Turkey sandwich

On much of the Susquehanna, I find that water levels and a different migration pattern really come into play. Unlike a lot of upper Midwest rivers or the Tennessee River, it doesn't flow into a whole lot of reservoirs or lakes until it gets nearly to the Chesapeake. Because of this, even in winter, fish will still sit along current breaks (points and bridge pilings are excellent) so long as there is protection from the current and access to deeper water. In between (fall), the trickiest part for me is just figuring out a pattern, which I find is mostly dependent on water level and bait fish. If water is rising, smallmouth move away from fast current and to the shore and feed voraciously - spinnerbaits, chatter baits, and lipless rattling cranks are money. If the levels are low and current slow, they can be following bait anywhere, and it can be way more tricky. For example, I was out 2 weeks ago with crazy low water levels and water temps from 55-60. I was seeing fish, but could hardly buy bites in shallow, fast runs and tail outs (3 weeks earlier I could have caught 20-50 fish on this pattern). Instead, they were holding in slow current (back bays/oxbows even) near matted vegetation ambushing bait and smashing schools of perch over deep, open water with little current. X-Raps and Shadow Raps saved my day. My biggest came right after dusk fishing a chatter bait with a 4.3" swimbait trailer near bridge pilings at a tail out/ledge. It took 3/4 of the day to find active fish, but an 18" smallie that thinks she's a 5lber smashing a chatter bait you can barely see makes it totally worthwhile.

For rocks and particular nasty stuff, I use Hybrid and it's never let me down. The stuff is tough. Ridiculously tough.

Good luck with e back surgery! Thanks to a car accident in 2013, I was left with 7 bulging/herniated discs. I finally caved last year and had L5-S1 fused. It is not a fun surgery or recovery (read: it absolutely sucks), but a year later and lots of PT and aggressive weight training and I'm genuinely starting to feel good again. Good luck with surgery, trust your surgeon, and get up and moving around as soon as possible.

I live in the city and drive a ton for work, so having a truck is out. I have a Lure 13.5 that definitely requires two people to get on my A4's roof. While it's a great big stable boat, it is one heavy/awkward beast to lift. I have Thule Aerobars and the foldable cradle system. Torquing it down stable sometimes temporarily deforms the kayak where it's tightened to the cradle, but it straightens itself out almost instantly once it's removed. Once I can get out of Philly, a trailer is definitely in order.

They're awesome and can be really versatile. The original is great with little to no weight, like mentioned above, when you need to be a bit more finesse/slow, but still want a bigger bait. It's also a good all around T-Rig or C-rig worm.

All of the above. Also, Helsinki Shad/Sexy Shad/Chartreuse sexy Shad makes a great color scheme for mimicking alewives, especially if there's a little color to the water.

An X-Rap and a Shadow rap basically saved my day on the water yesterday. Every year I all but swear off jerkbait fishing, and then I have a day or two where they're all that really produce. i've never fished the Lucky Craft or Megabass, so I can't provide any feedback. What I can tell you is that jerkbaits aren't typically my first choice of lures and I'm not nearly as good with them as I am with a jig or crankbait, and sometimes X-Raps are enough to make me look good.

I've tried 20lb and lighter braid on casting gear, only to end up very frustrated with backlashes due to the line digging into the spool. I was using SS Powerpro, and looking back, the coating on the line may have contributed to my problems, but the results were so dramatically negative when compared to 30lb 832 that I never considered going back. The reel I spooled was a Lews Speed Spool BB1 with the theory being that the thinner diameter would improve my cranking. No such luck. To me, 20lb and lighter braid makes spinning reels a dream, while 30lb braid does essentially the same for casting gear. Whatever you decide, good luck, and post the results. I'm curious if it's worth me revisiting or if I'm better of spending the money on whisky and cigars.

Those are some great smallies! And if you had a 25lb bag, you definitely had some giants. (Although that 7lb monster is a tank)

Congrats, dude! That is a MONSTER.

Great video, Glenn! This covers most of the basics and some great strategies.

The Fat Rap is one of my favorite Crankbaits and luckily I still have a few. I have DT6s that have produced reasonably well, also. I also have quite a few of the older Fat Free Shad/fry/fingerling line that still produce well for me.

I don't know any lakes in Montana, but for me, success fishing for smallies in the fall is mostly about figuring out the baitfish. Craws, darters, sculpin, etc imitations can all work, but in my experience, smallies tend to feed more on larger, schooling forage this time of year. Perch, trout, alewives, and shad tend to be better patterns for me. Still, it's rare that I don't have at least one rod with a tube tied on.

They're getting fat. What's the forage, and do you have lake maps?

On a spinning reel, I don't like going heavier than 20lb braid. 10-20lb braid casts a mile on spinning gear. I run 30lb braid on most of my casting gear and will tie to as light as 8lb leaders regularly using Uni to Uni. Unless the diameters are WAY off, the Uni to Uni works well. For diameters that are too far off for the Uni to Uni, I like blood knots, but can't tie them nearly as fast, though the toothpick trick does help.

I don't know if I've ever fished a hurricane system, but my two cents... Get on the water before the storm. Outside of it being obviously dangerous, I can't imagine conditions being great after. Water will likely be way up, the charity will likely be more chocolate milk than gin, and the post frontal conditions seem like a nightmare.

The above posts cover the basics. Your build, the type of water you're fishing, your style of fishing, how you plan on transporting the kayak, and your budget will all influence which boats are best suited for you. Some boats offer pedal drives, electric motors, sonar pods, rudder systems, and many now have adjustable seats. Boat hulls can also have a huge impact on comfort, stability, and performance. Wide boats are stable, but slower. Short boats tend to be more nimble. Long, narrow boats tend to be faster and easier to push through choppy waves and surf. These tend to be general rules, and as all general rules, they have exceptions. Most fishing kayaks are now 32-36" wide and in calm water can be stable enough to stand on, but some are much, much more stable than others. Paddle as many as you can - the wrong boat for the water you fish can be a total pain in the ass on the water. Once you settle on a boat, a quality paddle and a comfy PFD are a good start. A lighter paddle with a length suitable for the width of your boat and how high you'll be sitting above the water is important for reducing fatigue (generally, for bigger folks and/or wider boats, longer paddles 240cm and up are popular) and a PFD light/comfortable enough to be worn while fishing and paddling is important. There are specific kayak oriented angling PFDs and self inflating PFDs that both work well for fishing in the kayak. Comfort is important, because you should be wearing it most of the time, if not all of the time on the water. I have a self inflating PFD and it's great, but keep in mind it'll require refills after discharge. You can go nuts on accessories, but covering basics like a crate with rod holders, rudder (if necessary), and basic anchor trolley system are a good start (anchoring or tieing off in current can be dangerous/tricky and is a separate conversation on its own). After that, it's up to you. Kayaks are super customizable with things like sonars, power poles, electric motors, drift socks, rod leashes, etc. What kind of water do you fish? How will you transport the boat?

(As I'm learning), fishing streamers often doesn't require a long 7-9' leader plus tippet. 4-5' seems like the happy place (again, at least for me) when casting streamers.

The Clouser Minnow is killer for virtually any game species and was actually designed on the Susquehanna for smallmouth. Just change the size and you can fish them for anything from trout to bass, to musky, to bonefish. a Clouser, stripped just under the surface when bass are feeding up is deadly.

Welcome to a sport that can drive you nuts. Part of seasonal fishing is understanding seasonal patterns. A big part of that is understanding your local forage. If your lakes support batfish (you mention shad), finding schools and knowing how to fish them is huge in the fall. I don't have shad on most bodies of water I fish, but I do have alewives and lots of other batfish species. These fish are going to be larger in the fall than any other time of year. My success has always been (very much the opposite of above advice, and I think the general consensus would agree) that larger baits are much, much more effective at replicating forage. Throw bigger cranks, jerkbaits, flukes, swim jigs (4-6" trailers), etc. Typically, by late summer and early fall, I'm already throwing larger baitfish and crayfish imitations because in most waters the forage has already grown considerably and something like a keel weighted 5-7" fluke "dieing" looks like a more efficient dinner option than chasing 4-6" baitfish that are still full of life. The thing is, once you find feeding schools, by keeping a variety of similar baits on deck and ready to throw, you can reactivate fish and keep bites going for a long time. A good start would be a swim jig, spinnerbait, jerkbait, and fluke matching the forage. You seem to have figured out more than most in one season. Stay patient and do your homework on fall patterns and it may become your favorite season.

I like different tubes with different sizes and profiles, but generally keep coming back to Strike King's Coffee Tubes. They're not that expensive, even when I go through a pack a day. How are you rigging them that you're going through so many? Part of the beauty of a tube is that if one side gets shredded up, you just turn it 90 degrees and rig it up again.

Welcome to the forum! This exact question was posted 2-3 days ago. Check the search feature.

I wasn't sure whether this thread was going to be of delicious or Allman Brothers varieties. I've heard Chicken of the Woods is delicious.

Welcome to the forum!

That's a hog!