Bucks Bass and Bourbon

Oh you don’t have to assure me it’s not easy catching suspended fish. I spent most of yesterday and a few hours today on two different lakes scoping countless fish and I don’t think a single one gave the slightest thought about anything I threw at them. Underspins, damiki rigs, hover rigs, spinnerbaits, crankbaits and the list goes on. Even tried dropping a drop shot down through them just to see if one would follow it down. It’s like my lures weren’t even there. I even acknowledged to myself that throwing at those fish was probably a waste of time then every time I saw another school I tried again. Stubborn. I guess I just wanted to catch one of them haha. I still caught some fish but only one of them was outside the shallows. Can’t make them bite. FFS to me is a lot of fun watching what fish are doing.

@Swamp Girl if you enjoy the struggle reports I have plenty of material! 😂

Hahaha now I feel like I need to paddle my boat while fishing just to say I could do it! I was actually thinking back to when in was a kid in my dad’s Sylvan on Little Bay de Noc walleye fishing. Remember using actual anchors?? Using certain trees and shorelines for reference points to drop it on the spot? The original waypoints!

First of all let me start by saying I’m very aware a lot of people have very strong feelings about forward facing sonar. I really don’t care. Use it if you want to, don’t if you don’t and if you want to discuss it that’s fine but this post is not about that. I wanted to share some thoughts on my experience of not having it the last few months. In fact I didn’t have any bow electronics during that time. The reason is I got a new boat and opted to run a single battery solely for my electronics - two 126 ultras, a 106 ultra and LVS 34 transducer and black box. Unfortunately I learned the battery was backordered for a while so I only had my console mounted 126 running off the cranking battery for the time being. My thoughts: First of all and most important - I still caught fish. Is it easier to catch fish using FFS? Of course, sometimes. I should elaborate a little and mention that I don’t target specific fish using FFS and throw to them until I get them to bite then move on to another one and do it all over again, although I did do that a little this weekend and failed miserably. Sure I will identify fish on structure and cast to it on occasion but most of the time I’m scanning in real time for features like grass lines or brush piles where fish aren’t readily visible and I’m casting to the features where I know fish are likely to be. Or I’m returning to a previously marked location and when I’m close to it I scan for exactly where it is then casting to it. The same can be done with side scan and traditional or down imaging. It just usually takes a little longer and I still spend plenty of time idling scanning with side and down imagine before I ever drop the trolling motor and use FFS. From early June until the end of September I was without the use of it. Did it noticeably negatively impact my fishing? No not at all. It changed it a little and was just slightly less convenient. What became an actual drag was not having any bow electronics at all. Having to constantly walk back to the console to check my depth or keep an eye on the side imaging while trolling along or having to stand on the back deck while drifting over drop-offs to get an idea where to cast became a little bit of an issue and getting them up and running for the first time this weekend was a huge boost. And yes I employed FFS all weekend but I didn’t NEED it. In fact yesterday was the first time I saw a fish hit my bait on FFS, which is actually kind of cool. Too bad it was a rock bass. So anyway like I said, just some thoughts. I personally think all the huffing and puffing and arguing over FFS is a giant waste of time but that’s just me. I still had a ton of fun fishing without it and still had someone new to fishing land eight bass and a pike without it (I only caught seven). I’m also still going to use it. I really enjoy it and have learned a lot about fish from observing their behavior while using it. FFS doesn’t replace knowledge of fishing or the experience of being outdoors. And it’s definitely neither the ultimate tool for catching fish nor the boogeyman destroying fishing.

I know it’s different around the country but this time of year can be tough to find them here in Michigan. I spent the weekend at a lake up north that I’m pretty familiar with and have had some pretty good success fishing the last couple years. The lake has both largemouth and smallmouth but the largemouth numbers seem to be much higher. Also decent pike and musky, walleye, perch and a million rock bass. I spent a solid 9-10 hours on the water Saturday and only managed two small largemouth and two pike (one of the pike was a good one though). The lake is generally divided up into three lobes - east, west and south. The east and west are mostly shallow flats with a few 20 foot areas. The south has shallow flats, a few humps, steep drop-offs and the deeper parts of the lake down to about 60 feet. I am most familiar with the south and fish it almost exclusively since between all the different features I eventually run into some fish. Not Saturday though. Oh no, not Saturday. In fact I was surprised to see several other bass boats on the water because usually it’s not a heavily fished lake but I didn’t see anyone else catching anything either. I spent the whole day moving and searching all the different areas, fighting the wind and trying to keep a line in the water. All the spots that have produced previously were empty. Saturday night I considered hitting a different lake on Sunday but decided to make a plan, tie on specific lures and exhaust another lobe on the same lake and if I came up empty, so be it. Fortunately the morning was calm so I could see down into the water and get a better feel for what was around before the wind set in again. I covered as much water as I could with shallow crankbaits and a lipless but wasn’t finding anything or even having a follow up. Finally as I moved to a little deeper water I picked up big schools of small fish on the FFS so for the first time all weekend I was at least near fish. I still didn’t have any success until I randomly cast out into about 10 FOW at a couple fleeting blips on the FFS. Right then my phone rang and as I pulled it out to check it POP a big thump hit my underspin hard. Turned out to be the best fish of the day. Went on to catch a few more but they were scattered and skinny despite the abundance of forage in the lake. Very hard to determine any sort of pattern. The water temps were mid 60s in the morning warming to high 60s in the afternoon. Grass was still green and healthy and other available cover was still there. It was really weird to see such a large portion of the lake so empty of fish despite such a variety of good habitat for them. Also odd to have them ignore everything but the finesse underspin. Drop shots, lipless cranks, shallow and mid-cranks, a-rig, micro a-rig, tubes and top water all were completely ignored. But the ones I caught on the underspin hit it hard. I don’t think I have fished a lake or section of a lake as hard or completely on a single day as I did Saturday. I was exhausted and my body was smoked. Still a good weekend though! It helped having a little success on Sunday for sure.

Kind of revamping this thread (great trip report btw) and wanted to say my first time fishing St Clair was this summer. My buddy flew in from Washington State and we booked Marcel for a one day trip. Great experience and I’ll hire him again. He had us on fish and in position to catch them all day and made sure to teach us the little techniques to have more success. I’m heading over to LSC this weekend for my first solo trip on the lake. No idea what to expect but I’m going to cover as much water as I can and give it my best for two days launching out of Selfridge. Thanks again @TOXIC for the excellent trip report! Those are some beautiful smallies.

Alright well I needed to come back and edit this post because I was a MORON. I initially had some feedback that the clips tended to let some plastics slip so only some kinds would hold. Turns out I was wrong and I feel super stupid. Now that I figured out my mistake (and am embarrassed by how stupid a mistake it was) I realize this is a really strong system. I'm going to redo my whole installation tomorrow and organize all my main plastics into drop shot baits and paddle tails and I'm going to be good to go. I'll try to post some pictures when I get it done.

Yes the winds and weather are what I am watching. Unfortunately I am limited to weekends now so I have to watch the five day forecast closely to monitor what the conditions will be when I’m out there.

One of the fun things I had only experienced once before was when one of us was reeling one in we often had one or two chase it up. Our guide always had us drop our line straight down when we brought one close to the boat and I was surprised how often we got another one doing that either from fish we saw or that were too deep but hit it on the drop. That was fun.

Ok understood. Sounds like isolated structure in the depth range they’re relating to is what to look for. Search until you get a bite and focus on the depth range from there.

Thanks guys I appreciate it. A little head start on where to look saves a lot of time especially as I learn smallmouth more. I had to push back a week due to some equipment not arriving in time so I’ll keep a close eye on the water temps. The only time I’ve been out on the lake was earlier this summer. It didn’t seem like there was much structure. Just a few patches of grass. Should I expect to find rock piles, timber or gravel if I spend enough time graphing?

Hey guys, As the title suggests I want to start fishing Lake St Clair. I live in Lansing so it’s only a couple hours drive to Anchor Bay or the metropark. As of this year I have a 19 foot bass boat and am much more comfortable fishing the lake in reasonable conditions and want to start making several trips each year for smallmouth. I’m inexperienced when it comes to smallies but I have started dedicating a lot more effort into targeting them on Michigan lakes that hold them. I’m not asking for spots, just general wisdom on what to look for with the electronics to locate fish and get me started, especially as summer starts to move into fall and much of the material I have found is a little generic. I’m planning a mid September three day trip if the weather holds which I’m thinking might start getting into the fall transition time but if you guys who understand the lake can help me out with how to approach it and what to look for I’d be very grateful. Questions that come to mind are conditions that call for moving baits vs slower baits like drop shots, general depth ranges based on water temp and seasonal patterns, etc. Just a little bit of a starting point so I can start learning without spending a trip or two casting into empty water (i.e. how to think vs what to do or where to go). Any insight is very much appreciated!

Thanks again for the input guys!

The times I would need a 50 foot would be when I’m staying overnight and I need to reach to an outlet which I do frequently enough that it’s a concern. The rest of the time the boat is in the garage and I can use shorter separate cords. The heavy duty 50 foot cords I’m looking at can handle 15 amp/125v/1875 watts so sounds like that would handle it, no?

Nope a 50 ft cord to the 12v that has three 15 amp banks (two used) but the 24v charger is a 20 amp.

For you guys running a separate plug for your 12v onboard charger and a 24 or 36v charger - how do you run your extension cords? Do you run a single extension soon plug with a splitter (or a multi plug cord) or do you run two cords and keep them separate? I would like to keep it to a single heavy duty cord with a splitter if it’s safe.

Kinda what I was thinking. That’s why I was hoping someone has actually used them. The marine environment and bouncing around on a bass boat can be pretty tough on things so durability is a question with those chip clips. I don’t know I might just measure things and take a chance on them. I picked up a couple of those Buzbe Quick Qubes to make sense of my drop shot and ned rig plastics and they actually did a great job but my paddletails and craw packages and stuff are a tragedy right now. I’ll let you guys know if I pick them up and post a few pics so you can see how they work.

Anyone use the Easy View tackle system under your boat comparment lids? Like most of us I make a mess of my soft plastics and swimbait trailers etc in my boat. That looks like a good system to clean it up and maximize storage. Thanks! https://easyviewtackle.com/

Thanks for the input fellas. That helps a lot! I have a pretty good idea what I’ll do with it now. Thanks again!

Ok folks, I need some help. The z519 I got this year is ready to get the dual graphs on the bow wired back to the battery compartment where the dedicated electronics battery will be once it arrives. I will be running a 126 ultra and a 106 ultra from the bow along with the GLS10. I have one 126 ultra flush mounted at the console, currently run to the cranking battery, which will be switched to the new battery when I get it so that one is already run. I am inexperienced and lack knowledge about wiring and can use some advice on how to do the job myself to avoid paying the shop hundreds of dollars to do it. How should I do this? Can I run the wiring for each graph through the conduit straight from the bow past the console to the battery compartment and hook each up with an inline fuse? SHOULD I do that? Should I use a bus bar or a fuse block? Garmin says to use 14 gauge wire for extending it the length I need to go. Do you recommend heavier wire to optimize my signsls and images? Thanks for your help! I would like to get this done right myself but need to borrow some knowledge!

Yeah I figured that. The more I think about it the more I think I’ll give it a go with the single graph for now and give me part of the season to see how I feel. That way I can plan how I want to do it if and when I want to make the change. I’ll have the wiring and battery already in place so if I do it will be a pretty quick plug and play. Thanks!

Thanks for the tip! I picked up a Bosch hole saw bit today that should work but I need to swing by the marina in a day or two so I'm going to talk to the guys in the shop and ask what they use.

Here's another in what will likely be a long list of questions as I get to know my first fiberglass boat. As the subject line says I'm wondering if any of you guys have gone from two graphs up at the bow to one. I previously ran a 126 ultra on the bottom and a 106 on top of a dual graph mount from Tiny Boat Nation (excellent mount by the way). The 106 usually ran maps and the 126 was either side and down imaging if I was moving on the TM or livescope if I was using it. Now I'm setting up my Z519 and I'm looking at the bow and I'm not sure I want to put a dual graph mount up there. I am considering flush mounting the 126 at the bow and leaving the extra room. Honestly a big part of it is putting that dual mount up there and taking away from the space I have, which may sound stupid but it's a consideration. I'm the type who hates clutter and I love how clean and open the bow of the 519 is with that flush mount space. I could always decide I want to run both again later and make the change. Anyway just wondering if anyone has done that and if you missed having the second graph. Thanks!

Thanks guys. Standard hole saw works fine?

Hi folks, Got my new boat yesterday. I need to swap the raptors from my other boat into this one. I know where I need to drill the holes for the pumps but was wondering if there are any considerations I should be aware of such as a type of hole saw blade or anything like that to prevent splintering or chipping in the fiberglass. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!