BuffaloBass716

I want one! I'm still working on a car first...

I knew that the summer patterns were coming quick after being in heaven with catching nice prespawn smallies in the river and largemouth in the creeks. The last two weeks have slowed to a crawl, mostly with the smallmouth. With water temps in the high 60's climbing fast, I believe the smallies have moved out deeper, too deep for me to reach them from the bank in the Niagara river. Only a few of my spots produce bass lately, today I was able to grind 5 smallies on a drop shot with extremely long casts with really subtle bites. I tried to talk to some boaters at the ramp about what the bass are doing but with nothing really to go on. Largemouth are really no where to be found either. Hopefully with the return of the grass in the river, they will follow but as of right now it's a tough time in between periods (At least I think so lol) Do you guys think my thoughts about where the bass are are true? Any other tips?

I always hear people say when buying a new reel, make sure it has a good drag system. What exactly does this mean? It's a pretty simply question I just never really understood what it met.

Mine was a 20" prespawn smallie, I'm guessing 4.5 or 5 lbs and I caught it on a Megastrike mega tube in green pumpkin on a 1/4oz shakE2 shakey head.

Small T-Rigs usually yield the best results for me. Although lately topwater is pretty fun...

There's been a lot of talk of bank fishing on the forums lately. Maybe its time to revive this topic?

I have gut hooked a few in the past... I tried my best to get the hook out quickly, some live, some don't. I feel bad when they try to swim off, then turn on it's side. At that point I wish I could just put the fish out of its misery. Don't let it bother you to the point where you think about it after you get home. Clearly nobody purposely tries to harm the fish while practicing C&R, mistakes happen.

I went back today and nailed 3 more on the frog and missed another 2... after throwing a t-rig and senko and only catching one fish for like 2 hours, I switched to a frog and was surprised they were hitting it so well. Kinda embarrassed though because I use them on a spinning rod

Finally caught my first bass on a topwater frog. I ordered some Zoom horny toads in black a while back in the early spring, I was out at one of my regular spots that is shallow with lily pads and before I was about to head home, it was about 6pm with overcast skies so I decided to rig up a frog and see how they worked. It took me a few casts while walking around the bank and finally I seen the fish come up and inhale my frog as it was passing by, with its legs spitting water. I got the fish in with a smile. It was just a 1 pound fish but seeing the fish hit was all that mattered to me haha. I tried for another 30 minutes and got another hit that felt better right as I started reeling it back but I didn't hook her lol. I figured I'd just share my experience today, this was one of my goals for this season and I know a lot of people struggle with new baits at first, let me tell you, catching fish with a new technique can be done! and its awesome when you finally accomplish it!

I've used a size 3 blue fox spinner in gold color in my home river for smallmouth. I like slow rolling it close to the bottom or burning it fast then killing it for a few seconds so it falls slowly, the strikes happened when I stopped reeling. I caught a good number of rock bass on them too.

Definitely, Up here where I am, finesse is usually key for me. Super clear water and the fish aren't hogs like down south. It just depends on your area and and what you are comfortable using.

^^This. I bank fish 100% of the time, with one rod (spinning) 2 3700 plano boxes, small worm bag that fits 20-30 soft plastics, and a index card box with JJ's. Put it in a regular backpack and its perfect. Plus I ride my bike to my fishing spots so this is the perfect amount of tackle I need. It gets the job done with what I have, but i'm sure if I have a little more spending money, Id buy a few more essentials that i'm missing out on.

Those are some good points. I do believe that i'm doing something right to a certain extent, but I think I be a little more consistence. I should probably just try a few different weights in order to see if a fast or slow drift is what works for me, and the fish.

I see gets in boats drifting with the current that are a good distance from shore, about as far as a long cast that pick off some good sized smallies. Maybe their vertical jigged technique works better out further? I guess a weight amount that allows the lure to just drag on the bottom, not to slow, not too fast, would be a good option.

I was hoping you guys could shed some light on how to approach bottom contact techniques for fishing a river from shore. I already made an attempt to get some advice on the "general bass forum" but didn't really get any responses. I was going to post this topic in the "Northeastern section" for the local forums but figured I'd have a better chance of getting some help on this forum. Well, I fish the Upper Niagara River mostly and there have been some really good smallies the past month or so and I mainly use lighter weight jig heads and bullet weights and use the current to carry my lure downstream. I usually cast upstream, let the bait fall and begin drifting, and occasionally hop/twitch my lure as it comes towards me. This has worked pretty well, yielding some nice smallmouth with T-rigs, shakey heads, and tubes with 1/8, 3/16, 1/4 oz weights. I can feel the lure bouncing on the bottom when there is rock/boulders but I notice that my lure returns close to the shore in a minute or so and most of my strikes come when the lure is relatively close to shore. Would switching to a heavier jig head/weight be a better option? Or does the drifting technique make the lure look more natural, therefor getting more bites? I know that a heavier weight will get hung up a lot more too so I'm not sure... I would like to keep my lure out deeper to to get some hits in deeper water. Any advice from you guys that fish a river/current would help a lot. Thanks

The current is faster than it looks, but I fish in an area where its pretty wide so it can be dead calm like glass on the surface, but anything will still drift downstream at a good pace. I might post this in the local fishing forum section here to see if I get anyone local to get their opinion.

I mainly fish the Upper Niagara River from shore and the past month has been excellent fishing, in particular smallmouth. But anyway, i'm still not quite sure how to approach bottom baits when dealing with the persistence current. So far, I've stuck with lighter weights (3/16 1/8 1/4) when using bullet weights and shakey heads to make the bait drift with the current and get hung up less but most of my hits come pretty close to shore since that's where my lure ends up within a minute. On the opposite side, Do you guys think a heavier weight that gets carried less/slower would be a better option? I think I would look less natural and will probably get hung up a lot more. Right now there isn't really any weeds but later on in the summer, a lot of weeds grow in because of the clear water, should I change up weights to deal with that too? Any help would be great, especially guys that fish in rivers like the Niagara with moderate current or just dealing with the current in general. thanks

Mine is quiet? But then again I use PP S8S...

I use a Abu Garcia Vengeance spinning rod and I love it. I feel everything on the bottom and I believe it was $50 on Tackle warehouse.

I couldn't imagine losing that much stuff. I get disappointed if I loose a simply T-rig let alone nice jigs or tungsten wieghts.

I definitely need to get more, i'm just afraid of loosing them. I was using sexy shad color but I should get a few colors possible a transparent version and maybe a perch color. Are there any colors that you guys really like for clear water?

Went out this morning and got snagged while using some soft plastics so I decided to tie on a red eye shad. I've never had much luck with hard baits but within a few casts I hooked into a nice smallmouth, I was burning it fast then killed it for a few seconds, on one of the pauses I felt her hit. I caught another one the next cast and then the next cast I got snagged and broke off. I was disappointed because that bait was working so well and the fact that I just lost a $5 lure. I then tied on a gold #3 inline spinner and started nailing them on that, then got snagged and had to cut the line. So now that I have a bit of confidence in treble hook baits, I've lost them all in the river lol. Figured Id share this mornings outing.

On the bank of the Upper Niagara this morning, quiet a few smallies all average size and a surprise largemouth in the river. First largemouth in the river this year, but I've been nailing them in the canal off the main river.