MGF

I'm of a different mind on it all. I hate rods much over 6.6 because they don't fit in my truck. I don't have a large boat so the most I carry is 4 or5 rods and none of them cost very much money. I can skip with what I have. I'm not saying that it isn't easier when the weight is right for the rod or that some rods aren't easier than others but I can skip a 1/20 oz ned rig on a medium spinning rod. I don't mean bounce off the water once or twice I mean skip real nice...and far. With a bait caster I have to be a little more mindful of weight vs rod action but I still prefer a shorter rod especially for accuracy.

I haven't skipped many baits that I would think of as "unskippable" but a couple surprised me. One is a split shot rig, especially a splitshot rigged tube. Another is a double fluke rig. It actually skips pretty good. This fall wasn't so good on the river but I caught the heck out of them last fall skipping the double fluke up under shoreline cover.

IMO the line to use starting out skipping a bait caster is fairly heavy mono. It's easier to get a backlash out than with braid and it's much less expensive. Since I started skipping a few years ago I've been keeping one BS set up with 17 pound mono. It works fine for fishing a "swim jig" in the shallow water of my river and the setup skips like a dream. While spinning is generally safer I would say my swim jig on the bc skips better...there are skips and there are slides. The swim jig/bc combo will slide. I don't know if the fish care but it's really fun for me. I think the taught line (thumb pressure) actually helps the bait stay up. once you let go. I have a pond I go to primarily just to cast because there aren't many fish in it anymore. I do more practice with spinning. Sure it's less dangerous for the line but I actually think it's harder to get just the right trajectory for a nice skip because you have less control over the line.

I used to use a live leech as a trailer on a small marabou jig. The only other way I used live bait for game fish is like a carolina rig except that I nose hook a live nightcrawler. We used to use a "worm blower" to pump a little air into the worm so it would float off the bottom a little. In shallow water I would fish the nose hooked crawler weightless or with only a small splitshot. Neither method is good for heavy cover and all sorts of non target fish will take your worm piece at a time. LOL. Still I caught a lot of fish using both methods.

Give me summer. I catch the biggest late spring and early fall and I like the reduced crowds but I like being warm and I like the numbers in summer.

I couldn't even say we average 3-5 ft. Like I said right now I'd consider anything over 3 ft a "hole". The low water this fall really slowed our fishing because it takes so long to get down the river. There are long section of water that's only inches deep and some place where we even need to get out and walk. At a normal water level there are places 5 ft deep. I think I could fine one or two spots that might go 10 ft but I don't believe there's anything as deep as 15 ft. The bottom line is they're catching fish down river and I'm not. I had planned to fish down there last Monday but went to hitch the boat and found I had a flat tire on the truck.

I don't know what river the OP is talking about but my river isn't anything at all like the Tennessee. A hole right now is 3 or 4 ft deep and not very large. I know of one or two places deeper but they're really small. And those "holes" can be far apart.

I think it's going to depend on the river. I know smallmouth will migrate assuming they have someplace to migrate to. Does that mean that 100% of them migrate? I doubt it but the only catching happening in my river right now is 20 miles down river. It's not any warmer down there. They're not even catching them deep...but maybe deeper than what we have available up here. I don't think bass could survive a bad winter in my section of river, especially, as low as the water is now. As far as I know you should still be able to catch them in their wintering area. They may feed but can still be caught. I've caught bass through the ice.

They go to larger/deeper water to winter. In this case I think down river toward the reservoir. I was told they're catching them now. From what I read river/stream smallmouth sometimes migrate a long way.

I do most of my fishing in a small shallow river (the Tippecanoe). I've had some of my best days in October and we've had years where we caught bass all the way into December. This year it's already done and I can't find any fish. I took a trip down river to the reservoir and I talked to guys who are catching SMB. I stopped a tackle shop and they said the bass moved down early this year. Usually I'm hunting this time of year with only the occasional river trip if we get really nice weather. This year I tried to keep fishing but the fish left town. I was going to haul the boat down river yesterday to try to get in on some of this but after getting all packed up found I had a flat tire when I went to hitch the boat...so I took the day off work just to get a flat fixed. LOL

I married a girl who already like fishing and the outdoors. The only potential down side is that you buy a lot more tackle.

Without a specific objective metrics to define "expert" it becomes a subjective term. That's ok. It's just a word that you can use if and when it's useful. When seeking information or maybe a guide I might go to somebody that I consider an "expert" on the topic or the water/species in question. Somebody else may or may not agree with my assessment. Being subjective it's also probably going to be relative. Who decides whether or not you are an expert? I would say that it's your peers. If they consider you an expert I guess you are an expert relative to them.

I didn't hunt this year. I used to enjoy it when I could spend some time in the National forest wandering the big woods but local hunting where I only have room to sit and wait just bores me to tears. I have a couple of stands on my own (small) property and I never sat in them. I just kept fishing. It may pay off though. I took a ride down river today and found where the brown bass are this time of year. Now if we can just get some decent weather before winter comes full on.

The only non-river that I've fished this season has been one little pond near the house. But I think I see what you're saying. The section of river I fish most seems lifeless. I don't see anything moving. I don't know if the weather has things shut down that bad or if the fish really have vacated this section of river.

I was putting small plastics on a small lead head jigs back as far as I can remember. That's pretty close to what a ned rig is. My current favorite NED version is what they're calling the "tiny child rig" With a screw in weight in one end and a texas rigged hook in the other end I don't think the buoyancy of elaztech really comes into play.

I could tolerate a little more weather if we were catching but we're not. I floated several miles of river last Sat without a single bite. Sun., Mon, And Wed I fished the same pond and caught one bass. Yesterday I fished another river from the bank around a dam for a couple of hours and never got a bite. It's like the fish left town when the temps dropped. Today I'm driving down river near the reservoir to check out a boat ramp I just learned of. Maybe the fish moved down there. LOL

After some other looking around it appears that most of the clubs are primarily about tournaments? I guess I'm looking for something else. I see the value in some networking but I don't have any interest in tournaments and I probably can't afford to play that game anyway.

I saw Glen's thread above referencing a list but I didn't find a list. Any info on norther Indiana clubs would be appreciated.

Back when I fished Arkansas Lake Norfork a lot I used a lot of cranks that haven't been used since. A lot has to do with where I fish. The lakes I fish here are super weedy but most of my fishing is on a shallow river. I have a small selection of square bills, other cranks and jerk baits but the pike take them from me and I cna usually do as well or better on something else. I don't use spinner baits much anymore either though they were my "go-to" bait in the Norfork days. Why? because almost everybody I see on the river is throwing a small crank or a spinner bait.

This time of year the weather just starts getting too rough for my wife and I to do much fishing. Cold and windy today with rain later...and really windy tomorrow. Another weekend shot. I have some ice fishing tackle but I really don't have much interest in using it. I want summer back!

I've been trying to stay away from the NED rig this year. It's been so good for us the last couple of years I start feeling dependent on it and get the urge to use something else. My wife has still been using it but I've been using other baits trying to catch as many fish. It's not easy. In our shallow river that floaty TRD on a 1/20 oz head can be just the ticket. It's just the right size and when the weight is right for the depth and the current it kind of floats down the river just barely ticking the bottom.

I guess they were my first too...in the 60's.. My father used to tie them with 2 or 3 hooks in them and the line threaded through the worm. We fished them unweighted and caught an awful lot of bass. I bought a couple bags of Scoundrels this past spring and tied some up.

Cool thread. I never had the chance to fish in Florida but my wife and I were avid cave divers at one time. We spent a fair amount of time in Florida sinks and springs and we were in the water with quite a few alligators. No real big ones and none ever bothered us but I recognize the possibility is there...I was hunted by a racoon once...honest! Some of the springs were we dived were in state parks and I think the park removes the large and/or troublesome animals.

I think I live in the wrong part of the world!

What part of the country/type of river are you in? Our river is on the small shallow side and I'm thinking bass go way down river to deeper water when it gets cold. Things shut of a couple weeks ago here. Water was 52 last Saturday and I floated/fished several miles of river (that I know very well) and never got a bite. 60 in two days would be stretching it in the very best of times. I can tell you what I've read. That is that bass will stack up in or near wintering areas and you can really catch a bunch if you find them. I don't think my section of river has anything like that. LOL