Will Wetline

Weather forecast was showers in the morning, some clearing in the afternoon. Maybe some sun. Breezy. I decided to boot up and go. First stop was the location that had shown me good smallies on each of my first three trips this season. I had replenished my supply of 1/8 oz. Bare Naked Bear jigs and started with one but got not a tap after a number of casts. I wasn't willing to believe that there weren't smallies around this choice spot. So what had changed in the past week? Water temperature. It had jumped up to 61.3ª. Maybe the bass wanted something bigger, livelier. I tied on an 1/8 oz. bucktail with a 2" chunk trailer. Bon appetít mes amis! It hadn't rained and the sun was peeking out by 9:00. I decided to travel to see if I could locate a comparatively deep ridge. Since I don't use portable sonar I needed bright sun and a calm surface. No luck today. Checked a hump in the vicinity which hosted no takers then worked steep breaking edges of a large sand flat. Still throwing the little hair jig and trailer, my Shimano Stradic 2500 and St. Croix Avid 7' ML got a workout with this: I am not a big fan of lake trout. Nevertheless, I am impressed by the speed and power of the runs they make when they first see the boat. Further around the sand flat I hooked up again: And what's this in its mouth? It's a Duo Realis Spin Bait 80, of course. I start to throw this deadly little lure when the water temp approaches 60º. Colder, no, because the bass are more likely to be pegged to the bottom and that's not where I want to leave this $13.99 bait. It's late in the afternoon now. Time to recheck my first spot. Huh, nobody home. Can't blame them if they've had enough of me for the day. How about a shallow rocky flat? The wind's up now and my 12 lb. river anchor dragged a couple of times setting up here. I had to question my sanity. Was I a serious bassmaster or a fair weather wuss? I had just the bait for this situation, a Super Fluke Jr. which I nose hooked. Zig, zag, zig . . . Wham! Alright then. Leaving time to carefully whump through the whitecaps while avoiding prop-modifying flats, I made my way back to the dock. Love it all. Postscript I had sent an older Stradic 2500 to Delaware Valley Tackle to be cleaned, lubed and have a bearing checked. I got it back in a timely manner with the work done at a reasonable price. It felt like new and performed superbly. Thanks, Mike!

"hamma," do I understand this correctly? The fish was hooked in the mouth but somehow the line got wrapped around its tail and that's how you reeled it in?

That's a well written report about a successful strategy.

"No big fish" just breaks me up! Then again, that's by Lake Erie standards. I chase smallies in one New England's best fisheries and consider a 4 lber. at the lower end of the big fish category. I do hope you can find bigger smallmouth next time out . . . !

April 20 Fished with Brad B., an exceptionally savvy fisherman. I regularly address him as "Bassmaster Brad" because he is very good at a number of techniques. Gave him a couple of 1/8 oz. bucktails a couple of years ago and look at what he does with them: He had the focus and patience to work this little jig excruciatingly slowly at a depth of 20'. He was well rewarded, doncha think? I couldn't seem to get my jig mojo working this day so partly to help me keep awake, I went to a Lucky Craft Staysee 90. And this fully inflated football of a bass put me into the "4+ lb. Club" along with Brad. And Brad was still slaying monsters with the tiny black bucktail . . . We covered many miles for today's fish. One smallie here, two smallies there. And we (alright, mostly Brad!) put together a 20 lb. limit. April 22 I was fishing solo this day and headed back to a spot that had a very steep break nearby. Thought I'd start with a bear hair jig. Curious whether there'd be any difference in performance from the bucktail. The comb from my beard trimmer does a good job removing the underfur. Note no Krystal Flash or Flashabou along the shank. Therefore, this is called The Bare Naked Bear Jig. . . . Back on the water: The 1/8 oz. lightweight beat this 4.34 lb. heavyweight. And a hard fighting 3.52 lber: Then, since Quabbin ate the bear, I returned to bucktail for the rest of the day and it accounted for 1/2 dozen more good smallies. Time to wrap up this lengthy report. Tight lines, all.

Unless I get an invitation from a fishing buddy with a "Quabbin" boat (Quabbin Reservoir is highly regulated.), you'll find me riding a rental. I know a number of my fellow BR members are trying to learn the ways of this big New England water so let's have a look at how I set up one of the 14' boats you'll be renting: Starting from the stern you'll note a large dry bag. It contains three Plano 3600s, a portable camera mount which I clamp to a gunwale for fish pics and room for my down vest and fleece as the day warms. The swivel seat is greatly appreciated by my aging back and butt. See my stationery store tackle box on the floor. It could be a portable file holder for taking work home from the office but it's of much greater interest to sort through six Plano 3700s for just the right bait. You'll find miscellaneous support gear in the utility carrier: marker buoy, sunscreen, bug repellent, needle nose pliers, clippers, small boxes of weights and hooks, scent and dye. Early season when the lake trout are shallow, you want fish grippers so they don't wriggle out of your grasp. You recognize the other items on the rubber mat on the middle bench seat. Out of this photo and as close to the bow as you can get 'em are lunch cooler, 12 lb. river anchor with approximately 75' of 1/4" braided nylon and, yes, a chunk of granite. Why the weight in the bow? Because if you go solo at full throttle the bow is going to point heavenward at a 45º angle. You must balance the boat for running. Alright. Let's go fishing. Hey! Here's the first smallmouth of the season and the first one I've caught on an Underspin. Wish I could tell you about the presentation but there wasn't one. See, as soon as I lifted the rod tip, the fish was on. From what I've read about retrieving Underspins, you want to work it slowly, steadily, feeling it tick the bottom. And wait until the rod loads before you set the hook. These are 1/4 oz. models from a Do-it Herring Head mold. The top two baits are dressed with Z Man's Swimmin' Trout trick, the bottom a Super Fluke JR. Willow blades are size 3 but I'm going to try 3.5 because master bait maker smalljaw67 says he likes that size better. Blade baits are the #1 go-to for many Quabbin smallie guys when the water is under 50º. Buying "body blanks" from Barlow's I get to choose the hooks and I've been experimenting with arrangements for three seasons now. I started with a pair of split shank doubles and found I could hang these in the rocks as easily as trebles. Last year I used a single treble in the rear and that worked okay. Over coffee and conversation in my tackle room with Crestliner2008, he insisted that a 1/0 Siwash was the way to go. Two improvements over split shanks or rings and trebles are obvious at a quick glance: the Siwash hook is much more substantial than the others and there's no need to mess with split rings! Great tip, Crestliner2008. I don't hear too many smallmouth fishermen in these parts talking about using plain, old-timey, bucktail jigs in these parts. That's fine with me because that means fewer fish will have sore mouth and will eat eat the undressed bucktail I will be throwing! Another? Okay. I love molding, painting and tying these jigs. It's a winter hobby that gets me focussed on something productive rather than sitting around and obsessing unhappily about the hard water season in Western Massachusetts. If you're interested in jig making first try a variety of "Search" terms on this forum - there's a fair amount of info to be found - and I also urge you to subscribe to smalljaw's YouTube channel. Smalljaw has posted many very good tutorials. For now, have a look at my tying bench setup:

4/18/17 Here's a pre spawn smallmouth from Quabbin Reservoir. I'll post about this trip in the near future, but right now this bucktail jig and I are headed back to the Q.

The procedure in the photos below works, but it's way too time consuming. Try smalljaw67's suggestions with either the rubber skirt collar or high temp silicone or plumber's putty.

Bluebasser86, That'll work as is. If you don't think so, send it to me and I'll post another pic of it in the roof of a smallie's mouth.

Last year the expensive Strike King Denny Bauer ElazTech bitsy chunk (2") proved its worth on the back of an 1/8 oz. bucktail jig. Being ElazTech, it'll hang on that hook until I break off the jig. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Strike_King_3X_ElazTech_Denny_Brauer_Chunk/descpage-SXDC.html http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz277/shadsmalliesteel/Light%20Gear%20For%20Heavy%20Quabbin%20Smallies%20%20May%2012%202016/ff317e8b-e1ec-4ba9-b19c-be61399a3eaa_zpsidsiaque.jpg

smalljaw67 mentioned trying JB Weld in a post a while back. Said it works for while. The advantage of the high temp silicone is that it can be trimmed with a single edge razor blade flush to the surface of the mold which I think would be considerably easier than leveling the JB Weld. I cast only 15 heads with the silicone so I can't really address longevity, but it's holding up fine after this small number. I don't own a micrometer so I can't tell you exactly, but comparing the wire form for this jig head to a spinnerbait wire I know is .035", it appears to be slightly heavier, maybe .040" or thereabouts. You may be interested in this post from TU: http://www.tackleunderground.com/community/topic/32729-chatterbait-from-sparkie-mold/

Main bench in tackle room: OCD or simply well organized? Each bait maker/craftsman gets to choose his own comfort zone.

I don't know about removing the entire insert, but the bits I picked out of the body cavities had surprising good adhesion. weighinalimit on TU from whom I took the suggestion of using high temp silicone said, "If you want to remove it later it comes out pretty easily with a little work." This strikes me funny: is it easy or is it work?" Maybe he means you have to fussily pick at it to get all of it out.

Soon after I received the Poison Swingtail mold I cast a batch and they came out beautifully, as Do-it molded jigs do. I had purchased this with the idea of skirting it, of course, and using a double tail trailer to make a reasonable facsimile of the GYCB Hula Grub which has served me well for more than 20 years. Then I thought about my tub of baits labelled "Creatures" and thought further that this category of soft plastic baits utilizes so many flippers, flaps and flanges that a skirt isn't really needed. Could I get rid of the shaft that holds the skirt? Researching a way to do this I came upon a thread in TackleUnderground about silicone jig molds. Among the comments was weighinalimit's answer to smalljaw's question about using silicone to make temporary inserts for molds: "I've been doing this with Do-it molds for years." Let's have a look at this procedure: Those who've tried dishwashing detergent to smooth silicone while applying have noticed that I didn't bother. But there is plenty where I want it! After the silicone had cured for 24 hours I used a sawing motion at a very low angle with a brand new razor blade. The #11 blade in the X-acto knife was used to carefully pick out a few flecks of silicone that had gotten into the body cavities and to trim the back of the jig head. Everything goes better with Drop Out. I went a bit heavy with the overpour on the right but I do want a small dome so I can grasp it with linemans pliers and lift the jig out. If the sprue breaks at the jig head, I get a grip on the wire with needle nose and, with adequately colorful language, jerk the jig out that way. The "physics" of sprue demolding is preferred, however. The original wire form loop has been cut off and the wire rebent. Note the tweak to the right on these loops-to-be. I did this so when I make the final bend I can go ever so slightly below the wire that exits the jig head. Then, when I tweak the tag end back, there will be no gap. The most difficult - and inconsistent - part of this project was bending the relatively heavy wire with my small but good quality round nose pliers. If I consistently catch boatloads of bass with this bait, I'll contact Do-it and suggest a Swingtail Creature mold in next year's new releases. Let them bend the wire! Here's the first one ready to go. That's a TJ's Tackle Crinkle Copper powder painted head leading a Mudbug Z Man Boar HogZ. The sharp-eyed reader may be wondering about the small red thing on the bottom of the bait. It's a rubber skirt collar cut in half lengthwise and very, very carefully pulled over the hook point. Leave just enough space between the hook shank and the ElazTech to insert the nozzle of a container of Loctite super glue gel, squeeze out a dab, then press and hold for say, 20 seconds. I hope to get back to you in a couple weeks with a pic of this rig hanging from a smallie's jaw.

Tim, I have nowhere close to the experience or expertise of cadman, but when my pot starts to drip I pick up the large bladed screwdriver shown on the left in the photo and turn the plunger rod a few degrees left and right a few times to "resettle" it. I have to mention though, that I've been using bismuth/tin alloy from Rotometals since Massachusetts has prohibited the use of lead. I don't know if you care to go to the expense of buying pure lead, but that would certainly help - along with adjusting the rod occasionally.

Well done, young bassmasters!

Both text and pics are excellent. Thanks for a vicarious thrill!

Um . . . uh . . . You're sorting and inventorying tackle here, right? Or is this an April Fool's Day joke?

Fishing buddy Eric usually tosses big swimbaits at largemouth, but on his yearly trip to Quabbin Reservoir with me he thought he'd try to get a sizable smallie to eat a CL8BAIT Vole.

Wait a minute now, fellas . . . Us old timers remember how Fishing Facts magazine used to remind us that there's no "magic" lure . . . they may be wrong. Ha!

Sound advice, A-Jay. That is a great video.

Many smallies I've met have agreed that a 4" or 5" GYCB Senko looked like a good snack, especially when wacky rigged.

You're gonna slay 'em with that well-crafted jig.

I'm a big fan, especially of their Spin Bait 80 which produces smallmouth consistently for me. The Pencil 110 has shown me several sizable smallies and I'll be getting a couple more of their topwaters for this season. I've got a few of their suspending jerkbaits but haven't spent much time with them yet. On the whole, Duo Realis impresses me as an innovative company that produces a well-engineered, high quality bait.

Cast from alloys legal to fish in Massachusetts.