Scott F

Obviously, you don't want your motor bumping into stuff, but the motor will push you the fastest with it set as deep as it will go

I use Dr. Slick scissor clamps. They aren't cheap, but they are multi-taskers. Besides cutting braid, they are also good hook removers. They clamp shut so I clamp them to my shirt where they are always handy.

If you have transportation at age 16, from where you live, get to a river to get smallies. You've got some good ones within an hour of where you live. You don't need a boat, you can wade or fish from shore on the Kankakee, DuPage or Fox Rivers. You've also got Lake Michigan, but the action is better and more consistent on the river. You can learn a lot from the internet, but on the water learning is much better. Join a fishing club, not necessarily a tournament club, to speed up the learning process. The Illinois Smallmouth Alliance is all about fishing rivers. You can learn a lot fishing with those guys. There are a few tricks to reading current on a river that are easier to pick up when you are standing in the river.

I'm not sure why you like stretch in your line when fishing anything. If I get a lure snagged, it's easier to get the lure free if there is no stretch in my line. When working a bait, stretch in the line absorbs a lot of the action that I am trying to impart, especially if i am "walking-the-dog". Setting the hook does not require a huge swing of the rod when using no stretch line. The farther you are from the bait, the tougher it is to feel a bite when using lines that stretch. Years ago, a fisherman named Bob McClelland published a guide that showed exactly how deep 200 different crankbaits ran. They ran a boat directly over a lure that was being trolled and measured the depth with a depth finder. During his trolling tests, they had fish hit the baits being tested 40 times but only caught 6 because when trolling with less than 17lb test mono (there was no fluoro or briaded line then), they could not feel the fish hitting the lure. They could see on the graph the fish taking the lure out of the cone angle of the depth finder but the person holding the rod never felt a thing. The only fish they felt was on the heaviest lines that had the least amount of stretch.

A couple of things that I did not see in the archived thread that works for me. For best results, use them in relatively clear water. These baits have little action so the bass have to see them to eat them. Use braided line. In many cases the hits are hard to detect. There should be a little slack line, but not much. Braided line floats. Watch the line as the bait slowly sinks. When a bass sucks in the bait, the line will twitch. Be patient. Don't try to fish them in very deep water. After you let the bait sink, reel in a bit and give it a twitch, let it sink again. I personally don't like wacky rigging. I Texas rig them with no weight. Rigged straight like that, when you twitch them, they move erratically like a jerkbait should, that is a powerful trigger. Like was said in the other thread, you have to fish them slow. More than likely, if you aren't getting bit, you aren't letting the bait sink long enough or you aren't noticing when you are getting bites. The floating line is a huge advantage in seeing when you get a hit.

I can see by the photo that you have too much line on the spool. With mono or fluoro, leave 1/8 to 1/4 inch of the edge of the spool showing. Closing the bail by hand does not stop the problem by itself. After you close the bail, even if you do it by turning the handle, you have to pull on the line until it hits the line roller. Line memory and the springy qualities of mono were what caused me to switch to superlines. Braid may be more expensive to purchase, but it lasts so much longer than mono, that in the long run, it's cheaper to use.

You can download a map of Crab Orchard Lake from Sportsman's Connection for $4.95. They sell a book, "Southern Illinois Fishing Maps Guide" that has Crab Orchard along with almost all the lakes in Southern Illinois. The book, that I bought at a Bass Pro Shops was $24.95. They have several versions with maps from several states.

SHHHHHHHH!!!!!! If all those guys from down south find out how good the bass fishing is in Wisconsin, the lakes in Wisconsin will be as crowded as the all the reservoirs down there.

Although I don't weigh fish anymore, years ago I bought an early version of a digital fish weighing scale. Using certified test weights, my scale was off 3 ounces at 5 pounds and 5 ounces at 10 pounds. Nice to see today's models have gotten so much better.

Any chance it wasn't a bass? Catfish will hit plastics and will make your drag sing too.

Google "fishing tackle distributors". There's a bunch of them.

One major tactic I use for pond fishing is to fish where water is flowing into the pond especially after a rain. The bass will stack up at the point the water is flowing in.

Generally, unless you are buying in big quantities, you don't buy directly from the manufacturer, you go through a distributor. A distributor will give you a catalog, and you order from that.

If I'm bass fishing in water that has northerns or muskie, I use leaders that I make using the tie-able wire. It does tie easily if you don't mind cutting off big pieces. It's not cheap wire and I don't like to waste it so I tie them using a fly tying vise and small hemostats. I put a loop knot in one end and a small oval split ring on the other. It's the lightest leader I can make. I even use them with Senkos. It also kinks easily so you have to be careful when tightening the knot, it will curl up. When I'm fishing for pike, I make leaders out of single strand wire with a snap on one side, and a swivel on the other. I can make the single strand wire leaders out of some light wire but they are almost always a bit too heavy for the smallers topwater baits. They make the bait float nose down and they don't work as well. On bigger topwaters like Zarra Spooks, I just keep the rod up and the line nearly off the water. The stiff wire actually works pretty well walking-the-dog, at least I've learned a cadence that works for me. I've done a lot of topwater pike fishing. Those crazy little pike, are not good at hitting the bait if it's moving. They'll come flying out of the water cartwheeling through the air, missing the bait by a foot. Many times they miss the bait and the leader and cut my line above the leader. The big pike though, over 36 or 38 inches don't miss. They just inhale it. When they hit, it looks like someone dropped a bowling ball in the lake, just a huge splash. They'll get an entire Super Spook crosswise in their mouth. They don't seem to mind the leaders at all.

It is a funny video, it's also fake. http://jalopnik.com/that-jeff-gordon-terrifying-a-car-salesman-pepsi-ad-is-453519481

If I'm using a bait that a bass can take in deep, like a Senko, I pinch down the barbs first. Even if they get hooked deep, I can turn the hook around, and it comes out. In a lot of cases, if the line is cut and the hook is left in, it does not rust away like they used to say, and it blocks the fish from being able to swallow. Get a pair of hook cutters and cut off as much of the hook as you can.

The line digging in comes when you have your drag set too tight and the line is pulled hard. Keep your drag set properly and the line won't dig in. Clear mono or fluoro is not invisible. I am of the belief that bass are not smart enough to figure out that line is a bad thing. If they got spooked by seeing fishing line, why aren't they able to tell that that hunk of wood, metal or plastic with treble hooks hanging from it is not really food? Keep life and fishing simple and skip the leader.

When reeling in the fish, and he's getting close to you, point your rod nearly straight up in the air and swing the fish to you where you can reach it. Grab the smaller pike by the back of the head squeezing the gills slightly. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to remove the hook. If the pike has closed his mouth around your bait, you may need a pair of jaw spreaders to hold open his mouth while you remove the hook.

If you are talking pre-spawn smallies, try a #65 Lucky Craft pointer in chartreuse shad, (if you can find one). Early in the year, the forage is still pretty small. The #65 for me has outfished all the other larger baits combined.