Reel

1. Ned Rig, 2. Drop shot 3. and in more than third place, wacky Just went fishing this morning and caught six on the Ned Rig in clear cold water.

Yes, white for clear water.

I've got that exact rod (latest generation Shimano Curado 7' 2'' M) and for what you want to do, I would go MH.

I have, over the years, accumulated 9 or 10 rods from different G. Loomis series. I've got some NRX, EX6, GCX, GLX and IMX. For me, each serie is very different and feels different. It's very difficult to compare one to the other even with the same rating. However, when you find one rod that fits a particular need, it's the perfect rod. A comment: It's very difficult to judge a rod in a store without the reel, line and lure.

Do you feel the fish bite with the reel or the rod ?

I live way north and fish in November so I fish when the water is cold. It depends on the weather. A nice warming trend with each day 1 or 2 degrees warmer and no wind is ideal. I can catch smallmouth on the surface then or using jerkbaits. I find them in a couple of feet of water warming themselves. They will also bite slow moving lures.

I'll believe some weird things because I've seen some in numerous years of fishing for smallmouth. One time on Champlain, during practice, on a point of a small island in about 12 feet of water, we had this fish who would stay under the boat but not bite. It was around noon and he would stay in the shadow of the boat. We would move and he would follow. He cruised away when we reached deeper water.

I fish ultra clear shallow water and this is completely natural behavior for me. It happens all the time. Finding the exact mouvement and color that will trigger them is a lot of fun. Erratic mouvements is one way. Another is leaving a bait on the bottom till the group of fish is nearby and then moving it. The fish are less used to a lure that goes from the bottom to the top.

Where I live, I can catch smallmouth in a port situation where you have concrete walls that are straight down in 30 feet of water. The water is clear enough so that you can see the smallmouth chase minnows up the wall. I've tried a lot of things but the drop shot was the best. I use a heavy weight (1/2oz). Most times the fish will grab the bait before it reaches bottom, so when you don't feel the weight, you thighen up and the fish is there. Everything else swings of the wall like a pendulum. The drop shot, I can place a foot or two from the bottom of the wall.

Drop Shot

Shimano Cumulus with a Aldebaran 50, under 8 onces.

I got one, then I got a second one because for the price they work really well and are really smooth.

Still I wonder if Menderchuck is close to lake Voldemort, the lake that can't be named ?

One Knocker Spook - Bone

You are right. I was fun getting those littles bottles of lubricant in the box with the reel. But nobody does it anymore. Shimano was one of the last. Good for them. By personnal experience, I know that a lot of people just put them in the garbage thinking that a product given is not of good quality. They went the way spare spools for spinning reels went. Competition is fierce among the manufacturer and a difference in price of a couple of dollars will make or brake a product.

I'm going to look at the other side of the coin. The chatterbait is a great hard lure. It's got the shape of a jig, it's a spinnerbait with a different kind of blade, it's a cranbait with a single hook. That's a lot of qualities into one lure.

You will like my answer. I can fish for prespawn smallmouth, not exactly where I live, (closed season) but close by (catch and release season). I use mono and fluoro, not braid. If I want the bait to go deeper I use a +1 or +2 type of bait. I fish extremely clear water and most of the smallmouth are not deep ( 3 to 6 feet). I like lines that stretch a bit. It gives the jerkbait a special action( yes softer, but I can compensate with rod action or use a lure with a tighter action)) I use small lures at the very beginning of the season with spinning tackle and 8 pound test but I rapidly go to bigger lures ( 4 to 6 inch) with casting tackle. I use an Expride rod with a DC reel and 12 to 14 pound fluoro or mono. I prefer mono early in the year because the temperature is cold and fluoro becomes stiff. Later, when it gets warmer, I go to fluoro. Where I fish there is not a lot of pressure and you can find large smallmouth ( +4 pounds) in shallow water ( less than 6 feet) all year. I forgot: I fish a river with current.

Working now. Thanks

Using your experience and instinct is always a good thing when choosing tackle. Confidence is important. But if you want to look at the science side of it and use the refractive index that measures visibility under water ( not in the box ) the index of water is 1.33, most fluoro around 1.42, most braid 1.54 and most mono 1.55. Yes, some mono is more visible. Does line diameter play a role ? Yes, when you are more visible, if you are bigger, you are even more visible. Do fish care ? Well I've got this neighbour who has a dog. It's tied up with a 15 foot rope... a big rope. Somedays when the dog is really agressive and somebody walks by, he'll run to the end of the rope and be jerked back. Other days, he'll just walk up to the end, sit down and look at you. And this dog has a brain ten times the size of the fish.

Fifteen pound braid with a fluoro leader is the way I would go. Why would a deeper spool be better ?

I have a Poison Adrena like that, No different then a one piece rod in action. A bit heavier maybe !!!

Would you go out hunting, in a spot where you saw deer before, put on a blindfold and begin to take pot shots around you when you hear noise ??? This is fishing without electronics.

I like the Shimano Zodias Glass cranking rods. My favorite is the 7'2'' MH Glass

I've got two Miravel 2500, I really like them. Very light and smooth.

Same reason but I use a 5/0