water. 6.2 LMB during spawn while pike fishing. On a Duo Realis Rozante jerkbait. Out of season unfortunately. Biggest in season was a 5 lb LMB on a Keitech Crazy Flapper. This is probably my favourite catch as I believe the same fish broke me off the previous week. Fishing in shallow in a kayak among lily pads and this fish waked from 10-15 feet away and annihilated my bait while I was basically working it like a top water. I have never seen a fish coming from so far to eat a bait, it was like Jaws.

Forgive my ignorance. I am good about wearing sunscreen, is that sufficient or are layers way better? If layers are better can anyone vouch for something that isn't super hot to wear when it is 30+ (celsisus)?

I always try to help other people out whenever I can, the only exception being the bucket brigade. It might be different if I always fished the same lake, but I'm all over the place.

I hate seafood of all varieties and it is endlessly tiring to explain that i fish and don't eat fish. I'm hoping to ice fish some stocked trout lakes in which case I'd like to keep a few for family that likes fish and my dog. Would like to learn how to process a fish.

Agree with this. Cast it, let in sink. You'll know. I'm guessing you haven't felt bites simply because you haven't gotten any. It isn't THAT much of a skill to detect bites, they aren't THAT subtle. I'd say just keep at it and focus on finding fish. Lighter rod/line also make bite detection easier, but it may make it harder to wrangle a fish once hooked. I'd say the latter is the least of your worries right now so go light. I'll toss a senko on 8-10 lb flouro, medium to medium light spinning rod and I feel everything. I'd also disagree with the poster that suggested moving baits first. These baits basically hook the fish themselves. It is simpler, but when you switch to soft plastics requiring a good hook set you'll have some bad habits and will be slow to pull the trigger. I started bass fishing 100% crankbaits so I can say this from experience.

Inputting stuff on GPS is one thing, but you can't unsee something. If I see another fisherman killing it in a spot by chance, am I not going to try to fish there myself in the future? To me that's basically the same as seeing fish busting. Am I going to go there that day? Probably not. If a guide takes you out, it's not hard to remember where you went. Now if it is a guide, that's their livelihood. So I might fish their spots a bit, but I'm not going to hammer them or broadcast them widely, nor go there when a guide is working. Or if I see him I'll move on to another place. Tournament angling changes things as people will overstep all norms/basic decency to "win." I don't fish derbys for this reason.

You were way up there and those are some giant fish! I think when our bite is hot it's on fire as there are just less days when a fish can eat in a year and they see fewer lures. Fall here can be crazy, but like you experienced there is also a risk of a major temperature drop that kills it. So tough to find that balance. Currently looking out the window at a snowstorm and I"d hazard that the bass wouldn't be too bitey today.

Bass fishing here in Canada is essentially toast as of now with avg temps below zero and ice forming. Bass fishing is prohibited prior to and during the spawn, so I can't target a bass until about June 18th. So for me bass fishing is mostly a 4 month/year hobby. I'll be twiddling my thumbs for quite some time.

Duo Realis Rozante is my choice. Small and super shallow.