1 hour ago, TOXIC said:

I have fished the St Lawrence in Canada and I fish St Clair in Michigan/Canada and Jig Man is spot on. There are so many preferences regarding gear that are personal to every individual so much so that I would never try to suggest that what works for me will work for you. I know what works for me in my bait choices and it’s easier to just quantify what lures I will be using. For me on a smallmouth trip I rig a Ned, Dropshot, Senko, DShad, crankbait and topwater depending on the time of year. Gear selection includes factors for depth, cover, current, etc. I’ll be the first to admit, I use 2 lines. Different sizes of Straight Mono on everything except bed fishing where I use straight 35lb braid.

I just bought a bunch of Easy Shiners I am ready to go with Neds, Senkos, crankers. I really want to get some practice in on 3-4.5" shiners i will throw them on a 7' med bait caster set up i like.

On 2/19/2026 at 10:53 AM, casts_by_fly said:

35# braid, on a spinning rod? Why so heavy?

Only on St Clair. 2 techniques, first dragging a 1/4 oz football head jig and second, bed fishing in the reeds that grow there and the smallies bed in them. Bury a hook in one of those stalks and if you don’t go in and pull it loose by hand, you are not getting it free without braid. I use an older BPS reel that has the wide spool. Some of the locals I fish with use 50lb 😉

Ok the trip is coming so stoked, the advice here is invaluable.

I added a Mojo 7' MF with a Tatula right now running 10 lb flouro this will probably be my workhorse.

I''ll use this and the 7' M Premier, 7' ML spinning and then I'll still bring the (2) MHs.

I'm set up with

3-4" Keitechs

3-4" Rage swimmers

4-5" Senkos

3/8 oz chartreuse spinner baits

DT10s, rat'l traps, lipless cranks etc

swim jigs

Pee Wee finesse jigs

various top water plugs, poppers, buzz baits

What am i best served throwing with my 7' ML spinning set up? Its a Dobyns Fury

I'd also buy leeches in Canada and fish them with a small hook and a split shot. If a cold front hits, leeches still catch bass.

Gotta have room for a few Neds & Ned jigs.

The farther north you go, the clearer the water generally. The clearer the water, the longer the rod, smaller the baits, thinner the line etc. Keep that in mind.

If you’re fishing pressured water, I’d suggest spooling up with 8 or 10 lb braid, and 6-8lb leader. Play the fish right and you’ll never break off.

4 minutes ago, MickD said:

Gotta have room for a few Neds & Ned jigs.

Got it! I mean im basically bringing everything in case

16 minutes ago, Jaxson D said:

If you’re fishing pressured water, I’d suggest spooling up with 8 or 10 lb braid, and 6-8lb leader. Play the fish right and you’ll never break off.

What kind of leader is preferable

1 hour ago, Goggle Eyes said:

Ok the trip is coming so stoked, the advice here is invaluable.

I added a Mojo 7' MF with a Tatula right now running 10 lb flouro this will probably be my workhorse.

I''ll use this and the 7' M Premier, 7' ML spinning and then I'll still bring the (2) MHs.

I'm set up with

3-4" Keitechs

3-4" Rage swimmers

4-5" Senkos

3/8 oz chartreuse spinner baits

DT10s, rat'l traps, lipless cranks etc

swim jigs

Pee Wee finesse jigs

various top water plugs, poppers, buzz baits

What am i best served throwing with my 7' ML spinning set up? Its a Dobyns Fury

Please get yourself some tubes and preferably some in the 2.5-2.75" range. My tube success is almost strictly dragging and swimming so jamming a 1/0 90 degree ballhead of weights between 5-12g covers me up to 20' fow with current. I also really like the jika rig for holding bottom and getting through everything, the hook size, weight, and soft plastics are all flexible and really open up a lot of options.

scott

2 hours ago, Goggle Eyes said:

What am i best served throwing with my 7' ML spinning set up? Its a Dobyns Fury

I have ( 2 ) ML and ( 1 ) light that are my work horses in the clear water that I'm accustomed to.

Omen Gold ML-F has been perfect for 1/16 Ned rig.

Mojo Bass ML- XF has served well for 1/8 Drop-shot.

Temple Fork L - MF throwing Karashi.

Have fun on your trip.

I'm going to throw Kalins 3" single tails I've had a lot of success with these on rivers are these as potent in Ontario? Usually use a 1/8th or 1/4 oz ball head

Hey so i just wanted to follow up with a recap of our adventure to Lake Bemar, ON. First of all thanks for the heads up on gear and tackle it made a big difference

The weather did not cooperate in general Spring was late so we were probably a little early for the best bite. The fish we ate still had eggs in them so it appeared to be pre spawn, my guess is in two weeks or so that place may be on fire.

It was hot there Tues last week, then by Fri it was windy, wet high of 50 so we did our best to find them which we did every day but the bite was slower. We did make it to Quetico which is very close to the cabin, we caught fish, beautiful place but again the wind was high so we had to get off the water after an hour or two. Looking forward to spending a lot of time there next year really really pretty place.

On the way up we stopped at St Croix in Park Falls, WI I replaced a broken 7' Mojo MF casting rod with a Premier 7' MF spinning rod, I had a Fuego reel this is what i used 75% of the time. I had a 10 lb flouro leader on braid with a 1/4 oz or 1/8 oz Owner ball head jig and a 5" Lunker Grub in Smoke Hologram. They were all over this color, I went thru a bag of 5" and switched over to 3" on a ML rod. I used a swim jig with a 5" Smoke grub trailer but the Smoke Lunker Grub was my bait of choice almost all week. They also bit on Watermelo Red Flake in 5" but that was basically all i threw. Others had a lot of luck with various other paddle tails, bladed jig, swim jigs, jerk bait. A few on top water but unfortunately that was not productive.

Our big smallie was 3 lb 11 oz, we also had a 3lb 9 oz and that big Northern which was approx 30". I actually landed that one on a 3" Smoke grub on a Dobyns 7" ML spinning rod that was a blast! The other 3 guys were just "guestimating" the size of the fish they were catching, they said 4s and 5s but no scales, so i was skeptical.

We landed a lot of walleye i have a new appreciation for walleye fishing, there all about the same size as shown. Great trip all around hopefully we can time it right next year