BassThumb

To be honest, this works just fine. I have 6-yr old mirrored Costas that look nearly as good as new, and they've been cleaned like this (or with breath) countless times. Dry Kleenexes work well too. If I'm at home, I'll use the store-bought glasses wipes.

Old line - twist it up and stuff it in a beer or soda bottle. Old tackle - give it away to some teen if it's even remotely usable, otherwise toss them in the trash, either in a bottle or not.

I just picked up $200 worth of stuff. I want to see what all the BR hype is about!

Try a soft jerkbait like a Zoom Super Fluke or Strike King Caffiene Shad Texas-rigged on an EWG 4/0 hook. They're very versatile lures that can be fished fast or slow and won't spook skittish bass.

Territorial bass will sometimes just bump the lure with a closed mouth.

Fish for other species that are legal to fish for, such as sunfish or crappies. There is usually 6-8 weeks of open water before the bass season opens in Minnesota, and the panfish are easy to find and catch during that time.

I don't see anything that suggests smallmouth to me.

What Scott said. In regards to keeping the braid from slipping on the spool, tape is not the way to do it. The best way to prevent that is to spool the reel partially with some cheap mono before putting on the braid. Use a double-Uni to connect the lines. Mono (or copolymer or fluoro) doesn't slip on the spool, but braid may. Doing this also allows one to use less braid and save money to spend on other fishing gear.

Oh yeah. Multiple times after trying to whip long casts into the wind with jigs. Picked out the birds nest only to find that a fish had taken the jig on the fall or from the bottom.

Is it just coated with sediment, or actually stained?

Dobyns DX HP 742sf Shimano Stradic ci4 2500 Sufix 832 braid - 10lb test - neon lime Yo Zuri Hybrid leader - 4 and 6lb test (which actually break at 7-10lbs.) --------- Dobyns DX 742c Shimano Chronarch 51E 10lb Invisx flourocarbon --------- Dobyns DX 703sf Shimano Sustain 2500 Sufix 832 braid - 20lb test - green Yo Zuri Hybrid leader - 6 and 8lb test

They fight like a fish twice their size, don't they? Kinda make LMB seem tame by comparison sometimes. I fish a few lakes with mixed LMB and SMB, and I've lost count of how many times I thought I hooked a 4-6lb LMB only to reel in a 2-3lb SMB.

Last summer my dad had a flopping northern pike put a KVD 2.5 treble right in his thumb knuckle. He couldn't even bend his finger. No way that was coming out. It cost him an urgency care clinic visit to get it surgically removed. $200 bill. I've hooked myself a few times grabbing fish with Crankbaits in their mouths, and I was always able to easily rip them out with a needle nose, but his case was different. That was ugly. Interestingly, I've never been hooked by a bass, only a walleye, northern and channel cat, and I fish for bass 95% of the time.

Big fan of the Hybrid for cranking. I typically use 12# for reaction baits but prefer 10# for cranks. I get better casting distance and likely better action and depth from the thinner diameter line. The 10# breaks at roughly 15 lbs., so it's plenty strong.

It's illegal to swim in some lakes?

As far as baits go, just about any 3-5" plastic will work well. The 4" straight-tail Roboworm is very popular among Bass Resource members. I use it a lot, as well as a 3-4" tube. However, the best bait for me has been a large, lively leech, hooked right behind the sucker. I love getting those bonus walleyes that come with it!

Clearwater Lake in Wright County has a good number of 10-lb-plus fish in it.

I have unlimited access to an 80-acre private lake with about 10 houses and 3 docks on it. It's full of decent-sized bass, not to mention magnum walleyes that cannot breed because the lake is basically a bowl consisting of sugar-sand (useless for walleyes) and lily pads, so all the walleyes are 5-15 year old stockers that nobody seriously fishes for. On behalf of myself and the landowner/friend who lets me launch my boat, I asked the DNR if I could drop gravel and chunk rock on the winter ice to make spawning habitat for the stocked walleyes in the lake. I had access to about one ton of crushed concrete that came from a busted up foundation of a house. They said that state regs stand equally for both public and private waters, so we cannot plant man-made cover in the lake because that's the rule in Minnesota, even if it won't cause any harm, like concrete gravel. I'm just throwing that out there. DNR regs can be rather illogical, harsh, and unforgiving, and I don't want to see any BR members getting jammed up.

I think two-foot sections would work well, but is it legal to add man-made fish attractors to lakes in your state?

I don't blame the property owners for getting upset. Fisherman was be pretty inconsiderate when it comes to their docks, lifts, boats, covers, etc. I met one super friendly owner and his son one day fishing a local lake while they were removing a brand new pontoon-lift cover from the frame. He told of how he likes having anglers fish his dock and likes knowing it's such a hot spot for big bass, his "pets". But a few days prior, he witnessed an angler with a bass jig stuck on top on the lift, stick right in his brand new cover at the apex of the frame. Rather than cut the line, the angler was doing these massive hook sets, which ripped the canvas a couple feet at a time. The angler had the audacity to completely destroy this guy's expensive lift-cover over a $4 jig. Anyways, the son hollered at the boater that he was calling the cops, so he snipped the line and buzzed over to the public access, where he trailered and escaped. The owner showed me tarp with a 10' hole that still had the jig and craw in it. It was a Northstar series Alimony-colored jig. 50lb braid, of course I have told this story a couple times on BR it's so ridiculous. I don't think these kinds of incidents are as rare as we BR anglers would like to believe.

I'm really partial to the Zoom Swimming Chunk. They have a ton of action. Great price and excellent durability.

I love this thread! I don't have a lot of experience fishing in states other than Minnesota (home), North and South Dakota, and Wisconsin. I'd have to give Minnesota a nod as an extremely good state to fish in. With almost 6000 fishable, multi-species natural lakes (13,000 total), not to mention the great Mississippi River and it's tributaries, it's very easy to find highly unpressured fish that are willing to bite. Anywhere in the state, a person has dozens of options within a 20-minute drive from home. Some of these lakes see only a handful of boats per day, and bass anglers are often in the minority, despite good numbers of fish in the 3-6lb range. The DNR fisheries funding is extraordinary, both state and federal, trailing only Texas, California, and Alaska, so the lakes are well maintained, well stocked, easily accessible, and clean.

I have the Champion 736 and 766. I used to use the 735 and 766 for frogs in different degrees of weedy cover, but I was never quite pleased. The 735 was a delight to fish with, but it was a tad on the light side for even medium size Minnesota bass on weedy lakes. I now use it for swim jigs and it's a great fit. The 766, on the other hand, is a light and balanced broomstick of a rod. It's honestly too heavy, power-wise, to be of much use to me. I used it for heavy flipping, heavy-cover frogging, and pike fishing.It doesn't really have any give to the tip, so it didn't work well for buck tails and large spoons for pike. I have since replaced that 766 with a Champion 736, which is the perfect frog rod, in my opinion. It's nice and light like the 735, but it has significantly more power while still allowing some give to the tip. It makes a nice pike rod, too.

Upsize and slow down!

I think any smoke-colored tube would fit the bill. Bass Pro Tender Tubes have a terrific array of baitfish colors. There's a smoke with chartreuse flake tube that just kills the Mille Lacs smallies.