Reel

No disrespect here, but Gary Yamamoto did not design the Senko to be used as a jerkbait. I met him in 1999 at a I cast show in Chicago and he explained to me that the lure should be cast and let sink to the bottom. It should be retrieved with hops and again letting it sink to the bottom. No fast retrieve or jerks. I did not follow his instructions and tried it as a jerkbait until the next Spring when I finally understood and began catching bass with it.

Power pro V2

Maybe some... but I have talked to some lure designers like Gary Yamamoto and Zell Roland and it seemed that the primary purpose in the design was to cath fish themselves.

I always jump on the bandwagon. In my head, there are three degress of GOODNESS for lures: magical, great and good. It was the same for the senko... you remember that one... ? It was magical the first five years, great for a couple more years and good after that. Most go downhil faster than that. Time is their ennemy. The fuzzy dices are still great for smallmouth, not so much for largies. Coikes are on top now... There are ways to get some.. or at least imitations that are almost as good. You don't need to buy a couple of dozens. They last long.

I fish a lake that has a few canals and most of the largemouth spawn in the canals because the water is much warmer and it's warmer earlier in the season. We have a closed season and it opens on June 15. A few years back, at the beginning of June, we had 3 or 4 days of really heavy rain and the water in the canals started to flow and got really muddy. The current was to fast to drop eggs. The largemouth got out and spread in the lake waiting for more favorable conditions. The right conditions took about 10 days to arrive so we had some largemouth that could'nt wait spawning in the lake and some that went back into the canals. The spawn was delayed for almost 3 weeks. And that's long for down north.

I tried high end rods for frogging but I always come back to an old Shimano Convergence seven footer in MH. I don't have those immense fields of grass where I frog fish (Canada) so I need precision more than brutal strenght. I fish those little dock corners where a bit of grass grows and where blow-by accumulates. The frog need to drop exactly where I want so a rod with a bit more tip is OK. The convergence still has the backbone needed.

I'm not patient. Fish are always biting somewhere else.

An old G. Loomis IMX 813C Spinnerbait Special that I like a lot with 15lb fluoro. I use chatterbaits as a moving bait only.

For bottom prey, (gobies) I use a Ned rig. When I use a chatter bait, it's to imitate free swimming minnows or small stripers. These swim fast and off bottom. I don't use a bladed jig to imitate a crayfish.

Never let it touch bottom for smallmouth.

How deep is deep drops ?

River fishing ( in current) is different from lake fishing and when gobies are the main prey, that plays an important role. What I'm looking for when I fish a Ned rig in a river is a short drift every time I lift the rod ( about a foot). Most time 3/16 will give you that. Sometimes when the river is low and slow, 1/8 is really good. Gobies never swim (move) far at a time.

This is what I think and what I do. No reflection on anybody else's methods. I don't see the connection between shad and spinnnerbaits- no shad where I fish and spinnerbaits catch fish. If I'm fishing shallow water in a spawning area, I want to go slow because most fish will not chase a long distance. They wanna stay close to the nest. I use colorado blades for slow rolling. Most times spinnerbait fishing is blind casting. It' a good technique for exploration. Using one to find fish in a large area is very productive. It's not a tool to fish thoroughly. It's not what I would use in a spawing area. I would use a texas rigged creature.

The biggest change I have seen in the last 3 or 4 years is the change to baits with a secondary mouvement: baits that move even if you are not retrieving them.

I fall asleep !

The drop shot is your friend.

For smallmouth, It can be a question of mood and water color. Most times natural colors work better and for me, it's perch tones and lures with some blue. But when the water gets a bit dirty and is clearing up, sometimes clown or pink or chartreuse can get so hot that's it's two fish for one for a period of time.

I have a few. The ones I like the most are a Conquest and a Curado E5 both below 6:1.

Days after season opening are magic where I fish. Nobody is supposed to have fished for the bass intentionnaly for almost 7 months. The fish are close to bedding spots (post spawn most of the time) and hungry. I'm talking of fish between 5 and 7 pounds. During the summer, catching bigger fish is more difficult. Some go deep but the average size is still good ( 3 to 5 pounds) with a sprinkling of really big ones in shallow spots. For me. during that time, the biggest ones come on the smallest baits.

Even if things change, what you have is still pretty good. It will get you started on the right foot. The Karashi is a nice little bait that you can use with your spinning rod. It's an underwater small hard minnow ( a twitch bait I guess ) that works well and is fun to use. Try it !

I fish mainly the St Lawrence river watershed. It's huge and mostly clear. I use larger baits when the season begins. Here, it's in the middle of June. The first couple of weeks, larger baits ( 4 to 6 inches) work very well for larger fish. Smaller prey is not prevalent. When summer comes around I go back to smaller baits, even for larger fish. Smallmouth here feed on gobies, juvenile perch and rainbow minnows (small). Spy baits, marabout jigs, and Ned rigs work well. I only use larger baits for surface baits and suspending baits. At that level, 4 inch is the prefered size for me ...and the fish.

There is a site (Facebook) called Shimano North America Fishing where there is some information.

I own both reels and I think I know what you mean. The Mirabel is great for light applications like fishing a Ned rig or a shakey worm with weights like 1/8 oz and even less. It's very light and balances well with light rods that are not too long. I use the Stadic for heavier work like dragging a tube weighed down with a 1/2oz head, using a longer rod of 7' 2'' or more. It's heavier but it's a workhorse for large fish in deep water.

I have 2 or 3 dedicated drop shot rods. Finding a good rod for dropshotting is very difficult. They are always rigged - 2 for smallmouth, 3/8 and 1/2 oz and one for largemouth - 1/2oz.

I would choose to fish the shallow side first. That's where the majority of fish are (or were) because of the period of the year (spawn). They probably did not travel far in a few days. I would try to find a place were a deeper channel comes close enough to shore to reach it with a cast.