PaulVE64

The river systems your fishing might be slower than mine. I'm up near the Great Lakes and we rarely get into greenies on the river systems. Normally only find them in ponds with black crappie and pike.

Wicked fast to tie and smallies love them.

The Medway & Thames Rivers, London, ON Canada

I can take a second rod when I bring a yak or canoe.

The answer

Drag, it needs to be adjusted sometimes

I fish shallow rivers for smallmouth bass. Hooks are almost always light wire or treble and get sharpened alot. Hooksets are sweeps or snaps depending on how much slack I have out. Drag is about 1.5# but I will crank it down for heavy wire hooks or if I'm after pike. I'm not dealing with grass but a few smart ones have cut my line on rocks.

Hahaha, Running braid thru cheap guides could leave you with a burr or knick. Swirl a cotton swab thru that guide and see if anything is catching.

If its catching the last guide then try smaller knots. There are many good knots, I think the FG is the best but find the best one for you

I have a few smaller/lighter blades jigs and for skirts and trailers I used rabbit zonkers. Great action and tough as heck

If its breaking with both mono and fluoro leaders then I'm guessing that the problem is you. Sorry to be blunt but it's almost surely your knot tying. I use an fg knot and I've tied it a thousand times.

This morning I went creek fishing. There is a nice stretch that's tough to get at but I have always done it every other time until today. I just didnt want to climb out of that valley. I turn 60 next spring and I have noticed.

I use about 1.5# of drag for bass with light wire and treble hooks. It goes up for heavy wire hooks and for northern pike.

I'm taking the OP at his word and the question is why skirts and weedguards reduce his jig bites to zero. Gotta admit that's hard to understand but here's my quess. 1. I hate fiber weedguards and I know they reduce my hookups and strikes. Is it possible to reduce hits to zero? I doubt it. 2. I stopped using alot of silicone skirts in favour of feather/flash/fur a few years ago so I'm probably not helpful but if the water is pressured maybe they've stop hitting skirted jigs in the past few seasons but in 5 yrs it's hot again ? Just my guess.

Would a donkey rig or double fluke rig count?

Over the past few summers I've noticed many fishermen mention how were having less rainfall than average in the great lakes region. We must be catching up in July.

I've thrown a size 6 streamer/nymph under an oversized hopper fly on a spinning setup.

Yeah, wish they used the reel seat from the fenwick HMG

When I first got back into fishing I dragged a 1/4 oz jig around for days on end using an old fiberglass rod. When I bought a StC Avid I was blown away by the sensitivity. I swear its like discovering jedi skilz

River fishing for me requires 1/16 - 3/16 wts. All lead

I love StC enough that I can overlook this glitch in several of them. I think it's a Fuji quides they use

Because my river smallies swim with pike and walleye I carry a gripper all the time. Kinda scary when a gar pike gets hooked

Last year I copied these notes about fly designing and totally forgot about it until I found them last week. I read the notes and discovered matching ties in my box. I tied these flies recently so something in those notes stuck.

After hours of chasing an elusive trout these two streamers caught everything.

If anyone saw the latest 'Creek Fishing Adventure' video where John gets soaked before they get back to the ramp then you know what it's like to have the sky open up on you. With that in mind I decided to leave the river on an impulse and as I got the rear hatch of my SUV open the sky also opened up with lightning and golf ball hail. Wow