Will Wetline

Admittedly I'm a hard-wired perfectionist when it comes to materials and tying, but I've made the same observation as OE: there are precious few suitable plumes for palmering in a 1/4 ounce bag of strung marabou. Selecting three similar feathers and stacking results in a fairly good looking finished product to my eye, however.

Marabou jigs are a cold water staple according to many articles in the media but I've never enjoyed tying them. Recently I've given them another go using the "three feather" method which distributes the material around the hook satisfactorily. Compare the dry forms of marabou and bucktail; After a cast or two with marabou all that fluff will be compressed. Paused during retrieve or sitting on the bottom, it will fluff up again enticingly. Bucktail has a subtle breathing action. I'm thinking if one doesn't work, try the other!

I like the proportions and they are certainly well crafted. I don't like working with marabou either although small bits fly up around my face and darken up my mostly gray goatee which make me look younger. I'm sure the fish will like tufts of rabbit aa well.

A #3 or a #4. https://barlowstackle.com/Clevises--P826/

oe, I typed in on YouTube "5 Things You Need To Know About Smallmouth" and it did not come up. Then I tried "Matt Stefan" and found a number of his videos but not the one you recommend. Would you post a link, please?

Maybe it's because I hadn't been out in good conditions for topwater, but this fish on June 18th was my first of the season! It has a Duo Realis Popper 64 in its mouth. This smallie took a Z-Man TicklerZ on a 1/16 oz. mushroom jig cast from Do-its Midwest Finesse mold. There was enough wind mid morning to rock the boat and I thought that might be enough to push a few smallmouth over a large flat to see what they could find to eat. I anchored over 12' - 15' depths for a couple of hours and fed them Duo Realis' Spinbait 80 and a Mudbug Finesse TRD on a 3/32 oz. mushroom jighead.

This is such a well written report I suspect that you're an English teacher when not fishing. I'm glad that your perseverance was rewarded with a busy afternoon.

Water temp is 70º and I'm more than ready for topwater action on a favorite spot on my home water. It's a bit after 7:00 a.m. and the water is choppy so I tie on a Super Spook Jr. and cast and cast and cast. I'll tell ya, that dog must have been tired after all that walking. Could not coax anything up off the bottom. The water calmed a bit but no matter how I splashed and gurgled Duo Realis' Popper 64, I could not get so much as a swirl from a smallie. I had fished this location for well over 25 years and knew there were smallies here at this time of the season. What to do next? Send Ned down to investigate. A TRD TicklerZ on a 1/16 oz. mushroom head was intercepted before it hit the bottom. Below is one of four smallmouth that picked up a Tiny Child this day. This was my second outing with this tail- weighted Z-Man Big TRD, and I understand it was designed to extract a walleye from a woodpile, but while I was dragging, hopping and bouncing it off some serious rocks and it didn't hang up once! When putting this rig together, I used a Zappu 1/16 oz. tungsten nail weight glued in with Loctite Super Glue Gel and, not having any Neko hooks on hand, used an old favorite, a Gamakatsu 2/0 EWG hook which gave me no problems hooking and holding. The rest of the day was spent in the company of Ned, Tiny Children and smallmouth bass. I'll leave you with photos of the better bass:

Excellent post about a great trip. Thank you.

A bit breezy on Quabbin today but I managed to stay in the boat and find fish.

It was a beautiful day in Central Massachusetts. Today's tools:

I don't think he has. He writes 4+ only on all his baits.

The smallies were frustrating today. Working a large flat at depths of 10' - 15', we saw a few cruising and a number of others would follow close to the boat and then sit and stare at the suspending jerkbaits we were throwing. When the bait was twitched the bass would mosey off. Aargh! The cooperative 3.99 lb. smallmouth above took a Pointer 78 in a perch pattern.

Yup.

Here are a few pics from a still cold (40ºs) Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts. Photos are from April 20 and 27. A double caught on suspending jerkbaits. This smallie took a vibrating blade bait assembled from components from www.barlowstackle.com. A decent (3.63 lb.) smallie caught on a blade bait. It's not unusual to catch lake trout among the smallmouth early in the season. This plump one weighed 4.91 lbs. and put up a strong fight.

Here's the latest version of my hair and hackle perch design:

You can be sure that when my season starts next week on Massachusetts' Quabbin Reservoir, I'll be packing suspending jerkbaits and a selection of Z-Man's ElaZtech plastics mounted on mushroom heads. But the two types of baits that are starters for me are blade baits and hair jigs. Not certain, but I believe that Heddon came out with the first vibrating blade bait, the Sonar, some decades ago. The Silver Buddy is so popular nowadays that this category is often referred to by that name and there are many other manufacturers as well. This topic is in the "Tacklemaking" forum because I make my own - or maybe it would be more accurate to say assemble my own. Let's start with "blanks" from www.barlowstackle.com https://barlowstackle.com/Vibrating-Blade-Lure-P2631/ First step is to get rid of the front hook hanger. You'd probably be fine omitting this step if you don't want to put on a face shield and carefully cut that tab off with a Dremel cut-off disc. Then you've got eyes over which you might want to put a dab of Hard As Nails to keep in place. Then for added pizzazz, select a color of holographic tape if you like. The flash from the unadorned nickel plated version does draw attention too. Don't forget size 2 Duo Lock snaps. Hooks . . . I tried double hooks, a single treble on the tail and a 1/0 Eagle Claw Siwash which Crestliner 2008 recommended to me several years ago and I like best for solid hookups. Not sure how to work this bait? Study this post that A-Jay started October 2, 2015: https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/163752-its-almost-blade-bait-time/ The other type of bait I'll be throwing regularly until the water temp hits the low 50ºs is a hair jig. There are a few manufacturers to be found while scanning online tackle suppliers and maybe you can find local makers that tie for brick-and-mortar shops (bless all of them that survive), but I get an extra kick when I net a bass that ate a bait that originated on my bench. What we call a "hair" jig covers a lot of material. In the pics above, tied to heads cast from pewter and bismuth/tin alloys, you see bucktail, bear, rabbit, calf tail, grizzly hackle, saddle hackle and Grizzly/Flashabou Accent to add some sparkle. Interested in tying your own? Check out the good work being done by smalljaw and SDG Custom Lurecraft on YouTube.

I've been using 6 lb. fluorocarbon and prefer to stick with it. Would 6lb. or 10lb. braid to fluoro make a significant difference in casting distance?

I tie small hair jigs to present to the large smallmouth that swim in my home water. For some years I've been casting a St. Croix 7' ML and have been pleased with its performance delivering 1/8 oz. bucktails and other small baits. Now I'm thinking I'd like to get a bit more distance yet still have the power to whup a 5 lb. smallmouth. Looking through TW's extensive offerings, what appeals is the Dobyn's Champion Extreme HP Spin Rod 7'4" Light 741. If any of my fellow BR members have experience with this rod, I'd appreciate your comments. Thanks!

I spend the hard water months in my tackle room.

Looks fine to me. There's plenty of color to catch a fish's interest. Don't believe it has to be exact.

I was very disappointed when I first lowered one into the lake because it hardly flexed at all. It was attached to an 1/8 oz. ball head jig tied with bear hair. Cold front conditions in early summer as I recall. However, even though the trailer didn't flex anything like pork or plastic, it did move enough to get the interest of three smallmouth. Try a pack and see how you like it.

This is a story about a guy, single, low-key, not easily ruffled, well liked by all accounts and . . . a parrot. About a week before Thanksgiving, he got a call from good friends who were moving. They had a parrot and they couldn't take it with them. The guy wasn't real excited but agreed to give it a home. He found out in short order that it had the most foul mouth of any bird that ever wore feathers. When he got home from work he'd be greeted with a string of profanities and the way this parrot talked about his mother would make a pornographer blush. Returning one evening he was in no humor for more verbal abuse - he'd had enough at work. When the parrot started in, the guy grabbed it by the neck, opened the freezer door, and stuffed the bird inside. Squawk, squawk, squawk! When the bird quieted down the man opened the door. The bird hopped onto his outstretched hand with its head down. "I known I've been a very bad bird and I am so sorry. Please forgive me. I will become a well behaved parrot. I promise." "Okay." "Sir," said the now humble parrot, "may I ask a question?" "Sure." "What did the turkey say to you?"

Glenn, Both text and pics look cleaner and sharper. Good job! Thanks, Will Wetline