Aaron Stelmach

I usually bankfish midday to evening as I’m not a morning person lol so I usually show up with a dropshot tied on, if my keitechs and flatworms aren’t working (which is rare) I will switch to a 1/20 oz nedrig. My main spot is a man made canal and a reservoir with a road in between the 2. There are 4 pipes running under the road connecting both waters which the smallies school near very frequently (I believe they eat minnows washing through the pipe). So normally my go to bait is a little 2.5 keitech swing impact on a dropshot.

If you can do the drive and have a passport Niagara has a great fishery for smalllmouth… You can see niagara falls and either fish the Niagara river or lake erie which both hold trophy smallmouth. For baits I will always recommend a dropshot. Pick up a pack of berkley flatworms in green pumpkin and a couple packs of keitech 3.5 inch swing impact in white, smallmouth magic and chartreuse…

Oh buddy erie is nuts. Another thing im worried about is other boats wakes.. i was in my buddies 14 foot tinner with a 7.5 the other day and we just wanted to check the water. Some guy in a speedboat was at where the inlet opened up doing figure 8s at full throttle. That almost tipped us alone

Thanks for taking the time it took to write that man! MUCH appreciated. I’m just a fun fisherman, not planning on doing tournaments, honestly i just wanna be able to go dropshot schools of decent sized smallies,

Thanks for the answer man! You’ve helped me out quite a bit with my various questions appreciate it Dodge durango haha

Ontario lol

Planning on getting my first boat, I want to be able to fish for smallmouth in lake erie (when its somewhat calm) and the grand river. What size boat would you recommend? I seen online that generally a 21 foot would handle erie but I don’t know if I’d want something that big.

He was bleeding the moment he came out the water, i tried to keep him away but he flopped out of my hands and i had to catch him like a football lol Thanks bud

So I accidentally gut hooked a bass as it was very windy today and didn’t feel him, when i pulled him out of the water he bled on my shirt. Any tips on how to get the stain out? thanks for the help

Personally not sure about vertical drop shotting because I’m a bank fisherman but for long distance hooksets i dont see an advantage.

thanks for the advice brother, gonna try different hooks but i went back out today and landed 4 out of 6 using a bit stiffer rod, i realized most of my lost fish are when i make a bomb cast and the fish hits at the end of it, a lot of my problem was i didnt have enough backbone to drive the hook home

the spinshot hooks have a swivel that keeps it horizontol, using 20 lbs braid to 6 pound fluoro leader. Yes im nose hooking

Thanks for the advice, next rod I’m getting is probably gonna be that one. I just bought that setup plus a st croix premier at the beginning of our season which was about $800CAD so i gotta chill for a bit ? as for the drag slippage, the fish i lost wasn’t running while i was reeling but I heard my drag from pulling the weight of the fish, would you say thats too light? I will try that water bottle trick aswell next time i go out

Yea i dont even think my bait hit the bottom with the big one, i casted out and all of a sudden my rod loaded up, jumped once and then i started winding at a good pace and the hook popped out 20 pound braid to 6 pound fluoro leader, though i plan to go down to 15 pound braid next time i have to respool Yea most of my hooks are right out of the package and i test them on my fingernail. I plan on buying a hook file soon but i dont think thats the issue Yea gonna buy different hooks next time lol, currently using a stradic 3000 and a st croix victory 7’1 medium fast which is my softest rod currently. Got the stradic spooled up with 20 lbs braid and 6 pound fluoro leader. i got a question, when you got your drag at 2 pounds and the fish is 2 pounds you should be hearing the drag sing as you wind? Im also nervous that drag slipping during the hookset will cause problems

Lost 2 nice bass today, right now im using the vmc spinshot size 1. They are pinned for a second and then they pop off? Im thinking its either the spinshot hooks or it’s that the fish are long distance away, and I should give a bit more power in my reelset such as a sweeping motion. Any suggestions?

Plan on testing out lighter braids, next time i am grabbing 15 pound, i wouldnt want to go that low because i only have a couple rods and with some techniques i use 10 pound co polymer (cranking, finesse tubes etc) Thanks bro! and thats a nice rish lol.Since ive posted this ive probably caught 20 smallies 1-2 pounds lol, the couple bigger ones i had on, I would fight for a couple seconds and then they’d get off, i think my drag was a bit too tight so they ripped a bigger hole in their mouth.

So since I made this post I have landed like 5 ned rig bass haha, i think my problem was jerking the rod instead of steadily reeling into em. I have lost a couple since aswell so I may try different heads in the future

How do you set the hook with a ned rig? I do have my drag loose. I got one in today and I fought him for a couple minutes. It’s almost like the hook is slipping because one second its tight line and than boom they gone and it goes slack

Using a medium moderate fast 7 foot st croix victory, shimano stradic 3000, 20 pound braid to a 6 pound fluoro leader. Had 4 smallies bite my ned rig and a pike, landed 1. The rest I had on with tight line for a split second and then gone.

Don’t see much posts online asking this question so thought I’d be the guy to start the topic/debate. Genuinely curious tho ???‍♂️

Thanks all!

Not fishing them at the moment, I am a bank angler that mainly targets bass (thats why I’m in a bass forum after all haha). I can only target them on their runs in the fall. I’ve had good luck with rage swimmers for bass but I’ve tried them with salmon and haven’t even been able to get a bite with them.

Yea i’m not too concerned about them tearing, just want them to stop falling off my hook. I’ve just come to terms with the tradeoff being durability. This past fall I went through 3 packs in 2 days catching chinook salmon on their spawning beds. With their teeth you’re lucky to get 2 fish on the same bait lol

Thanks dude!

What size hooks do you typically run for 3-3.5 inch keitechs? Honestly I don’t even know what size hooks are on my jighead, it just states the weight Also thanks all! Much appreciate your help