smalljaw67

My 90 is a smallmouth killer!!!!!

Must haves will be a short list, these are what I normally call "base" colors. Green pumpkin, watermelon, black, brown, and pumpkin. These are the colors that you can use alone and have a good color that will catch fish, the next set are the colors used with a base color alone or in conjunction with other colors to create a color pattern. These are what I call must have accent colors and remember, this is just my opinion. Blue, orange, yellow chartreuse, green chartreuse, red, and purple. After these basic colors is when I use things like natures edge, barbed wire, and living image colors but there are so many and forage species vary from place to place not to mention most bodies of water have local "hot" colors that seem to work better in certain places than other colors, so that is the list of colors I think are must haves but again, this is my opinion and it may be different for you and that is what makes custom tackle so fun.

When I fish lakes with just largemouth I will use a dark or light color crank, most of the time it doesn't matter. When it comes to smallmouth, that is a different story, and before going to a different style of crank or a different lure altogether I'll often just go to a different pattern first. When the water is clear in my area a chrome color rattle trap will do well, but with smallmouth I have had many days when a chrome/blue back wouldn't get as much as a follow and then we'd switch to chrome/black back and have 7 fish in 10 casts. A lot of what I use depends on conditions, if water temps, time of year, baitfish activity, etc. merit the use of a crankbait then i'll use a type of bait I think will work and from there I'll switch color or size, or both before going to something different. Square bills are funny, I was out back in September and I was fishing with a KVD 1.5 in chartreuse/black back and wasn't doing well and it looked to be perfect for square bills. So I went with a 6th Sense 50X square bill in the same color and the first cast with it yielded a 4lb 7oz largemouth followed by a 3lb 3oz smallmouth 3 casts later and I ended up catching 11 fish on that bait over the next 1.5 hours. I think it helps to change up hard bait colors and styles as well as size, sometimes you don't need to but I have had good days on baits that didn't seem to be working but a simple switch of patterns made all the difference.

A fast action glass or composite rod is different than a fast action graphite rod. The BPS cranking sticks were always rated as fast but they have more than enough forgiveness or flex for cranks.

Adams Custom Lures uses predator bass blanks and they put a custom paint job on them. They now have a blank that was made for them and that is the one the river guys seem to like and I may get a few next season as well. The Atak 1.25, it is 3/8oz and runs 1'-3', I can't tell you much but I know several river anglers that hold them in high regard so they should be checked out.

I have a bunch of the 4.5" Baby Slug-Os and to me they are different than a fluke. I got on the Slug-O early, late 80s when they came out and in '92 I tried them for smallmouth in the Susquehanna river, wasn't sure how they would work in moving water. 134 fish and 33 destroyed slug-os on the floor of my boat told me all I needed to know and I've been a fan since. The Slug-o is more erratic than the fluke or super fluke and is a good choice to coax neutral fish in to chasing but the fluke has a better "dying" action that works on those lethargic fish that are unwilling to chase. Both are interchangeable and I think having both is essential. There are times the fish will show preference to one over the other, I don't use the 7" version, I use the 4.5" and 6" versions and they both work well so I'm sure the larger one will have no issues getting bit.

The locations are easy to find, as others mentioned, look for slow moving or slack water but I have some other places as well. Look behind islands, those are natural current breaks and there is usually an eddy on one side other the other that funnels food into the pool so the fish tend to group up there. Another spot that gets overlooked are transition banks, you see the area go from dirt and clay to chunk rock and pea gravel, those are killer spots to hit if you have a sunny day. I use suspending jerkbaits, tubes, dead sticking swim baits, and of course, hair jigs.

I fish the same waters and I do well with crankbaits. I have 2 cranks that are tough to be in the river for smallmouth, both are Mann's, the Baby 1 Minus and the Baby X. The 1 Minus is for the ultra shallow stuff and the Baby X runs around 2', the X is the same body as a 1 minus but it has a square bill, the bill looks kind of crude but it is made that way on purpose. It makes that crank deflect really hard, it has been one of the best river smallmouth cranks in my arsenal. Another really good one for me has been the Bagley Rattlin' Kill'R B, it is a plastic version of the Kill'R B and has a low pitch rattle that is surprisingly effective in clear water. If the smallmouth are aggressive and eating larger baits I like the Yo-Zuri 3DB square bill and the Rapala DT Fat 3 and the DT Flat 3, the flat 3 is an absolute must in early spring. That is just a small list, I use an entire different set of cranks when the water is over 4' along with some killer baits that have been discontinued but what I mentioned are my best shallow water producers.

Those things are wicked!!!! That would be the solution if you could still get them. They hooked as well as a round bend and hold as good as, if not better than, an EWG style.

I have an older Supreme MGX, it was the magnesium version of the Supreme. That reel has been fantastic to the point I added a Patriarch spinning reel this year. I have the Supreme XT casting reels, those are great and have been used hard and so far no issues. The only reel I ever had that failed completely on me was the Shimano Symetre, I had 2 fail within a month of each other and both were only 2 weeks old when that happened. Shimano makes great reels but I think in the spinning reel department that anything under a Stradic isn't so good that you couldn't find a better option for less.

That event changed my perspective on fishing under spins. I was using them in summer mostly trying to get suspended fish and I did catch some like that but seeing it in cold water made me try it. I found that water temps from around 60 to about 48 or so are prime for that fish head spin. I use a swim bait trailer until the water temps fall to 50 and below, then the soft jerkbait, for me a fluke jr, and then I reel slowly just enough to keep the blade spinning while it ticks the bottom, that has been so good that it is now a staple in my fall, winter, and spring fishing.

It depends on what your version of cold water is. Where I fish we are talking 35 to 4o degree water before we get ice, a hard body jerkbait sitting in a spot for 10 seconds and then barely moved will get a lot more bites than a fluke, we have tried it. There are applications with a fluke that work in cold water though, when the water temp falls below 50 degrees I will switch from a swim bait trailer to a fluke jr. on my under spins. For smallmouth I fluke jr. slowly dragged on a small football jig works well too, but if you fish it like a jerkbait, at least in my waters, you won't fair so well, and it is because of how it moves. When the minnow forage begins to die here, the bass don't eat them in the upper part of the water column, they will take them off the bottom, but if they are slowly rising or sitting still (suspending), then they will take them high in the water, I don't know why but that is how it seems to be. A popular thing to do now is fish small 3" to 4" swim baits on a jig head like a tube jig, basically dead sticking them on the bottom and only moving them a like bit. If you are further south and your water temps are in the upper 40s to low to mid 50s then a fluke should still be effective but most of us above the Mason-Dixion line know that they don't work the same as a hard jerkbait.

I'm not sure if the Mister Twister toads were the first but I do know which one got that style of bait popular. It was the Sizmic toad, a small company that was bought out by Uncle Josh and still sold using the Sizmic brand name.

I haven't used a Conquest and I know that I will not get one, I just can't justify that price tag. That said, I can tell you that based on all my other Loomis rods with a mag bass taper (MBR), that the 843C would probably be really good for the baits you have listed, a little long for my topwater preference but if you like that length then the action should be close to perfect. If it is similar to other mag bass tapers then it will be an excellent choice for lipless cranks and will have more than enough backbone for Senko style baits as well, that taper is super versatile.

Go to Lure Parts Online and buy the VMC 8570 Barbarian Outbarb hooks in the size #6. If you don't already know, VMC makes the Katsuage hooks for Megabass and the outbarb is almost identical, I believe the barb length is the only difference but the hook size and weight are perfect matches.

Take the center hook off and try it to see what it does. If it rises try using an Owner ST-36 or a Gamakatsu Aaron Martens TGW Nano Finesse treble hook in the same size 6, both of those hooks weigh less than the stock hooks on the bait you are using. You could replace all three but I think just replacing the center hook should be enough to make it suspend without sinking. One last thing, on the Gamakatsu hook, make sure it is the TGW Nano Finesse and not the Finesse MH, the MH will weight as much as the stock hooks and will keep the lure sinking.

The spinnerbait is my favorite bait, you can fish it a lot of different ways. That said, you may just be fishing it in a manner in which the fish aren't reacting to it or the fish aren't active enough to chase. Before putting the bait down for something else there are 5 things you can do to find out if the fish are active enough for a spinnerbait. The first is to change the retrieve speed, either slow it down and slow roll it on or near the bottom, or speed it up to fish in the middle of the water column, or burn it just under the surface, if fish are active one of those retrieves will draw a strike. The second thing is to change color , I won a small tournament using a spinnerbait that was different that what everyone else was using. The third thing is to change the size of the bait, going up or down in size can make a big difference as well as sometimes if there is an abundant type of forage the fish can get locked on to a certain size, it may be small Alewife minnows or bigger bluegill but you need to keep that in mind. The fourth thing is using different blade configurations, if a single willow isn't working then maybe a Colorado or Indiana may be better or a double willow. The fifth thing would be to use a trailer, I don't use trailers very often on spinnerbaits but there are times when it really helps. Those are just some general things you can try to change with the lure itself but remember, sometimes the conditions just don't make for good spinnerbait fishing. For me the optimum time for spinnerbaits are when you have a little overcast with a light wind, enough that it puts a chop on the water surface. Wind really does seem to make for good spinnerbait fishing even in bright sun but there are a lot of variables that can be good or bad for that lure. Things like water temperature, water clarity, light levels (sunny-overcast, early-late in day), and forage all play roles in what lures work and which don't, so what you do is try changing the bait up along with using multiple retrieves and if it all fails try using a slower presentation because there will be times the fish will not chase a moving bait and a slower presentation is needed.

The 843 you have is fine, it is just a different action from what you've become accustomed to using.

I could be wrong but the clear bait and the small popper I believe were made by the same company. Whopper Stopper made a bait called a "Topper" that was made in 2 or 3 different shapes but one of them had the hair tied to it like the one in your picture. The clear bait with the inserts is what is called a "Quick Change" and it older, The only quick change baits I ever saw from Whopper Stopper was a lipless crankbait, I had a few of them but I believe they made 3 or 4 different lures with the same quick change system.

I never knew Bomber to make a Balsa B, Bagley always had the Balsa B series. I have both the old Balsa B2 and the new version that Bagley started making again and they are good, they use different hardware but the action and floatation is the same.

The Terminators vibrate really well and they put out more than any War Eagle I ever used. I make my own spinnerbaits and have been for a long time but I've used a lot of what is on the market today. Terminators have a titanium wire form and they vibrate more than any other bait but it is a fast, shallow vibration versus a slower, heavier vibration felt with stainless wire forms. As for the Ware Eagle vibration more than the other brands, the answer is simple, Ware Eagle uses piano wire while Booyah and Strike King use regular stainless and it is heavy like most are around .040" diameter wire. The Stanley vibra wedge, and vibra-shaft both put out more vibration than a War Eagle, at least every one that I used and if I wasn't making my own and was buying a bait, it would be the Stanley Vibra wedge. That tapered wire and tapered blade they use make for their baits really make for the most vibration I ever encountered out of a double willow configuration. Don't get me wrong, the War Eagle is really good because of the piano wire but Stanley vibra-shaft and vibra-wedge baits are harder thumping in my honest opinion. On a side note you may wan to start hording War Eagle spinnerbaits, Pradco bought them out and I imagine they will move production to Guatemala and stop using the Sampo swivels so get what remains of the old stock before they are gone.

I like the Owner in a size #1 and I also like the Lil' Nasty in a size #2. For me it is a question of how I'm using it, if i'm fishing it around sparse cover, I like the size #2 light wire hook, the hook point is closer to the head and it has a smaller bite so it doesn't get hung up. If I'm in open water and using a slow retrieve to just tick the bottom every now and again, that is when I like the size #1 Owner, it has a bigger bite and the shank is longer for more positive hookups but it is still leaves more than half the worm free so you still get that subtle movement.

The 3DB series has both round bill cranks and a true square bill. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Yo-Zuri_3DB_Series_Squarebill/descpage-YZ3SQ.html

A 35 degree hook???? I think with someone just trying this for the first time that they wouldn't want to modify a mold. That said, the sparkie mold with a Mustad 32786 60 degree hook will work fine, the eye opens up but takes a little effort.

I too love the Xcalibur XCS series and if you want a bait that is similar in size, action and diving depth you are in luck. The Yo-Zuri 3DB or 3DR square bill, very close to the size and weight of the 200 with the same wide wobble and excellent deflection properties, it is an awesome square bill and I've been using them a lot the last 2 years.