Steveo-1969

^^^ This ^^^

Naturally fishing a jig won't always be the "best" presentation for any given situation. There is no such thing as a "magic lure". And I'm not suggesting you fish with a jig all the time and nothing else. You look at the current situation and take your best guess on the presentation that will get bites. In your above scenario most fishermen would choose some type of top water presentation first. My point was you can catch fish with it any time of the day or night.

In my experience the best time of day to throw a jig is from 12:00am - 11:59pm. Choose your own time zone.

Fishing the whole water column is something I definitely need to be more conscious of doing. From late spring to mid-fall I'm usually wading shallow water in a very clear river. Say 4 feet or less. And I always assume any fish in the area is going to see and strike my bait so if I don't get bit there are no fish there. But countless times I've changed my presentation from say a jig on the bottom to a swimbait running a foot from the surface and started catching fish. Oh, there WERE fish there.....

My favorite movie of all time is Dumb and Dumber. My stomach hurts from laughing every time I watch it!

Welcome to Bass Resource! As has already been said, if you can cast your lures effectively your rod will work fine. A couple years ago I tried using a MH/XF baitcaster for river smallies but I found that I couldn't effectively cast the lighter baits I was typically using. So I bought a M/F baitcaster and now I can cast the same lures farther and more easily. (BTW - your reel speed is fine) Bonus - fighting the fish is much more fun on the lighter powered rod!

I have two because after the first I had to have another one. Addictive like tattoos or potato chips. I bought a NRX 893c JWR and then got a NRX MBR 842c.

Balance is important to me when fishing "tip up" presentations and I prefer my rod to be tip "light". I have two NRX casting rods and found both to be tip heavy so I balanced them with rubber chair leg bumpers and quarters (or maybe it was nickels?). I don't care if my expensive high-end rods don't look pretty. In my hands they feel and fish beautifully.

Yup. Why search the forum for the 63 other posts about this topic when you can start a new one?

PM sent

Where are my beloved Chicago Bears? Surely they are in the potential bottom 5 for next season!

I opened this thread because I thought you were going to give a fishing tip about using the "Slonezp Rig"...

I only fish a big worm one week out of the year on my annual vacation at Kentucky Lake. My worm of choice is a 10.5" Zoom Ol' Monster in plum.

Nice, can't go wrong with those choices. I'm seriously addicted to catching river (creek, stream) smallmouth with a finesse jig and the SK Bitsy Bug is my jig of choice because of the price. I lose a lot of them and it hurts a little bit less every time I snag and have to break off.

Welcome to Bass Resource Joseph from a fellow Eastern Panhandler. I'm up near Martinsburg and fish the Potomac the majority of the time but also fish the Shenandoah occasionally. Lots of fish in both rivers, good luck to you and your son!

Welcome to Bass Resource! You are already light-years ahead of me when I got back into the sport 7 years ago. And you are in the right place to continue learning and educate others. BEAR DOWN!!!!!!!

Hmmm, I fish in a very rocky river also and it's very rare for me to have a fish get hung up in the rocks. Are you sure it's not just your bait getting hung up?

What Scott F said. But I'm addicted to jig fishing so I usually have a small skirted finesse jig tied on.

I live near Martinsburg way up in the Eastern Panhandle, Berkeley County and fish the Upper Potomac River 99% of the time and the Shenandoah River the other 1%. No boat for me either so I'm wading if the water level safely allows it, otherwise I'm bank fishing. I catch lots of small fish but for me there's nothing like a river smallmouth!!

Welcome to BR Devin and thank you for your service from a fellow West "By God" Virginian. Great smallie!!!!

True, but... while I can browse on TW's website for hours just like I browse through a BPS store for hours, there is something special about being able to actually see the fishing stuff in person. With that being said I won't drive 2 hours to a BPS to buy something. If I can't find something local I'm ordering it from the internet (usually TW).

Having been to both the Hanover, MD and Harrisburg, PA BPS stores I agree with Pat, I think the Harrisburg store and a little larger fishing section.

I used to back reel when fighting fish but now I use the reel's drag instead. However, if a reel doesn't have an anti-reverse switch I won't buy it. When I reel in my bait and there are weeds or something on it but I don't notice it until bait is near the rod tip, I will flip the switch and back reel until I can reach the bait and clean it off.

To ensure I don't get the CPS Twistlock in my knot, I always thread my plastic bait onto the CPS Twistlock first, THEN tie the hook to my line.

My very unoriginal username is my nickname and the year I was born...