AlTheFisherman313

Thanks guys. I took a hiatus from fishing for a few years, and there was questions I always have wanted to ask and a forum like this is great considering I’m more of an intermediate angler. Any colors or softs you recommend for the jig? Or are you not running a soft on your jig at all?

I am by no means an avid pan fisherman, I have a pan fishing pole to catch pike bait. its a 5 6 ugly stick with an old penn I’d wanna say it’s way smaller than a 2000. Possibly a 1000. Id have to look at the reel to give you the size, but i would say most pan fish are so easy to catch you would be ok with a Walmart ugly stick combo. i use small jigs with little grubs or night crawlers. Make sure your not aggressive on hooksets, you can rip the lips off a crappie. I would not over over think this set up too much. Most the pan fisherman I see in my area use 50.00 pre set up combos. i personally run 4 pound test on mine, which a pan fish would have to be a lunker to break. 2 pound would be fine also. Also, the way I got hooked on fishing for big boys, my uncle took me on a tuna charter when I went to visit him at 13 out in San Diego, I caught 3 albacore and was obsessed with big fish ever since haha.

I wish I could fish lite, I show up with 6 medium Plano boxes packed with lures and a bag of soft plastics/terminal tackle to run them. They all fit in my backpack though! So bank fishing for me is as simple as tossing on my back pack and moving down the bank rod in each hand and a landing net in the rod holder. I dont understand the rod holder on the backpack unless your using a 2 piece with my 7 foot poles and where the holder sits in as tall as a semi truck lol!

Now as far of a string of t-storms do I just assume fish are hungry when it’s not storming and go off water conditions? Or do I wait until the week is over and torture myself with no casting haha Ok thank you for the clarification. The only other time I saw a hard top water feed I crushed it, but this one was different

Huh, never considered that at all! Usually the carp hang out by the dam, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they spawn there does it? I know that some of the top water wildness was bass just off visuals, but there were so many top water feeds, it wouldn’t make sense for it to be only bass. As far as I know largemouth do not school feed like that ? I consider myself an intermediate angler. I’m only 28, been fishing since 10, but that pales in comparison to some of the more experienced fisherman who have been fishing longer than I have been alive know! That’s partially why I wanted in on this forum is to make that leap to experienced veteran haha

I was shore fishing a small lake near my house called stony creek. The feeding frenzy appeared to be occurring about 10 feet off the bank all the way to where the feeder stream that enters near by created a current. So I’d say right under some tree cover to the weed line. Even some what appeared to be in the middle of nowhere all violent. Forgot to mention I used a plastic shad also In white and still nothing. The main thing that I considered was insect spawn and my lures aren’t small enough to have tricked them that day? Although I’m not sure what would spawn in that area. Visually speaking I should have caught a fish every cast, but that was far from it. I stayed the entire feeding frenzy basically 550am-730 am and they stopped and i stopped getting any signs fish were around so I threw in the towel very frustrated. I have a wild suspicion a fly fisherman would have crushed the lake that day, or maybe this is some other phenomena? And the funny thing about this my buddy was fishing in the upper peninsula and had a similar feeding frenzy, however up north they don’t see lures so they eat everything he managed to be productive. He has a video I could post that pales in comparison to what I saw on the home lake

Actually after consulting with bass pro shops In my area they ended up getting me a 2500 and 3000 ordered I’m gonna probably run 10 braid on one 20 on the bigger one Incase I think a pike has invaded, plus I run leaders so I guess my braid is somewhat irrelevant. Effects casting more than anything. The main hold up was we have so many species of fish in Michigan with big water, it’s impossible to just target one species and occasionally not hit a big boy. A few years back I had a spawning musky eat my x-rap I was using on my walleye set up and let’s just say I never saw the fish, my lure come back and he burned my line off my reel so Badly I was spooled, I have no clue why that musky wanted a tiny snack considering I was using a 6 x-rap, but since than I started running braid to leaders just Incase I get a chance at a big boy I want my lure and the fish landed haha

So before this topic gets locked and has an easy to google answer, over here in Michigan we have had thunderstorms on and off for a week strait, usually people say fishing is effected days following a storm, but what if there are repeated storms? i went out sometime last week and saw a top water feeding frenzy early morning to a point where I should have video taped it. I had never seen this much topwater action. I threw a few popper, frogs, a buzz bait, spinners both mepps and spinnerbait jig style spinners, a worm in two different colors Texas rigged, jointed rapalas, a rattle trap, and a fricken x-rap and managed one 13 incher on a big popper. is there a way to fish between a string of storms with better luck? Or was I witnessing some type of insect spawn and they were consumed with natural food options? It was my strangest fishing day I have ever had. I literally tried multiple speeds and retrieval’s of the lures. Oddly enough the fish I caught was on a pop pop pause retrieve, but he was the only taker. I should also mention the morning I fished had almost zero wind and very little to no ripple to the water and was overcast just to clarify the conditions a little more. Usually top water isn’t for all types of weather, but with how the fish appeared to be jumping and eating I figured they wanted to eat on the top.

Thank you guys for the help. I think I may do a 2500 or 3000 and than a 4000 for the bigger things that roam my waters. Its actually pretty funny when I bass fish the pike show up and when I target pike I find bass ? plus it seems like penn has rod variations that don’t exactly match perfect with fresh water. Like the ML rod from penn seems to take the same line size as a M rod from a pfluger combo. Plus the bass in my area have mental problems. I have had 2-3 pound largemouths crush a mepps double bladed #5 dressed for pike ?

Is the 4000 overkill in Michigan? Or maybe a 2500 and 3000? I like carrying two poles. I’m having trouble finding lure weight I occasionally whip massive bucktails around lake st Clair in hopes of a massive pike or small musky haha not sure how much rod I need to land a musky. Pretty much the only fish I haven’t caught in Michigan yet. I actually got the recommendation off a musky charter captain for the combo, however he has his clients using big, combos. I wanna say maybe a 5000? Essentially the combos I believe go 2500 med light fast, 2500 medium fast, 3000 same pole options than the 4000 has a medium and medium heavy option.

When pan fishing I use a cheap 5'6" UL uggo stick *25th anniversary edition(it matters ??) paired to a 20 year old penn and usually fish for them with small jig heads and grubs with my nephews while they bobber fish and hooking up has never been an issue. Usually they hit quick so it could be timing, or perhaps your using too large of a hook/jig/bait. They have very small mouths usually a 1/4-1/8th jighead sometimes smaller depending on water flow that day with a grub and I usually can fill a stringer fast. 4 pound mono always on that set up. Although Im sure there are more effictive ways to fish them, there is a small inland lake near me known for crappie fishing and years ago an older fisherman showed me the white and chartreuse grub jig combo and I have slapped the lake every time I have attempted.

Found Pfluger president combos in medium action for 72.00 if your still looking. I know your in new england, but in michigan we had them in the fishing section of a Meijer, which is like a higher end walmart here in michigan. Im sure I could at least get photos for a price match haha. Thats gonna be actually a really nice combo, run some 10-12 pound braid, or really any line until you build up more of a fish fever and loose your mind like the rest of the site haha I actually use that combo as my small mouth bread and butter.

Hey guys, New member here, accidentally posted this in the wrong spot earlier so hopefully I have better luck here. I fish all over Michigan and want 2 pole/reel spin combos that are very versatile. I had some bad luck involving my tailgate and poles, along with ancient reels its time for an upgrade. I do a ton of largemouth fishing, but there are always pike near by and I also enjoy catching those. Would I be ok with a 3000 battle 2 combo medium and a 4000 battle 2 medium or would I have to go for the medium heavy for top water/ pike? Are their other options? I can get both for 230ish shipped, Grab some power pro and be on my way for under $300 which is my max spending limit. heck maybe a couple new lures. I know I am gonna get slammed for not using a baitcaster, I have an entry level combo, have it figured out, but after so many years with a spinner im very accurate I really only use the baitcaster to pitch and flip. Eventually I will upgrade to higher end baitcasters, but im 28 with bills freshly married! So I wanna keep it reasonable. Plus, I have probably spent $500 on lures rebuilding my stolen tackle box. Still need to grab a zara spook, and a few other necessities of tackle from a bait shop.

Hey guys, So after some unfortunate equipment failure due to me being careless and crushing my old rods(bill dance style in the truck haha), as well as my reels being ancient I am now in the market for some poles combo's. I would love to spend thousands on rods if I could, however I am 28 and freshly married so a crazy arsenal wont be possible, until some other things are dealt with. Enough about me here's where I am at. I am looking for 2 versatile combos for my home state of michigan. I love Largemouth bass fishing, as well as pike fishing. The rods I broke were two seekers paired to 10 year old pflugers, one in a 35 series the other a 40. They seemed to work well for general bass and pike fishing, where I fish there are usually northerns near by, so usually I fish with 15 or 30 pound braid depending if im shore casting or on a boat, followed by fluero leaders. I do have a bait caster for pitching and flipping, and plan on upgrading that next year, because baitcasters arent exactly my bread and butter its my first year trying one and I love it, but want two spinning combos I can keep as well for tons of situations. I have been eyeing the penn battle 2 series spinning combos, I understand they are usually associated with saltwater, however they do make inshore sizes and my uncles 28 year old pan fishing penn is still actively in usage on my ultra light rod for taking my nephews out. I rarely pan fish so I do not intend on upgrading that until catastrophic failure lol. My question is should I grab a 2500 or 3000 matched to a medium for bass, as well as a 4000 to a medium? or Could I use the in boat model 4000 medium heavy for shore casting and piking on boats? I am also not opposed to getting two of the same combos, however thats more for equipment failure and I feel like i will be vastly sacrificing versatility. I am open to other suggestions I can just get both combos for under $260.00 Shipped. Are there any other recommendations? I grew up fishing with my uncles high end gear, and recently have been fishing once or twice a week.