Turkey sandwich

In addition to the subscription services, I think it's important to have a focus. It's hard to learn how to spend money early on. It's also really overwhelming trying to learn everything. My advice is to pick a technique and focus on learning that. Have a medium or MH Fast action rod? Great! learn to fish jigs and T-rigs and how to cover your bases there. Want to learn to fish crankbaits? Pick up some basics like DT series, Fat Free, KVD square bills, etc and a slow action rod and learn. There's no sense in trying to take everything on at once.

Most of what you'll be fishing for pike won't be handled well on such light gear. We've all caught fish on underpowered tackle, and it does happen, but the big difference is being able to throw 1oz+ plugs and spoons on medium weight tackle with any kind of accuracy/control, and without damaging the rod.

They're likely both good rods. I own one SCIII Mojo, a few Rage, an Avid X, an old Premier, and now a Legend Elite. I'm obviously a fan of St Croix. You can likely get a quality fast action rods from either line. For me, the big difference is on the customer service end. St. Croix has hands down the best customer service in bass fishing.

I held out on buying electronics and did the above for years. I fish mostly lakes and rivers that I'd learned from years of fishing and through studying maps, reading shoreline, etc. This helped me learn to feel jigs, C-rigs, and T-rigs and helped me become pretty proficient with them. Having to feel the bottom really made a difference in developing those techniques. That said... buy an inexpensive unit - even if it just gives you depth, weeds, and water temperature. It's going to give you a lot more information than you've had previously and make your time on the water a lot more efficient. If you look at solving a puzzle, you'd want as much information as possible, right? Well, knowing water temperature, ledges, changes that occur due to current, changes in water level, being able to see a thermocline and eliminate water, etc can make a big difference. You can get a pretty decent starter unit for $300 or less and it can be very helpful.

Spankey - if you're catching dink's pre-spawn into the spawn, you're fishing the wrong water, typically. Move towards spawning areas or the first change in depth or solid piece of cover near them. Juvenile fish may already be feeding pretty aggressively in faster current, but larger females are going to be sitting in or near the spawn. I'll also second the above suggestion about fishing jigs and tubes. You want something you can keep bottom contact with and fish slowly that imitates something likely to pick off eggs/fry. Depending upon depth and current, for me, this means jigs ranging from Bitsy Bugs to 3/8oz football jigs tipped with a small craw. Good luck!

If you allow the fish to swallow the hook, it doesn't matter what hook you're using, fish are going to get gut hooked.

Congrats!!!!

I have a net that I'm yet to use, but we used to do something very similar for helgramites and madtoms where we'd set a net downstream in current and flip or rake to dislodge critters. Incredible way (where legal) to collect live bait.

I'm far from being good at it, but I'm learning. It's a lot to learn to really be good at (as if bass fishing is that much better, lol), but it's taught me a lot about the bigger underwater picture. As for nymphs and larvae, bass will eat all of it. Hellgramites are the best example, but they'll eat any larvae that happens to be convenient.

Thanks. It's a major feeding trend that used to frustrate the hell out of me. Also, in recent years, the more I've gotten into fly fishing, the more it's helped me understand the food chain, and it's benefited my use of traditional gear a bunch. In general, though, if you can catch smallies on the fly, do it. It's incredible fun.

Smallmouth on the fly rod are about as fun as it gets. The Susquehanna has massive mayfly and stonefly hatches throughout the summer into the fall. And I mean, massive to the point where they end up everywhere and it's almost hard to breathe without eating them. If the hatch is on, but not pea soup dense, matching the hatch and throwing similar white, March Brown, blue winged-olive, etc can be very effective for catching everything in the river. I've even seen channel catfish taken this way. As the hatch gets more dense, I tend to believe that the bass, walleye, etc are more likely to key in on the panfish and baitfish feeding up than the bugs themselves and small poppers on either a fly or spinning rod can be really effective. When the water just seems totally covered in spent spinners (dying mayflies after laying eggs) I like more commotion and a bigger profile and typically favor walking baits or even a torpedo. Through most of this, if you like throwing big flies, a Clouser minnow or Lefty's Deceiver worked just under the surface can be absolute money. Once you learn to fish the hatch, you'll learn to love them. Even if you're throwing dry flies, bass tend to be much, much less finicky than trout.

Anyone on here saying that they don't have a tough time during a cold front is probably being a little less than forthright. Everyone struggles getting bites during major changes in conditions, be it cold fronts, drastic changes in water level, clarity, etc. My advice? Enjoy her company on the water and make that the focus. My other advice? Cold fronts will typically push fish toward stable water and their level of aggression will be slowed. They could move slightly deeper to the closest change in structure, and likely they'll be much tighter to cover. It's a small like, so the effect is likely pretty big, but the upside is that a 50 acre lake doesn't leave a lot of room to hide. Once you find them, you'll likely find decent numbers. Getting them to bite typically requires a lot of finesse (dead sticking, shaky head/finesse worm, drop shot) or trying to get reaction bites by ripping crankbaits or spinnerbaits. Have fun at dinner!

I think that this is often the case. That said, this is still a country that still largely condemns marijuana use, but a major surgery or bout with mental illness will land you a lifetime supply of opioids, anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medicine.

So, it's looking like anti-depressant meds likely played a big role. He was taking Ativan, and by the sounds of it, too much. Man, it's amazing. Legal drugs are a whole lot worse than a lot of the illegal ones. Not going to put this entirely on drug companies, but it's remarkable that the guy survived years of alcoholism and opioid dependency to fall apart on anti-anxiety meds.

Mark Lanegan is still around, too.

Super sad. I was lucky enough to see Soundgarden's reunion tour back in 2013. It was at the Tower Theater here in Philly, and for those that aren't familiar, it is NOT a giant 20,000-60,000 seat arena. It's a much smaller venue, and an incredibly intimate room to see a band that really defined the 90s generation. I won't say what the pit tickets cost, but it was some of the best money I've ever spent on music. They played well over 3.5 hours straight and covered quite possibly every song in their entire catalogue. There was no opening band. There was no real set break. The just played. Sometimes you get chills when you know you're seeing something special. When you play music and you spend a lot of time around it, I feel like those instances become fewer and fewer in between. That night was one of those experiences for me. As a band, they were excellent, but the range, tone, dynamics, and control that Chris Cornell sang with was unique and unlike anyone else. He truly belongs up there with the likes of Freddie Mercury as dynamic, incredible, and unmistakable voices in rock and pop music history. As is always the case with suicide, his loss is an awful tragedy for his family and those close to him. RIP to an icon gone way too soon.

I spilled chartreuse Dip'n'Dye of some sort on a pair of pants once. My crotch and left leg basically looked glow in the dark, and the stains are still there. Whatever is actually in that stuff, it was not intended to go away quick.

I have an Aetos 7' MHMF Casting and it's a killer rod. The action is surprisingly fast for a MF, and that took a little time to feel out, but it is a really great feeling stick. I also have a 4Wt Aetos fly rod that is super fast and fishes as well or better than my $450 Sage VXP. Fenwick wasn't kidding around with this line. I have not fished an Aetos spinning rod or anything from the Elite Tech line, but I can say that Fenwick was serious about building a line to rival anything at the just under $200 price point with the Aetos rods. I like my Aetos a lot. I haven't handled them in the same power and action as my St. Croix SCIII rods, but they feel nicer than my Mojo 2nd gen and almost on par with my Avid X.

Thanks @RoLo! Rivers can confuse the hell out of people because smallies can move so much or not at all for what seems like months at a time. And when you can't find them, they aren't typically like largemouth where you can just toss a jig at a bank and catch something. When they move, they move. I recently watched/read a study about tagged smallmouth covering miles, and miles over the course of a year. I've also found stretches of river where you'll find fish within about a quarter of a mile year round. I also think that it's frustrating because there isn't a lot of good science regarding how most individual fish in a species (bass, walleye, trout, etc) move throughout the year outside of the spawn. Also, a lot of the books I've read either cover a lot of ground, but without a whole lot of detail, or focus on one particular habitat but contain a ton of fluff.

This. Farms cause more problems than almost anything. If you combine the pesticides and fertilizer from farms with dams, you're asking for nightmare with blooms and hormone rich silt that does everything from killing off aquatic insect larvae/prevent insect reproduction to causing cancer in fish. Otters, however, are a rarely a bad thing. And they're adorable.

The above posts are good and there are some solid books that cover river smallmouth basics. But to add my .02... Spring is really feast or famine depending upon conditions. Stable, clear water, almost regardless of river level, can be great. You can get on numbers or catch big pre-spawn/spawn females. The big thing is understanding that they're looking to feed like crazy before spawn without spending a ton of energy. In consistent water conditions, look for quality feeding areas near spawning locations (good current breaks with access to gravel and weed beds). Pre-spawn fish are super aggressive and will move towards smaller water like mouths of feeder creeks or protected areas like gravel beds/weed beds to spawn. There are a ton of posts on here about bed fishing. Bed fish are typically males. Females (much larger, usually) will be sitting off, either in protected areas recuperating, or staged right on the weed lines/current break/change in depth most closely located to where you're finding the spawning beds. You may not catch a ton of females the closer you get to the spawn, but you have a great opportunity for some really big fish. Post-spawn is a weird in-between stage where you might begin to catch earlier spawners moving towards summer patterns, while other fish may be lethargic for a few weeks after they spawn. Lethargic fish, in a river, will always seek to escape current in comfortable, typically lower, water temperatures. For those fish, it may mean deep, or it may mean protection behind points, near weed beds, or large pieces of cover. These are not typically easy fish to make bite. The ones moving toward their summer patterns, however, can definitely be caught, and will likely be moving towards the seems of faster current looking for baitfish or crayfish. I don't spend a lot of time fishing heavily protected areas. The aggressive fish are likely to be right on the seams. I like crayfish patterns year round, but I absolutely love crayfish patterns during this period. Summer means higher water temps, lower oxygen content (in some rivers, though it's not nearly the same as in lakes. Current, wind, riffles, etc all help to oxygenate the water). Active Fish can be found basically anywhere with good current, but larger fish are going to be found in better feeding areas where they can eat a ton without struggling in the fast stuff - usually. (Predator dominance typically dominates feeding locations on any body of water, and river smallmouth are rarely the exception.). Fish, once they start to really recover following post-spawn, will typically feed really heavily because this is their primary growing season and they need the food to fuel growth and their metabolism in the warmer water. Almost anything goes, depending upon conditions and where you're finding fish, but I like walking baits, poppers, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, flukes, grubs, football jigs(craw trailer), and tubes to cover most conditions. Also, on hot days, in hot water conditions, don't be afraid to dead stick prime locations. I'm working hard to improve at this, but guys like Jeff Little absolutely crush summer smallmouth this way. If you aren't familiar with him, and want to learn rivers, follow his youtube videos, buy his DVDs, and even his subscription videos can be really good. He's probably the most analytical river fisherman you'll find, and he's very articulate. Fall can almost be two separate periods, I think. Late summer into almost mid-fall can be incredible. Water is typically low and fast, and fish put on their feed bags once the water starts to cool so they can bulk for the winter. This is pretty similar to the summer, but the fish tend to have put on weight, and as their forage grows, matching it becomes a whole lot easier because (in most rivers I've fished) they're eating essentially everything. Every river, again, is a bit different, but generally, any place with ambush opportunities, good current, and current breaks is in play. Weed beds, boulder fields, points are all good, and even better if they provide some deep water access nearby. That said, long runs and flats with good boulders in a river with a big crayfish population can be absolutely money. Basically bring everything in your entire tackle box. Almost anything that can be fished where the fish are holding can produce fish. What kinds of patterns? Hellgramite, madtom, perch, crayfish, minnow, shad, shiner, sculpin, goby, mayfly, stonefly, refrigerator magnet, lug nut with a treble hook, miniature garden gnome - it almost doesn't matter so long as you can make it wiggle and get them to chase it. Late fall is when things change, for me, and tend to really slow down. Fish start moving towards protected wintering areas, so areas that transition away from fast current and more towards moderate current can be really good, but it's important to slow down more towards a winter pace. The water is getting colder, and fish metabolism is generally slowing down. Protected points, oxbows, protected areas behind islands, etc can all be good so long as they provide relative deep water access. This time of year for me, is tricky, and I might be doing everything from dead sticking big suspending jerk baits, to digging for the most finesse stuff I can dig out of my crate. As the water cools, this is a time of year I really miss real pork chunks being available. Winter. Metabolism is slow, fish are generally inactive (barring a warm spell. They will turn on for this and you should be on the water if possible. Fish can move shallow and actually be pretty aggressive). During this stretch, hair jigs, silver buddies, dead sticking, etc are your best options. I don't get out often in the winter (ice and nasty river conditions beat me up pretty bad), but what I've learned is that fish will relate in the most protected areas possible - meaning away from current and deep enough to avoid predators like birds. They can be tough to find, but when you find them, you'll usually find a ton of fish stacked up in the same place. Year round notes: High water (and this will happen all year) will typically push the fish to the bank or behind large current breaks like points. Low water can have them feeding on breaks or the heads and tail outs from pools or boulder fields within the pools. Low water will concentrate fish in prime feeding areas near/in fast current/. High water will disperse them to areas with protection from current like flooded areas, behind points, into docks, stack them against the bank (especially if there are trees or boulders/rip rap to hide behind) , push them behind islands, or even settle them into deeper water where the current is much slower than the surface if they don't have access to any of the above. Smallmouth are very heavy sight feeders and like clear water, high visibility, and even sun (way more than largemouth). This means clear to tea stained water can be great. Chocolate milk - go home and read a book. I'm sure I'm not the best river smallmouth fisherman on the forum, but I've been doing it for a long time and if I were to paraphrase my experiences and a bunch of books, this should cover 80% of the conditions you'll run into.

That sounds like a killer trip! Great photos! Those smallies are huge!

Fat Raps and Fat Free Shad/Fry/Fingerlings are probably my best producing in that range, but the DT series have also served me well. My collection has grown quite a bit for that range, so hopefully I'll have some new favorites by the end of the year. Also, post frontal and in cool water, it's still really hard to beat the Shad Raps/Shallow Shad Raps.

d**n. I'm so sorry to hear that she's had to go through that. Back surgery is a nightmare enough on its own. A bacterial infection on top of it just seems unbearable. Not even getting into the blood clot in her lungs, that is terrifying enough and enough to make a lot of people just want to quit. Your wife sounds like a remarkably tough cookie.

At least this is the everything else forum. If that happens, without a weird delay, that sounds kind of awesome. Monitors in different clubs can be really inconsistent, and a bad sound guy can make playing miserable as it is. I miss playing live. I do not miss trying to fix sound issues/not being able to hear what I need to hear.