Swamp Yankee

..and this is my lazy man's ride complete with my front trolling motor mount made from a piece of firewood

One of my favorite rides is my ultra-light rowing skiff. This thing only weighs about 80 pounds and it scoots right along under oars. It's excellent for drifting down my favorite smallmouth river and it's very stealthy. Bigger bass tend to pull me around a bit - but that's fun, too.

How much clearance is under the bridge? Have you seen other boaters go through?

Fly fishing dry flies at sunset on a trout stream in the woods one evening around sunset I hooked a bat on the back cast. I cut the leader at let the bat figure it out. Nine feet is close enough to get to a bat, tyvm. Seemed like a good time to stop fishing anyway.

My go- to rig when they’re busting small bait in clear water is a Zoom Super Fluke Jr. texpose rigged weightless on a 1/0 hook. You need a light spinning rig to cast it far enough to keep from spooking the bass with your boat, but it’s been deadly for me. Savage, sometimes drag pulling strikes as soon as it hits the water are common. If they don’t take it right off, a slow, twitchy retrieve with lots of pauses. My favorite color is Arkansas shiner. Another rig I’ll use in that situation is an original balsa floating Rapala minnow F07 or F09 in silver or gold... same need for a light rig as they’re a bear to cast. Often, again, the bass hit it as soon as it lands, but if not, slow twitchy retrieve with lots of pauses. Both of these rigs are light and small enough that they can be thrown right into the heart of the action without spooking the fish, yet they also stand out enough for the fish to choose them instead of the real bait.

I’m not sure what size President you have, but I picked up a Dobyns Fury 7 foot spinning rod, FR 703SF, which they describe as being designed for Jigs, Texas-rigs, Senkos, and Shaky Heads. I throw mostly 5” weightless Senkos with it and I love it paired with my Shimano Stradic 2500. Seems to me a good “all around” rod for soft plastics. At $120, it ain’t cheap but it’s not too expensive either. And it’s a decent quality rod.

Not what the OP is asking, perhaps... but my first exposure to Super Flukes was fishing them on Gotcha painted jig heads at night for wintering striped bass on the Thames River here in CT. We’d cast them straight out on the dropping tide, let ‘em sink, and give them a slow, straight retrieve, barely turning the reel handle. Even then, the best color was Arkansas Shiner. Later in the year, once the river herring started running, I’d fish 9” black Slug-gos, Texposed on 9/0 EWG, at night on a dropping tide at the mouths of coves for striped bass to 30 pounds. Good times! But the striper fishing ain’t what it used to be. ?

Admittedly, I miss my share of strikes, but my favorite way to fish them is Arkansas Shiner Super Fluke Jrs, Texposed on 1/0 Lunker City Texposer hooks. I fish them on a 5' 3" Loomis Mag light rod spinning rod with an 8# fluorocarbon leader tied (Crazy Alberto knot) to 10# Sufix braid. Lot of smaller bass - up to 3 pounds, say, but they're a BLAST on that light set up and that little "Fairy Wand" Loomis rod shoots them out a country mile with that light braid. The regular Super Flukes I fish a lot less often, but usually weightless, Texposed on 3/0 EWG or Lunker City Texposer hook.

Thanks folks!

Friday was my last trip out before we hauled out the boat and closed up the camper - Took these two bass, 4 pound 2 ounce and 4 pound 7 ounce both caught on a small jerkbait with my Loomis mag light 5'3" rod. Not a bad way to wrap up the season on Aspinook pond. These were the 5th and 6th 4lb + bass I took from the same two logs since September 21

Thanks! It’s good to find a fast-moving forum!

New to forum, and relatively new to bass fishing. In the past I did a lot of surf fishing for striped bass, bluefish etc. from the CT and RI beaches and jetties. Before that was mostly trout on fly rods. But over the past 3 years or so I’ve been after freshwater SMB and LMB pretty much exclusively. Having a blast but I know I still have a lot to learn... so I figured I’d pick your brains a bit