The Baron

I have a spinning rod I bought a long time ago, trying to find a use for it. It’s made by “Zzinger” - a small Canadian company who are still in business making salt water jigs, but no longer make rods. This rod is about 7’2” and is labelled as a graphite composite drift jigging rod. I’m not much of a rod expert, but this one seems very soft - a moderate action, if not softer. There’s no rod strength or lure weight rating on it, but I’d guess it’s a M or maybe even MH, just based on the thickness at the handle. Would this rod have any practical use for bass? Or should I just garage sale it and buy the drop-shot rod I’m one short on?

If the spoon mimics what they're feeding on, then absolutely they work. I caught one of my best smallmouth on a big Williams Whitefish. We were steel lining for lake trout in mid-summer, fishing a 45ft. deep feeding flat that comes up from 100+ ft. of water over a 20ft. deep rock shoal. I let the spoon down too early and picked up a dandy smallmouth off the rock shoal, likely there ambushing herring that the lakers were pushing around.

We spent some time on a lake yesterday that has good largemouth and decent smallmouth fishing. I bought a cheap used fish finder for this season, and it seemed to work great so we're very happy to not be totally blind and guessing from lake charts. Bass doesn't open until here until next weekend, but while trolling for lake trout and testing out the fish finder we found a great looking bass spot. The bottom rises quickly from about 60ft. up onto a 35-40ft. level for a bit then there’s a fairly abrupt hump that rises up up to 19ft. and looked like it had grass in on it. To my untrained eye, it looked even better on the fish finder that on the contour map. But, I'm not quite sure how to fish it properly. We have no trolling motor so our "spot lock" will be to throw a marker out once we find the hump and anchor off the downwind side. Assuming that works, how would you guys fish this spot?

Ooops. Wrong forum. Mods, please delete.

Well, we had no luck. But a. my cheap fish finder works great! b. the weather was beautiful and c. jigging from a 16ft. tinner with no spot lock motor and in 90ft. of water take a lot more lure weight than I had. It sure felt good to be out on the water.

Anyone ever tried this? A buddy and I are gonna give it a whirl this afternoon on a fairly large back lake that's known to have some good lakers. I'm a bass guy, so I'll be using a St. Croix Mojo Bass 7'4" H/F and a SLX DC with 40" braid to 20" fluoro leader, or an Okuma EVx CB 7' MH with a 5" white tube or a 6" paddletail swimbaits (the Lunkerhunt pre-rigged "predator" kits). My buddy is an all-species angler, so he'll also have a muskie rod setup with a Bondy bait (amazing baits - made in Canada, eh ?). I've got my "new" cheap Humminbird 535 I'm hoping to get working on a borrowed 16ft. tinner boat. A poor mans' charter! lol It will just feel good to be on the water - any bites will be a welcome bonus.

That is awesome!?

Hello, from Kingston, ON!

I tried this last year. Put 10# on a baitcaster for small-medium crankbaits and love it. So much so that I spooled another baitcaster with it. But I also bought 8# and put it on a spinning reel for throwing wacky-rigged senkos. It was jumping off the spool and I cut it all off after one frustrating outing. Made no sense to me, but that was my experience.

Welcome! Don't listen to other people unless they're a friend - people are full of it. And fishing is not about catching more than the other guy, it's about enjoying your time on the water and catching enough to make you personally happy. I understand what you mean about loss of passion for a hobby. When I was a kid (up to about 16-17yo.) I was fishing crazy. Then when I was old enough, I became hunting crazy - my Dad had gotten me into fishing, but he was not a hunter so I only started that when I could go on my own. I pretty much abandoned fishing over hunting for years. Save the very long story, I've I'm quite enthusiastic about bass fishing again and, if I consider 2020 as my active restart in fishing, that was about a 32 year hiatus for me. It's been quite a learning curve, since I put down my Ugly Stick and Mitchell 300A. lol

We don’t have any really expensive rods, but I’ve got a Fenwick Elite Tech ETB70M that I enjoy very much. I’ve got it paired with a Shimano Chronarch 201E6 spooled with 10# Suffix Advance for small-medium crankbaits. It’s a pleasure to fish and my landing percentage has been 100%

Nice job, gimruis!? We’re off to a decent start here in eastern Ontario, Canada. My 12yo son is officially a fully licensed apprentice hunter now, so has his own two tags. He shot a nice tom on our opener (April 25th) Monday morning. I then had a crazy 4-day work week and got out by myself Saturday morning. Which is quite a thing, because my son has been my constant turkey hunting companion for the past 4 years but said he wants to “save” his second tag until “later in the season” which is code for I want to sleep in and play video games.? But I realized I had not done a solo hunt in those years, hunting either with my son and/or “guiding” a friend. So I went out on my own and called up a nice tom in the woods. I used my 20ga. Browning BSS to seal the deal on that one at 20 steps. I hunted again midday yesterday with no luck - seems they’re henned up bad here, and off the roost is about the best chance to sort in out. Should be better next weekend.

Hello, from Kingston!

I'm going through my rod/reel setups and identifying some improvements for next year. One item on the list is to assemble a dedicated spinning setup for jerkbaits. I've got a Shimano Stradic 2500 for the job and would like to keep life very simple and spool with 8# mono (or braid-fluoro - that's open to debate, but I've never had a good experience with straight fluoro and am done spending that money on headaches). Baits will be pretty standard 4-5", mostly chasing smallmouth. I'm thinking the rod should be something in the 6'-6'8" range, but unsure if it should be a M-M/L and a F or XF? Any experiences stories or suggestions are welcome.

Not here. Areas that used to have an overabundance of groundhogs have the odd one left. Areas that used to have decent numbers have none. We used to shoot them in numbers and rarely ever saw a coyote. Now coyotes are everywhere. I'd love to spend a day shooting groundhogs. It would be a great reminder of my younger days. ?

It's the same here. We used to have lots of red fox and very few coyotes. Now we have very few red fox and lots of coyotes. We used to hunt groundhogs too, but they're all gone - possibly also related to the coyote population increase.

Ha, I remember those days. My parents had a 1972 Ford LTD wagon with a 400 cu. motor. When I turned 16 I was able to drive it where ever I wanted - I just had to replace whatever gas I used. Even at $.40/litre (about $1.50/gallon) in those days I never went too far. lol

Getting a little snow here in Kingston, ON today, but it's headed back up well into the plusses by Saturday with rain. We usually get yo-yoed in and out of cold and back and forth between snow-freezing rain-rain. Not usually crazy cold, but either way it's a long drag until turkey season and being out in a boat again.

I’d bet the coyote hunting in ND is very good. It’s a fun reason to drag one’s rear out into the snow now and then - heck, it’s almost enjoyable on a nice day. haha

The rods are stored away and the tackle box ready to be reorganized about 10x before spring - we’re into the long drag of winter here in Canada. The best part of winter is a little hunting, of which I particularly enjoy coyote calling. It’s tough here in the east but we usually have some luck. I bagged my first of the season last week with our .223 and a hand loaded 60gr. Hornady SP. Does anyone else like predator calling?

We wrapped up our bass fishing in mid-October, which was a lot later than previous years as that's well into the hunting seasons. Deer season is over for us now (I don't bow hunt much), which marks the beginning of winter for me. Goose hunting goes until end of the year and we can/will hunt coyotes all winter, as well as rabbits. We're not in a particularly cold part of Canada, but we're getting snow and it's a long haul until we're out the other side in about mid-April. I enjoy a bit of winter hunting (on select days), but this year more than ever I find myself really missing the warm weather and bass fishing so it's gonna be a long winter. ? I will spend some time researching/looking for a portable fish finder, so we're better armed next year - no more floating blindly over where the contour maps say the shoals are supposed to be. Odds are I'll end up buying some other gear I really don't "need" - cold nights, whiskey and online shopping are a dangerous mix. lol

We shoot geese. A lot of geese. I’ll BBQ the odd breast, but they need to be butterflied and pounded or stabbed 1Mx with a jaccard tenderizer. It’s then critical they be served no more cooked than medium-rare. Anything past that gets tough in a hurry - to the point of being inedible. We’ll also make “poppers”… a strip of breast meat with a slice of jalapeño and a dollop of cream cheese, wrapped in 1/2 strip of bacon and pin it with a toothpick. Dip in Diana BBQ sauce, then on a sheet pan under the broiler until the bacon is cooked. These are a crowd pleasing favourite… but one goose will feed an army, so it doesn’t use them up very fast. I’ve had pastrami made by friends. It’s good… but I don’t love it enough to do the work myself. So, our beasts get bagged in bulk and sent out for sausages or pepperettes of various kinds. The nicest meat is on the legs. Cook then in a crockpot or roasting pan until the meat falls off the bone and use it in a bunch of different recipes. Tender and delicious. The hearts are great, just sliced and fried with bacon and onion. My problem with geese is they’re so fun to shoot… but we kill literally hundreds and dealing with all the meat gets a bit overwhelming. I usually just stop shooting because we don’t want anymore meat.

I tried it this year. Put 8# on spinning gear and was not happy at all as it seemed to "jump" off the spool. But, I put 10# on a baitcaster setup for squarebills/shallow cranks and really like it. So much, that I also spooled my newest baitcaster setup with the 10# for deeper cranks and lipless (might try with jerkbaits too). Advance floats so I know I'll lose some depth, but my one and only experience with straight fluoro lasted about 20 casts before it blew up and I had to cut it off. That, and reading about how fluoro stretches a lot more than advertised and should be replaced a few times per season makes me more than happy to give up a few feet of depth to save a lot of money and headaches.

I spent several hours on a new lake this year, trying to find a bass over about 1#. It got to be a joke with the cottage host, my non-fishing buddy. He taunted me with pics of kids with big bass apparently caught off docks in the lake. I fished more…. more dinks. Then his nieces adult boyfriend (late 20’s- maybe early 30’s) comes for a visit. He brings a kids fishing kit from Walmart, that he barely knows how to use, and goes out and catches a 3# smallmouth the second day he’s up. My friend of course sends me a pic, laughing at me. I’ve been back 3x since and can’t catch a smallie over about 1# in that lake. I’ve looked at contour maps, fished deep, fished shallow. Tubes, jigs, cranks, jerkbaits, spinner baits, topwater of all kinds, plenty of dropshotting…. caught just a smattering of dinks. All you can do is laugh about it and keep swinging. My Dad knew nothing when I was in my teens. 30+ years later, I realize he’s a very smart guy. ?

We’ve got two Diawa Revros LT’s (1000 and 2500). I’m very happy with these at their price point. I picked up a Diawa Fuego and am enjoying that reel a lot. Tucked in between those two, I would have to assume the Legalis is a solid reel also. You could also consider the Abu Garcia reels - we’ve got a ProMax 30 that’s been a solid performer the past couple years.