Spankey

What kind of frog is that?

I’m not gonna go until I’m completely better. I’m gonna chill until that time and we are out of this heat wave. I’m not gonna push anything. I’ve been thinking about reorganizing my craws and creature. I done that last year with different Senko types in one of those Flambeau containers that looks like a mini file bin. Worked out great. I’ll get it shipped right to the house. It’s frustrating. I love being out on a perfectly calm morning no wind, surface like glass and some surface activity. Smallies on a Pop-R. A 5 to 9 morning suits me just fine.

Thank you guys/gals for your posts I appreciate it. I’m sure I need a couple of more days to recover but I feel like hooking up and going down to the river. Family isn’t gonna let that happen. I try it, they'll pull my keys. They tell me it’s more serious than what I have in my mind that it is. The humidity is the killer. Was outside this morning taking care of some of the feathered and furred friends of mine that come across my yard and I could feel it big time. I can do fishing related stuff indoors. My two older grandsons want to go down to the cross roads for some night fishing where we locally do some of our trout fishing. They love stream fishing. Smallies are in there and we’ve caught some nice red eyes in there. They’re talking about hitting that a night or two during the week. Maybe we can come across a few nice holdover trout. I’ll get our ultra lite lines replaced, go over aerator pumps and bait pails and buckets. The craziest thing about this pneumonia issue is, the meds they have me on to beat it. They give me insomnia. Don’t sleep, don’t get tired. Pretty crazy. But a true side effect. I hope in a couple of days it’s all behind me.

Took a trip over to family doctor. Have been having congestion, hacking, hockers, some shortness of breath, wheezing for quite a while. All stuff that we all have had. Pulled an abdominal muscle from coughing so much I decided to make that doctor visit. I’m pretty stubborn so I’m one to keep trudging along from one day to the next figuring it will go away. Someday. He checked me out pretty decent and had a plan to put me on a few meds for the condition. He didn’t like my elevated heart rate. Took EKG and stuff. I couldn’t tell it was elevated. Sent me over to hospital for other evaluations. Hospital did a quick job of getting me hooked up and getting me in the right direction (I hope). They thought higher heart rate was from dehydration and an infection. I never thought that was gonna be an issue. Didn’t feel dehydrated. A couple of IV’s and heart rate came down to normal. Handful of tests and scans show I have pneumonia. They have me on some meds and a steroid. Is not a COVID pneumonia. Most likely from allergies that festered over time. Sucks and stupidity on my part. Not keeping in tune to what your body is telling you but I really never picked up on any elevated heart rate. They suspect our current weather pattern we are in with excessive heat and humidity has not helped. I hope to be back to the fishing hole in a few days, will take a few down day from working around home and on the water. I never thought dehydration was an issue, have to take in more water. And the only thing I can really only pass on is, if your body is trying to tell you something don’t ignore it. Maybe get looked at sooner than later. Should have reacted to the shortness of breath stuff and not be my own doctor back a while ago. You guys stay hydrated. I don’t drink a lot of coffee, ice tea or soda normally but they don’t help you hydrate. Sorry for rambling on, I’m sure others have bigger issues than I do but it’s not fun when you know you might have eliminated the problem long ago if you just react to it.

Gold w/ black back is still and has been a long time favorite of mine. I love throwing a Rat-L-Trap, have productive patterns but for river smallies I really only need to throw a chrome w/ black back, chrome w/ blue back, gold w/ black back and a firetiger. I still fish ones that the chrome is beat to heck and still are very productive. It’s funny on some days you’ll have an old beat up one on and they hit the heck out of it than on other days the seem to want one with a better chrome finish on them. I think you are correct on light condition. Great color, good luck.

I generally cover my knot and hook eye.

I like many of your color patterns. On the river Roadkill, Rootbeer and Sand are productive as well. Been fishing whites over the last few seasons more. White had been a color I really never fished.

I don’t mind fishing in the rain but I prefer to be out already and then have the rain start. Had some great bites over the years when that happens. If it gets blinding torrential, time for me to anchor up under a bridge and ride it out. Lightning, aluminum boat and graphite rods don’t seem to be a good mix. I try to get a good feel as to what my weather conditions are gonna be. I Have a weather radio onboard.

There are guys who will throw the “finesse” term around with crankbait fishing. Can’t say that I can do that. Though the crankbaits I fish most are not that big (3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 5/8 & 3/4 oz.) and some are XD baits. Possibly it refers to UL crankbaits that are 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4 oz. baits primarily used for trout or crappies. But I have heard the term thrown around about finesse crankbaits. I’ll throw some 5/16 oz. and 3/8 oz. Shad Raps regularly for river smallies but don’t think it’s finesse.

Couldn’t put a rabbit past him.

I’m not that great when it comes to remembrance of particular years or time lines but when the term finesse fishing back some time ago and more recently the NED fishing term thing came about, I did get a good laugh about it. We’ve been fishing like that since the late 70’s. Many of a Mr. Twister and a Culprit worms became a NED bait by cutting the head back. Over the years the hooks and jig heads became more sophisticated. And more expensive.

Just an FYI, if you go to SunLine website there is a great knots download. This may be useful to you. I’ve had it on my phone for years.

I sort of know where you are coming from but their feed patterns change. There is probably not a soul on this site that likes to fish a crankbait more than me. But for me that bite is down to nothing these days. Heat wave? Water temps? Baitfish or lack there of. Slow finesse presentations of soft plastics is catching some now. I’ll stick with that for a while. But continue to throw a Rat-L-Trap around some.

I wish some manufacturers would reintroduce some of their plastic variations that were around 25-30 years ago. They produced a lot of fish for me back then. They have been off the market for so long that they would be a new product to many guys today. Berkley, Mr. Twister and Mann’s had some great stuff that’s been long gone. But I understand about moving forward, marketing, and competition. It is what it is.

That’s what I heard would or might happen. So I’ve been keeping them in the original packaging, and have the Zman stuff in a Bass Mafia money bag. It’s basically a HD Zip-Loc bag. The worms, creatures and craws I bought over the winter have produced fish. Just hopping and dragging them, fishing as slow as I can. Bite has been slow here in this heat wave. I’m not ready to put Zman on any pedestal yet, have other plastics that get bit well. The higher float of the elastic material might just be a different look. That was my reason for trying them. Catching the few Walleyes in this heat wave has been a real surprise.

Buying for myself has been down some the last couple of years. I have a 17, 14 and 3 year old grandsons that are fishing with me at different times and I’ve been trying to hook them up with some half decent stuff. 3 yo is just starting. I'm always ready to buy a new color of a soft plastic that is productive. Crankbait fishing is a big part of my fishing, like to have spares and spares that I add additional paint colors to them.

I love the way the radial tires handle and touch the road.

Crankbaits Finesse Plastics Jigs

I’ve never fished a solid body tube. Why I don’t know. Don’t know why I never tried them. But there are a few brands out there that appear to be good quality. I fish grubs so they are sort of a grub with a tube tail. Zman has one, guess they are set up for NED rigging. Never jumped on the NED rig bandwagon stuff. Some of us were and still are fishing Ned style since the 70’s. If the Zman stay buoyant for being a solid type tube they look like a good different choice. That slight bit of a change may draw unexpected bites. They claim that elastic holds up well.

I use the Abu Winches the most regularly. They are flat like a paddle. I tried a couple of different slip on inserts on them, thought that they might look cool and sure a purpose. Not really, ditched that idea pretty quickly. I like the factory set up in the Winch.

My catching of Musky on the river has never been of any type of regularity. Very sporadic. Just a fun bonus. I’d like to catch a monster 40” plus and land him but it will be difficult on 6# and 8# test. I’ve been lucky on most of my catches where my hook ups were in the corner of the mouth but have been lucky that my lines had held up. I’ve never caught one on soft plastics. Fat Raps, Shad Raps, DT’s, Bomber A’s Bandits, Husky Jerks and Mepps Spinners. They have come off the bank with quick drop offs, typical smallmouth spots. A few hit totally unexpected close to the boat on lure retrieves. I’ll be back on the river soon for smallies. Lately been fishing the lake for that Monster Bass that I’m struggling with finding.

God bless you guys. Stay safe. We are gonna get hit hard tonight. But not until after dark which makes it worse. My trees and those of my neighbors are huge. I’ll be pacing. Some of you guys are dealing with big devastation and loss. Seems to hit you with more regularity. Hope you get through it.

You can buy those teeny tiny tube prerigged PowerBait tubes but I don’t think ones that small are a great way to target Smallies. Draw attention from panfish. If 2 1/2”-3” tubes are a good catcher for you now I would not go smaller. As summer progresses going to fall I would think going a bit larger. I’ve caught those rut/dink smallies on 4.5 inch finesse worms and Senkos. Wondering where did they think they were gonna do with that. A 3” or 3.5” tube is not oversized for any respectable size Smallie. Great post. Like the tube talk. They don’t get talked about much these days. Try “Roadkill” or “Pumpkin w/ green flake.

The tube bait is a great bait. Overshadowed by many soft baits these days.

The longest I’m fishing are 7’ / 7’1”. How and where I fish (not a pro) I don’t think I would gain anything. Would like to try one. I love fishing my soft plastics on 6’3”, 6’8” and 6’9” fast and Xfast Avids and it looks like they stopped making them. An all time favorite river rod of mine is a 5’9” Avid Medium X-Fast. A tube and grub rod that works great around dock and overhanging limbs and branches. Another rod discontinued. I’m convinced that the game is being changed by the manufacturers. Not in a bad way. But a different way. Rods, baits, reels are all changing. I’m older and a creature of habit so I’m not all that receptive of some changes.