CM-fisher

That berkley flicker shad in firetiger is what I caught my PB smallmouth on. It's a great walleye lure too

Mepps in a size 3 is a bass machine for me. And I love catching brown trout on the size 0 all day. Definitely an overlooked lure

If I really tried I could get a bass on topwater in november up here in MN, but there are so many other tried and true cold water lures that I would rather use. I throw topwater only in early morning or the evening from post spawn to early fall.

I haven't been impressed with Googan soft plastics while trying them, they are not durable in the least bit. I can get 4-5 fish on a strike king plastic before it has to go. The rage menace has been phenomenal for me this year, especially as a jig/chatterbait trailer.

I have two that I can think of right now... Missing topwater strikes because I set the hook instinctively instead of feeling the fish first. I've probably missed 50% of topwater hits this year And fishing too shallow in mid-summer. I've gotten better at this during this past summer, and I am doing much better this year because of it. Whenever I find myself fishing in 3 fow in between docks without any success for an hour I ask myself "why the heck am I doing this if it's not working?" and go find a deeper weed edge in 8-12".

^^^

This picture reminds me of when I was in the boundary waters camping earlier this month, and my friends and I kept three 11 inch smallies for dinner but I released my PB 18 incher which confused them a little. I told them it was an old, old fish and important to the future smallmouth fishing of that little backcountry lake.

I probably buy 80% of my open water tackle during this time period to gear up for the upcoming season, rather than having to wait for it to be delivered during the open-water season. I also do most of my shopping online and when I go to Scheels or fleet farm it is to pick up an order or just find 2-3 random baits. If I'm being serious about stocking up I always go online.

Wacky rigged or TX rigged senko, or maybe a zoom finesse worm on a shakey head

Check out fishbrain for a place to post your catches. It's free unless you want the pro version.

Heavy mono seems to do the trick for me

Berkley bullet pop 70 is my go-to. Casts far and catches 'em. Comparatively cheaper too

If you are finding the big smallies in the areas with less current, just keep doing what you're doing. From my experience the littler guys kind of like to dart around in the areas with more current and the big 'uns hang out in the places where you're finding them

If what you have been using has been working well for you (sounds like you're pleased with the originals' performance), just stick with them.

After a soft plastic has been slightly used for me, I put them all in a ziploc bag for repurposing later. I will use half senkos as ned rigs baits, wacky rig old texas rig worms and cut a little bit off of grubs, craws and swimbaits to be reused as trailers. Once the bag starts to fill up, sometimes I will go to a lake where I can catch numbers on soft plastics and make it a point to use as many of the old baits as possible until they're completely destroyed. (However, I do NOT mix the Z-man stuff with everything else, because I learned the hard way when I first started out bass fishing)

Did you notice the trick worm sinking slower than the traditional stick baits? Or what type of action did it have different from the stick worms? I have tried wacky rigging zoom finesse worms and felt like they sank at a slower rate when rigged on a light wire wacky hook. Maybe this helps when the bass aren't aggressive. Basically i stick to the senko type worms when wakcy rigging, but if it's working well for you, keep going with it. Good luck

Try telling this to ice fishermen or walleye guys here in MN. They bring a bunch of buddies with them and keep a full limit every time. Heck, if I want to eat some crappie for dinner I'll catch 3-4 keeper sized fish and leave it at that. Not many people need to keep fish for the freezer, so I think you should keep enough for one meal and if you want more you should go out another time. As for bass, I don't keep them because they are not my favorite fish to eat by far compared to panfish and perch. I like the sport of bass fishing and believe especially in releasing fish to spawn again. I also just realized that this thread started in 2008. whoops

I've never caught more than one WP fish in one day, but usually its a nicer one. As for me, I still have never caught a fish on a ned rig or dropshot

I may look kind of stupid with a $15 boonie hat that I found, but sunburn and skin problems later on are pain in the bum

I feel your pain!!!! I gripe about this all the time, but for a good reason. I love catching bass shallow but what kind of a bass wants to hang out along a structureless shoreline where the lawn goes right to the water and geese poop everywhere? I want to see some laydowns, lily pads, and reeds next to shore.

No problem, Tom. In fact this made me go read the crayfish color thread and I learned a lot and thought about certain things in bass fishing that I've never thought of/noticed before. Thanks

Spinnerbait, lipless crankbait and chatterbait when it's early in the season

This is good advice. I've found with letting the bait float up a little after contact with wood, sometimes this is the key to making some sluggish bass attack. If you're a bank fisherman, stick with lipless and shallow squarebills

Up here in MN we get a lot of pike on spinnerbaits, so closed loop is the prevailing style. Northland tackle spinnerbaits have closed loop eyes if I'm not mistaken. I fish with both types and I don't really notice a difference

Haha this reminds me of my brother who was pretending that he was casting with his rod and took the tip clean off my rod. The other rod that I've had break was my dad's. When I first learned about rod power and action I decided to bend my dad's rod to see what the action was and I broke it. I was horrified and also only 12 years old. Never had a fish break one though.....