PaulVE64

River smallies are the best. Bring a spook and a whopper plopper. Swim jigs, soft plastic flukes, tube jigs and senkos/yum dingers. Green pumpkin, white, black. Oh - and some black maribou jigs

I nearly caught a bat night fishing a jitterbug.

Med light is what I prefer for river smallies

Fj Uni Loop But I should learn the palomar and I use the perfection loop once a year

Yes and yes

You're a beauty

Most of the time that I'm fishing uphill it's a shelf. I always try to throw as parallel as possible. If I cant do that I pop the lure after 1st contacting the bottom of the "hill" I'm trying to pop and drop on slack line that is reeled in enough to keep me above the bank. Fish from the depths can strike and the smaller bank fish might reaction strike it. Hope that helps.

Backpack to carry tackle. -2 x plano 3620 boxes -Asset wt jig heads with light wire hooks -2/0 up to 5/0 ewg hooks -worm hooks -rattling 1/8 oz to 1/4 oz tube jigheads w/ 60 deg. line ties. - Soft plastics (craws & worms) - 2 x DT4 Squarebill - 2 x 1/8 oz black maribou jig Maybe add split shot and nose wts and that's probably what I always carry. LOL Edit - and pliers

Oh, To have $100 in new gear and to be Huck Finn again! At 9 yr old can he go tramp the river with buddies?

The new Ultegra (but it's a spinning reel)

Budget?

Let me speak for all the river fisherman and say that the best jig fishing bite happens when the tube bite is on. Nothing else like close quarters combat.

You need to spend time throwing the lightest tube jig you can throw and dead stick thru rocks w/ current (1/8 oz to 1/4 oz ) On a second rod you want a 4" yum dinger texas rigged and weightless if possible. Smallies also love hellgramites in the spring and summer. And if you have shallow water any topwater, all day, everyday Lastly- a 1/16 oz black maribou jig in the fall thru to late spring is my favorite at that season

Drop shot a fluke

It wasnt until I got my first decent rod, a stC Avid. Then I could feel bottom

I stopped using fluoro. I catch river smallies in Ontario, so there's that

Red Devil spoon (mic drop)

Since sensitivity isnt an issue any broom handle I own can do the job for me. So I can use my cheapest rod if I want to. And it's the most fun

If they will hit with the swivel then use it

At 16 yrs of age a buddy of mine got me into wilderness camping, like 2 wk trips in Algonquin Park. On our 1st trip north we were about 5 days out & at the end of one portage their lay two fishing rods, reels and a tackle box. We hadn't seen anyone in days so we spent another fortnight eating lake trout. I still have that Garcia Mitchell 300 and use the 2pc 6'-6" Shakespeare ugly stick SP 1100 01A13CM. They're at least 42 yrs old.

Unweighted

This man knows the frustration, I've had the same thing

Senko > ned rig

I havent used anything but split shot this year.

I think too much emphasis is placed on the blank. The walls of the blank can only get so thin, but the technologies they employ on that blank and the rest of the hardware they use are also very important to the rods performance. It's very hard to rank rods based on specs. alone. IMO - get them in hand and bring your reel