Ogandrews

Most likely won’t be using it for jigs besides maybe some 1-1/2 oz punching jigs, mostly want it for punching matted weeds and flipping pads. The lakes I fish mostly in Minnesota get insane weeds in the summer and they are hard to fish with anything besides a frog or a real punching setup. I like really heavy setups for fishing like this generally, I just don’t like leaving anything to chance.

Probably a 4.8 keitech on a weedless swimbait hook, can fish it how it’s supposed to be and you can also fish it on bottom like a t rig.

What are your guys plans for opener? I was originally going to do my normal trip to vermilion on opener but couldn’t get as much time off so I’m going to fish local reservoirs around here. Probably will be pike fishing until that slows down in June, really trying hard to break that catch and release record of 45.25. All I need is another 3/4 of an inch, and I know their in my local waters the dnr has shocked them up to 47”. I’m saving most of my time off until musky season opens up, then I’ll hit vermilion hard.

I’d like to say call law enforcement of some sort but most likely they are going to take your call and then not do a single thing about it. At least in my experience most officers won’t go out of their daily routine to actually help people and do their job. I don’t mean any disrespect to any law enforcement guys here, I have just had too many experiences with them being completely useless not to share my opinion.

Haven’t heard bass called that but the common one around here is green carp. Here in Minnesota it seems that if it isn’t a walleye most people would rather leave it for dead on the shore. Really a shame how people treat most fish in this state, seen so many bass pike musky catfish ect thrown up on the bank because people think they are going to eat their precious walleyes. Then they want to blame the other fish for the lack of walleye, definitely not the fact that vast majority of walleye fisherman keep their limit of fish every single time they are on the water, but that’s a different topic don’t mean to hijack

Great reel, not quite as smooth as a curado but casts just as well and has a super solid feel. I only have one of them and it broke on the first trip I made with it, but after getting it fixed by lews I have had great luck with it. Probably won’t be buying any more because curado K’s are $20 less and a better reel in my opinion, but the tournament pro is an amazing reel for that price point.

Been fishing braid exclusively for years now and I’ve never broken a rod trying to free a stuck bait. In my opinion it wasn’t the braid or the fact that you did something wrong, but instead there was a little defect in the rod when you bought it that made it weak right there. I’ve never used one of those but if it is an $80 rod it should never break like that, that means there was something wrong with the rod. Spot removers have pretty weak hooks, that should have bent way before the rod should have broken. Don’t give up on braid, braid to a leader has so many benefits it’s hard to go back once you start using it. Most people still use mono or floro because that is what their used to but braid to a leader is such a good way to fish I really don’t know why more people don’t do it. Every rod I own has been braid to a leader/straight braid for the past 4-5 years and i won’t be changing anytime soon.

Shimano nasci 2500 is the best $100 spinning reel out there in my opinion, I have them on all my spinning rods.

I own 6 dobyns rods I think and I like every one I own. I have used their 735c for punching some and it worked alright but didn’t have enough horsepower for my liking, probably would rather have a longer 6 power. Pretty much any rod I’ve used besides that finesse musky rod has seemed too soft for my liking, but that could just be me being picky.

That is some solid advice, that is exactly how I set up all of my reels. He showed what I was trying to say in my previous post.

Honestly when it comes to both ball heads and small football heads I buy the ones that my local bait shop makes for 50 cents a piece. Comes with a good hook and I’m not worried when I lose a couple in the rocks. I know there are other finesse footballs on the market, can’t remember the brands but I’ve used a few off of TW that have been great. Generally I’m using between 1/8-1/4 oz for any of the applications. As for wacky rigging I rarely do it in rivers. I know it works, but most of my rivers around here are very fast current and I feel more confident with the other techniques i talked about. When I do wacky rig it is almost always with a size 1 hook, the lighter the hook the slower the fall and lighter of a setup you can use. Especially with a 4” the fish gets the entire bait in their mouth so I notice very little difference in hookup percentage going to a smaller hook. The main river I fish smallmouth on is a state protected catch and release only river with true trophy potential. It also has a big musky population with 55”+ fish in it. Unless I’m shore fishing I’m floating the river in a kayak and I will only bring 2 rods with one of them being a musky setup. Generally all of the baits I talked about I will throw on a g loomis 852jwr, so 7’1” m xf. Not perfect for the top waters but it throws everything I need it to. Usually 10lbs braid to a 10-15ft 10-12lbs mono leader. If I took the smallmouth fishing more seriously I would probably bring a dobyns 733c with me for somewhat larger baits, but I’m pretty successful with only bringing one bass rod. Half the time I will catch big smallmouth when I am throwing musky baits, especially big topwaters and 6-8” swimbaits.

Not super stiff no but I think it did give the swim jig a little bit more rock than a keitech. It also comes in a really solid perch color which isn’t common in most swimbaits so I really like it.

They would definitely be able to get over a 4ft dam. One thing I wanted to add to this thread was that I have found there is a different correlation between water temp and current. The warmer the water gets, the faster of current the smallmouth like to be around. With the water temps this time of year still bring somewhat cold but warming up, the fish will be starting to move closer to the edges of holes and bases of riffles.

In a perfect world I would fish for pike and musky 365 days a year, but that’s not possible. I fish for toothy fish as much as possible, but I enjoy everything. I would say that bass are my favorite after those two, but I mostly only target them if I don’t have time to get to musky/pike water, or if it is the hottest part of the year with water temps getting close to 80 and pike are deep and musky are too stressed to be able to release safely. I really enjoy bass fishing, I just enjoy fishing for bigger more aggressive predators a lot more. Every winter and early spring I will spend a lot of time fishing for walleye in the rivers as well as trout in the streams. I would say most of my dedicated bass fishing is in July and August. Come September when the water starts to cool I will spend all my time fishing for toothy fish. I will always bring a smallie setup with me when I’m fishing the river for muskies in late October- November because when they are all schooled up that is the best bass fishing of the entire year, but it’s also the best time to get a musky of a lifetime so I have to balance my time. Really don’t ever target panfish besides a couple times in the winter ice fishing if my tip ups aren’t going off. I go on a musky forum a lot but it’s not nearly as active as this site so I spend a lot of time here.

Awesome rig man I’m jealous, would love that boat for the rocky lakes around here

I fish 100% braid to a leader and I have no issue skipping. If you do decide to use braid, which I would recommend, It is much easier in my opinion with 50-65lbs braid. I use either 50 or 65lbs maxcuatro on almost all of my casting setups besides my really light ones because it is still thin and handles better than the lighter lines. Another thing I would recommend is not over tightening the spool tension of your reel. If it is too tight you will try to throw the bait too hard and it will blow your reel up worse. Generally for learning skipping I think it is easier to learn with a softer rod. Jig trailers can make a difference too, I think it is easier to skip a jig with a trailer with a flat back like a beaver or a rage bug as opposed to something like a rage craw. Don’t try too hard when your trying to learn, I always thought that I needed the perfect setup and angle and it made me over think the whole deal. Just practice underhand roll casts and try to keep the trajectory of your bait as level to the water as possible.

Figured I would add something that I have learned from the musky world. I haven’t ever heard any bass guys talk about this, but I’m sure somebody has done it. The whopper plopper was actually originally a musky bait and then was made smaller because people were catching nice bass on it. Tail baits like the plopper have been a staple in the musky world for way longer than the plopper has been around. One thing I learned from a couple old timers was how to fish a tail bait in heavier weeds. Remove the front treble completely from the bait. Take the back hook off, take a small piece of shrink tubing and slide it over the hook. Reattach the hook to the split ring, and slide the shrink tube so it covers the hook split ring and hook hanger, and then hold a lighter to it while keeping the hook straight out so the tubing holds it straight out from the bait. With the front hook removed and the back hook straight out, the prop will act like a weed guard and you will be amazed how thick of weeds you will be able to get this thing through. You would think that the hooking percentage would go way down but there is very little difference, still has 2 more hooks than a buzz bait. I do this all the time with musky sized prop baits like a top raider or pacemaker and it is one of the best ways to get fish out of the slop. For bass fishing this is a great way to show the fish something different if you are on a body of water where people regularly throw buzz baits. Give it a try you will be surprised how well it works. One tip is to cast into an open pocket and get the prop working before you hit the weeds, if you land right into some slop then you will most likely get hung up. Second vote for spro swivels, those are what I use for tying musky leaders with 100-200lbs floro and I have never ever had one fail, not expensive either.

If you are worried about it than do what I do and fish with 15-20ft mono/floro leaders. If you haven’t already, play around with using mono instead of floro for your leader material. The only time I will use floro is if I am using a jerkbait or if I’m using 60-200lbs floro as a musky/ pike leader. Everything else is mono because it holds knots better, has better shock resistance, and gives that little bit more stretch to help them stay pinned. The benefits of floro is vastly overrated In my opinion, people just assume they need to use it because that’s what pros and tackle companies tell them to buy.

Don’t mean to hijack this thread but I’m looking at getting a new heavy flipping rod as well. The two I have been looking at the most have been the dobyns Sierra 766 flip or a Shimano zodias 7’8” extra heavy. I would love to get an expride but I can’t find one anywhere online that is in stock, also thought about getting a champion xp 766c but it’s hard to get myself to spend over 200 on a bass rod when I’d rather buy another musky setup. Does anyone have experience with any of these rods? Will be using them for punching and heavier duty flipping/pitching. For punching I had been using a 7’10” h st croix swimbait rod rated up to 4oz with a tranx 300 on it and although it definitely got the fish out of the cover with ease, it is way too much for the application. I own a lot of dobyns rods and love them but I have also liked every Shimano rod I have owned so I’m up for either.

Yea like on a pitching or football jig

Generally I’ll throw them on a 4/0- 5/0 super line hook, keeps the bait down but still gives it the right action.

Another vote for yo zuri. I’ve caught some really nice brown trout on that bait in the streams around here.

The D walker is great, I would use it so much more if it came in a real perch color. The baits you guys have already said all work but I will add 2 more that I have had great success with. The first would be the classic salt shaker, really hard kick and comes in some great colors, and the other being the xzone swammer. The harder thump of stiffer plastics can be great in some situations but don’t overlook the softer ones, every single one of the biggest fish I have caught on a swim jig has been with a keitech as a trailer.

Most of the time I will either fish it weightless or with a nail weight in one end which is technically a neko rig although people have been doing that way longer than companies came up with the name neko to sell nail weights. Either way I do it I will always put an O ring on the bait which makes it last 10x longer. I really don’t like weighted wacky hooks, I just don’t think it gets a fraction of the bites of a nail weight. One very under used technique is using a wacky rigged senko as a jig trailer. Some of the biggest jig fish I have ever caught were using a senko as a trailer, either wacky or just threaded on. My number one smallmouth dropshot bait is a 3” senko wacky rigged which is another thing I rarely see people doing. If I am dropshotting I will usually go with an off brand senko as it is more profile and twitching action that gets their attention as opposed to the shimmy on the fall. Usually for off brand I will go with a BPS sticko or a yum dinger but any 3” will work as long as you can get the colors you want.

I have had success with both of the works you are talking about. I strictly use the strike king fat baby finesse worm for shakey heads now, it has outfishes trick worms on way too many trips for me not to throw it. It has almost a little spoon on the end of the tail that wags around when you shake or drag it and the fish can’t stand it. I think it is 5.5” so in between the trick and finesse worm. It is a little more expensive than zoom stuff but it’s worth it in my opinion. I’ve caught some great smallmouth, largemouth, 26” walleye, and a 19lbs channel cat. If I just need to get bit that is the bait I pick up.