Finessegenics

All good rods and you wouldn’t go wrong with any but my vote would go to the Avid X. My 7 MH/F is my all purpose rod. I have it paired with a Curado DC and I’ve never felt any tip heaviness, it’s actually a joy to fish with. It’s incredibly sensitive and powerful too.

My absolute favorite is Bama Craw. It imitates everything well; crawdads, sunfish, yellow perch to a certain degree... It just really does damage on the smallies here. If I had to give an honorable mention it would go to Summer Craw. Works well in that muddier water or on overcast days.

In terms of exact jigs to throw, I’ll suggest the War Eagle Heavy Finesse Jig. You’ll get used to that feel of a heavy jig (3/8 oz-1/2 oz) with a heavy gauge hook yet still have the smaller profile which in theory should get you more bites. You’ll hear that starting “small” is a good way to learn so I’ll just stick with that.

Daiwa Fuego is super popular, but my vote goes to the Pflueger. For my spinning reels, I have found that my pfluegers (president, supreme, supreme xt) outperform any other brands that I’ve tried at that same price point. I have no experience with the president xt but I’m sure it’s a good reel. I’m sure the others you mentioned are good too...a lot of it just comes down to personal preference. And if you take care of them, they will all last a long time.

I don’t know this as a fact as I use regular mainline fluoro for leaders but I’ve heard the leader material is much wiry and stiff. That makes sense since it’s not designed to be actually spooled onto a reel.

If you’re looking for something different, Yo-Zuri Topknot has been good for me. Seriously, no complaints at all and the great abrasion resistance has been the most impressive so far. I fish a rocky river and it’s held up better than I expected. Im sure higher end line like Tatsu or Shooter work better in terms of manageability and cast-ability though.

My favorite fish freshwater fish to eat has got to be walleye or the very few white bass I catch around here

This is complicated to answer but as a Canadian angler I do agree with you. To a certain degree. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that you’re probably exclusively fishing for smallmouth and the “heavy cover” techniques don’t really work for them because they don’t frequent heavy cover as much as LM...think flipping jigs, texas rigs, frogs. Use your intuition and experience to judge what’s right for your present situation. Also, just trying to duplicate other people’s success on YouTube with certain baits is a recipe for disappointment. Especially that a lot of the youtubers are there purely for entertainment and not exactly education. We rarely know the conditions they’re throwing the bait in, what kind of lake they’re on, etc... And there’s nothing wrong with that, I’m just pointing it out. If you want a more northern outlook on bass fishing then I strongly recommend The Smallmouth Experience on YouTube. Then again there are many many American anglers fishing the exact same waters you would find in Canada. Think of the clear natural lakes anywhere in the northern states. They have the same winters as us. They have some success on the baits that might not work for you, but I’m sure if you keep fishing the chatterbait, you’ll eventually get bit.

Saw your review a few days ago and decided to pick some up myself today, since you rated them so highly. I got two packs of the 4.3, in Tennessee Shad and Electric Blue Charteuse. My only gripe is these are labeled as power bait but both packs have a strong plasticy chemical smell instead of that powerbait I was expecting. And call me crazy but I gave them a quick lick and they definitely didn’t taste salty a bit embarrassing to admit but hey.

Mine is definitely the ned rig. The worst part is it almost works all the time if fish are present. Kinda hard to put down. I’ll start off by throwing a presentation to hopefully get a big bite but then I always default to the ned rig or even a weightless senko when that doesn’t work...I feel horrible doing it because I am not learning anything new by always throwing the “old reliables” but it seems like the fish really only want those some days. I even try to imitate the style of the ned rig or senko. Unobtrusive, natural. I’ll try finesse jigs or even 3” swimbaits slowly dragged on bottom and they just don’t seem to work as well as the other two.

Never used the legend elites, but I love st Croixs and currently own/have owned mojos, eyecons, and both avid series. So nothing super high end. The MH/F from st Croix do feel more powerful than the other mh/f I have owned (Fenwick elite tech, Shimano compre). Still, I don’t think they are anywhere near a H, they’re almost like a “MH+”. I definitely wouldn’t want to frog fish or pitch those weights with a M rod. Even in sparse weeds or cover. If you’re using a 1/4oz weight, add the plastic and the hook to the total weight and you’re approaching 3/8 oz for that presentation. That’s also not taking into consideration the gauge of the hook you’ll be using or the line. I’m just making assumptions here but I’m guessing you’ll use braid in the 40-65lb range since that’s what most popular for frogging and pitching. Heavy braid and a superline hook on a M rod does not seem like a good idea. I can’t comment on the 7’6 mh/mf since I’ve never owned that model. I just really wouldn’t consider a 7 m/f to be the alternative to that rod. Maybe the 7’1 mh/XF can be an option. It is an XF, but the rod tip is like a noodle, and the remaining 3/4 of the rod are like a pool cue so it can be pretty versatile. If I were you I’d definitely be leaning towards the 7’6 model. Best of luck and with st Croix you’ll always end up with a good stick so there’s no worries there!

That has to be one of the more unique jig setups I’ve heard of!

Cylindrical ones are generally better to use in areas with lots of snags or rocks. It's less likely to get hung up and can come out of the crevices between rocks. A supposed disadvantage is you don't feel the bottom as well, because of the cylindrical shape (I personally can't confirm this and I'm not sure I believe it). The round and teardrop ones are pretty much the same imo. They're better to use in open water on gravel or sand. I only use cylindrical ones, no real reason besides they are more snag-proof in my experience.

Maybe the rod’s taper is too fast, making it easy for the fish to “unload” the rod and spit the hook when you have no bend in your rod. That’s why some people like a mod-fast taper for jigs.

18 inch river smallie. Caught and released very quickly.

The reason braid to leader is popular is because of the advantages of braid. Braided line has a smaller diameter per lb test. 40lb braid is usually the equivalent of 10-12lb mono, so as you can see, you can spool on more strong line compared to spooling on 40lb mono. The line diameter of 40lb mono is something like 0.6 mm which is thick. this leads into another advantage of braid. It is much easier to maintain and is much more user friendly than fluoro or mono. Fluoro and mono have “memory”, meaning they will warp to the spool they’re on and coil up. Try spooling 40lb mono onto a bass sized reel and the line would be jumping off the reel. The memory leads to line twisting issues and this is especially noticeable on spinning reels. Braid also lasts much longer since it does not have this memory issue. Some people keep their braid on for 3-4 seasons. If braid is spooled correctly with appropriate backing, you avoid these problems or the potential of the braid “digging in” on itself. Third biggest advantage of braid is the way it cuts through weeds. Since the line is so fine, it’ll slice through weeds when fishing weedless presentations. That’s why it’s overwhelmingly the line of choice for punching and frogging. There are some disadvantages to braid, such as poor abrasion resistance. It gets frayed easily around rocks, wood and places infested with zebra mussels. as for leader strength, it can be anywhere you need it to be. Braid is popular cause it is so versatile and you can use it anywhere and adjust your leader to your situation. You can do just about anything with 40lb braid (I’m talking on a baitcaster for this paragraph) and just adjust your leaders. Fishing wood and need abrasion resistance and need to horse the fish out of the cover? Tie on 20lb leader and get to work. Clear water pond and using a finer wire hook? 12lb fluoro can do the job. Frogging? Ditch the leader and use your straight braid. It can be super advantageous even for a bank fisherman with one setup. You can determine your leader strength based on the cover you’ll be fishing or the gauge of the hook on your bait/lure. You won’t see anyone using leaders over 20 lbs though, at least in my limited experience. Not really sure why this is but trust me, you do not need a 40lb leader. That’s just overkill. I feel like someone else can answer that question better than I can so hopefully somebody else chimes in. On spinning reels, I think braid to leader is a necessity. At least for me, but plenty of folks use straight mono or fluoro on spinning reels and there’s nothing wrong with that. Funnily enough, I fish straight fluoro on my casting reels . Since I don’t frog fish or punch weeds. Hope this helps!

Baby bull Shad is super popular and a good bait for the price. Definitely would have no problem with the spots and smallies you’re after. Don’t overlook 6-7” glide baits just because people tend to associate them with big lmb. Not sure if these would suffice as you mentioned multi jointed swimbaits and glide baits all have one joint. They’re meant to be fished like jerkbaits and you can get great reaction bites with them. Smallmouth will smash 6” swimbaits/glide baits, especially when they are schooling and competing for food. We don’t have spots here but from what I understand their behaviour is quite similar to smallmouth so the same should apply with them. The S-Waver 168 is super popular in this category. If not there’s also the smaller S-Waver 120 (which is still 5” and weighs 1oz) . I’ve also heard of the ones linked below which are made by 6th sense and Fish Lab. Both fit your criteria as they are 4” and weigh around 1oz. Never used either though. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/6th_Sense_Speed_Glide_100_Glide_Bait/descpage-SSSGSB.html https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Fish_Lab_Bio_Gill_Swimbait/descpage-FLBGSB.html Not exactly what you were looking for but hope it helped.

X2. I don’t fish it deep, usually in 12 FOW or less. Still, if nothing hits it on the fall or within the first 10 seconds it is sitting on bottom, I rarely ever get a bite hopping and/or dragging it. And that’s why I advocate for using a head no heavier than 1/10 oz. I think it’s best having the slowest fall possible. I do realize for the people fishing very very deep or with faster current that isn’t really a possibility though.

7.5:1 is plenty fast, I see no use for having an 8 speed reel. Though if you absolutely want to change it up I’d definitely go with 6.8:1. I would keep the reel and get a 7 H/F you can use for frogging and pitching into weeds. If not, a MH/Mod Fast would be great for any moving baits, trebles or not.

I’m right handed and use both lefty casting and spinning reels. I’ve been using spinning reels for my whole life and only began using casting reels 3 years ago. That being said I learned to use a baitcaster with a RH reel but after learning, I went to a LH and never looked back. It felt so unnatural to me to have to hold my rod with my weak arm. my reasoning is, it just feels comfortable and when working bottom contact baits, wouldn’t you want your dominant hand controlling the rod? You can be much more precise in the tiny tiny hops you make with a jig or worm when using your dominant arm. Maybe this is all an illusion but I feel as if I wouldn’t be able to control my bait using a RH reel. The LH reel suits my general style of fishing (slow and methodical) since my dominant arm is controlling the rod.

Sounds like an easy way to get snagged ?

I personally don't believe it's bad sportsmanship to observe other anglers. As long as you're not encroaching on anyone's space while they're fishing or blowing up the spot online. And even if it is unsportsmanlike, there's a bigger problem in my opinion. If you need to imitate other guys patterns and "milk runs", you're already at a huge disadvantage.

For the spinning reel and 8lb mono, I think the 9 grams would be perfect. Of course it also depends on the depth of the river and the current. However, none of the sizes you mentioned would really overpower your rod, assuming it is a medium power. Just be careful because it sounds like you may get snagged on the rocks a lot, especially with a bait that has treble hooks.

That’s what I keep the ugly stiks for!

You already got loads of good input here. It is your license paid with your money, therefore you’re free to do whatever you want within the law. There is that saying though, legality doesn’t equal morality. You’ll also find that the overwhelming majority of bass fisherman frown upon eating bass. My personal opinion would be to practice selective harvesting if you really wanted to eat them...As others suggested, let the big ones go and the real small ones too. Another piece of advice would be not to take any bass out of “small” bodies of water. Of course small is relative to your area but a small lake can really suffer from a few big bass being pulled out. And finally, welcome to the forums!