Spankey

I generally have a Skitter Prop tied on and ready to throw. My topwater game is not with big baits. I sort of don’t know what I’m going with them and uncomfortable with the thought of trying them. I’m not throwing Ultra Lite sizes. It’s just a phobia I have. And my lack of trying bigger baits probably has cost me fish. But I have confidence in the sizes I’m throwing.

I’m always hitting my opening spot with a top water but like you I’m not gonna beat it to death because I feel the bass are there and will be willing to hit soft plastics. Or other bait. I’ll fan cast a point coming into the river. I think on more than one occasion I’ve shut down fish from hitting from being to aggressive on the amount of casting. I have to agree the river Smallies tend to be bigger on that topwater bite.

I’ve never gave much thought about the sun. Top water will be the first thing I throw and that will be in low light conditions. Pop-R’s, Spooks and mini-buzzbaits types. Before day break to sun up I fell the best and most comfortable fishing it. I move away from them after activity stops or no interest. Frog fish pads and grass during brighter conditions. I just relate that to fish wanting to draw back and wanting to get themselves in a shaded area. But I’m probably wrong with my thoughts on that. I believe if your confidence level is high enough to fish top water all day long you will catch fish.

Keep a good spare on your rig also. Hope you never need it. Shop around, I think you will get a better price than you think.

I replaced tires on my current trailer a few years ago. Put radials on it. That boat trailers beautiful or let’s say there was a noticeable difference. I get winter here in the Northeast. I block my trailer in the fall and have no weight on my tires over the winter months.

Got out this morning at sun up. Was fishing heavy fog last week with the cooler AM temps. Today was calm no wind was a perfect drift and troll with the current. My crankbait game has been in the toilet for weeks. I’ve actually stopped throwing them for a couple of weeks. I was determined to try to get it back today if possible. Had my 4 favs tied on and was hunting for any reaction strike I could get. I’m not gonna say that I got any of the Mojo back because I didn’t. But I did get one bite and landed a 16” 1.8 lb. river largemouth. I realize this is no giant in the LM world but he’s decent for the river I fish. I’ll take it and was doing a happy dance. Fish bit almost immediately on a Bomber Model A. Had a few small Smallie followers but couldn’t get them to strike. Managed to get a few runts to bite on plastic worms. Had a few bigger hits on them also but had no hookups. My bigger hits seem to be in 6-9 feet of water.

I throw Rapalas for the most part. Natural colors. Darker backs, Olive/Emerald type back.

I believe in many other posts about Rat-L-Traps that I made mention that I really only need three of them. Chrome w/ black back, chrome w/ blue back and gold w/ black back. Like yours, the lack of finish does not seem to affect them. I prefer them over a new one. Bone w/ orange, firetiger, white and chartreuse scale work well up here also.

I’ve found them great for locating fish, reaction bites and during a tough bite and you need that fish. A fish. My crankbait fishing this year has not been for crap. Scratching my head as to what has happened or what my problem is. But I still believe in the Rat-L-Trap and my style of fishing my crankbaits. It will come back. I think if you throw it often and try to make happen it will come about. Good luck with it and fish it in all cover situations.

I also have spots that I can’t reach. I won’t even try to ***** foot my way through. Trying to make the best of it. I’m sure you can lake fish the same as me but I’m drawn to that d**n river. The drive to the lake is quick and easy as well. Not gonna go near it this weekend will pull off upcoming Monday and Tuesday. I think I heard that just prior to next weekend air temps are suppose to change. No real rain to speak of. But I DON’T want flash floods either. Hang in there. I’m going to keep optimistic.

I hope you are right and I think you are. There is never enough time to fish every spot I want to during an outing. I’m gonna spend some time hunting some largemouths this next time out. I’m overdue for a decent Greenie also. I haven’t been fishing around much of that grass lately. Mostly cleaner stone. Haven’t been seeing any baitfish in that grass. Good luck out there.

Pretty light year for me this season. No new rods or reels. Bait Monkey didn’t take too big of a bite out of me. Most of the baits and terminal tackle I want to replenish or try for the first time in the upcoming season are a winter project to get together. I replace a lot of mono and CoPoly during the season but I buy them in bulk spools so that I don’t need to constantly purchase 330 yd spools from Wally World. There are huge savings when you buy line in bait shop size spools. I’m fortunate to live fairly close to either the lake or river. Drive time is well under an hour. Truck gas, outboard gas and oil might be $250 - $300 for the season. Maybe less. Nice seeing fuel prices dropping. I made the mistake a few days ago of touching a St. Croix Victory 6’10” MLXF. I think I’ll buy that rod next season. I fish two of those series rods now. Most likely put a Shimano Marivel or NASCI on it. It costs to do things you enjoy just try not to put yourself out of family and house obligations. Always something else necessary out there.

I’m much further south than you but hate these shortening days also. It will be awhile before I see 4:15 am starts again. I’ll still be out for first light and will fish that way into the fall even with falling morning temps. I prefer that window and find it most productive.

Just pulled off back to back days Wednesday and Thursday. Went to some bigger plastics. Worm fishing for the most part. 5 1/2”, 6” & 7 1/2” stuff. Topwater fished Pop R’s and Mini Buzzbaits at day break. Caught a few respectable smallies, 14”-15” fish. Not trophies but respectables where I fish. Lost a couple that I had hooked up that I feel were nice fish also. It happens, not sure what I done wrong, nothing I suppose. Upsizing my worms still caught numerous runts. 9”-11” fish, fish holding closer to the bank. The bigger hits and bites in 7-9 feet of water. Gonna stick with upsize in baits. I have some larger craws and creatures to throw, I’ll get away from the 2 3/4” stuff. Larger profile. I can’t buy a crankbait as of lately. On the lake or the river. It is to the point that it’s messing with my head. My favorite way of fishing is non existent. Pretty much moved away from it for now because I don’t want to deal with the frustration. Can’t remember a time not getting drawing reactionary strikes has ever been an issue. It’s not a 100% way of fishing and fishing success for me but generally a good way to fish during a tuff bite time. Going to do the back to back days again in the beginning of the week. Our morning temps and daytime temps have not really falling off for the most part, water temps are only down a couple of degrees. Does not look to be cooling down any time soon. A nice well deserved rain is needed. I think it might turn on a better bite on the lake and river.

Use to fish 4.5” ribbon tail religiously for river smallies. Then they dried up many moons ago. I basically moved on. Sure I thought they worked great but so do others. I stumbled across this manufacturer for tubes and low and behold he had 4.5” ribbon tails. Picked some up a few years ago and fish them in the mix nowadays. Dry Creek Outfitters to drop the name. I think the product is very good. Color selection is not huge though. I would recommend them.

Great post. I would have to agree with you. Might not be the same every year. I thought that we may be getting an early fall but temps are inching back up during the day. Mornings lost that very cool kick they had a few days ago. The AM temps should drop off in a week or so. I love what we are getting into now. My nicest bass, whether from the river or the lake have been in October. Doesn’t happen every year but I like to thing history repeats itself.

In season the bait monkey never bites me all that hard. If I need to restock, replace or want to try something a bit different I do that during the winter. I just picked up a few things at the shop that they ordered for me. Will carry me through the fall. Exactly what I wanted, all was great and certainly not a bank breaker. My biggest mistake was picking up (handling) a 6’10” SC Victory MLXF rod. Nice feel, would work great with soft plastics I use. But I didn’t let temptation get me. Was not gonna let that monkey bite me. Will revisit that rod in the winter. Can most likely get a better price than.

I keep my soft plastics separated by manufacturer. I find this easier at the end of the season and during winter to know what I have to replenish for next year. I don’t discard the original package. If empty I put it back into storage container. If I was fishing a 4” curly tail RoboWorm but wanted to switch a 4.5” Dry Creek ribbon tail worm, they would not be together. I just grab the Dry Creek Outfitters container. Everyone has their own way of keeping organized. Example my 4” and 6” ct and st RoboWorms along with my Zipper RoboWorms are all in the same container. I find it easier. If you have a productive bait and use up quite a few of them you’ll have to keep a good mental note going on or hang a list on the fridge door and make a note there.

That is not all that uncommon for me or my grandsons to catch a cattie while bass fishing. Not snagged, in the jaw. Soft plastics, crankbaits, jig & pig. River Smallies like to hit this one lure in particular that’s a Blue Fox Brand. It’s sort of like an inline spinner but has a balsa body to it and a single tail treble on it front spinner blade. Sort of reminds you of a trout spinner but we fish the bigger sizes of it. We find that channel cats are attracted to it sometimes. Clearer water conditions. Has various color patterns but we primarily fish silver with black back or gold with black back. They tend to like a Bomber Model A in Firetiger also. We are not constantly catching them but do. It’s fun because at first you are not thing catfish.

My upsizes are not that big. Majority of my worm fishing is 4.5”, take it to 6”. I like to fish a 3” Mr. T or 3” Power Grub. In the fall I like throwing the Fat Albert’s, not much difference in length but better larger profile. Tubes are easy enough to bump up in size also. Been fishing Case tubes as long as I can remember. They have good size variations. I realize everyone’s situation is different. Fish size potential is different. I don’t fish in the smallmouth mecca of the country. But want to catch the biggest I can.

Have scored a few respectable fish over the last couple of weeks. Have been able to pull off some back to back mornings getting out. For me that makes a lot difference. Hope it’s the end of what I was seeing prior as the summer dog days. Wish water conditions were a bit better. Higher level, bit more flow and more stained. I can’t control that and it does not appear Mother Nature is gonna do anything to help me either. At least for the next couple of weeks. Not sure if you guys do this, but I’m gonna start throwing a bit larger bait. Maybe not a different bait just fish upsize existing baits. A bit larger profile. Would like to think baitfish and what they feed on is about their largest size for the season. I find that I might/do get less hits and fewer to bite. Need that bigger bite. Season is winding down and that real nice one has to bite. I’d like to think that I’m always fishing for that real nice one, and want to break the PB whenever I’m out but the mindset is in my head now and from here on out.

Thanks for sharing that info. You are to be commended for the effort put into that testing.

They are a decent river smallie bait for me. There are good color patterns for stained water. Have not had any problems with them being defective.

Those Guido Bugs were an all time favorite of mine also. When they dried up I was out of sorts over it. But the Zoom Critter Craw fit the bill. My favorite these days and the closest to Guido’s out there. But I’ve been fishing some X Zone craws with success. I’m into trying something new. A bit more realistic looking. Good, bad, I’m not sure. Good to have around for that different look. They put out a good product. I won’t speak ill of the Rage Craw stuff. Very popular and very well made. I like what I see in them. But I can’t get them to work too well. So there is a mental block going on. Ton of different craws out there, guys new to fishing craws just have to pick out something they feel good about and go after them.

Hit one of my happy places yesterday morning. (Only unhappy thing is the ramp is an old dockless, steep and sucks). We are in a bit of a weather funk right now. And thought the smallies would have shut down. But there was a bite. Felt the need to go because I’m not interested in holiday boaters, fisherman and highway traffic. I’ll pass on that. Sort of a numbers day for me. No pigs or anything like that. Caught close to two dozen Smallies, but only 7”-14” fish. Did have a topwater bite that’s alway a plus. Even a couple of larger Bluegill on topwater. Majority of fishing was with worms, tubes, craws and creatures. Been on a real Zman kick lately. What’s NED fishing? Water condition were nice and I didn’t see anyone else out. Did run into two younger gals doing a kayak trip of about 30 miles and they were finishing in the city. They wanted a pic going through the national park. I took that for them. God bless them, I couldn’t do it. Didn’t see them carrying much in the way of supplies. Asked if they could use a water. Said they had them. Packed in the hull? I don’t know? I’ll be back to a happy place but it won’t be before Tuesday.