Kdizzle

I keep my phone in my back pocket so I can snap a photo quickly when I get the fish landed. If I want to weight it I always have my scale near at hand and not tucked away some where that would take a good amount of time to dig out. I set myself up to make sure that I never keep a fish out of the water for longer than a minute and a half or so. I've always been quite the lover of animals, not just the fury little mammals we like to keep as pets. It hurts my a great bit if I believe I've harmed an animal to the point of death, or to actually have harmed an animal to the point of death. I take steps to minimize these occurrences. Its a shame that so many of our species just don't give a d**n if they cause harm to anything other than themselves. Which is why I refuse to fish or even associate with those with that attitude.

If you aren't very quick on the hookset or you have problems detecting bites, then a straight shank hook can get in the way of sticking a fish. EWG's seem to help with this. I use a #1 or #2 gama ewg and don't have problems with hooksets.

I have split shot a Trd as well many other of the Zman Trd line and the Hula Stick, they work very well on it. Caught my PB smallie on a split shot rig with a Trd Crawz in fact. Its also a good alternative to a drop shot in some situations since you are using floating baits, in fact it can be an even better bet since the action you're able to put on the bait is greatly increased..

The last three inches of the tail end of a senko on just about any style of jig head. If you want a more weedless presentation then put it on a slider head.

10 lb. J Braid from Daiwa is what I use. Both the 4 carrier and 8 carrier versions are good. If you wanna spend a little more then Power Pro is a great choice.

We've had a lot of rain here in the Ozarks over the last few weeks, including a slobber knocker that left me without power for three days consecutively. The rivers have been four or five feet above their flood stages, but I've been able to pull five or six 2.5 lb smallmouths out of the water over that time. Its been tough going with more shutouts than successes but I've perservered. Better luck to you in the next couple weeks brother.

Split shotting, Sliderheads, Ned Rigs, all the finesse river and creek fisherman needs. Except dropshotting, I'm **** at that.

I'm a finesse fisherman hands down, so 90 percent of the time you'll see me with a spinning set up in my hand. Though I also like to throw a jig and a whopper plopper or even a medium sized swimbait. If that is the case I break out my casting gear.

I'm usually at 6 feet. If I'm fishing crystal clear water I'll go to 12.

Kastking Royale Legend 7'3" heavy does the job for me. I don't spend a lot on my casting gear so I paired it with an Abu Pro Max. Great little frogging and medium swimbait set up.

I have a Brooklyn Kayak Company yak and I really like it. I spent about 800 dollars for it. I think the Bass Pro line Ascend is plenty for most anyone. Just make sure you know what kind you'd rather have when you buy. In my opinion sit-on-tops are more comfortable and I think a bit safer than the sit-in types.

If you want to not spend 60 to 80 dollars for a combined 400 yards of flourocarbon, Yo Zuri Top Knot is a pretty good alternative.

Ive learned that my Fenwick HMG's are surprisingly resilient after accidentally having their tips shoved into a ceiling fan or rammed into the back of a seat when being placed into the back of an SUV. Although the epoxy around the line guides does need to be fixed from time to time because of said accidents.

Revo X($99) on an Fenwick HMG 6'6"($80 on Amazon). Im not a pro so I really don't need pro crap.

I have 4 HMG's. All Medium powered 2 6'6''s 1 6'0, and 1 7'. They're all very sensitive and sturdy rods. The only thing I would complain about is that the epoxy on the first guide tends to crack after about a year.

If I charted it out in a spread sheet maybe I would have seen a difference by now, but with just my basic senses so far I have not seen a difference between number of catches between red, black nickle, or bronze hooks.

Can't go wrong with a bitsy bug and a chigger craw or paca chunk trailer. Especially if you're new to the technique.

Supply chains are starting to be affected by the stay at home orders across the country and as well a acrossed the globe. These policies are essential to minimize the harm Covid-19 could potentially do to our population, but unfortunately shortages are too be expected since products aren't being produced at anywhere near the quantity we expect them to. Short term discomfort is worth the saving of lives.

Swimbait Combo or swimbait anything, and the word budget in the same sentence seems like a contradiction in terms. Its always been too rich of a technique for me, but on the plus side its created a lot of extremely philosophical, esoteric, and somewhat entertaining youtube videos of fisherman throwing a giant expensive lure around for five hours and not catching ****.

It reminds me of the fishing brohs I see on youtube wearing gloves to handle fish even when its not cold outside, and fishing a shaky head or dropshot with casting gear because they of course are manly manly men, but don't wanna take a chance of getting a spine in their thumb from a flopping and flapping bass. Manliness in this day and age is a confusing subject to me.

Hayabusa Shooting Ball. Its very finessy, with a light enough 2/0 hook to where I can throw it on a Medium powered spinning rod. They come in weights up to 1/2 and ounce too which is great.

I had problems with it too in the beginning. First I switched to a more medium quality braid with Daiwa J braid X8 and switched my leader to Yo Zuri Top Knot. I did see quite an improvement in quality with the higher end products. I ALSO started looping the braid through the flouro end loop when I'm finished with my ten away ten back procedure five times instead of just once. That's helped a lot too.

#1, 1/0, and 2/0 are the only real sizes youll need for smallmouth, unless you are really finesse fishing with a drop shot or ned rig.

3 inch Berkley Chigger Craw or Pit Boss texas rigged with a split shot about a foot up the line.

My PB Smallie was on a TRD Craw from Zman, but I usually get the most numbers from Berkley Chigger Craws either on a football head or on a Split Shot rig.