JonB2

We have some great smallmouth fishing here in Michigan, that's for sure. This was the big fish from yesterday...still lean she was

This is the worst post I've saw on this site so far. No one cares as much as you all are desperately trying to convice everyone. Cool, you feel special and significant going to whatever this is; you also sound like a tool talking ish to your own members because a few don't really understand it. Ridiculous.

Made another smallie run with my brother and we had a steady grind type day. Jigs did the most damage in the sun with 3" stickworm, small craws and finesse rage bug as trailers. My bro landed 10 of 12 and I hooked 9 landing 7. Some fish were still post spawn lean, but a few had gotten to football status. No large fish with 15-16" being common and big fish at 18" or so. Good fighters though and a solid, fun day overall.

Bass will grab a bigger craw by the claws to dislodge their position, then suck them in tail first. That's why you see pincers sticking out of their throat. Speaking of a carolina rig, I need to run it again as I've had quite a few drops and feel the c-rig would change those to hookups.

I paddle and it is definitely challenging, frustrating at times and honestly...can be limiting. I use anchors, but am very strict on their use and where and when I deploy them. I'm a minimalist type angler, so many wouldn't go my way. I enjoy when it does come together as I will never get jaded always working to get on fish, but I like it that way. I don't run the normal kayak two-paddle; I use half of one and go canoe style.

Fished the home lake and it was pretty blah. Got there around 730, starting with a pegged power worm. After 3 drops, a lost fish and a miss...I switched to a jig/craw and hit a nice fish on my second throw. Had another drop on the jig there, before moving on. Hit my second fish on a t-rigged cleanup craw before losing another fish. Got irritated with the teaxs rig(I had unpegged at that point) and started throwing the jig again and landed three more fish, two good ones and a 13". After that, it really slowed up with another drop and a miss being it before leaving. Atleast size was solid...

That's because that was probably after Ned Kehde popularized it. If you read further, I believe Kansas bass anglers in the 50's actually created it. Now people put all kinds of plastics on ned heads and call them "ned rigs" which they are not. There is only one ned rig; anything else is simply a finesse plastic on a ned head or some variant.

I just flat out don't care and am right handed with right handed reels. Switching hands hasn't cost me anything, and I don't over worry while being a rec angler. Years of steelheading had me using both left and right retrieve, but not in bass fishing. Seems making things to fuss about just for the sake of it is common place these days. Good grief...sounds like paranoia.

What I was saying is, your largemouth have shoulders, but flat bellies; boxy shaped. Look at the smallmouth you catch, football shaped. That's all, there isn't anything wrong with that one bit.

The brown bass seem to be more aggressive foragers than your green bass since they always have fat bellies while the largies often have flat bellies from your ponds. Smallmouth typically are more active in feeding anyways as they swim after food over sitting in ambush. Largemouth will certainly chase though, if it's worth it. Smallies are just meaner overall lol

Works every time...bring an inexperienced woman or a kid and they'll get the biggest bass just because that's how fishing is! Checked out a new lake and dink city. Helped a couple kids at the launch by spooling up one of their empty reels with some 8lb hybrid I had on hand for leader, untangling the others mangled reel and giving them some worm hooks and senkos in a few good colors. After throwing off the dock to get the fresh line wet and manageable, I hooked a dink that I let the one kid reel in. I then tossed out the others twisted up rig not as far, handed it to him and seconds later "hey, I got one" and an 18-18.5" bass was brought to hand...never fails lol. Needless to say, those kids were wading out and firing around with vigor after that. The extra 30 min to load up was well worth it; good job guys.

Finally made a river smallie trip and it was tough, grinding put 9 fish. Started with back to back footballs on a 1/4oz jig/craw that looked like twins, then it was slow for awhile until I went up near the dam and fished the open flood gate whitewash. I had a fun flurry pop n' drop fishing paddle tails. No big fish, but as we all know...you don't need a big one to get bent with smallmouth! Felt great getting some HARD pulling brown bass again, and hopefully it gets better in future trips.

Fished a awhile today(9a-2p)and grinded out 5 good keepers from 16-18" and 5 dinks; also had three drops. Jigs took every fish aside from one miss on a c rig, but I was in the mood to fish jigs as they're my favorite. Fish are still on molting craws as a couple spit them up. A 3/16oz pumpkin/green flake with either a sungill or bama craw paca chunk took all the good fish. Dinks came on black/blue with a gp chunk. Bright and mostly flat with the ENE kicking up a bit now and then. Saw two bigger fish cruising shallow for the first time in weeks, and they were very near some late spawning panfish. I had to battle the now annoying loons like every trip here. Why do they follow me around? You got the whole lake!

Don't worry about catching bass to start or being a hero. Learn your tackle and the feel of it, learn how to work your baits properly. Work on casting accurately. Fish slower to start so you can get a few fish under your belt and your adrenaline pumping. I went from steelheading to bass fishing, and am way more crazy about bass fishing. Get a solid 7' MF spinning rod and MHF casting rod to start off with. They'll cover a bunch of techniques and baits, and you can branch out from there. Trust your gut and have fun with it. Good luck!