Buzzbaiter

After looking through a recent thread about Alabama Bass, I felt motivated to start my own thread about invasives, natives, and introduced species. The question today is: how do you guys feel about introduced gamefish? Given that this is a bass fishing forum, many of the people who use this site probably enjoy fishing for introduced fish. It should be no surprise that bass can be very detrimental to native species. I’m interested in what you guys think about the impacts of facilitating the propagation of fish in systems where they never used to exist. Is it worth putting extra pressure on native organisms just to sustain recreational fisheries? What if it’s just bugs and minnows that go extinct as a result of introducing foreign gamefish? Speaking for myself, I don’t think it’s worth drastically changing native ecosystems to accommodate introduced gamefish. For instance, being from Maryland, I would much rather have our tailwater systems managed exclusively for native brook trout than rainbows, browns, or cutthroats. It doesn’t make sense to me why anyone would introduce these foreign species of trout when we have a perfectly good gamefish that has existed in the state’s waterways for millennia. I’d even go so far as to say I’d rather catch giant fallfish out of the Potomac than smallmouth (and I love smallmouth). I can’t help but wonder what Maryland’s waters would look like just a few hundred years ago when we didn’t throw a bunch of foreign fish into them. I am of the opinion that, wherever you go, there’s probably a really cool native gamefish, which makes introducing new fish nonsensical. Sure, Lake Biwa might have huge bass. But I can catch Florida Bass anywhere in the southeast; where else can I catch a Biwa Trout? Still, I don’t think native organisms need to have sporting potential to be work protecting. I think there’s value in simply having native species, even if they are “just bugs and minnows.” That being said, the earth isn’t what it used to be. Places that once supported sensitive species are no longer capable of doing so. Dams and pollution have turned some fisheries into perfect habitat for introduced species. In that sense, I can totally understand introducing gamefish where the land has been changed nearly irreparably. However, I don’t think we should ever sacrifice our native ecosystems for imported fisheries. What do you all think?

If you’re harvesting every single fish, there’s not going to be much left to catch. I don’t think it’s an issue of selectivity as much as it is a lack of larger bass. Smaller bass love raps, as well as other smaller baits. Id be willing to bet you could catch them on crappie jigs, inline spinners, and other small lures. If you want better fishing, release more fish to swim another day. Better yet, do a stock assessment to see how many spawning size fish you have left. Look into population management techniques for your pond. Maybe even consider stocking some fish (not a biologist, this is just an uneducated suggestion). More than anything, stop overharvesting. If you want a pond to to consistently harvest food from, maybe try managing for crappie (***be very careful with this, since crappie have a reputation for being volatile in pond ecosystems***). Again, I’m no biologist, so take my word as advice and not gospel.

Green fish, I horse them in. Brown fish get played out. Of course, it all depends on tackle and fish size. If I pull into a school of 8-10 inch smallmouth using my general purpose wading rod™️ (M-F spinning rod with 15 braid and 8lb mono leader), I wind them back. If they decide to act up and go for a run, which they tend to do, I let them peel off and pull them back in control with my rod. Bigger fish get the reel down, lift up treatment, but I (unfortunately) rarely catch fish big enough to warrant that. That’s more of a rockfish technique. The beauty of smallmouth is that you don’t have to use super heavy gear to get them out of cover, at least where I used to live and fish for them. I can comfortably land a solid smallmouth on 4lb test, as I have many times before. Just let them run when they want to and don’t fight your line strength. If you tighten your drag on a big fish using light line, you will lose that fight. Be patient. The other advantage of playing smallmouth is that it keeps their heads down. I’ve lost plenty of smallies because they jumped; I can’t recall a smallmouth that has broken me off. I’m fine letting them dive because I generally don’t fish around heavy cover, to there’s not much to get wrapped up it (at least where/how I fish for them). Largemouth are the opposite. I grind them in whenever I can. Unless it’s a big fish, largemouth are hard to fight because they don’t do on long runs like other fish do; they tend to head shake and jump. This makes them easy to grind in, so that’s what I do. Additionally, I use heavier gear to target largemouth so I’m not worried about pushing my line past its breaking point.

I’ve never caught a stillwater smallmouth. They’re so much fun to catch in rivers that I’ve never really invested much time into targeting them in lakes. I’ve also never caught a bass on a fluke. I’ve used them on pickerel with great success, but not bass.

My experience with swimbaits is pretty limited. I only recently started playing around with them. I’ve never had much action swimming swimbaits, oddly enough. However, I discovered this summer that a Keitech Easy Shiner works well for smallmouth when dragged/hopped on bottom like a worm. The only fish I’ve consistently caught winding a swimbait high in the water column are rockfish. I feel like swimbaits would work better in fisheries with shoaling baitfish such as shad, alewives, or herring.

I think the oldheads were onto something. I’d rather take a swig of prescription whiskey and hope for the best than go through whatever nasty stuff dentists like to put in your mouth. Between gunslingers, injuns, and the meat-picking industry, I think people in the olden days lived for a good time, not a long time

Despite having lived in Maryland for years, I had never caught a rockfish. I went on a few trips in past years to remedy that, but I had zero clue what I was doing so I always blanked. Now that I was headed south for college, it didn’t sit right with me that I, a Maryland native, had still not caught the state fish. Yesterday, I set out to change that. I found a park on an island facing the middle of the Bay and went to work. The day started on a strip of beach. Without knowing where to begin, I found an inlet to a salt pond and walked into the water. I had a 5 inch white Kalins grub tied on and launched it out as far as I could (I did this on a M-F spinning rod spooled with 15lb braid and an 8lb test leader, which became problematic later on). I promptly snagged a peanut bunker. This would not be the first marine life-form I snagged that day. It occurred to me that I was set up on top of a large shoal of bunker, which seemed like a good place to be. After many casts, I moved further down the beach. After moving down the sandy flats making a number of casts, I started to lose hope. I moved down until I found a small point with rocks along it. I made a few casts from shore, got snagged, broke off, and tied on another grub. An NRP officer spawned in out of nowhere and told me that most of the people catching fish were going far out into the water and casting into deeper water, where there were submerged concrete chunks. I took his advice and walked out. I started snagging a bunch of jellyfish and found them wrapping along my legs. I found a new adversary that day. After more casting, I started feeling little bumps at the end of my line. I didn’t know what they were, but they didn’t feel like big fish. I made a few more casts where the taps were coming from, and felt my rod load up. I thought I was snagged until my reel started singing. To my disbelief, I finally had a fish on. After so many fruitless trips to the Bay, I was used to not catching anything. After so many times going for them, I finally pulled into a rockfish. He fought hard, but not as hard as the ones that would come after. I released him and caught another smaller one, about 10 inches long. It didn’t take long before the jellyfish scared me out of the area. A crab (I assume) nipped the tail off of my grub, so I switched to a 4 inch Keitech Easy Shiner. I walked back into the sandy beach and casted past the schools of bunker. Nothing. The fish weren’t there, and still wouldn’t have bitten for the fact that my swimbait blended in with the other bunker too well. I figured that it was better to be too flashy than too natural when going for rockfish. After a lunch break, I came back to the point I was at earlier. I fished the opposite side of the point with the Easy Shiner, without any results. Rather than fall back on the grub, I decided to open up a box of plastics I got back in high school. It had a bunch of rigid saltwater swimbaits, which I didn’t care for. Coming from a world of Keitech and Yamamoto baits, I had it in my had that softer plastics were quality plastics, so I never bothered using them. Speaking of Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, I found within the box an old Zako that I picked up off the ground earlier that year. I figured, “why not?”, and threaded it onto the jighead. The jellyfish weren’t as dense this time around, so I marched out into the waves and bombed the Zako out. I worked it with a steady reel and an Alabama shake. It didn’t take long before a rockfish ate the Zako. This one fought *hard*. At first, I wasn’t fighting the fish as much as I was trying to hold onto my rod. It didn’t help that my reel was locking up. After a short fight, I wrestled the fish to hand. It was the biggest fish of the day. The head of the Zako blew out after that fight, so I swapped it out for one of the swimbaits in my tackle box of assorted plastics. I believe it was a DOA CAL swimbait. I flung my lure out, started cranking it through the water, and pulled into another fish. This one popped my line clear off. I don’t know that I’ve had many, if any, fish break off from fighting pulling hard. I’ve had fish wrap me up in sticks, and I’ve had toothy critters slice through, but never a strong fish snap my line. I retied, this time with a Cocoahoe Minnow (I believe that’s what it was). I caught three more fish. I hooked into one last fish that evening, but he broke me off. I felt him go for a hard run and knew that something was going to give. After six rockfish, I felt that I had succeeded in my mission to catch a rockfish. I left for home and went to bed, a little more than satisfied. My parents, on the other hand, didn’t take too kindly to the fact that I didn’t bring any fish home. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be in Florida for college. Though I only just got my first taste of the Bay, I know I’ll miss it while I’m away. On the bright side, there’s a lot to keep me occupied in the Sunshine State. Between Suwannee bass and tarpon, I’m sure I’ll have my hands full. （╹◡╹）

Spinning

I’m going to college in Florida, which should give me ample opportunities to look beyond freshwater and start catching some of the fish that live in the Gulf. However, I don’t have a dedicated saltwater setup and don’t really know where to start. I imagine that I’d spend most of my time targeting snook, baby tarpon, speckled trout, and redfish. When I come back to Maryland for Christmas and Easter, I’d probably use the same setup to target rockfish, too. Not sure if that’s realistic for a single setup, but I just need to get a foot into the saltwater door. What setup (rod/reel) would you recommend for <$200? I’m more interested in slinging lures than soaking bait, if that helps. Also, what line (type and test) should I use?

Trim it up a hair. The skirt material has more weight than you’d think; cutting it just a little bit shorter removes the extra weight holding the skirt back and makes the strands more springy. Give it a shot. You don’t need to give the jig a buzz cut, just nip a quarter inch off.

A wacky rigged stickbait is one of my favorite largemouth presentations. For some reason though, I don’t do so well with stickbaits on smallmouth. I prefer a flickshake rig with a finesse worm when it comes to rivers

Werther’s make me all warm and fuzzy inside. Good stuff

I really enjoyed Chick-fil-a, at least for a little while. The food they make is good, there’s just no variety to it. Your options are tenders, nuggets, a sandwich, or a salad. If you’re feeling exotic, you can get a *spicy* sandwich. It gets old after a bit.

The Dry Creek Tournament Tube in Old Ugly has been catching river smallies for a while. I’m sure any tube in a natural color would work; I just like the slim profile of the Tournament Tube. The Rage Menace on a jighead (1/8-1/4oz) is also a good pick. Any <3in bait (ned baits, dropshot baits, grubs, swimbaits, etc.) on a smaller jighead will get the job done in really tough conditions. If you have a good amount of current, a 4-5in worm on a flickshake rig does will for drifting in the seams. Small walking baits like the Heddon Boyo or SB77.7 can pull fish up even in low, clear water in the middle of a sunny day. I prefer topwater when I’m working areas without much depth or structure because I can cover water. River smallies are aggressive and easy to catch; don’t overthink it.

When you said San Francisco, I thought you meant California lol. I was pretty confused

The D&M Easy Roller works well for me. I used to use the Strike King Banshee buzzers from Dicks, but I stopped shopping there a while ago. Both are fantastic options. I like the Easy Roller because it’s relatively quiet (though it still squeals a bit), planes immediately, and fishes slowly. If you do decide to go with the D&M, trailer hooks are a near necessity. Maybe it’s just because of how slow the bait fishes, but the fish short strike the snot out of it. It does get bites though, and big ones at that.

This is my uneducated, inexperienced opinion as a younger person going into college. Take it with a serving of salt. I can’t speak for those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder (immigrants, those in poverty, etc.), but for the average American coming out of high school, college is the norm, not the luxury. You go into college with a vague idea of what you’re going to do with a degree, then hopefully come out with a job that pays well and is mildly interesting. There’s only a small handful of folks who come out of high school and decide to work with their hands or join the military. My parents have always told me, “if you want to live life happy, you need a job that pays well. You need a degree for that.” That’s what I’m doing, and it’s what most of my peers are doing. My vague aspiration is to become a fisheries biologist, climb the ladder of experience, and make a good living. At the end of the day, people work because they need money to live; in other words, they work for themselves. People my age have no interest in working and dying for their company, or breaking their backs for mediocre pay. There’s no reason to do that when they can spend four years and a tuition fee to get a job that pays more and demands less. I’m not saying whether I agree or disagree, but that’s what I see. Irrespective of how a person feels about inflation, rising wages, or handouts, they’re going to take the job that gives them more. America is not the same country it was 100 years ago. It’s not even the same country it was 80, 50, or 25 years ago. Times have changed and people are changing with them. At the end of the day, it is what it is. There’s no point in getting mad when you can get even. That’s my $0.02

Buzzbaits and magnum worms. I’m partial to the former

The Crush Worms also make for great Ned baits, but they get torn up if you look at them wrong. I pick them up when the fish won’t bite anything else

^just the way God intended A low-tech tournament would be cool to see, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for it. Given how sponsors and money form the backbone of tournament fishing, I think electronics are here to stay. Having said that, I hardly even follow professional fishing. The stuff they do in tournaments is not my speed; it’s practically a different sport in itself.

I haven’t fished in the rain for smallmouth, but I love going for largemouth when it’s wet outside because I can bust out a buzzbait and catch them how I like. That being said, I have a hard time getting out of the house when it starts raining. I don’t know why, but it’s like I can’t be bothered to get out the door

I’m much more worried about pollution than harvest. The Monocacy hasn’t been good for a while because of the chicken farms. While I support catch and release of smallmouth, it’s far from the biggest issue facing them. Fishermen tend to point at the wrong people whenever their fisheries are failing.

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/crawfish-relationship.html

I was curious when you guys put on the swim trunks and start casting for smallies. I usually start the first week of June and fiddle with green fish until then. However, now that high school is over, I have nothing to do between now and fall. What’s the earliest you guys start wet wading?