Crestliner2008

Even harder to go wrong with a Pflueger President. I have 4 now and wouldn't trade them for any Shimano. And I use to be a huge Shimano fan back a few years ago, until they hiked their prices.

Elwood "Buck" Perry always wanted the fish to see his line. Said it drew their attention to his lure. But he always approached line choice with two vital controls in mind: depth & speed control. The diameter of the line dictates the depth at which lures (talking hard baits here) travel on the retrieve. The object being to keep your lure at the depth of the fish, for the longest period of time. Still a viable consideration to this day.

I've had decent success with pink Senkos this season; not sure if they make the Ocho in pink?

Fantastic smallies! Congrats!

I've had great success tossing 5" hollow bodied swimbaits (i.e.: Shadalicious by Strike King) rigged on a 3/8 oz. swimbait hook (belly weight). Especially in the spring flood conditions. So I know they will hit big baits. Try this, and/or a large bladed spinnerbait. You'd be surprised with a smallie will hit!

I've had a great deal of success using standard 2" soft plastic crappie baits on 1/16 oz. ball head jigs. I prefer the Bobby Garland's Baby Shads for straight tails and Charlie Brewer's Slider Grubs for paddle tails. Perch will usually stay close to the bottom, so a long cast, let your bait hit bottom, then a slow retrieve, will usually get bit. Bluegills can be everywhere and will hit anything. You do not have to use live bait. The plastics cited will catch them just as well.

Excellent video Glenn! Not many people I know ds a tube. I started early last year and I like it almost as much as using roboworms. And this is for smallmouths. I've had a lot of great success with this presentation. Thanks for posting.

Back in the '60's, when I was into fly fishing, one of my most productive bass lures was what was called a "Bass Hound". Basically this was a deer hair bug with deer hair tied out to each side like the example above, but with a thick tail of deer hair as well. The smallmouths on the river crushed this bug. I don't know if the bass figures anything about ROI in it's attempt at feeding, but it certainly is attracted to these bugs.

All I can say is that I've been using Fireline since it came out. Recently, over the past 6 years, I've been using the Crystal version. I use this line on all my spinning rigs, from 2# test for panfish, up to 8# test for smallmouth bass and jigging for lake trout. Have never had an issue with the performance of this line. It works well for me.

Series 10 X-Rap in Hot Head pattern.

Start with the distance fairly short (8") to start with in the spring. Then as the season progresses into summer/fall, extend it longer, say around 1 1/2' - between sinker & hook. A lot depends on the water clarity too, as well as weed growth. You need to keep your bait above the weeds, but not far from them. Good Luck!

The first lure I ever bought, back in the 50's, with my paper route money. Red & white. Caught a lot of bass on that bad boy.

The one I was most enamored with growing up was the Arborgast Jitterbug. However, the one I never leave home without is the Yamamoto 5" Senko.

What kind of fishing for lakers are you doing? Trolling, casting, vertical jigging? I mostly vertically jig for deep water lakers and find that 8# test Fireline Crystal with a fluorocarbon leader works extremely well. And I'm using jigs up to 1 1/2 oz.. No problems, no worries.

I use the Ambassadeur 6500C with no problems. Tossing big Hudds and Slammers. I use 25# Triple Fish Perlon and she casts like a dream. Great for pike or musky as well.

Absolutely the best I've seen. MLF is the tops.

Golden shiner. They make great pike bait.

Hard to beat a 1/16 oz. ball head jig with 2" curly tailed grub on the back.

Tungsten jigging spoons will work too. A bit of a costly approach to a simple method however. Around here, the bottom can be strewn with cut down tree stumps, even at 110'. They cleared several towns and forests for flooding for the reservoir, so loosing baits becomes a problem. Instead, we use inexpensive blade baits (Barlow's sells them without hooks or hardware) without the trebles; instead rigging them with a single barbless Siwash hook. This minimizes hooking the bottom significantly, but doesn't appear to affect our hook-up, or landing, ratio on the lakers. Here's what this mod looks like:

What works even better than cranks sometimes are slow trolled spinnerbaits. I usually dress them with a strip of beef liver. Been awhile since I've done it, but it use to be very productive. Only problem is, you tend to catch bigger cats with this method and they crush a spinnerbait. Sometimes destroying it.

I'm more familiar with river cats myself, but if I were presented with a lake fishing scenario, I'd drift with modified carolina rig, using large cubes of beef liver. Always works for me in the river.

If there are some decent bass in that pond, try a 7" Senko, Texas rigged with a 7/0 worm hook - no weight. If there are bass around, especially this time of the year, that will probably force a strike. And if you do locate one, but don't connect, keep trying. Sometimes it takes repeated casts to one piece of cover to get them to commit.

My favorite is the X-Rap in "hot head" pattern. Has taken a lot of smallies for me over the years.

I agree with what has been said. Go with just a snap and forget about ever using snap-swivel combinations. They are an abomination! The snap affords the minimal amount of hardware and yet gives your bait the best possible action it is designed for. Not to mention the ease with which you can change baits. One word of caution however, that most folks tend to overlook. Snaps can and do fail! I've lost several bass over the past two seasons due to the snap breaking at the bend. I like using jerkbaits quite often and the repeated opening and closing of the snap along with the twitching motion of this presentation, puts wear & tear on the wire of the snap. And worst of all, it's not very apparent to the angler. So now, I use a snap for one trip out.....then replace it before my next day on the water. Could save you an expensive lure, not to mention the hazard to the fish taking it.

A lot of times smallies will "coral" bait against the surface and crash into them. Could be what you were experiencing? In any case, as far as your hook-up problem goes, next time try not to set the hook too soon. I usually wait until I feel weight before pulling back. That might help you out.