Ogandrews

I’m a life long st croix fan and I think you would be set with the 7’1” mh Xf legend tournament. In my fishing I base the power of the rod im using more on the wire size of hook, line size, and cover I’m fishing in rather than the weight of lure. If you are a fan of lighter rods than another great option would be a dobyns champion 733. For a long time I only use st croix because that’s what I grew up thinking was the best, but over the last few years I have been using a lot of dobyns and the quality is right there with st croix. The 733 is advertised as a MH but in my opinion it’s almost half way between a medium and a MH. Plenty of backbone to set jigs but it’s got a pretty soft tip which can be a great advantage. You can also get it in a shorter model but I prefer a little bit longer rod for jigs/t rigs

To test out sensitivity before I have taken an ewg hook, cut the point off, and t rigged a senko or some other plastic I had lying around. I would then go into my basement and find my girlfriends cat and proceed to flip the senko near the cat until he would swat at it. Kinda just like fishing a bed fish, each time it would get close to him the more aggressive he would become until he is straight up trying kill your lure. Idk if this is exactly the best way to test sensitivity but it works. Minnesota winters are long, you need to get creative sometimes to make it through them without going insane.

They make this in the e6x as well which is more budget friendly and still an amazing rod

Your correct I did mean to type 733, literally was looking at my 733 sitting on floor of my house while typing that

Rod wise I would go with a Dobyns Sierra 733c. It’s a little light for a medium heavy so it’s perfect for what you are talking about. I have fished braid to a leader for awhile and I never had an issue with the knot using a blood knot. Never notice it going through guides besides a slight noise. If you are fishing 12 lbs leader than pretend you are fishing a 12lbs mainline. Tone back to hook set and you will be completely fine. Use mono or sunline fc100 for your leaders and that is all the shock absorption you need for most baits. I always use 10-15ft leaders to start with so I can retie a bunch of times. Another thing is for baitcasters I always use power pro maxcuatro, it’s not cheap but it’s the best in the business in my opinion, incredible distance and feel as well as being smaller diameter. Shoot me a pm or reply to this if you have more questions I could talk about this topic all day.

Rods- dobyns Sierra, shimano curado/slx, st croix mojo bass. Also look at the 2018 g loomis e6x, I have seen some for around 180 lately and that is an insanely nice rod for the money. 90% of my rod arsenal is made up of these 4 lines of rods reels- spinning get a shimano nasci or ultegra depending on how much you want to spend. For a casting reel just get a curado k it will do everything and you’ll never be disappointed with it. Other good options are the slx dc and the other slx models depending on your price range.

I use a 6’8” medium xf st croix mojo bass with 20lbs PowerPro maxcuatro to a 6-8lbs floro leader. Braid can be a pain in the winter if it’s really cold because it will freeze up but I usually don’t have a big issue. If it is super cold like 0-10 them I’ll just tie a 20-30ft leader and I don’t have as much of an issue.

I use my 70 for stream trout fishing in the winter, cast 1/16th oz jigs with 2.5 power tubes, little husky jerks, little spinners with no issue

I really hope they do that here in mn. In the south where I live sometimes in the little reservoirs the ice will be off as early as mid-late March on war, springs, would love to be able to legally fish after work some days before may 9th

This fall i got my hand/ arm completely tore up because I had about half my forearm down a 41” pikes mouth trying to get a hook out after I dropped my pliers in the water. The second I grabbed the hook he bit down and did a gator roll. I haven’t bled that badly or for that long ever, ended up putting superglue on 5 different cuts on my hand and I still have a little piece of pike tooth stuck in my left hand. Fun times

It’s good line, pretty manageable but not my favorite. I use PowerPro maxcuatro on everything but my really light spinning rods where I either use super slick or suffix 832. In my experience I get more casting distance and less backlashes with maxcuatro, but super slick is still a good step above regular PP. I still like 832 better because it’s so supple but that’s just personal preference

I don’t have champions but I do have multiple sierras and they are incredible for the price. I have both a 733c and a 735c. The 3 is great for finesse jigs up to standard wire jigs, mostly throw 1/4 and 3/8 on it. The 735 is great for heavier wire jigs like the different no jacks from dirty jigs, although it isn’t too stout of a rod to throw standard wire jigs. Definitely wouldn’t throw a finesse jig on it though. Both these rods are super versatile, the 735 is one of the best frog rods you can get for the money. The 733 I throw chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, mid size keitechs, heavier wire shaky heads, t rigged senkos, even used it to vertically fish jigging raps for walleyes before

7’6” ml xf st croix eyecon, use it for all my lighter finesse stuff. I really like a longer rod, helps detect bites you wouldn’t otherwise notice because the rod tip deflects with light bites. Great for playing fish on light line too

If I was going to the lake for the first time I would start my efforts picking apart the bay to the south of the dam, looks like there is a lot of fish holding structure. Another thing to think of is that the water in the upper end of the reservoir could be warming up quicker due to it being shallower and most likely a mud/ silt bottom. Warmer water could easily attract bait and bass. This can be especially true if you have high/ rising water. Give fishing the shallower flats a try, if I was there I would probably cover water with a 3.8 keitech or shallow squarebill. Let us know how it goes

I have a st croix eyecon 7’6” ml xf that I use for real finesse bass stuff as well as lighter jigs and live bait rigs for walleye, incredible rod for the money. They make that same model in the legend walleye, maybe the legend bass as well. I really like the longer rod for finesse fishing because you get more subtle deflection of the rod tip when a fish bites, helps you notice bites that you otherwise wouldn’t have felt. Takes a little getting used to to notice the difference between your lures deflection and a subtle bite, but once you get a hang of it you will put more fish in the boat especially walleye who often bite quite light. Longer rod also helps with casting really light baits. Pair it up it’s some 8-10lbs braid and you’ll be set for both species.

I get people call them swicks all the time that’s just not what they are, should have typed out shaman o as shaymin-o Born and raised

There’s a couple that drive me nuts people calling rapalas Rap-You-las, idk how they can get the you sounds out of a word with only A’s but it happens around here people calling line thread people calling suicks swicks people calling spinnerbaits spinners people calling tubes squid baits walleye guys calling largemouth green carp people calling all lures rapalas, seems like every time I’m fishing in northern MN some guy will come up to me and ask what kind of Rapala their biting on today People calling shimano Shaman-o even heard a couple guys say st Croix literally how it was spelled, saying the x and everything. Took all my willpower not to burst out laughing when I heard that

Ive watched every video they have put out in the last 3 years or so, best fishing channel on YT

Lived in Ames and fished around the Dsm area and up to around ft dodge. In my experience the fishing is no different than where I’m from in Minnesota technique wise. Real difference is there are about 10,000 less lakes, almost all the water i fished was way more pressured and much less productive, and a lot dirtier. Another big difference I noticed is that there seemed to be way more of a keep every single fish you catch mentality in the areas I was fishing, easily could contribute to the water being much less productive. I did really enjoy fishing the Des Moines River west and north of Ames, really pretty area when your outside of the city. Same thing with brushy creek, really cool body of water. I’m planning on making a trip in the next few weeks to the upper iowa river near decorah to do some early season walleye fishing, one thing you guys definitely have right is year round fishing seasons. Really is a shame people didn’t take better care of the recourse they have with the dsm river, has the potential to be an amazing walleye river but I always got the impression that it has degraded into pretty much a put and take fishery.

Out of curiosity when you guys say meanmouth do you mean smallmouth/largemouth hybrid or smallmouth/spot? I’ve heard both called meanmouths

Main goals for this year is to break the state record catch and release pike and to hit the 50” mark for musky. I was only a half inch off of the record last year for my biggest pike and I saw 2 that would have easily broken the record. I have had so many musky follow that we’re in the 50-55” range it makes me sick that none hooked up. I’d also really like to catch my first tiger, planning on spending some time on the stocked metro lakes to get one. Bass wise I’d really like to hit the 6lbs mark with largemouth or 5lbs with smallmouth, but I’m only really going to be targeting them in the summer when I don’t have the time to make it out to a Musky fishery and it’s too hot to pike fish. One last goal is to get confident using bass style glide baits for pike and musky, I know they have to work.

Bitsy bug is seriously one of the best jigs ever made, its the jig that got me started jig fishing. Such an effective bait for so little. My favorite trailer is a strike king rage menace with about a half inch bit off. Favorite is a 1/4 oz flip in green pumpkin craw

8lbs pp super slick to 6-8lbs mono. Wish they made maxcuatro in 8lbs

All of my bass rods are in the 100-180 range, with almost all of them being either dobyns Sierra’s or st Croix mojo bass. I’ve got some other st Croix’s like triumphs and eyecons, as well as a couple Shimano SLX. I really think that this price point gets you a great amount of sensitivity and weight reduction without being too heavy on the wallet. I agree that you don’t need high end gear for most moving baits but I think jerkbaits are a different story. It’s really important to have a rod that has a really fast tip to give the bait the right action but you need one light enough to load up so the fish don’t throw or bend out the hooks. Not easy to find that, st Croix makes a great one in all of their bass lines same with Shimano. Bass reels I see the same way. Most of my rods have curado k’s or curado 70’s, still have a couple citicas also that are still going strong. Great quality for the money and it’s not going to give out on me after a season of fishing it hard. Musky and pike gear is a different story. I only like buying higher end musky rods because it’s so much more comfortable using a lighter st Croix legend tournament instead of using a cheaper rod weighing 12-15 ounces. Same thing with reels, I only use tranx or Calcutta’s. This kind of fishing is really hard on your gear you need reels that can take the abuse.

For swimbait hooks I like dirty jigs products. For the small ones the guppy head is great, for 3.8-4.3 I like the Matt Allen finesse head and for 4.3 on up I like the Matt Allen swimbait head. Color wise if the water is clear I like Shad/shiner colors like silver flash minnow, Shad, or any other baitfish variation they have. If I think the fish are feeding on perch than sun gill is a killer, also a great color in stained water. Another great color in either stained or clear water is chartreuse blue. Size wise for the swimbait heads it just depends on what depth I am fishing, I’ll carry 1/8th to 3/8ths usually but will go heavier if it’s really deep or fast current. A good under spin option is getting the screw in blades, can’t remember the brand but you can find them on TW. Another good option is the megabass screwhead, almost half way in between a regular head and an under spin I have had amazing success with it.