casts_by_fly

Gamy is my go to when i need a hook for something. Across the board they make a fantastically sharp hook that holds its point and sharpness well in every application I’ve tried. A couple of their hooks are truly scary sharp- the g-finesse trebles are one. That said, VMC neko hooks are a beauty. I have the gamy stinger and the VMC neko in the box and I’d say the VMC is sharper. Both are more than enough to get it done.

Jump it with another battery. A smart battery charger might not do it because it sees ‘sleep’ on the other end and stops trying to charge. If the charger has a wake up mode then do that. Or, a ‘dumb’ charger connected to the battery will probably do it. It just needs a jump of voltage. You can jump it to another battery (same terminals connect) and that will do it too.

I'd love to see it! Have you done it before? But only the biggest one counts here so...

ha! I'm predicting you're going to catch an upper 6's bass! That's a great prediction!

My second favorite time of the year (after the pre-spawn happening now) is the bluegill spawn which normally happens pretty soon after the bass spawn. If your bass are off the beds then bluegills have come into those areas. And the bass hate them. The bass cruise the first line of cover just a little deeper than the bluegill beds. In a lot of my lakes, I'll have a bare shoreline for the first 5-15' until it gets to 2-3' deep and then the weeds start. The bluegills spawn in that empty flat and the bass wait right on the weedline for any bluegill to pass by. A swim jig, vibrating jig, swim bait, buzzbait, or texas rigged creature will all catch fish. Just pick the one that gets through the cover you have easiest. I love a buzzbait in the early morning until the sun pops up, then I'll swap to a chatter or swimjig. If it's still, clear, and sunny they hold a little tighter so I'll go with the texas rig. Bluebird afternoons a ned rig will do it. Lately I've found that the exact bait is less critical but placement and color are. Put it in the right zone (top, mid, bottom) and have a bluegill looking color (for me, GP with some chartreuse).

I don't spin them- no need. Crimp the rivet and use fine sand paper or a nail file (I steal all the ones my wife throws away) on both the blade and the rivet face. It will be squealing in no time.

Or, if you're buying them in quantity you could just swap your buddy for a handful.

@Pat Brown - I love that definition. Small enough it's not worth the effort. I've always thought of dinks as 12" fish and under. Technially that's keeper size in every state I've lived in so anything under that is a dink. @herder I'd call those water reeds. There are a couple lakes up this way that have them. White lake is surrounded with them. Spruce has a couple spots of them (when there is enough water in those spots). RV has a couple stands in the back, but that's a long way to get to in a kayak.

Well, there’s only one way to find out which will work better for you. Fish them both and see which is better for you where and why.

Are you catching fish? Is he catching fish?

My lakes here are usually very clear and heavily bluegill and perch based. Some have shad, some don’t. I avoided white or chart/white for the longest time because it was ‘too bright’ or ‘too bold’. It just stuck out too much in the clear water. And then I started fishing whites and realized that sticking out is a feature and not a bug. Bass eat anything that looks like food whether they have seen it or not. Trout colored swimbaits in lakes that have never seen a trout for instance. If it wiggles and looks edible, they are going to eat it.

Dwight sees my post and goes “hold my beer”. Awesome chunks.

Thank you sir! It will be here tomorrow.

I went back to the same lake that I fished yesterday. The numbers of fish were there so where could they go? I was right. Conditions were different though so they were not doing the same thing. I tried to force feed them a topwater and not even a blowup so I gave up on that pretty quickly. The wind was 2-3mph but I was in the lee of a hill so it was glass slick and the bass were reacting accordingly by staying pretty close to the bottom in 20-30’. But the shad were around and every now and then bass would rocked up off the bottom and grab one, sometimes on the surface, sometimes below (FFS viewed). Since it was slick calm, I pulled out the jighead minnow and went to work. After some follows and some misses, I dialed in the right size bait and head (3/16 with a 5” freeloader mostly, 3/8 when I was chasing fish in the open that were moving). That was a good choice. The wind kicked up around 830 and that’s what I needed to get them to set up like yesterday. It took them about an hour to get started, but then I caught 8 more in under an hour on the spinnerbait. Biggest fish of the day was 3-11, but I had a limit of fish over 3.5# and another limit of 3-3.5# fish. There was only one fish that didn’t clearly top 2# and it would have been close to 2 if not over. I thought I had a big one. When I put down the minnow and before I picked up the spinnerbait I went to a freeloader on a Scrounger head and was blind casting at the cover. Second cast I felt the thump and set the hook into a big fish. It was fighting like a largemouth and I thought it was a 5+. Then it rolled. Uggh. I had caught one earlier on a minnow that I thought was a monster smallie (behaved just like one on FFS). Fooled twice. Both were 9#. @A-Jay - your silicon landing mat is just a dish mat, right? I have been using my FF cover as a makeshift mat but if I’m going to keep catching slimers like this I’m going to need something a little bigger.

@Pondhopper21 - No. You can’t network a garmin with a minn kota (or other brand). There are some combinations that will mix and allow you to get universal sonar (US2) to work on mixed brands, but honestly it isn’t worth messing with since you’re starting new. Minn kota/HBird, Garmin/garmin, Lowrance/Lowrance(or powerpole). First figure out what you need from the fish finder. Then decide if you want to network things.

1- I’d rather be too early than too late (in the season, migration, spawn, etc.). 2- If I can’t decide where I want to go, I decide how I want to fish and pick a lake that it might work on. Might have to pivot but at least there is a shot of doing the think you enjoy first. 3- all else fails/equal- go where no one else is going to be. At least if I’m by myself and nature I can enjoy that.

Depending on the day and the lake, I will have mets, bantams, and zillions on my deck. Once you get used to the small differences in how the brakes operate they will all do everything. My zillions are on two crankbait rods and on my topwater/light spinnerbait rod. All three are 8.5:1 gear ratio because that’s what I got. My mets are on all purpose rods because that’s where I put them. I put my two bantams on my two bigger/heavier rods because they are just a little heavier and balance the rods just a little better. If you give me any of the three of them in a 7.1 ratio I could swap them anywhere for any rod and any technique.

@Swamp Girl - it’s amazing what just 10-15 miles can do. This lake is 12 miles south (and a few west). The area it is in is consistently 5-10 degrees warmer and a week to two more advanced whether it is greenery, snow cover, air temps, etc. I have far less green on the trees and bushes at the house and going another 10 miles north there is even less.

@NathanDLTH - what are you looking to throw on it? A top end of 3/4 implies you’re thinking about bigger baits. And something with that range isn’t going to be ideal if you’re strictly throwing that 3/16 range all the time.

I maybe had a bit of a morning. Yesterday I was resigned that I wanted to throw topwaters for smallies so picked my lake accordingly. The water was just a little colder than I needed for that but it was close enough. The wind was 2-3 from 5-6 AM and then was going to kick up to 5-7 so I had a very short window of calm water that is perfect for a walking bait. I knew where I wanted to start so I ran to a spot about 150 yards short of that. As I shut down I looked up on the hill and there was a bobcat marking! You far for a pic but it was nice to see one in the wild. I started down the bank and had one slash at a dawg, but didn’t eat it which was a clue. I fished the 150 yards, rounded the corner, and rough you believe another boat had cut me off? He was sitting on the 50 yards stretch I wanted to fish so I fired up and went across the lake. Of course by the time I got there the wind had kicked up. I stuck with the dawg for a little bit but quickly realized it wasn’t the right answer. In hindsight, the guy cutting me off was probably the best thing to happen to me because it pushed me elsewhere and making that change was the answer today. With a 5 mph wind blowing into the bank and tons of wood around, I went for the old Jason Christie special for clearwater smallies- 3/4 screaming eagle on the Cara swim jig rod. I was telling @Joedodge about this combo just yesterday saying it’s the only spinnerbait combo I fish on this rod and why. The first couple hundred yards gave up 6 angry smallies, all 2# fish. After having a 2’ lake trout follow me to the boat but not take, I had run out of shoreline so made a jump. The next spot gave up another 6 bass in 30 minutes including a 3# smallie, a 3lb largemouth, and a 4-03 largemouth. All on the same rig/bait/presentation. Cast it up on shore and burn it over their heads. And then just like that the sun popped up high and they stopped. So 12 bass in 3 hours of fishing including a 4+, all throwing a spinnerbait, and seeing a bobcat. I’ll take that any day of the week.

I love this so much for you. The unexpected surprise of a smoked chuck for dinner with the family. My buddy buys pork butts when they are 2 for 1. He’ll smoke them both, have one for dinner (4 kids) and freeze the other one. It’s a great trick for getting a ton of meat rolling.

Because we know you and know that you truly have a private lake and are an awesome dude, this must be an actually bad guy. In that case I wish him nothing but angry hemmorhoids on every fishing morning and wind knots on every cast. Sorry for your luck. And I don’t want to put. Weight on it from picture, but it looks every bit of 26-28” so 15# is definitely in play.

I mean, if you throw out that one, he’s just going to come back with a bigger one. So let’s be gracious, suck it up, and let him have it. A-Jay- I’m predicting you to top out at 66% on smallies this year. That’s a 6.62. Well within the upper max of your annual catch rates. And I’m predicting Dwight to top you. The 8.5# denominator for a PA smallie means that a 5.6# fish will get you. I’m pretty confident Dwight can manage that a couple times over this year. Then again by that logic, a 4.70 (4-11) here in NJ might get ME there. I’m rigged and ready for tomorrow…

@NorthernBasser by the time I read this thread and got the live feed up he was throwing a buzzbait over old pad fields and just covering water. I couldn’t find the aerial footage yet so I’ll look for it tomorrow.

he's totally fishing my kind of water right now. I love a good buzzbait bite.