Scott F

I’d buy every Smoke reel I could get for $50. For me, they are far above decent. These days, they are the only spinning reels I buy. I use them hard and they’ve never given me one minute of trouble. If it’s in good shape, buy it. If you don’t like it, I’ll give you $75 for it.

See, this is what I mean. In 20 years, I’ve never used a crankbait in the DuPage but it worked for you. My favorite bait to throw there is a T rigged, unweighted, 4 inch senko, in whatever color I happen to grab. I use these because it can be thrown everywhere. In the grass, fast water, over rocks or downed wood without getting snagged. I don’t have to keep changing baits for the conditions. Best of all, it always catches smallies. They will move around a bit.

FYI, the Fox and the DuPage don't fish anything alike. Mainly because the Fox is nearly always very stained, and the DuPage, except after a rain, is very clear. No shad in the DuPage either. As I've found on the DuPage, anything can and does work when you put it where the fish are. I see a lot of fishing reports and everybody uses different stuff and everybody catches fish, as long as they find them.

Naperville is 90% private property so bank access is VERY limited. Let me know when you get some waders or a kayak. To catch fish consistently on the river, you need to get off the bank so you can cover more water than bank fishing will allow.

Are you bank fishing, wading or floating?

Did you not see the long thread on this very topic currently running 15 pages?

I've fished the DuPage for many years and have never found a color that doesn't work. Our local club has many guys who fish the DuPage and the common thread in all the fishing reports is that there isn't any one bait or one color that out fishes any other. We have fishermen who will out fish everybody else, but it's because they are better fishermen, not because they use a bait or color nobody else uses.

Multiple taps are often bluegills pecking at your plastic. That's why there is nothing there when you set the hook. Each tap could be a bass sucking it in or spitting it out. You won't know until you hook one. I normally try not to wait for a second tap.

Here is a snake carrying a sculpin from the DuPage River.

One big negative I’ve found. In the spring when the cottonwoods are spreading their cotton all over the lake, and the cotton sticks to your line, the little balls of cotton get stuck in the guides and make it impossible to cast. I have to leave the rod at home because it becomes unusable.

There are sculpins in the river that look like gobies. One of the nice things about river fishing for bass is that “matching the hatch” is seldom important. Current means that a bass doesn’t have a lot of time to analyze the food that is drifting by. They have to make a quick decision to eat or let it go by. If they are hungry, they won’t let food pass by just because it doesn’t look like other food they’ve been eating.

One big negative I’ve found. In the spring when the cottonwoods are spreading their cotton all over the lake, and the cotton sticks to your line, the little balls of cotton get stuck in the guides and make it impossible to cast. I have to leave the rod at home because it becomes unusable.

That's a Rebel Crickhopper. It is supposed to resemble a grass hopper. It's classified as a crankbait. Looks like it needs at least one new hook.

I don’t fish it as much as I used to. I live just a few minutes from it. The amount of filamentous algae in the river most of the time takes a lot of the fun out of fishing. It can still be great at times, but when that algae is loose and floating down stream, it’s just about unfishable especially at the southern end.

$300 certainly isn’t cheap. If you lived near me, I could hook you up with certified fly instructors who wouldn’t charge you anything. Often times, fall is probably not the best time of year, local park districts will offer free fly fishing programs. Many towns have fly fishing clubs, where members get together to tie flies during the winter and there are always members who are happy to help out new guys just learning to fly cast. Before you pay for some lessons, do some research online for local clubs or a local chapter of Trout Unlimited. Other benefits of fly fishing clubs is that members will often have used rods and reels they’ll sell cheap and you will learn to tie your own flies.

Not in my opinion. Instead, find a fly fishing shop and get advice from a professional. You will spend considerably more money but anything you buy will be usable for years down the road. While you are there, get a casting lesson. A good fly shop will get you started with basic gear that isn't too expensive and will help you right away. Ultra cheap combos, like the Walmart one will hold you back. Doing it right from the start will make it a much more enjoyable experience. Struggling with poor gear and no instruction will quickly cause you to give up before you know it.

Your paint jobs are just fine. The bass don’t care. Perfectly painted baits impress other fishermen more than they impress fish.

Concentrate on the area of the pond where water runoff from the rain enters the pond.

30 feet deep?? In most of the rivers I fish, a 10 foot deep hole is a rarity. Most of my rivers average 1-5 feet deep. If I had a river that had that amount of water, I wouldn’t have needed a jet boat.

The biggest change comes in creeks that flow into larger rivers without being stopped by dams. As fall progresses bass will migrate to their wintering areas which are usually deeper and slower than their summer home ranges. Concentrating on the areas where the creeks or smaller rivers empty into larger rivers will put you in position to contact with all of these migrating bass. If your river or stream has dams blocking migration, they will just move toward whatever wintering holes they can find.

In my opinion, you are overthinking this. The fish have never used the internet so they don’t know the “rules” you seem to think are important. You can follow them if you want. But you might be surprised how many fish you catch by trying a lot of variations that break all the rules.

Why isn't the roof rack an option? Buying or making a rod tube that can be tied to anything that is on the roof seems to be the only sensible option to me.

Fly fishing for bass can be very rewarding if you are willing to put in the time and effort to learn how to do it. Learning to fly fish on that combo will be difficult. The first thing an instructor will do is tell you to replace the rod. Inexpensive fly lines alone cost more than that entire combo does. Cheap reels will function just fine, but nowhere is the quality of the rod more important than fly fishing.

If you need a bigger backpack to bank fish ponds, you are trying to carry way too much stuff.

I use single strand steel leaders that I make myself in waters where bite offs are common, especially on crankbaits.