Marty

Any lure can work well in weeds if you can fish it without getting it hung excessively. You say "packed with weeds", but I don't know if you mean they're all over the surface or submerged. Naturally if they're covering most of the surface, you need Texas-rigged soft plastics and weedless topwaters. If they're submerged, spinnerbaits and crankbaits worked over the weeds, and contacting the weeds, will do quite well, in addition to soft plastics and topwaters.

I use duolock snaps all the time. Metal leaders when I feel the chances are high for a toothy fish biteoff, but I must admit, I'm inconsistent with the leaders. Sometimes I use them preventatively, other times only after I've actually experienced biteoffs. No hard and fast rules that I'm aware of. I use swivels only with lures like inline spinners.

I use a different brand of toad, but my partner uses the Horny. We both fish our baits primarily by buzzing them on the surface. He'll use the Horny in open water, as well as weedy, while I generally use mine in water where trebles can't be used.

How little was your bait? Maybe it wasn't the hook size, but sharpness. Some of those baits, such as the industry leader, come with terrible hooks.

It was on another board, but I met a guy five years ago. We fished together only three times the first year, but now it's 15-20 times a year. Worked out great. I needed a guy with a boat, he wanted a back-seater and I was available to fish with him at times when most guys aren't available. The first time we met at the launch, I asked him if he had any qualms about meeting a stranger from the internet and he said that his sister thought for sure he'd be murdered. But I let him live. ;D Actually, though, I was reading his posts for about six months to get to know him before I mentioned that I was from the same town.

Have you tried topwater? That's something I'd certainly want to try during low light periods over those Christmas trees and other cover. Welcome to the forum.

I read that tackle tour review of the Sizmic Toad after I bought them. I don't see the surface disturbance that the reviewer did. That doesn't mean they won't attract fish, because they do. The reason I bought them over the Horny Toad was because they were thinner and I felt I'd have a better chance of getting a good hookset. Both the Sizmic and the Horny tend to roll over with the hook shank riding up instead of down; at least that's what happens when I use them. I haven't been using the toads that much. My favorite buzzing soft plastic is the tail of an Ultra-Vibe Speed Worm fused to the body of a Fluke or Assassin.

Never caught a musky, except for a couple of dink tigers. Pike fight very well. But I have spent more time on pickerel waters than pike waters, and I always thought that pickerel were much better fighters than largemouth.

In open water you can use an exposed hook jighead. I prefer the internal heads. In situations where you need weedless, use a wide gap hook Texposed, with or without a weight. You can use an internal weight or an external slip sinker. I like thin-walled tubes like Zoom, Luck-E-Strike and BPS Tender Tubes, in blacks, pumpkinseeds and one or two other colors, such as watermelon, smoke with purple flakes, natural shell, but I feel that just about any color can work well.

My partner uses Horny Toads, I use Sizmic, we both prefer black. He uses 5/0 EWGs, I use 4/0 or a Mustad Ultra Point with a "Gripper Keeper." Both of us fish them weightless. Zoom brought out a special hook for the Horny Toad. Guys have complained that the bait tears after a fish or two. The special hook is, I think, a 5/0 EWG with a corkscrew keeper which supposedly extends a bait's life.

Sometimes I swim them, other times I use a lift-and-drop retrieve. In lily pads and other surface vegetation, I drop them into holes and at the edges. You can crawl them along the bottom, crawling them over any cover that might be present, like a tree or a rock. Use them any way you can think of; you're limited only by your imagination. I fish Trick Worms and Senkos weightless, but usually fish others with a light weight, like 1/16 or 1/8. It all depends on the type of cover, the depth you're fishing, how fast a fall you want and other things.

Not that I can see.

I do a lot of bank fishing at a variety of waters. I always bring just one rod/reel combo and too many lures. I have a couple of shoulder bags. One 3701 box for hard baits, a 3600 for soft jerkbaits, with one compartment for two buzzbaits, another 3600 box with assorted worms like Senkos, Kut Tails and Speed worms and a smaller box for a few tubes and jigs. A small box with four spinnerbaits goes in one of the bag's pockets. This is the same stuff I take with me for boat fishing, plus a couple more rods and reels and another utility box or two depending on where we're going. I know for any given bank outing I have too much stuff, but I just don't feel right without a good assortment of stuff.

It's probably as good as anything. I try to follow some general guidelines, but it hardly seems to matter. I've caught too many on natural colors in murky water and unnatural colors in clear water.

Yeah, that's one of the chart's big shortcomings. We'll have to make do by extrapolating for all those 26+ that we catch. Maybe I'll e-mail the DEC to update the chart so our estimates are a little more accurate. :

I agree with Abel, but I don't think they need current, even though they are found in rivers and streams. Their need for clearer, cooler and deeper water is just not typical of small ponds. Plus they like rocks and gravel, again not a feature of most small ponds that I'm familiar with. I'm sure there's more to it, like food chain and other stuff.

Try the site's articles section; I'm sure there are a number of articles on spinnerbaits. Just my opinion, but I think 30 is too many if you're a recreational fisherman. With the infinite number of combinations of blade colors, size, number and configuration, along with skirt color, spinnerbait selection is made out to be much more complicated than it needs to.

I use the charts for most of my bass (I have what info I need pretty much memorized) and weigh just my largest fish. I'm afraid your estimate of 5# might be on the high side unless it was a real football. Here's a link to NY's tables: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/fish/foe4cwgf.html

I've been using a white Strike King Grass Frog with good results, but I can't see a difference in number of strikes with that versus chartreuse, pumpkinseed and other colors.

I'd investigate along the lines of what's been suggested. Something had to be wrong for the line to break on the hookset. Heavier line would probably be better for frogs, but that doesn't mean that 10# line should break when it did. Using too light a line might mean you don't drive the hooks in past the barb or maybe you don't bring the fish out of the weeds, but still shouldn't break line on the hookset.

I don't know, all I can do is guess. A 5" Senko weighs approximately 3/8 oz. The little worm rattles that I own (and never use) seem weightless for all practical purposes. It's hard to imagine them altering the movement of such a heavy lure. If they do alter it, I would think the change is so tiny that it would have no effect on the fishing. I think you caught that 4-5# bass because the lure was in the right place at the right time, not because of the presence or absence of the rattle. Again, that's just my speculation.

In 36 years of fishing, I've never seen a lure that has generated so much buzz as the Senko. I used them first in 2001, so Senkomania has been going on at least four or five years, because it was that mania that caused me to try them and I've been using them heavily ever since.

I also Texpose my tubes. Leaving the hook inside may be OK, but not for me, as I wouldn't have confidence in getting a good hookset.

With my (lack of) patience, that's about the only way I could ever do any serious deadsticking. :

Of course, you have to find them first, otherwise advice on lures and rigs won't matter too much. As a generality, smallies will be found in somewhat cooler, deeper water than largemouth and are not as cover-oriented, although they do like rocks and rocky bottoms, as was stated above. They will take a full variety of lures. Often you can use exposed hooks, like on jigheads, because they're not in heavy cover like largemouth. And you can usually use lighter line because of the open water they're often found in. Good luck. You will find out why someone once said of them, "inch for inch and pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims."