AlTheFisherman313

Nice! One of my next fishing purchases is a kayak, there are just some spots you can’t take a boat. Is landing a big boy as intimidating as I think it will be the first time in a kayak? Or if I get a wider more stable kayak not so much? And tight lines with the new combo brother!

If you have pike and musky run a leader on ploppers, or choppos. They will hit those things all day. Nothing too crazy, just a little insurance lol. 20-25 maybe 30 I wouldn’t go higher. Your not getting sawed off by a pike unless he’s lucky and hits the line dead on or is massive and thrashing wicked. Believe it or not I know a guy who runs a musky charter and never uses above a 50 pound leader!!!!!! Well I’m talking casting lol. Trolling you may want the 80. But you wouldn’t troll a plopper anyways lol

To answer everyone’s question I meant like frogs or a Whopper plopper in a large size. I fish poppers on a spinning rod haha. The popper would throw a title wave. I just assumed I could use buzz, prop, spooks and frogs on one rod. The spook would probably be the hardest. I know the frog rods are heavy and the main reason I wanted to have one is some of my lures are super heavy where I’m throwing them light to not snap my tip off. Granted you don’t have to really use the rod to get a lure that size out a small flick sends it a mile, I’m just sure eventually one of these days I’m gonna get excited and peg a long cast and kill the rod I’m using my big top waters on now. A lot of the frog rods I see have lure weights to like 1-1and1/2oz lure ratings. Plus I assumed with usually throwing top water near coverage a pole could be versatile enough to do both? Again not a popper or a smaller top water, but bigger stuff I might work near cover and get pulled into the said cover lol. If im describing a rod that doesn’t exist please tell me! within the last 5 years my angling skills got to a point where I need intermediate-higher equipment, and a minimum of 3 rods each trip haha. I was fishing with spinning reels and mono until my buddy, got a boat and he brought me up to speed braid wasn’t garbage anymore and they sell lh baitcasters now! Believe it or not the hand switch is what would mess me up. I have maybe had 1 birds nest a year since switching to lh baitcasters and it’s always because I did something dumb, or me having a setting just ever so off on a windy day It screws me. They are a blast to throw once you get them down and I love it for throwing into cover and being able to drop that lure exactly where it needs to be. Believe it or not you can do this in a similar way on a short spinning reel. My uncle taught me to pitch and flip on a spinning reel years ago haha! I obviously don’t do that now unless I have a follow up and am using a spinning reel. plus I should mention living in Michigan, I’m just as excited to land a pike as a bass, so I’m not sure if I can have anything too flimsy, my buddy just broke his medium st. Croix on a 38 inch angry angry pike lol. Although that rod was old, and that pike was big for the bass waters we usually fish. I will tell you he was not happy to be hooked. Figure 8s like he won the Daytona 500.

Hey guys, Was looking for a baitcaster option under $300.00 that's gonna work out well for frogs and topwater. I was gonna really only use this rod for frogs, but I dont believe in buying 1 pole for just 1 job so some versatility would be nice, however I need something that is accurate and can handle big braid for the cover I plan on using this in. The last stipulation is the baitcaster has to be a left retrieve. I grew up on spinning tackle and the left retrieve becoming prevalent was the only way I was able to love using a baitcaster. I hate the hand switch of a traditional baitcaster. What do you guys have for me haha? Also, dont be afraid to mention a cheap combo, as long as its a good combo, because this rig isnt gonna be a bread and butter rig, more so a situational rod, so not spending the full 300.00 would be fantastic, however I dont want a piece of garbage either.

Oh boy you need to definitely watch how your fishing. Im not gonna yell at ya, but your sleeping on the hooksets lol. As as far as the fish gutting the hook read the article posted on the forum. You can usually get it out, if you gut hook something beyond that point keep it to eat, he’s gonna die. In in the future keep the fish and eat it if your in doubt it’s gonna make it. At least that way the fish was killed for food and not from sport. I personally only eat bass if a pond needs a harvest or something along those lines otherwise I think it’s a sport species, considering I live so close to excellent walleye, salmon and trout fisheries. Also as someone has mentioned grab the line with your fingers there are bites you can detect that way before you would ever have a visual indicator to set the hook. When in doubt set the hook if you miss or grab weeds you will just have to get the hog on the next cast

Also 80 pounds is heavy you could run 40-60 and be fine.

Texas rig is really one of the most important bass presentations. I don’t ice fish, but that’s a season long producer for a slow bite. I actually tried shaky heads for the first time this season and I really really like them. The jig head really adds a nice wobbly fall and you could give it to someone whose new to t-rigs or bouncing worms and they will get bites. I basically just hop it around until a bass strikes. I love all aspects of bass fishing, but if I could choose my ideal fishing trip top water lures would be the only requirement. I do not know what it is with me and topwater fishing, but IMO it’s the most exhilarating way to fish. I love the strikes doesn’t matter if it’s violent or they just make my bait disappear, hands down my favorite way to fish.

So I own both whopper ploppers and now 2 colors of choppos, and IMO the plopper isnt worth the extra money. I threw just the ghost choppo, its tail is larger like a 110 whopper, but on the 90 body, and caught 4 fish on 6 casts and one was because I had to thumb my line early because it cast so frickin far I almost hit the bridge I was tossing it under haha! So as for the update, on friday caught 4 on the choppo as the sun was going down ghost color, and than before that 6 in about 2 hours prior to sun down with a J-7 Silver jointed rapala. For some reason if your burn one of those things by the bass in my area im not sure if im getting reaction strikes or they look like the baitfish, but they crush that lure. Went Walleye fishing Saturday and hit limits and this is a bass forum!

Haha when I go up north I bring the "hammer", but as far as general casting I have landed just as many on my "light Piker" as I do with my "hammer" and yes I name my fishing poles. They have feelings also haha. I have found with the average pike your catching say sub 30incher you do not need big tackle, up north when the pike hit musky size is when I bring the musky pole, although I have landed a musky on 30 pound braid to an 80 pound musky leader. They fight, but its usually not long in comparison to an ocean fish. I do tend to use only my big boy when going for musky so I can haul them in and release them as quickly as possible. For such aggressive predators they are shockingly gentle to handle.

call me crazy, but I love when a bass blows the plastic off the hook on a nasty strike haha. I have never really been worried about soft baits like worms as far as loosing them, Most worms top out at 70 cents a piece and you can use them even ones they get ripped up, often I find the slightly banged up ones work better. Maybe a more erratic motion?

I am very interested in the Choppo, looks like a affordable whopper plopper lol. If you guys are crushing it on these I may have to grab some. No one wants to loose a $25.00 whopper plopper, but those choppos are half the price lol I could live with loosing that.

Are waders out of the question? if your fishing near an area where its applicable you can get out maybe 4-5 feet out maybe further depending on the area and hit the "deeper" weeds or the edge of the bed. That presentation is pretty effective for me, granted I use a kayak. A kayak can be had for $300 for a basic model so if your comfortable with that, either a kayak or waders will help you access a totally different area of the water column, assuming buying a full blown boat is out of the question. Bank fishing and weeds go hand in hand, because you drag your lure so shallow your gonna pick up something, unless your talking about seriously weeded fishing grounds, In that case your lure selection is weedless topwaters, like frogs, or like stated before unweighted plastics or even a texas rig with a smaller bullet sinker to "finesse" the worm in the weeds. Bigger sinker means bigger surface to grab grass. Also someone mention about the "hook tuck" on the top of the rig. That is a must on any texas rig. Hook should slide free when bit, but have enough of the hook into the top to keep it flush with the worm.

Thank you guys a ton, I ended up going with A-Jays reccomendation, because I actually own that leader already, I just didn't wanna rig up my top water pole with a leader and waste any before knowing it was ok lol! Leader material is a 30 minute round trip for me to pick up locally, so I tend to be very cautious on how much I use. I wont lie I love hooking into a pike, just for the simple fact they are such savage fish I just want my gear back when I have my bass poles. I actually have to run leaders on everything where I fish, unless its a pond. Really anything thats a decent body of water in michigan WILL have pike or even bigger trouble musky lol!!!! Braid was revolutionary, Idc what people say about break strength I have had multiple 24+ inch pike landed on 10 pound powerpro to a leader with a medium light (6-12) spinning rod matched to a 2500 series reel. Just let off the drag a little if your not near cover, they dont fight for long, but boy do they fight hard when they are first hooked lol. Figure 8's basically trying to thrash the lure out of its mouth. Now when I am strictly pike fishing I run my 4000 penn to a medium heavy spinning with 30 pound power pro to a leader, and I swear its overkill. I mean I have put gloves on and tried to break 30 pound and its not as easy as you would think. The only time I can see going higher in freshwater is if the species calls for it, or for your frogging pole where you might pull up 20 pounds of weeds with the fish or something lol. I only hate them when they steal my gear haha! They are slimy, although to keep michigan a world class fishery I usually unhook my pike partially netted(rubber net) still in the water unless hes over 30 inches or so than I might photograph first Have you actually tried eating one or are you just trying to make me kill a pike haha!!!!! Because walleye is arguably one of the most delicious freshwater fish species, and I have seen people fillet pike, granted it seems like you loose a ton of fish from those d**n Y-bones, but if they are good eating my buddies private pond is actually overran with them so badly we might have to "harvest" some, before they ruin the pond.

I actually use a spider wire backpack, with 10 planos stored improperly in the bag ? i also carry a soft bag for my plastics/if I’m running to shore fish and it’s a walk I grab a couple planos and throw them in the soft bag too and go fish! I prefer trays, you can get a 10$ duffel bag at Walmart and literally carry 10+ Plano boxes cheaper than you could ever get a tackle box for. Plus trays allow you to travel light. If It’s windy and the water is rough you could pull your popper box out or vise versa you see top water crazy grab the soft bag throw some topwaters, spinners, plastics and you should be money. Also I should mention I’m a multi species angler, so I have some boxes that are hybrids like pike/bass. I recommend organizing lures off depth or fishing style. Makes things easier on yourself.

My most expensive lures spro rats in 2 colors 25.00 roughly whopper plopper low 16-20 and my musky x-rap id have to verify size but was 26.00 I believe i also have a 28.00 pike musky bucktail spinner which weights like 3 ounces or something wild lol. so far so good. I loose lures every season, but overall even if you loose a rat and a whopper plopper each season or a couple those aren’t like loosing a 280$ swim bait lol. For freshwater most of my lures range from 4-10$ Plus, I play hockey, so I buy 300$ sticks to use as a club pretty much so it’s warped my view on what’s expensive for my “hobbies”. My tackle box has easily 700$ of lures and that’s on my new one. The only one was stolen. That thief got me for about 1200$ in lures and if he was a fisherman stole a Mecca of lures for my area. It sickens me to know people are slaying fish on my stolen tackle ?

Thank you guys! I wasn’t sure how bad a leader that thick would mess up a top water. I already use leaders on my piking setup so it sounds like I don’t need to buy anything. I was worried because it looks like weed whacker line that it would ruin lure action. I feel like If your born in a norther pike state you can’t help but catch them. Absolute savage feeders. Im assuming with small poppers I need to just hope it’s a bass haha

The last 2 suggestions are awesome reels also. You can’t go wrong with any of those three.

I realize this is a saltwater reel, but so far I have been using penn battle 2 series reels. Rock solid look at some reviews, they go from 1000-8000 and are really affordable right now. I own a 2500 and a 3000, which may be overkill for your needs, but we have pike in my area and those suckers will hit anything a bass will pretty much so I am forced to use braid and leaders in those situations, have 10 on the 2500, 15 on the 3000 and 30 on the other 3000 thats more for piking though

Assuming your not in pike waters white is a great color, White in michigan seems to catch more pike than bass. I find bluegill or gizzard shad color schemes better for natural presentation. If you have a lot of shad in your lakes and nothing like a pike roaming white should crush fish for you.

Heavy braid is more of an equipment risk mainly on the pole, now I’m not sure if your fishing conditions but assuming your not throwing a birds nest of braid off the boat I’m not so sure it would hurt anything. On a side note I saw a guy throw a bird nest in the water and I called the dnr ? I cannot stand fisherman who are inconsiderate slobs. Also, casting where people are thrashing on a jet ski near you would probably spook the fish so I wouldn’t worry about that so much If your a kayak fisherman who targets river musky in Michigan you can get in more trouble from being towed, I’m not sure why people fish from a kayak for a potential 50 inch fish. I don’t even like landing a 30+ pike on my kayak. It’s intimidating ?, but if your near rapids that’s musky is gonna dive and head for the rapids so if your getting towed you better have superline scissors lol. Also if you do snag throw on gloves or wrap it around some wood and hope the knot pulls or get as close as you can to the lure before cutoff. Leaves way less line in the water. Often a little jiggle when trying to unsnag you get lucky and it wiggles loose.

So after loosing some lures, what leader can I run on top water that will prevent the few pike I catch each basing session from sawing me off without ruining the action of the lure? living in Michigan where there are bass almost always pike are near. Any big bait you throw you run the risk of one of those tooth critters. I almost always use a leader with lures that are sub surface. I really only run strait braid to top water and worms, ligs so any insight would be great for my top water issues. They leave the worms alone, but on most of my set ups besides my plastics pole I have to run 15 pound braid because I hit so many pike. I already have 10, 15, 25 pound leader material all fluero, could I get away with the 15 pound or would a pike just kill that? I know the 25 pound is excellent for pike, but it seems awfully thick and is very hard to tie up, usually my rods only see leaders like that when I’m out throwing big buck tails or massive whopper ploppers targeting pike.

I’m liking this so far. I feel like this thread should have been started a while back. Due to heavy rains I have been fishing loud dark spinnerbaits this week, as well in the morning when the water is calm and not raining a 70 series whopper plopper in white crushed it for me the other day. 5 bass in about 45 minutes all on the plopper. If you haven’t seen the 70 whopper plopper it’s a great size and the tail is more similar to the 110 or 130 massive tail action out of the little whopper lol.

Well I had my tackle box stolen early this year I’m back up to 10 boxes, but on my last trip I grabbed heddon spook heddon super spook jr two sizes of the spro rats a 30 and a 40 4 different frogs ranging from 4-12$ a penn battle 2 combo for spinning and enough power pro to spool the bad boy up. 8 x-raps in assorted sizes and colors and a couple bags of Gary’s worms haha dont tell my wife. She thinks I just got a reel haha

Figured we could get a thread going that maybe can help anglers match seasons/conditions to their lures. Fishing south east michigan first week of May I crushed 5 large mouths in a canal off lake st Clair on a mepps double bladed 5 aguila. My guess is they were particularly aggressive that day and I was basically burning my spinner by the shoreline looking for reaction bites the other lure that’s been producing for me so far oddly enough is a white Berkeley shad Texas rigged weightless. Caught 3-4 fishing near sun down about 2 weeks ago. what about everyone else? i would usually have higher catch numbers by now, but we have had an unusual amount of ugly fishing days so far this spring in michigan. I have only fished 6 times since the end of April. Ahhh forgot to mention I tried a yozuri popper (not sure on spelling) really nice poppers. They have a rattle, an almost holographic body and they pop and have almost a dog tail wag to the post pop. I have only caught one fish on it, but I have missed multiple it seems to have potential as a great popper.

My opinion is location, presentation and line effect your catch more than rod/reel quality. Now the reason most of us buy higher end equipment as far as rods go the more expensive ones give superior feel and their action tends to be more true. If I showed you how much my medium ugly stick bent vs my medium seeker you would be in disbelief. as far as reels go, higher price usually indicates better durability as well as a smoother retrieve. i personally go somewhere in the middle for financial reasons, but I’d be lying if I said a Walmart zebco combo felt as good to use. at the end of the day I have seen an old guy with a bamboo rod that I had never seen before with no reel catch more pan fish that the two other anglers next to him combined and some. Basically to sum it up you are paying for reliability(in most cases) and increased pole sensitivity. I have used some pretty bad rods and really all you can tell is something hit it. On my better gear you can feel a fish vs a snag or debris.