Crestliner2008

I have had a lot of experience with the LC Sluggos. Depending on hook placement and angle, you make it do just about anything you, or the fish desire. I have actually had better success with these than with the flukes. But I know a lot of other people that have had just the opposite experiences. It's why they call it "Fishing".

I fish the drop shot from ice out to ice up.

Remember, you are trying to imitate a dying baitfish. Envision the fish struggling to stay up in the water column and fish it that way. And btw, I do even better with the old 5" Sluggo, than with the fluke tails.

The smallies were down around 30'. We got the largemouths a little shallower. None were relating to bait balls, which is peculiar. But you have to find deep water structures with weeds.

I was there yesterday and we did pretty well. The smallies are off the banks now and setting up on their summer structures. We even got into some nice LM well off-shore: You should alright with either the drop shot and/or floating a Senko. Good Luck!

The rodent is basically a "beaver" styled creature bait. They all work great. I use full size beavers quite a bit for LM's and I fish them on a 1/8 oz. weighted swimbait hook. Keeps the bait falling horizontally instead of falling nose first. Maybe it doesn't matter much, but I feel it may. Almost any color will catch bass, so it's not something I concern myself with. The smaller sizes of this style of bait work fine on smallies on shakey head jigs, but for dense cover and when fishing for LM's I go full size.

Remember this also, nothing goes to waste in nature. Snapping turtles, gulls, herons and other fish will make good use out of whatever doesn't survive on it's own.

Use at least a 12" leader. I haven't tried it yet, but they make a "ty-able" wire that you can use for this purpose as well. Some folks like the heavy (80# test) fluorocarbon leaders. I don't know. I've caught a lot of pike and those teeth are amazingly sharp. I'd be skeptical of landing a 20 pound pike with fluoro as my only leader. But many musky fishermen use them.

An 8" Hudd is a pretty good starting point. I use 25# test Triple Fish mono spooled on my Ambassadeur 6500-C.

Definitely not a normal occurrence!

I agree with Bluebasser. Select a medium action instead. And don't set the hook very hard on those baits. A soft sweep set is all you need with braid.

All I can tell you is that before people started using this deadly jig style for shad, folks like Bill Binkleman and Al Lindner were using them on smallies and walleye as well. Caught one of my largest river smallies many years ago on a shad dart. Caught some nice rainbow and brown trout on them as well. My son even caught a 12 lb. Atlantic salmon on one. I believe most people DON'T use them simply because of their adopted name.

Try 1/16 oz. Roadrunners (with curly tailed grubs as the trailer) and/or 1/16 oz. ball head jigs with the same curly tails. And of course, don't forget some 4" wacky rigged Senkos. My grandkids love fishing with me! He'll have a ball.

Also, don't forget to try vertical jigging blade baits, just off the first drop offs.

I've always suspected that the smallmouth bass has the longest span of time, for the spawning ritual, than most other species. I've seen them on beds the latest being July 12 in this neck of the woods. The beds were deep - 12' - 15' and located on pebble type gravel on the edge of drop offs to deeper water. I believe many fishermen who catch smallies in the 12' - 20' depths drop shotting, are actually catching bedding bass.

You really need to google "Spoonplugging for Bass" by Elwood "Buck" Perry. He is considered by most to be the "Father of Structure Fishing". In this book you will learn about the migrations of bass - and other species of fish - to & from the shallows. They do this for food. Bass have one agenda: eat as much as you can! And as the apex predator that they are, they accomplish this task quite efficiently. This book will go a long way in your understanding of the basic principals of bass behavior. I still use them today. As Bucks says, "It's all about depth and speed control".

Actually, the "Flying Lure" is one that does work. Basically a reverse rigged tube. I do the same thing with Fat Ikas and have had a great deal of success.

Beautiful perch! And yes, great eating fish.

What goes around, comes around. What was old could very well be the "new", sooner than you think!

I've used them off & on for many, many years. A quality producer.

I tend to agree with what has been said so far. The added hardware of the swivel with the snap does dampen the action of most presentations. Just go with a quality snap (without the swivel) and you'll be putting the odds in your favor, instead of the bass.

With braid as costly as it is, backing is the common sense approach to filling more than one spool. I use an inexpensive mono of a pound test rating I have on hand, usually 15# test.

I use to fish the Ct. River here in MA quite a bit for smallies years ago. Our go-to was always ball head jigs and curly tailed grubs. We caught a lot of smallies in this mature big river, even from shore. The trick is knowing how deep you are fishing and the speed of the current. Then casting the appropriate weight of jig up stream and reeling back just fast enough to give the bait the action it needs while maintaining bottom positioning. Much easier to do in a boat of course. The technique employed there is called slipping.

X2

I've done my share of salmon fishing on the Quabbin. I am now more of a smallmouth fisherman there, but still catch a salmon here & there. If I were you, I'd go out of Gate 43 and head over to the "Baffle Dam". Set up a drift pattern using a flat line and a Carolina weighted (1/4 to 1/2 oz. depending on the drift speed) line for each person. Light to medium action spinning rigs, filled with 4 - 8 lb. fluorocarbon line, will give you the best sport. Medium size shiners nose hooked with a size #2 or #1 inline circle hook. Make sure you have a quality ball bearing swivel about 2' - 3' above the hook. Set up your drift pattern to go towards or away from the dam, depending on which way the wind if blowing. If it's dead calm, forget about it! A nice chop with a 10 mph breeze is perfect. Two guys, 4 lines out and you will score eventually. Just don't forget your net! Good Luck!