MGF

Is the type of line really the issue or is it the weight of the line and rod?

I can't say the theory is wrong but I spent half my life shoeing horses and working a forge in the summer heat wearing nothing but cotton jeans and cotton t-shirts...and a leather apron. I'd literally leave a puddle on the ground where I bent over to work on a horses foot. The big disadvantage of the cotton for such work is that it starts on fire easily. Leather and wool are good but they may have something synthetic that's better now...not poly. Poly melts to your body and burns you badly. I guess I never owned any clothes special for fishing or hiking and made due. I'm still doing it.

Haven't see or heard any around here this year. I've seen other 17 year hatches that were pretty crazy.

No. I fish the river more than anything. The water is low enough during the summer that I can fish while standing in the river as well as I can fish standing in the boat. The boat is my transportation.

Sorry I'm answering before reading all the other replies but I wear jeans. Somehow I got in the habit of fishing the middle of the day even in the heat. Jeans do not stop me from taking a dip...or even wading. Jeans are what I wear to wade then river. BTW beer hydrates, just not as well as water. I spent yesterday afternoon on the river and it was hot. I wore jeans, t-shirt and I had a light long sleeve shirt for sun protection. I skipped hauling the cooler but I had a jug of water. Numerous times I dipped my hat and shirt in the river. A wet shirt and hat does a lot to cool you off. In the summer I often park the boat and wade an area of the river to fish it. It makes for good fishing and fights the heat. I do it in jeans. I hate room temp water. At home I keep 2 gallons in the fridge. I usually have a cooler of ice in the boat...and cold drinks. Yesterday I wanted to travel light so I skipped the cooler and just brought a jug of water that was cold when I left home. It was not a good situation. The warm water was hard to choke down and left me still feeling thirsty...though...it apparently kept me hydrated because I'm alive and feeling fine. LOL

I've always done a LOT of hunting and fishing alone. I think that's mostly because I happened to be alone when I decided that I wanted to go fishing or hunting. there are people who would tell you that I'm a "loner" but I'm not. What I am is "independent". But there have been so many treasured times with great fishing/hunting partners that I wouldn't trade for anything. I guess you have to put me down for both.

A weightless Cream worm. My dad used to run line through them with a needle and tie 2 or 3 hooks in them. My reel was a Mitchel 300 Mine also was during the Johnson administration.

I've read that smallmouth will travel a long way and I've seen some evidence of it in my river. It's just small and shallow and good wintering spots are hard to find. I don't think they go upstream to spawn but I think they head down to toward the reservoir looking for better wintering areas. last fall when things dies up here I went down where the river is larger and deeper in the upper part of the reservoir and caught fish. I don't think it's the same sort of "run" like you see with stripers, whites or walleye but I think they move.

My wife and I used to make some special dive trips in late spring to watch the circus going on around the bluegill spawn. Our typical description of it was that the catfish were trying to sneak up on the bluegill beds while the bluegills went after the bass fry. The bluegills were pretty good size and looking for a fight. I don't remember the bass chasing them much. I'm not saying they don't...just that I didn't see it.

"Learning a river" is saying a mouth full. BTW I'm in the Winamac area and fish the Tippecanoe a lot. I've been here for 25 years and I've fished it a bunch...fished, canoed and even scuba dived. I know some stretched a lot better than others but I'm always finding stuff I missed. Also the river is always changing. From season to season and year to year it can almost seem like a completely different river. Sometimes from week to week it's a different river. My son and I were out there today and half of the fish we caught were in areas where I hadn't caught fish before...or don't remember catching them. I would have been tempted to blow right by them. I could go on and on but nothing holds my interest like the river. I've got some decent lakes around but I almost always head for the river...besides my little flat bottom boat fits right in there.

I always have a tough time in our river this time of year. Typically the water is high and dirty compared to what it is in summer. During this time I usually do best with t rigs (mostly tubes). It seems like the fish are strongly associating to the bottom. I'm dragging rather than hopping. Once things warm, slow and clear just a bit hopping or swimming jigs and tubes will be the thing. We've had a week of warm weather and no rain since the river abruptly came up a couple weeks ago so that time is probably now. My biggest brown bass last year was caught on a black and blue arkie head jig on 5/24. Your river might treat you completely differently but this is what I see.

Zoom makes by favorite soft plastics and accounts for the majority of the plastic I use.

I most often use it in the river for brown bass and mine is a "split shot" rig. I use it when the water is low and clear. The bait is usually some little finesse worm on a 1/0 worm hook. I just crimp a small split shot on the line. I've never had a problem with the line being weakened.

I've fished the "tiny child" quite a bit with good results. Where I apply it is more or less an alternative to a ned rig...because it's more snag proof. To me a wacky worm is a completely different thing. The one down side is that I can't get it to skip worth a darn. A weightless worm skips great...even better when wacky rigged. When using a screw in weight the weighted end of the tiny child just wants to dig straight into the water. I guess I haven't tried with a weight that I can completely bury in the plastic. Not everyone. I have a large bag of sluggos that live with the other standard plastics that are always in my boat but...at least the way I fish it, it's more of a jerk bait. I use it similarly to how I would a fluke. It just doesn't do the same dance on the sink as the sticks and worms that I would wacky rig...I guess that doesn't mean that the fish wouldn't like it. LOL

I don't know why a neko wouldn't work as long as there isn't too much vegetation. I've caught an awful lot of fish on a "tiny child" rig choosing it because it's similar to a ned or neko but more snag resistant. I've used it from the bank, boat and while wading.

When I was a kid we used to vacation in northern Wisconsin and I caught about a million pike on a red/white daredevil. I don't know why I ever quit using them. I might give one a try again.

When I first started following my dad around the bank bass fishing he was catching them on a natural colored creme worm that he tied himself. It was the first lure that I used. I and I thought I still had one or two laying around but couldn't find them. I ordered some last year and tried my hand at tying them up the way he did. I wish I had ordered some other colors but I'll get around to that. He used to run a line up through the worm with a needle. He ended up with 2 or 3 hooks with the line running through the worm. I played with it and got it to work with two hooks but I'm pretty sure he had three. He's 83 and still fishing but he doesn't remember how he tied them up. It's just a floating worm pre-rigged in a much nicer way than the factory rigs. I always fished it with a swivel...shame on me but it was a small snap/swivel. The swivel does two things. It keeps this crazy thing from twisting your line as you twitch it through the water and it puts a little weight in the nose which helps get the action that I'm after. You could just use a worm hook like any other floating worm but the action this gets is a little different. I don't know if the fish care but I like it. Someday I'll learn how to post pics on this site.

Big difference between giving advice to beginner bass fishermen "newer guys" and introducing young children to fishing. When My kids were young we hung out at the lake or river. We did fish but we also climbed trees, caught frogs and went swimming. My dad started me a little different. I'm sure there are some pictures of my as a toddler with a sunfish someplace but my earliest real memories are at 5 or 6 years of age following my dad around the bank as he put a stringer of bass together. I remember very clearly that I wanted to do what he was doing. At first I spent most of my time fighting my way through the brush and trying to untangle my gear. Eventually my skills improved. Once in a while I'd make a cast that missed the trees and I even caught a few. I don't know that my father was trying to "get me hooked" as much as he was just trying to catch a few bass after work. I wanted to go along.

The way I most often fish it is a pretty specific presentation and it doesn't have anything to do with zman hype. I fish it in the river. It's just heavy enough (usually 1/20 oz) to just barely bump bottom as it moves with the current...bumping and wobbling with the tail/hook mostly up and nose down. It's even fairly snag resistant. Without the buoyant plastic it just isn't the same presentation.

Me too...no place convenient to get minnows and, unless arrangements are made in advance, you'll probably only get crappie minnows. Once in a while when we get a year when I'm catching a good number of walleye in the river I'll trap some minnows and use them for walleye. I used a few crawdads many years ago. I've bought minnows to take the grandkids crappie fishing. Life is so much easier without live bait but my feeling aren't hurt a bit if other folks use it. When I was a kid we kept night crawlers. I mostly rigged them like a carolina rig and put a shot of air in them. We also used to tip a marabou jig with a leech. Can't get those around here either.

Of course. Some stuff on the net needs to be taken with a grain of salt...or just ignored.

My most used genuine zman ned jigs are 1/20 oz and 1/15 oz. No prime numbers there.

Wow rough crowd. LOL. My wife and I have caught a lot of nice brown bass on the river with a ned. She fishes little else but I usually find something else that works just as well...just to avoid the "one trick pony. thing.

Good one Glenn. That said, I think you do a great job on all your vids even though I don't usually comment.

Having been a retail "brick and mortar" I can tell you that it isn't always possible. Boy could I tell some stories. What brick and mortars need to start doing is charging for the services that people do value. They should charge for providing the opportunity to see touch and try the product. If they field questions they should charge for that consultation.