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Will Wetline

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Everything posted by Will Wetline

  1. Well done. Congrats.
  2. I used to fish a rig I called "Carolina Lite" which I put together with 6 lb. copolymer. The business end was a 3" Slug Go on a 2' leader. Then a size 10 swivel (I never bothered with a bead and had no problems.). Above that was an 1/8 oz. tungsten bullet. This rig was - and I'm sure still is - quite effective for smallmouth in the very clear water I fish. I became enamored with drop shotting last year and rig the bait so it rides over the top of the algae covered/sandgrass/muck areas that I sometimes fish.
  3. Great video! Thank you.
  4. Smart fishing and smart dressing for the weather. You earned those fish. Congrats.
  5. Here are a couple of pics of shad darts from a Do-It mold: American shad are a blast to catch. I've been fishing them below the dam in Holyoke, MA for years. Read "The Founding Fish" by the Pulitzer Prize winning author, John McPhee, to learn everything there is to know about these fish and then some.
  6. First, thank you all very much for the good words. Ha, Uncle Leo - I I do know the commonly used expression about which part of a witch's anatomy gets cold but, being a comparatively new contributing member of BR who has actually read the rules before posting, figured I'd better not use it. Were you fishing with me and something went wrong, you could be sure I wouldn't use as mild an expression as "gosh darn it!" either. Paul, I had the great fortune back in '93 of running into a well equipped, experienced, arguably overly-focussed fisherman in the middle of the Q while I was putt-putting around in a rental boat. For a number of reasons, Dean no longer fishes Quabbin but I fished with him regularly for 10 years. Now I'm back to a 14', 8 HP aluminum rental boat without sonar or electric and pretty much follow Dean's milk run, seasonally adjusted. Early, I fish steep breaks off the edges of spawning flats. In a month or sooner I'll be on top of these flats and humps. Postspawn, I'll be working the edges again. Since I don't have what a modern bass angler would consider "mobility," I'm very thorough after I've dropped the anchor. I may, in June, start with topwater and end up scraping a few extra fish from the bottom with a slowly swum tube. On a cloudy day they may smash a chrome crank. I grin on a day so windy my mother would worry because I was crossing thousands of acres of white capped water in search of smallies looking to annihilate my 1/2 oz. tandem spinnerbait. To sum up, I pretty much adhere to the late, great Buck Perry's concise formula: F + L + P = S. And I also take time out to watch the eagles soar and to try to decipher what the loons are saying to me. WW
  7. Many anglers look forward to the opening of Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts about the middle to late April each year. "The Q" is big water and regarded as one of the best smallmouth fisheries in New England. I had been chomping at the bit since March and even though the weather report for Sunday, April 25 ranged from uncomfortable to thoroughly miserable I was determined to go - a bassmaster's gotta do what he's gotta do. John and I were casting into 42º water at 7:00 a.m. The sky was filled with dark bottomed clouds and the wind was blowing 10 - 15 MPH. There were whitecaps on areas less sheltered than where we were anchored. Not fun and not promising. I love to throw a suspending jerkbait when the water is in the high 40ºs to low 50ºs but didn't spend much time with one this morning. A better strategy would be something s l o w l y dragged along the bottom in staging areas in 10 - 20 feet of water. About 9:00: this plump, 4.5 lb. largemouth picked up one of my long time go-to baits, a GYCB 5" Hula Grub. In the past I had always rigged this Texas style using a 3/16 oz. tungsten bullet, a 6mm faceted red bead and a 2/0 Gamakatsu standard wire EWG hook. During the winter finally past, I had gotten a Do-It Shake It jig mold. Here's the first batch: As an aside, let me ask if there are any other Dipanddriposauruses out there or am I the last dinosaur using vinyl paint? Still using it because I'm long familiar with this foul smelling but durable finish and because I'm pouring RotoMetals bismuth/tin alloy (No lead jigs or weights under 1 oz. permitted in Massachusetts!) which melts at about 281º. Would someone tell me, please, if I can cure powder paint thoroughly without opening the oven to find bare hooks? Getting back to this fishing trip, John and I are looking for big, prespawn smallies. The next species we connect with is: lake trout. To catch these, the trout guys usually troll wire line at great depth. In the springtime, when the water is this cold, you can see it's possible to establish a hula grub/lake trout pattern which, to my knowledge is something of a novelty. But we weren't out for novelty - we were out for big smallies, gosh darn it!!! So how to get one? Most early season guys will tell you blade baits and I know they're right. But the blade bite is short lived and I don't own any. So I went old school, traditional, with bucktail and marabou: For those interested, the bucktails are tied on the product of Do-It's Tapered Tube Head mold and the Woolly Buggers on Do-It's Steelhead Ball Jig mold. Now it's about 3:00 p.m. and I'm thinking that a white bucktail with a good ole Uncle Josh Spinning Strip might be just the thing for a chilled-out smallie. Yes! Stay tuned through June for more adventures on Quabbin.
  8. Have a buddy who uses the Super Spook Jr a lot for smallies. I picked a few up in asst. colors over the winter but won't be throwing them until the water temp. tops 60. Don't for a minute think that smallmouth won't hit the full sized Spook, however! You might also pick up a 1/4 oz. popper.
  9. This is an exceptional post re fishing knowledge and writing and photography skills. Thank you.
  10. Great day for you! Congrats.
  11. I've been fishing the Premier 7' M spinning rod for at least 15 years and it has served me well paired with a Shimano Stradic 4000. If I broke it, I'd replace it. The comparable model in St. Croix's Avid series is lighter but somewhat stiffer. I will happily continue to fish both.
  12. Congrats on a great multi species trip. And thanks for sharing it. Gives me a vicarious thrill.
  13. A #4 and a #5. Head is 1/2 oz. from Barlow's. The rubber and silicone skirt I make myself. I fish very clear water and it's a thrill to see the smallies coming up to smash this. I throw it with a St. Croix Avid 7' med. action rod and a Curado 7.0 - 1 reel, 10 lb. Berkley Sensation. Conditions for this particular spinnerbait: 15+ MPH wind and sun.
  14. I used to throw Mepps as a teenager many years ago, but when I became a "bassmaster" in the '70s, started throwing safety pin style spinnerbaits. Last season, fishing smallies on flatwater with a new friend, I watched Scott nail 3 smallies of approx. 3 lbs. each in a period of 20 minutes, covering a lot of water over flats for post spawn fish using a size 3 Mepps. You can be sure I'll be carrying size 3 inline spinners this year! I'm going to build my own however, and I recommend you review this thread: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/115842-inline-spinners/ One other observation is that wind - or lack of it - is a factor in what kind of spinner to throw. I look forward to days when the wind is making whitecaps. Then I tie on a 1/2 oz. willow leaf tandem and "burn" it a foot under the surface. When the water is only lightly rippled an inline spinner is a better choice because it makes less of a disturbance when it enters the water. My clear water smallies get skittish when it's calm. I do recommend the use of a quality swivel.
  15. Guys, the components balancing chart is right on this page: http://www.jannsnetc...shing_lures.htm I'll be making size 3 for smallmouth after a very convincing demonstration by my buddy Scott last year:
  16. Exactly what I was thinking.
  17. I'll be making them for the first time this year. Jann's, Barlow's and Lure Parts Online all carry the components we need. I found this video tutorial from Jann's particularly helpful: http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/content/make_fishing_lures.htm
  18. Innovative rigging, papajoe222. Glad you've had some success with it.
  19. An excellent trip and a well written account. Congrats and thank you, WW
  20. A few years back I had a boss with a great sense of humor who was also a fisherman. Early on a fine May morning I said to him, " What are we doing here? Why aren't we out fishing?" He looked at me and said, "You don't know how to call in sick?"
  21. I've been making part of my bass bait arsenal for about 20 years now, and tying flies for steelhead for more than 10. This is an overview of the main work station. The small tools strip is a length of mahogany left over from my time as a woodworker making a modest living in the contemporary craft market. Magnetic adhesive backed strips (available at Staples) hold light tools within easy reach. The rack itself (note vertical members) is re-purposed from supporting wings and fuselages for the R/C model aircraft I used to build and fly. The mat on the left is "self healing" rubber and I use it for cutting operations. If you're wondering about the cuts surrounding it, know that I bought the unit used at the right price and the existing markings came with it at no extra charge! The mat on the right is a new discovery. I stopped in at All About Beads and while I didn't find the solid brass beads for inline spinner bearings, I found this thin, soft mat that necklace makers use. I will not miss chasing 1/8" beads and other small parts around the floor of my tackle room. I love small parts cabinets. If you follow me into the dollar store looking for some you may have to ask a clerk if they have more out back. Pictured are a few with components needed for a batch of spinnerbaits. More are to be found sharing space with a good number of Plano 3700s, etc. & etc., on 2 shelf units elsewhere in the tackle room. The labels are adhesive tape and Sharpie. Here are a few volumes from my fly tying library. Here's a Glo Bug, a fly in the egg imitation category, the tying of which exasperated me for years. I read procedures, talked with other tiers, searched YouTube and finally, finally found a procedure which suited my preferences and idiosyncrasies. Let's take a minute here and talk about perfectionism. I'm speaking in particular to those new to tackle making, new to fishing perhaps. Do things have to be perfect? Heck no! Understand that everything evolves. Acknowledge where you are on the learning curve and be okay with it. Take satisfaction with each step in the journey and understand that it's about the journey - paying attention - rather than some pie-in-the-sky destination. Whew! Thought patterns can get philosophical in the tackle room. Truth is: Pay attention. Do your best. The older I get, the more I believe I'm one of many players in a cosmic joke. Time goes by in the tackle room. It's almost smallmouth o'clock and I really should plug in the Hot Pot and mold some jigs. Keep smiling.
  22. All of them are going to get eaten.
  23. I would guess this style of bait is called a beaver because of the broad, thin tail which vaguely resembles a . . . beaver? Yes? In the '70s, I used to throw Mann's little Sting Ray Grub (Remember them?) a lot on an 1/8 oz. ball jig. That too has a beaver shaped tail. When I first saw RI's Smallie Beaver I thought, "Huh! Looks like a tricked out Sting Ray Grub." I've done well with both of the above baits and, like others, don't care what the bass think it is as long as they eat it.
  24. I'm not familiar with vises in the $100.00 range since I decided to invest in a Regal, a great tool in all aspects, and worth the $220.00. Consider saving until you can get a really good one which you'll enjoy for decades.
  25. Give me a good ole 3 1/2" Original Gitzit in smoke/red & black flake and I'll be happy. I've always rigged this with an Insider head but this year plan to try it on a dropshot rig.
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