softwateronly

All I have is weeds and depth, I look for the deepest weeds that grow vertical next to weeds that grow more horizontal. I'd love to find a legal way to add rock piles... scott

Hey send that South a bit, will ya? Wednesday would be great. scott

A couple decent ones from Thursday. Friday started off with a similar size but really slowed down in size and numbers as the sun came out and the wind picked up. scott

Spawn is in full swing on my lake now. water below or around 50 ish - A rig, no blades 1/2 oz football jig w/ RI sweet beaver R2S TB crank water above 50 ish - 1/2 oz pitching jig w/ rage bug 3/4 oz Cali swim jig w/ R2S Dwalker 120 7" Scottsboro swimbait on a 3/4 oz jighead Smallies - 1/2 oz keitech finesse jig 3/4 oz dark sleeper 1/2 oz hair jig scott

Just got this rod. Love it! That tip to power combo is unique to me. I've only thrown a 3/4oz jig in deep water and it performed flawlessly. Glad it has so many other uses. scott

Darth Baiter said it and I don't think it's brought up enough, it's far better to bottom contact fish when the boat isn't moving. Reading the bottom and discerning weeds and rocks from fish needs all the other bait inputs under control or at least it really helps. I'm fortunate enough to have a boat with a trolling motor, but if the wind is moving, I drop an anchor most of the time. Matter of fact, I can fish the bottom fine with a wind blown bow in my line but if I can't hold anchor my "sensitivity" goes out the window. scott

So this is the lake I fish most of the time and the only one I feel like I "know." The water is real clear this time of year, about 18'. The pic has the shading set to 12', so all the blue is under 12' and all the white is over. -Both sides of that little bump out on the right side have produced. -working the point and turn in where it says 14' in the upper left is always holding -right where it has that right angle by the word brush shelter -i also work the entire drop off on the right side, parallel or quarter to it. Yesterday was a 1/2oz pitching jig with a rage bug and a 7" Scottsboro swimbait on a 3/4oz head. Jig was numbers, swimbait was the bigger ones. Got about 10-12 from this area in 3 hours yesterday, overcast, drizzle and air temp in the low 50's.

That feeling/noise isn't so bothersome to me, but I have one reel with 8 carrier braid and that all goes away. In time, I'll move all reels to 8 carrier if this keeps fishing like it does. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Power_Pro_Super8Slick_V2_Braided_Line_Onyx/descpage-PVTW.html scott

I fished a ML 7' Avid with a 2500 Ci4 for almost 10 years and threw (almost) everything on it with decent success. My suggestion after losing dozens of lures to pike's teeth, this has been tied on once the weeds are up and the water clarity drops down to 7-8' is this.... https://www.amazon.com/American-Fishing-Wire-Surflon-Stainless/dp/B000677XUC/ref=asc_df_B000ALGFIK/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312142476371&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9055429312443957088&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021714&hvtargid=pla-350568485263&th=1&psc=1 I prefer braid to leader, especially with spinning, but that might be a personal preference. scott

This has to be the truth. A global system that runs on the narrowest of timing and margins is going to be long term effected by a flaring/simmering global pandemic coupled with one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world shut down for over a week. No one government can mitigate these circumstances. scott

I'd love to be right too! My fishing time is about to take a massive hit starting 5/14 till July. I'm targeting 12,13 as my last gasp till mid summer. I'll take luck, not picky at all. scott

I'm following because I don't know. The 2 likely candidates for damage is hard braking and a constant rubbing during the drive. My intuition says... -All rods should be laid out together and bound together. -I would use beach/bath towels wrapped throughout the grouping in a spiral, preventing blanks from rubbing on each other. -The tips would naturally stagger, and I would pay close attention to separating each with part of another towel -I would load the rods butt first and press into another rag/towel -I would "backfill" the tip section in the hauler to prevent any linear sliding during acceleration Rod sleeves might remove the need for the spiral wrapped rag. scott

This is pretty new for me as well and don't know the answers. I feel like the bed fish will stay bed fish. Guarding eggs that might not hatch. I'm not a fan of fishing for small bucks guarding nests, so I'm going to ignore them. I think the females that spawned out are in the deep water recovery mode. My guess is that they stay relatively lock jaw until the next prime feeding opportunity. I think the staging females are the most predictable right now and most willing to be active. So I'm gonna start by throwing to the staging areas I've had success at before. In SW Michigan it looks like the weather doesn't get out of nighttime lows in the 30's till 5/12 and the new moon is the 11th. My guess is that there's an epic, extended feeding period starting mid to late next week in which all the females are actively chasing. scott

I know you didn't ask me, but.... It's one of my cheapest rods. It's designed for things I don't really love to fish. It's probably my least favorite rod. BUT, it's an incredibly versatile rod that is batting a 1000 once I've hooked a fish, I've only had it since Oct. I've caught 32+" Northern on a gantarel Jr on it, a 19" largie on a 4.8 weedless keitech, a 17" smallie on a 1/2oz hair jig, and a 18" smallie on a 1/2oz keitech finesse football jig. I can't possibly recommend fishing any of these baits with this stick, but if you have to, it delivered for me on all of them. It's pretty dead to my hands, so sensitivity is not its strength, but it's a whippy cb rod, it's not supposed to be sensitive. But the full parabolic bend has enough power to do a lot of interesting things and if you have a fish on, it is tremendous at keeping them on. All the negatives aside, I doubt I won't have it on the boat everytime I go out. Hopping, swimming, or burning an lv 500 seems to be what it's designed for, I just haven't run into a good lipless bite with it yet. scott

Hope you don't need to buy any lumber soon! scott

I've never vertical jigged a spoon, but it seems ideal in theory to me. I would add a hair jig to everyone's list. Semi tight line as it acts like a pendulum and falls through the bait ball has been effective for me a few times. Rip reel it up 4-5 handle turns, repeat. I also like your swimbait countdown method too, I think you have to be below the bait ball and maybe add some decent pauses too to get a similar effect as the hair jig and stand out from the real thing. Also second Basswhole, quarter or parallel only for me. scott

Same boat as everyone else weather wise. The lake I fish the most is only 250acres, but the North end warms much faster, wide shallow creek/marsh dumps in there. North end was on the beds Sunday, while the South end was a definite prespawn staging situation. If I can't get them in the deep water near the flats on the South end on jigs and swimbaits Friday I'm not sure where to go next. scott

Terrible tragedy for your friend, his family, and yourself. My condolences. As someone who at times worked over the heads of others or was responsible for large things rigged in the air, I can't believe how easy it is to forget the dangers. Like myself for not really considering Mobasser's original post. This is a good thread. scott

I'm guessing the big girl(s) have spawned. If there's a warm rain in the next 2-3 weeks, I'd take a large, heavy, hard thumping swim jig, in crappie or bluegill colors, and work dirt shallow to the nearest "deep" water break next to that feeder creek and I'd be there when it's still raining and stay there through the day after as well. I would work it fast, hence why I think a heavy head is necessary to keep you as deep as possible coming over that break. Till then, I'd follow Catt's plan with one rod, and with the other, work a 6-7" soft swimbait tex-sposed in the top third of the water column covering the whole pond and then repeat the process as deep as possible hitting everything I could on the bottom. I would make sure my swimbait fishing was the middle of the day, high sun if possible. scott Apparently, I can't follow directions. If it's raining, swim jig. If it's midday sunny, swimbait. If it's early morning, late day, t-rigged senko

Makes sense, starting there might be fortunate for a quick turnaround! scott

It's an old MotorGuide from 93. The pedal slips through tension and motor sometimes turns and sometimes doesn't. This happened toward the end of the day and didn't get a chance to look into it. I'm assuming it's an aircraft cable assembly that runs from the pedal to the head connected to some gearing that actually manipulates the motor through the shaft? If my guess is right, the first place to open up is the control head of the trolling motor, correct? scott

Completely agree with the Champion and Expride evaluation. The champions are absolutely fantastic for moving baits, balanced with a tip to backbone transition that keeps fish pinned. Once I used the Exprides for bottom contact though, I don't want to go back to the muted "sensitivity" of the Champions. At the same price, it's a no brainer for me to choose the expride, but Dobyns ends up on sale more often and if you get them @ $180 the price/performance calculation gets a little more complicated for me. Currently, I'm lucky to be able to afford both and I don't see me taking a 3/4oz california swim jig off of my 735c or a 1/2oz grass jig off of my 7'6" MH Expride for a few months. I hear great things about the Tatula series, but haven't been able to fish them yet. scott

On my finesse spinning I've been using the Albright Knot for a decade or so without any issues. Maybe that'll work for you. scott

3 - Shimano JDM Met 20 151HG 1 - Shimano JDM Bantam MGL 151XG 2 - Shimano Curado DC 151HG 1 - Shimano Curado DC 151 1 - Shimano Curado 301 HG 1 - Daiwa Tatula 200 TWS HSL 1 - Daiwa Tatula 300 TWS HSL 2 - Shimano Stradic Ci4 2500 2 - US Reels 240SX 2 - US Reels 180SX 1 - Shakespeare 1000 size reel, can't remember scott

I also do it. Love about 10-12' leader to help with clear water, shock absorption, and less reties. The FG knot reels right up and casts well too. I tie it with this method but others have posted some nice ways to do it as well. Search the site for FG knot and it should come up. scott