Scott804

The Flatnose minnows are good too. I have consistently caught bigger fish on the minnow than the worm, but that could just be the fact that I have fished the minnow more.

Still holding out! This is the longest I have ever seen them stay in stock on TW.

Looks like there are also some flatworms in stock on TW too. They are included in the 15% sale.

For LM and Spots I like Luckycraft's American Shad For SM I like Luckycraft's Pink Dragon Gill

I fish jerkbaits year round and one of the coolest parts about jerkbait fishing is that every jerkbait has a time and a place. Vision 110 is a staple, and so are it's other variants. Make sure to get a silent, they are ridiculously deadly in clear enough water. Anything Luckycraft. I like the flash pointers for dirtier water. Jackall Rerange is another must for me. Casts a country mile and has great action. The new Berkley Stunna 112 is a must have in my opinion. It is a slow sink, warm water jerkbait that fills a huge hole in the current market. I think it is going to do some serious damage this next spring. Hank Cherry used it to win this past Bassmaster Classic. Great colors too, one of the few jerkbaits you can find in a red craw pattern. Those are my big 4, as for other jerkbaits, Rapalas are consistent and good but I am yet to find them to be anything special. Maybe I just need to fish them more. The Rapala Ripstop does a little spybait shimmy similar to the Stunna. Spro McStick 110 has been good in colder water for me. Yo-Zuri 3DB jerkbaits make really good box fillers at only 10$, with good hardware and action. Ima Flit deserves an honorable mention for sure. If you want to try spinning rod jerkbaits, Duo Realis Rozante 77sp is a staple. Vision 110 Jr is great. The Megabass Trick Darter X80 is another great small jerkbait that has a different profile than the 110.

I like a hard kicking paddletail. A lot of people use grubs and craws and those can be good in cold water, but most of the time I use a swimjig I want lots of action. If you get a paddletail that kicks hard enough it will make the skirt of the jig shake and give you a secondary action that I find works really well in the warmer months. D-Walker & Fat Impact Keitech work great.

I have the Megabass Orochi Ronin, which is a 6'8 rod built for weightless senko skipping. The shorter rod certainly adds some benefit towards accuracy and ease of skipping, but it is certainly no game changer in my opinion. I find myself using my 6'11 and 7'0 rods just as much for skipping unless I am in a tight area which isn't too often.

Nice write up! Think I'm going to buy one of these this winter, Kayak Tournament scene seems to be booming. I want a Hobie but that price tag is terrifying and so the Sportsmen looks like the perfect holdover kayak to use while I save for one. Good to hear that extra 500 is worth it!

Thinner wire hooks will penetrate and stay stuck much easier, but if you don't play the fish correctly they will bend out. When you hear guys complain about the Megabass Vision 110 hooks, it is exactly this, they will bend out if you force them. It is incredibly difficult to train yourself to "trust" treblehooks, but the thin wire ones will stick em and stay stuck as long as they aren't hooked super funky, it is just a matter of trusting the hooks. Maybe try some thinner wire hooks if coming undone is your issue.

Not sure how unorthodox this is because I am not a huge crankbait guy, but I like to pause my retrieve for a second and then give it one or two jerks like I would a jerkbait. I've gotten a lot of strikes doing that, especially in peak crankin' season. I know some guys basically do the opposite of this and crank jerkbaits, but I have never had any luck doing that.

In my opinion BFS is just not super efficient. It is really more so for fun over anything else. I can't think of a single scenario where you would be better off using BFS than something else. However, fighting a half pound smallmouth that just annihilated a jr size spook is a lot more fun on BFS than it is on spinning for me. That being said, my BFS setup is pretty budget so maybe the higher end stuff can outwork spinning gear situationally.

I have one. One of my favorite rods. Probably in my top 3. Gave me the confidence I needed to finally learn a jig! I would recommend it.

Me and my brother did an experiment where we had two buckets, one white & the other black and we put a small largemouth in each bucket for a couple of minutes (with an aerator) and the fish got lighter and darker depending on which bucket it had been in. It was pretty interesting how quickly they are able to adapt. We did the same thing with a rainbow trout and had the same result. Very interesting.

Sunline Shooter / Defier with KVD L&L is what I run and it is great.

I've found them to be good for largemouth and smallmouth. Hooked just right, they'll do a cool S wiggle when you shake the rod. I expected smallmouth to love them, but so far flatworms have proven better for smallmouth. Maxscent in general is just the real deal imo. You'll really like the Ronin. Surprisingly versatile rod and super fun. I like throwing the silent 110 jr for smallmouth on it.

Can't go wrong with a clouser minnow.

Glad to see everyone else in this thread is as sick with bass fishing as I am!

I tried out a friend of mine's Dobyn's Fred Roumbanis Frog Rod and it was spectacular. Made me really want one but I have not dived deep enough into froggin' to be able to drop that type of money on a frog rod, but that thing was sweet and definitely made me want a frog specific rod. Great rod if you are interested at that pricepoint though. You should check out the Jackall Kaera. Around the size of those Jr frogs but it weighs 1/2oz and walks way way way way better than some of the smaller frogs on the market that can be a pain to get walking right.

Interesting how many people in this thread are talking about how they don't dropshot from the bank. It is one of my favorite bank fishing tools. If you can't get bit on a dropshot, try shorting your leader to the weight and putting on a tiny 3 inch swimbait and just slow reeling. Or try a wacky rigged senko on a dropshot. Usually they are biting one of these two styles of dropshotting if they aren't biting the ol' roboworm/flatworm/dreamshot. If not, switch to something else. The dropshot is a very versatile tool and there are lots of modifications you can make that will make a large difference before switching to another type of lure though. That being said, sometimes the fish have just been hammered on a dropshot in prior days if you are bank fishing and there is fishing pressure, so you might need to go down to lighter line or just try something different all together.

Yesterday morning I caught a ton of smallmouth on a little booyah pond magic buzzbait with a mini toad plastic. In the afternoon I decided to make the switch to a Booyah Padcrasher Jr and it is a great frog on BFS gear. I trimmed the legs super short and it was walking pretty well for me. I got a lot of little "popping" hits from tiny ones and then they would suddenly stop and a larger fish would come by and hammer it. If you don't have BFS gear, the Jackall Kaera is a great option for full size casting gear. Tiny frog, but it weighs 1/2oz and it walks better than any other of the smaller frogs that I have tried, as they usually are a pain to walk. If you don't mind throwing frogs on spinning go for it, but I would recommend checking out getting a budget BFS setup or trying out the Kaera. Both are a great time.

Berkley Stunna is what I mostly am excited about, especially considering it drops late this month. The Gilly looks cool too, although I am skeptical of the way they rig it with the EWG in the side.

I only knew because of a TacticalBassin social media post. They were sold out of white within like an hour or two and black shiner within 6 hours iirc. Those things sell like crazy.

You will definitely always be able to cover water faster on a high speed casting reel, but by nature smallmouth fishing (especially outside of the summer) is going to lean spinning just inherently because of their behavior and more importantly, where they live. You can still cover water with a spinning rod with something like a paddletail, smaller crankbait, or jerkbait and probably be better off with smaller presentations anyways. My main point is that a lot of techniques that would be traditionally used on casting can be downsized for spinning and you might not even need to go there at all. I think that is why most smallmouth anglers lean spinning, because they don't have to go casting. Not to mention you can't throw light line on casting gear very effectively. That being said, it also depends on where you are fishing. Where I fish for smallmouth, it is pretty shallow. I can usually just see them and then just cast at them. I bring a casting rod 1/5 trips maybe, and even then it is mostly just because I want to use casting gear because it is fun, not because it is the ideal choice. I would say most of the time I have to actively put two hands on casting gear more than I do with spinning, ESPECIALLY in a kayak. Casting gear is fun though, it really just comes down to what you want.

Is the rod fast action? Having a slower or whippier rod would probably help you out a bit. Casting slower/faster might help too. Usually there is a sweet spot when it comes to the super light stuff.

I think you are better off going spinning. Dropshot has won 18x the smallmouth tournaments as any other lure outside of a tube (and the tube is still far behind) according to Fish The Moment. Casting gear (outside of power/bubba shotting, but even then, you can probably get away with that on a medium spinning rod by some manufacturer's standards) will eliminate that as an option pretty much entirely so you are already missing out on that if you are dead set on going one way or another. Jerkbaits, which are another important smallmouth tool can also easily be thrown on spinning, and arguably better than they can be on casting. There are plenty of downsized topwaters and jigs, as well as many other types of lures that will work on spinning. If you are on a budget, I wouldn't even consider casting gear. I don't think it is worth it to buy a casting reel under 100$. Casting gear should have power and be heavy duty. Anything under 100 will not grant you that adequately in my opinion. In the end, you should choose what you think you will have the most fun with. I have not seen a piece of bad advice in this thread, just differing opinions. Pick whatever seems like the most fun, that's what it is all about.