Steveo-1969

I fish in a very rocky snaggy river that loves bottom contact baits even more than I do! I lost about 20 skirted jigs in 2019 and countless small jig heads with plastic.

Unlike the Lower Potomac, the Upper Potomac that I fish is non-tidal. The SMB population is down in the UP because of high water the last 4 years during spawning. The MD DNR is well aware of this through seining, electrofishing and fisherman surveys. They now have a 5-year supplemental stocking program that started in 2019. They took 40 adult SMB out of the UP to a state hatchery, but were unsuccessful in getting them to spawn so they were returned to the river. Instead the state purchased 2000 juvenile SMB and stocked them in portions of the river that showed exceptionally poor survey results. They will continue trying to stock with state-run hatcheries for the next 4 years.

My smallmouth fishing was tough this year. I am wading/bank fishing the Upper Potomac River and the smallmouth population is way down right now. I spent hours and hours fishing normally very productive water getting skunked before making the decision to mainly wade in front of a dam where there was a small concentration of smallies. I still caught more catfish (while fishing for smallmouth) than I did actual brown bass. Small paddletails, finesse skirted jigs, Ned Rigs and Gulp minnows caught most of the fish.

Glad to see you put YOUR OWN name on that list @A-Jay!!!!!!!!!!!! Hmmmmm, from West Virginia? Well, I don't think he's a resident of WV but he's a student/athlete at WVU so how about: Nolan Minor @everythingthatswims

I enjoyed the North American Fisherman show with Steve and Hal Schramm and the Knot Wars segment. I think Lake Commandos is one of the most enjoyable to watch shows out today. Glad to hear he is not just pitching Berkley/Abu rods/reels/line/lures, etc... I watched your show last night on MOTV. I'm addicted to jig fishing and was glad to see you had the most productive pattern of the day! I'm adding Chris Fryer to my list of fishing celebrities that are members of Bass Resource!! ?

Did you catch a smallmouth at the boat landing before the boat was even launched? (Hmmmm, that might have been In-Fisherman or Linder's Angling Edge or Ultimate Fishing Experience or...). Anywho, I'm going to look for your episode on MOTV. I'm sure I watched it before but now I can say "Holy Crap, that's FryDog62!!!".

Agreed! Lake Commandos is in my Top 3 favorite fishing shows.

BTW if you order a custom rod from @Delaware Valley Tackle it will be shipped to you in a PVC tube...

My biggest river smallmouth is the one in my avatar. 19" length, the fish was not weighed. Caught out of the Susquehanna River in PA, the only time I have fished this river. 99% of my fishing is in the Upper Potomac and my biggest smallmouth there is 18.5" (4x).

Thanks. When I first subscribed to MOTV I would watch it with the Android app on my phone and cast/mirror it to my TV and that worked ok. Now I have an Amazon Firestick and it works much better.

I'm envious of the variety most of you have! Smallmouth Largemouth Walleye Northern Pike Fallfish Channel catfish Flathead catfish Sheephead (freshwater drum)

Tom, The topic of this thread from the OP was about budget fluorocarbon. I understand Gamma Edge is thicker than Seaguar Tatsu (or any Seaguar or Sunline) in the same pound test. So maybe I liked Gamma Edge because it was thicker? OK, I concede that point. My real point was Gamma Edge is MORE expensive than Tatsu, and should NOT be considered a budget FC. It's at the opposite pricing spectrum. Moving on........

Fake news sponsored by Z-Man! That bait only catches small fish......

I found the above prices on the Tacklewarehouse website. I would love to find Gamma Edge cheaper than the above price (and Tatsu for that matter). Where do you buy your fishing line? Thanks in advance!

Gamma Edge is the most abrasion resistant, good handling, low-stretch fluorocarbon I've ever used. But it's even MORE expensive than Tatsu. 10# Gamma Edge: 100 yard spool for $26 10# Seaguar Tatsu: 200 yard spool for $40

No boat for me, so I'm bank fishing or wading. Usually only am able to fish one day on the weekend so I'm fishing as long as I can that day.

As expected the wide variety of answers given solidifies the fact that this is a personal preference thing. For me, I own two ML-powered spinning rods and ZERO M-powered spinning rods. For where and how I fish, I don't need a medium power spinning rod.

Hmmmm, I am a tech idiot too and have never bothered figuring out how to post pictures. But I just switched from Android to iPhone and may need to give this another go!

This is what I did on 2 of my jig/texas rig rods as well. It made the rod tip lighter and easier to hold with less stress on my wrist when palming the reel.

I'll second these. The keeper works very well also. Elaztech is easy to push on and it doesn't slip.

I'm fishing walleyes in a river from the bank and I'm using the G. Loomis WPJR 821s GLX for exactly what it was intended. WPJR = Walleye Pitching Jigs Rod. I fish small jig heads/plastics primarily. It's a Mag-Light 1-power rod and rated 1/16-5/16 ounce lure weight which seems about right. It's not super powerful but with 10# braid and light-wire hooks I get great hook penetration and can land any fish by being patient and playing them carefully. This rod may not be powerful enough for some of the other techniques you mentioned, though it excels at pitching light jig heads!

Your thread title caught my eye! My favorite high end walleye spinning rod is the G. Loomis WPJR 821s GLX. I have mine paired with a Shimano Stradic CI4+ reel and it's incredible to fish with.

I have not had much success catching smallmouth while wading the Upper Potomac this year either. Smallmouth numbers are declining in the U.P. and it's difficult to catch fish that aren't there. The MD DNR is aware of the declining population and a report mentioned poor spawns the last several years due to flooding. They tried unsuccessfully to stock smallmouth in the river this spring. https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Documents/Potomac_River_SMBass_Stocking.pdf http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pages/smallmouth_bass_stocking.aspx

A finesse jig and a small paddletail (on a jighead) are the two baits I fish the most for river smallmouth. Keitech Swing Impact FAT (3.3"), Keitech Swing Impact (3.5" and 4"), Strike King Rage Swimmer (3.25"), BPS Speed Shad (3").

Ah, so $3/jig is a little easier to swallow! I fish the 3/16 ounce jig (with shortened SK Baby Rage Craw trailer) with a ML blank rated 1/8-1/2 ounce, and 10# FC or co-poly. No problems getting hook penetration on the hookset. But I have another ML powered rod I wouldn't use with this jig, even with braid, because it's not powerful enough.