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Took the kayaks out on a small Ozark stream today with the wife. Love catching these stream smallies on top water. They just explode on it!

The art of feeling a worm/jig bite is a fine combination of watching your line and feeling for unnatural sensations of what your bait shouldn't feel like. Some times you will feel that classic Tap, some times you'll only see line movement, some times your line will simply go slack, but some times there will only be a feeling of heaviness that is almost like your line will not move. The bites where the bass moves after inhaling you bait are the easy ones to feel because there is line movement, the bites where the bass simply inhales your bait and just sits there are the hardest to feel. Feeling a worm/jig bite requires keeping a certain amount of tension on your line while at the same time keeping a certain amount of slackness in your line. To the average angler this makes no sense at all but the worm/jig angler it makes total sense. Maintain contact with your lure at all times, allow the lure to free-fall unrestricted, but without letting slack form in the line; follow your lures down with your rod tip. Pay close attention to the depth you're fishing, any sudden change in the amount of line you're using could mean you've been bit. For instance, if you're fishing 6 feet of water and the lure suddenly stops at the 3 depth, it's possible a bass has taken the bait. If you're fishing 3 feet of water and 6 feet of line sinks beneath the mat, chances are good a bass is traveling with the bait. This is extremely true on the initial drop and no line movement maybe noticed. Strikes will sometimes so subtle with no line movement that they can go unnoticed if you feel is a spongy sensation, as if the line suddenly got heavy set the hook. The hook set is the only part of this sport that is still free so when in doubt drop the rod, reel the slack, and set the hook.

Another one on the zoom lizard. ?

This week I went fishing at Garner State Park in Hill Country. I just wanted to post a couple of things I learned as well as ask a couple of questions. Sorry in advance if this is in the wrong topic. Observations and lessons learned: 1. In crystal clear water you can see some bass, but they are still pretty camouflaged. 2. Where there is one bass, there are more! When I hooked up with one decent sized fish, two or three bigger ones swarmed in and joined the commotion every time. 3. Just because the bass aren't biting doesn't mean they aren't there. More often than not, I had several fish eyeing my lure. They would follow it but just not commit. Questions: 1. When I was fishing, I was using a light spinning reel with 4 lb test. I was successful with a strike king itsybitsy crankbait. I had several follow my rebel mini-craw but only a couple of bluegill took the bait (haha get it?). I tried to dropshot and texas rig, but the rocky bottom caused more frustration than success. I focused mostly casting weightless plastics my most successful was the Grandebass Mini Rattlesnakes. I let them stay at the bottom for a bit while bass eyed them and swam away. I twitched them, dragged them, and even swam them with the same results numerous times. Sometimes the bass would ever seem spooked from these movements. What is it that I am doing or need to do differently to avoid spooking the bass and get them to actually bite instead of following and just turning around? This seemed to always be the case for the bigger guys you could see form a distance. Just to note, I did catch about a dozen or so bass and did enjoy my time. I am just curious as to how to get the more finicky bigger ones that I could see floating around. Not the biggest fish I caught, but definitely the best looking. I didn't take my phone out again as I was wading pretty deep in some parts or the river and didn't want to mess my phone up even more.

Went back out to the creek and got a nicer one today. Would have killed for some casting gear in the murky water, the vines hanging down really made the fly rod a struggle. Never thought I'd get my first smallies in a jungle in Hawaii.

Made it out today to fish Sanford lake which, if you don’t know is the last resivour on the tittabawassee river system before merging with shiawassee to form the saginaw. it was windy but, not horrible. Wish I could have fished for longer than 3 hrs. I’m not fond of launch on the south end in the park. The launch is very shallow. I don’t know how the bigger boats do it. Is there another launch anywhere on the lake? A massive cold front came through on Friday dropping temps from 90 to 60 degrees yesterday. Water was clear with a little tanic tint to it. I wish I could have held position in the main lake as I marked a lot of suspended fish in the 7-15ft range. But, it was tough trying to throw cranks in my 14 ft mirror craft. Finally found one of the creeks to settle into too. I missed 2 really nice ones on a tube. I’m pretty sure the 2nd one was a bowfin i thought I could see neon green by the anal fin. The bowfin May have been a Michigan master angler. I got the bowfin to about 5 feet from the boat and he came off. That is what I get for Texas rigging a tube instead of using a jig. Finally got a nice smallie on my new 1oz spoon. That smallie crushed that 3 inch spoon.

Fished the Fox Chain today. Bass bite is on fire. Poppers, frogs, senkos, swimjigs, and craws were all productive although the topwater bite completely died in the afternoon. No huge fish, but action was hot.Probably boated 50-60 fish.

me and my cousin got after them again today in the little johnny. this pair of largemouths came off the same lay down in 15+ fow. we caught 36 in all, mostly spots, from 6:30 til noonish.

The Daiwa BG is the best 100 dollar spinning reel ever made imo. Its MUCH better than the Shimano offerings in that range and I would put mine up against my Stradic FK. I have a 2500 size that sees yearly use in the salt and has had no issues at all (I do rinse it off after the trip and do yearly cleaning as I do on all my reels). The Daiwa sizes also run a bit different than Shimano. A 3000 size BG will be the same size as a 4000 Shimano and my 2500 is the same size as my 3000 Stradic. Personally unless you plan on going after Tarpon, bull Redfish, or Cobia I don't see the need for anything larger than a 2500 for inshore fishing. You also have the Fuego in the 100 dollar range from Daiwa, but I would rather have an aluminum body over generic plastic (I have no issues what so ever with Ci4+ or Zaion but you don't get that at 100 bucks), a carbon fiber drag over felt, and a bearing in the line roller. All three of those features are really important if you are going to be in the salt instead of just bass fishing, but some people put weight above all else and the Fuego does weigh less.

@Catt sums it up nicely. This year I went to high-vis line and while it feels like I took a shortcut, I am landing a lot more fish, with few gut hooked. edit.....on the fall, I keep the top of my pointer finger touching the line as line moves before the tip of the rod

Feeling the bite can happen several different ways. The tic,tic feeling or the line twitch are some what self explanatory. the "mushy" I relate more to a gut feeling , or instinct. This is what I believe happens. When you use a lure, say a tube, you cast it out, let it hit bottom, then drag or hop it across the bottom. You do this multiple times. Your mind is processing all the information. It feels / looks like this as it's sinking. It takes this much resistance to start it moving. If it bumps against a rock you feel the change and may set the hook. If there is nothing there then, just by the solid feel, you know it had to be a rock. If you feel a softer change in resistance and pull up a weed then you know what going thru weeds feel like. Your mind stores all this accumulated knowledge. At some point something different will happen. You may not consciously notice the difference but your mind is screaming " set the hook " I have set the hook on fish only because my mind "gut " said to. I have also set the hook on brush, sticks, weeds, all manor of things, but more often than not, it is a fish. I would suggest sticking with one bait for now. The more you use it, I believe the better your mind/ gut/ instinct, will tell you there's a fish on.

I just wanted to say a quick thanks to all the members on here for rod, reel, and line suggestions. I'm still a novice at lure fishing, but I have started to consistently catch bass daily thanks to y'all! I bought a St Croix Mojo Bass, Shimano Nasci, and power pro braid due to the recommendations on this forum. I'm typically casting a wacky rigged yamamoto senko with exceptional results. Thanks again all!

That's what makes this community the best!

2 Elite events this year won by Takahiro age 48 and KVD age 51, both older and in their prime at the top of the game. It was KVD's 25th major tournament win. At 75 I can only stand and operate my trolling motor and fish for about 6 hours, we always have wind and waves to deal with. My physical condition isn't good but my muscle memory is very good for fishing, not so good for other activities. Being retired gives us the advantage of picking the days to fish and avioding bad weather and high boating traffic periods. Tournament anglers can't pick the days or avoid bad weather, it's a tough sport in poor conditions for all the competitors regardless of age. Tom

Another zoom lizard bass...

Little Hawaiian smallmouth on the fly, also a new species for me. (Hope this pic shows up, I’m still having trouble posting pics)

Me and 3 other people were sandbass fishing lake tawakoni Texas last Sunday and caught 42

Here's a photo of the 46 sandbass me and 4 other people caught this past Monday at lake tawakoni Texas. we caught most of them trolling a bomber model 4 a crank bait .

I caught this about an hour ago on the Warrior Project rod Kent and the guys had made for me which was pretty awesome. I've only had one other bass on in my life that I had no control of a couple years that I guarantee was double digits and this one was the same way. It jumped once, making things much worse for my psyche. It was in a pond so I took a measurement, a quick picture and let her go. I only did a length measurement with the leader and didn't do girth. I'm much more worried about the long term health of my everyday romps than anything. It measured at 26". The calculators put that in the 9.5-10ish range and I don't think that is too outrageous. I've caught a 25" northern strain that was totally healthy and 7.4lbs, but I'm told these Florida bass down here weight a bit more. My previous PB on a scale was 8.6 and this one sure looked, felt, and fought bigger. I'd never claim a double digit without a scale unless is was like 15+ with no doubt, but I'm pretty sure this is the closest I've come.

Hazy morning fog and stained low visibility water met me at 6am. I was out for a few hours and nothing was biting. I worked a Magnum Rage, a dark chatter but nothing. I rigged up a wacky and scored a dink of a smallie. I stopped by another local lake and met a fishing acquaintance who had just landed a monster on first cast and was heading out on the kayak. I spent a fruitless 45 minutes striking out. Spent the afternoon busy with chores and a choice cigar. Decided to clean the tackle pack and started feeling antsy. I couldn't shake the notion that me and that lake had unfinished business. 4:30 and there I was back at the same spot I fished this am. I start working a creature bait getting increasingly annoyed at a gaggle of High School girls running amuck. One decides to jump into the water off the dock right where I am fishing. Illegal and outrageously obnoxious. Not a great start. I fish for a couple hours, see my angler buddy again who tells me the lunker from the morning was it for him. We talk while he loads his kayak onto his truck and say our goodbyes and good luck. I had at this point gone to a T-Rig worm but still nothing. I decide to leave but want to hit the back pond inlet just in case... Two little girls are quietly laughing on the bench near the bank. They ask if I'm going to catch a fish, and I reply that I'm going to try... I generally start off casting while steadying myself on two rocks that peak out of the muddy soil. The paddies are lush and tall but plenty of open space to place a lure. My first cast is pinpoint accurate. I slowly reel in navigating the vegetation while keeping an eye on the line for lateral movement. Once the lure is clear of the water I decide to cover some water and cast about 6 feet to the left of my first cast. I don't get through 4 revolutions when I feel that soft... so soft.... tug. My eyes zero in on the line looking for movement. Is that a fish? Am I just tugging vegetation? I want to to soft snap the rod but don't want to jump the gun here... I let the line go slack... just a bit... then a small tug and the line starts to move left... I hard set and BANG! Fish on!!! I carelessly let my rod go slack after the set allowing the fish to jump. I see him, shining, glistening as the failing sun lights up his scales and the water droplets spraying in all directions. HE IS BIG. The two small girls jump up on the bench squealing with excitement. I have an audience... I start to reel in furiously. It was a long cast and there are too many places for him to run and wrap me up. My rod is full on bent, I lower it to keep him down. He fights hard taking me to the layover and bush to my left. I need to get closer to the water to pull him out. I step forward stretching out as my feet sink into ankle high mud. He renews efforts pitching hard to my right trying desperately to push into the reeds and high plants more akin to a U Boat on a mission than a Bass looking to hide. I adjust the drag on the fly and know that I can't reel in any farther. Instead I reach out, stretching just a little bit more.... I manhandle the rod to pull him back in and drag him into the shallowest water, half on the mud so that I can grab him. Big... he was big, and heavy. His teeth tore up my thumb like fresh coarse sandpaper. Both hunter and hunted look at each other, exhausted. I smile and thank him for the battle just before gently placing him back into his world grateful for the gift and reward nature shared with me today... 7lb 2oz... People ask me what I get out of fishing... How does one explain?? Eric J

So im not sure if guys read one of my other posts where i talk about struggling to catch a single fish. But i think my issue is feeling the bite. When I cast out into the water i'm only waiting to fill that "Tic Tic" type of bite where i can feel a slight tug. i don't wait for anything else. Ive come to realize that there are other kinds of bites you don't even really feel besides a visual bite. so i can i try to feel those other kinds of bites? some people say its a mushy feel? like what the hell does that mean!?

I caught my new PB on a frog yesterday! No better way to catch a fish of any size much less your PB. She's no where near the biggest this forum has seen at only 5 lbs 3 oz (some of you guys catch these on the daily ?) but it's still exciting to break your PB. Casted my frog behind a little stick up in a grass pocket and she exploded on it!

The Steez SV TW and Steez A is significantly smaller in size than the Zillion SV and Tatula CT/Type R/SV which all share the same frame. The Steez SV TW and Steez A /w a SV spool are the finest reels, in my opinion, daiwa has made to date. The Zillion SV G1 spool is heads and shoulders better than the Tatula SV. Upgrade or flush the bearings on the Tatula SV and it will perform better. The size difference between the CT and the regular Tatula , while not drastic, is noticeable. The zillion HLC is the same frame as the OG zillion, SV103 and TD-Z. It's a more compact frame and ergonomically friendly frame size than the CT reels. The nose on the CT frames is wider and doesn't have a recessed brake dial like the HLC/TD-Z. The HLC spool is a good heavy bait spool. Throwing your average frogs, spinnerbaits, swim jigs, etc in the 1/2oz range the HLC isn't much better than the Stock Zillion spool or the TDZ100m spool that can drop in to it. It is better though relative to the others but not something I would go chasing after. If you want a zillion , get an SV103 and put a Steez 103r+ or TDZ r+ spool in it and you'll have a casting machine.

Did I mention I can't wait to get my boat? Just picked up a helix 10" Mega SI and Ultrex for it tody?

Hit another lake for some pike today, no monsters but my son got his first of the year. On the hunt for a biggun.

If I can't skip the bait under the dock, I won't use it around docks. Stuff like cranks, spinnerbaits, bladed jigs or anything else that doesn't skip isn't going to be useful for me. Senkos and Ned Rigs skip easily and are required for pulling bass out from the shade under the docks. If you only fish the outer edges of docks, you are missing out on a lot of fish especially on sunny days.

Like @J Francho & @WRB I don't get overly excited over which cord I use. My thoughts, don't use a 100' when 50' will reach & don't use a 50' when a 25' will reach.

From the manual https://minnkotamotors.johnsonoutdoors.com/sites/johnsonoutdoors-store/files/product/minchargers/1036048/ProductManual/MIN_productmanual_ChargerDigital.pdf?_ga=2.163682232.625704911.1528026689-627013622.1528026689 : However, I'd go with the lowest gauge (i.e., largest wire diameter) and shortest length that's practical for you. I had problems with my Minn Kota Precision Charger properly detecting my batteries. I read on a forum somewhere that they're particularly sensitive to line voltage irregularities, so I upgraded my extension cord and the problem went away.

Frio River? I don't get to excited about bass seeing me as long as I'm not making sudden movements. As for clothing, light colored browns, greys, greens, & even blues. What ya may wanna throw, topwater lures; I've had success with clear Pop R's, Tiny Torpedoes, & translucent green frogs. Clear water can be difficult to fish so the topwater aspect provides an advantage.

Turtles maybe?

I made a few new mods to my boat... New video ideo to come tomorrow. The biggest check is the Bimini top. My wife and I entered into a catfish contest. We didn't win, but just sitting for a fish to bite in 90+ degrees was nice under the Bimini top. Although I still got a migraine from the heat, it was after we left the lake rather than during the fishing. I will provide install instructions later The install was easy. I installed mine yesterday and it is husband tested, wore approved. We love it. It was awesome today. It cooled things down at least 10+ degrees. Made it comfortable. So comfortable, it was hard to standup and fish... Although before we put it up, we were standing up and fishing somewhat comfortable and very hot. It was easy to install and only $145 on Amazon.

Couple lakes in my area right now... And it's still raining!

Took the family out to a small local lake for a few hours for pike. Caught a half dozen, lost a real nice one at the boat, but still a lovely afternoon on the lake. This little guy didn’t want to be held for a pic ?. Moved so fast my wife got 2 action pics of him before my facial expression even changed!

Finding smallies in the 'summer' can be challenging - it is for me. They seem to move all over the place - here today, gone tomorrow. Such opportunistic feeders that are very willing to travel quite a ways. My limited success with summer smallies comes from two basic thoughts. First - where they are during low light (early & late) seems different from where they hang out once the sun gets up a bit. So my approach early & late is to fish the shallower areas on or near the spots you listed above (drop-offs , shelves, humps, etc.) Especially areas that have an decent food source - for me that's almost always perch & / or crayfish. One of my favorite & top producing areas on most every SMB lake I fish, is "Inside Turns." Once I can identify what depth they are using, following a contour line and hitting the inside turn of Points, drop-offs, humps & saddle areas - and especially 'funnels" (where the bottom structure is such that the fish can 'run the lane' in the deep water, and shoot up shallow at any point along it to eat). Now as you mentioned 'there are so many areas' on any lake that can be potential bass fishing areas. Where does one start ? This is where the second part of my very basic plan comes into play. A starting point - By going to where you know the SMB spawned (where the beds are) and expanding from there, one can often locate a few. Simply expand your search from shallow to deep until you connect. Remembering that early & late they could be pretty shallow and move out as the day continues. Where & how far is the hard part. I usually don't use my electronics here to find fish, although it happens more now with the 360 imaging, more often I'm looking for bait & cover. Rocks & bottom composition transition areas can be good. And even if & when I find them, I have all but given up on trying to catch 'suspending' fish. Super tough. Every once in a while I can get a few to go, but can be & has been a frustrating deal. Early & late I'm using topwater & moving baits (depending on the wind) and once I start to look "deeper" I am almost always throwing a drop shot. But a drop shot can be a 'search bait' just use a small nose hooked swimbait, fluke, craw or a small curly tail worm or whatever you have confidence. Something that will not twist your line and that you can fish deep and bump along the bottom. Cast it out - work it back - repeat. This process ALWAYS includes a ton of 'eliminating water'. No way around it. What I have found is that the old adage "10% of the lake holds 90% of the fish" is more or less A Fact ! Hope that helps and don't despair - there's a reason it's a rare event that a big smallie is posted up in the middle of July & early August . . . Good Luck A-Jay

I went to Mille Lacs on Friday, June 1 and fished the east side of the lake for about 5 hours. Tough bite overall. My Father and I caught 4 bass, 1 walleye, and 1 pike. We saw a lot of fish in super shallow water including a couple on beds but generally when we saw them, we couldn't catch them. I think the bass began to guard beds when it got really hot but it got down into the 40's up there the last couple nights and I think they moved back out because we saw a lot of beds without fish - and I don't think they spawned yet because the water temp was only 50-53 degrees. All four smallmouth we caught were over 17 inches and I caught probably the second biggest smallmouth I've ever caught - a 20.5 incher. A saw a TON of bass boats out there. I think the fishing pressure has finally got to them. Slowly fished soft plastics in natural colors was the only thing that caught fish. I tried a jerkbait for a long time and saw a lot of other guys trying that too. I only saw one other bass caught the entire time out of at least 40 boats I saw out there.

Made it home safe & sound ? What a ride! The wind was unmerciful most of the time. The bite was ridiculously crazy, with everything from them grabbing & swimming off with it on the drop to some of the lightest bites ever. Ended with with 25 total, missed at least that many. The bite was weird but all solid 3-5 lb fish. Top 5 was 22# & change Sorry not a single photo!

Two thoughts for spotting them: Look for shadows. Particularly on bright days, they will be high contrast and often easier to spot than the fish. Look for Horizontal. Not much in nature is truly horizontal and it can help you cut down the number of things you have to look at to figure out if what you're looking at is a fish. Staying camouflaged if they can see you: Keep your shadow off the water if you can. Nothing good happens to fish from above. Wear clothing that matches the background. If you're on a boat against a blue sky...wear a blue shirt...if it's cloudy, wear grey...if you're bank fishing, green/brown.

Thanks J Franco for the honeoye recomendation! Between the two of us we boated around 50 bass. All basically identical 2#ers, but the kid had a blast so that was great!

Just returned from my Mercury Marine Dealer ~ All kinds of Good News. First off, I had received incorrect information initially regarding the need to convert my rig to 'all digital gauges, controls & steering' to facilitate the new motor. Not the case. The newest Pro XS is available in multiple configurations to accommodate most any fitment - Meaning it will be Plug & Play more or less. (besides I prefer the standard manual throttle I have) Makes the re-power less work & Less $$. Fan of that. Paperwork getting written up over the weekend and I'll return on Monday to sign the final draft. At which point I'll "be on the list". Current time frame for delivery looks like mid July right now. Looking forward to it - besides being a welcome distraction. A-Jay

A little recap of my 15th year of going to Lake St Clair for our annual Smallmouth beatdown. First and foremost, everyone that attended (7 of us total) came home safe and sound with no major mishaps on the water or travel up and back (last year we took out a boat axle on those lovely Michigan roads). We had epic weather with only 1 day being windy and we were able to fish through it, although it beat us 1/2 to death. Average number of fish per day for my partner and I, 40-50. The slowest day was the day before we left with probably 20 each. Average size 3-5lbs. Although no giants, the numbers were well worth it. We got into an unbelievable Walleye bite in the Selfridge area on SPRO Original Little John crankbaits in Cell Mate and Little John Medium Divers in Olive Shad. These cranks also got us a lot of other species but the Walleye ate them up. We got the steady stink eye from the Walleye fishermen dragging crawler harnesses and cranks around us because we were releasing all of our fish (after we had enough for a meal ?) plus we were catching them 3 to every 1 of theirs. Water temps were generally in the 62-67 degree range depending where we were. 1st wave of spawners were done and although we caught good numbers on the Mile Roads we didn't fish there all that much. We found that the fish that were there were guarding fry and in order to get them to bite you had to put a bait right on their nose. We preferred to move off shore a little more and go after the pre spawn fresh wave setting up to come in and find other bedding areas that were unfished for the most part. Even though we rent a cottage on Harsens Island and are literally 1/2 mile from both the big and little Moot we didn't fish there. Lots of our buddies did and caught the biggest fish of the trip. I did fish there for about 2 hours at the end of the day when I rode with someone else for a day. I have a problem going into the Moot and yaking big smallies that have been caught 3 or 4 times before me. Yes, we did catch them off the beds in other places and we could have gotten bigger fish in the Moot but the bedding fish we caught were fresh and their mouths did not look like pin cushions. Species caught......Just about everything. We caught Smallmouth, a lot of Largemouth (they were running with the Smallmouth in some of our areas), Musky, Pike, Rock Bass, Bull Gills, White bass, Walleye and my first (in 15 years!!) Sheephead. We caught them on a number of baits depending on the location. The cranks I mentioned above, Jerkbaits, Tubes, Dropshot, Underspin, Yamamoto DShads, Senkos and as I have always said there are a couple of baits that take me by surprise every year. This year it was the Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm in Natural Shad on a dropshot. I finally had to change to another dropshot bait (Pro Senko) because the Smallmouth were inhaling the Shad Shape Worm and I got tired of having to remove deep hooks (no fish were killed). The second surprise bait and the one I caught a large number of fish on was a Yamamoto California Roll on a Ned rig. Absolutely wore them out. Most memorable catch of the trip was me hooking up on a dropshot and breaking off on the hookset. I re-rigged and we continued fishing moving about 100 yards from our original spot. After a few fish I get bit on the dropshot again and set the hook. Get the Smallmouth to the net and when I reach in to lip it, I get a hook into the topside of my thumb and made the comment to my partner that I must have hooked this one on the outside of the mouth (after a few explatives and removing the hook from my flesh)....but then I look and there in it's upper lip is the dropshot I broke off, bait, weight, line and hook!! I was able to get both rigs back. We ate like Kings as usual with a fresh Walleye fish fry, 7 racks of ribs, bacon wrapped deer backstrap, 20lbs of King Crab legs, Bison burgers and crab stuffed Portabello mushrooms just to name a few meals. I am already planning for next year!! I won't bore you with the 500 or so pics we took but will post a couple of our average size fish. What a trip.

Try Invizx, it's a good quality line that has as good a knot strength as most others. Its too stretchy for me to use for anything else but makes a good line for cranks.

Look for mid 60’s Gillette fat boys and buy safety blades. Nothing like old school shaves...and a heck of a lot cheaper than multi-blades. .....but don’t kid yourself, chicks dog a furry face, especially a white one ?

So, if you pay more for a product for its said quality and then don't receive that level of quality, you just let it go? What's to keep you buying that product in the future? Most people like to get their money's worth - it's not just about a sub $10 lure - it's about buying 100 of those lures over time and having confidence in your purchase.

Thanks Renegade, Yep mine are 27s also so everything worked out perfect and there's room for my 3 bank charger. Here she is after I drove her home today.

Exactly....It's easy to forget to match your gear settings to the fish. No different that adjusting your hookset to your gear. I use a #1 Gamakatsu EWG hook and Texas rig my Dropshot baits. If I did my normal hookset, I would tear the hook right out of their mouth!! Here's a 4+ off my dropshot setup and 6lb line.

If you are bending hooks, the drag is set too high for the hooks you used. I used light wire, #4 size Split/Drop Shot hooks from Gamakatsu for this fish:

Memorial day weekend was very productive for me. I am not one to take my kayak out on a holiday weekend so I used google maps to find local spots to bank fish. I was able to find a feeder canal by me that runs parallel to the Hudson River. There is a path between them and you can walk and fish the canal or the river. I caught my biggest Smallmouth Bass of the year there. 2.14 pounds. I also found a Rock Bass honey hole. All in all I was able to catch over 30 fish over the weekend.

If you do flipping style jigs most of the time then I'd go with a Anvil Apex which is rated to a 7/0. I have a Griffin Odyssey Spider, it is rated to 4/0 but I have done 6/0 heavy wire hooks and it worked well but if I was doing that size all the time I'd go with the Anvil Apex. What will happen is if you tie a lot of jigs with a vice not made for that you'll wear the jaws out quickly, they will hold for a bit but you'll soon notice they will begin slipping with maximum pressure applied. The problem with really cheap vises is once the jaws go you may as well throw the vise away as they are that cheap that they don't make jaws, just the vise so you buy a new one. You don't need a top of the line vise but if you plan on doing more than a couple dozen jigs a year then step up and get a decent vise capable of handling the intended size hooks, it will be a lot less frustrating in the long run.

Days like this are learning days. Days where they bite a bear hook not so much.

If you do happen to be interested in regular pfd’s, the NRS Chinook is a great one. It’s a high back design meant for kayaking, but I use it for everything. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to stop into a local store and see what they have to try on. What works, is comfortable, and fits well for one person maybe be less than ideal for another. Example: A lot of people recommend the Stohlquist Fisherman or Keeper, and I tried a Keeper on and didn’t really like it. Tried on the NRS Chinook and it feels totally different and I like the fit. Might be the exact opposite for a different person