Cgolf

I am curious why folks go this route, what is the advantage with light baits? My spinning setup with Neds that I use for fishing vertical cover like reeds, I even use a snap to ensure the lightweight bait falls straight down to the base of the reed I am targeting, a must on frontal bass. How do you keep these rigs from having the lightweight baits pendulum away from the cover because the natural drag on the baitcaster spool doesn't allow the line out freely like a spinning reel?

For me it’s a 1/4 ounce War eagle double willow (nickel and gold blades) with purple Shad skirt. I mostly fish spinnerbaits shallow so this gets the call. I have tried many brands and war eagles get the most bites. The Nichols 33 mini double willows are a solid bait as well and the Hummdingers are fairly close to the war eagles and are good for anglers on a budget. With the war eagles I had one pretty trashed on a couple of 18 “ smallies and bent it back each time and got a PB 21” smallie, I hit the smallie bite just right that day. The picture shows it after one fish, it was worse a couple of times. With the lighter wire spinnerbaits I just figure it’s part of the game.

I think this is why the darn ugly keeps em pinned, while not super sensitive it has a lot of backbone but has a lot give before it gets to the backbone. They are kind of crazy and smart too, as I have watched big girls rub their mouths on rocks trying to dislodge the bait. My river 20s have all come on Ned rigs, which I think are harder for them to toss or rub off. When you factor in the weight of the lure don’t forget that even Ned plastics add a fair amount of weight. I use a 1/16 oz head that I can toss a good ways on the ugly. Take that same jig tied as a wooly bugger jig fly I am lucky if I get 15 feet lol. If you are patient too with Memorial Day and the 4th coming up you may be able to get a rod listed over 200 for well under.

On your budget I have a Dobyns Sierra 6’9” medium light and a medium that I really like. I generally like a medium chasing river smallies because hooking a big girl or a big walleye on a medium light is a challenge in tight quarters. You may loose some distance casting lighter stuff though. I had a st croix medium light I liked for a while but it always felt the blank was flexing in the handle and would break orpop out, it was weird and that is the best I can explain it.

Honestly depending on the type of river you are fishing and bank or shore, I have been using a trustty 6’6” medium ugly stick and have caught tons of river smallies with that stick. I fish a rocky shallow stretch that I wouldn’t bring my pricier sticks too.

Got some 1/4 and 1/8 ounce mushroom head underspins to try out this year. Used to catch bass on roadrunners when fishing for panfish so have high hopes for these.

Picked up some more environmentally friendly jigs from Jades Jigs. The underspins look awesome. They have great customer service and worked with me to get all my jigs unpainted to save a few bucks since I lose more than a few jigs.

Second for Jades Jigs, they are reasonable and also made out of a tin bismuth alloy that is environmentally friendly. They do run a touch lighter due to that. I have had great luck with them and they have multiple styles one which is the gopher head design. I get mine unpainted to keep costs down since I fish snaggy waters. I actually have an order being delivered tonight which will appear on another thread as well:)

That makes more sense than what I did with the old Berkley scents. I would get a disposable coffee cup and put a little liquid scent in the bottom and dip the plastic in it. The holding it up like spray painting could make for a bad day if they forget to watch the wind direction. I think my first intro to scents was crappie nibbles back in the day and then a few more in between and once I found Atlas Mikes I was hooked on gels. I like putting a little gel inside a tube or crawbug, with the thought that when they bite down the get a shot of scent, which maybe tastes like the guts of the real thing. That one is probably over thinking it though.

If you can ever get your hands on the Knowing Bass book, it is pretty clear reading it that scent matters. Our library has a system that they can get us books from libraries not in their system. The book had a lot of good info and I am glad I got to read it, but don't think it is worth the price it is selling for. There is other good info in there too. Over time for plastics you may want to try a gel scent like liquid mayhem or megastrike, but I expect you will do well. I have found the gels to be less messy as well than the sprays or liquids like the old Berkley bottles. Fishing from shore though is easier since you don't have to worry about the deck carpet smelling like a crawfish.

So to prove it to yourself use it on a slow day when you have someone else in the boat. 1 uses it and the other doesn't, switch the person using it to take out personal retrieve differences, and compare results. When the fish are on a bite it doesn't matter because they will hit anything, it really shines on the slow days. Below is a separate comment that was merged. One thing I have found interesting with the new MaxScent baits, is I am sure there are many out there that say our scents we put on make zero difference, but are searching all over to find these scented baits, because well its that unique flat worm shape and not the scent;)

Let’s put it this way I had my father in law in the boat with me and I caught 5 or 6 in the first hour missing a couple and he never had a bite. Got him to try the scent I was using and within a few casts he had his first hits and not long after that his first fish. Foe those that say it was in his head or a confidence thing, well he was a skeptic till then. I have seen this play out enough to believe it works. Personally I use liquid mayhem, but there are also other gel scents out there like atlas mikes and megastrike. I had zero luck with pro cure, for some reason the smallies didn’t like it.

I end up putting my fair share on social media, but I include the I have a healthy fishery dinks as well. Zero camera trickery to make the fish look bigger as well. I do also post pictures of products I believe in as well regardless if I have a deal with them or not. I know living in WI our largies run small and the river system I fish I see a 20”+ smalllie once every 3 to 4 years, but the average fish runs 12 to 13 inches. Social media is just a lot of fun and I have had positive experiences with social media, but I know not all folks do.

I know folks catch a lot of fish on them but the provoke and shadow raps have far out produced the ReRange for me. Their little squad minnow has worked for me just little luck on the ReRange so far. I do hate the weight transfer system because I have to store rods on deck in vertical holders and I always think I have hit one with the jerkbait.

I tried on the BF sale, my card got hit. We used my wife’s card to do a last buy on Rage Menace plastics during the 25 days sale, using the randomly generated number her card got hit. For her card all other purchases were from locations she regularly uses, and unfortunately the credit card company didn’t tell us if it was her main card number or the number TW had. This was the first ever issue on any of our cards, and mine I have had for over 30 years. Other than the email that my card may have been compromised, TW never owned it or even commented on it. I may have placed my last order with them, at least for a long time. Honestly kind of bummed but life goes on.

Honestly I don’t give it a lot of thought anymore, but one that comes to mind is when I am on a square bill bite. Over a week on a vaca they were crushing the Xcalibur 200 SB that pushes a ton of water. Two cold fronts later I had to switch to a bandit 100 a SB with a much subtler action and the bite was on. Is that finesse no, but the lighter action of the bandit was a winner that day. The only finesse baits I fish are probably rigged on a true Ned head. Rarely fish a drop shot or other finesse techniques. Slider spider rigged plastics, normal plastics most fish with a bullet sinker and worm hook, are 3/16 and 1/4 ounce fished like a standard Texas rig. For me it’s a mentality not the bait, so I may not finesse fish ever, but I fish with either an aggressive or subtle retrieve depending on what the fish want. Based on other convos on here a subtle retrieve with a bigger and heavier bait isn’t finesse fishing. After all the rules with what is and isn’t a Ned rig, I gave up trying to say I am using this specific method to catch a fish, rules make it too difficult. I just want to catch them however I can. If it is a Ned bait on a 1/4 ounce mushroom head due to wind and waves making lighter jigs impossible to fish so be it.

Yup it’s called buying way to much crap over 20 years lol. Thankfully due to a small boat my rod and reel collection is rather small. With 2 in the boat I max out at space for 7 combos. Heck I fish 90+ days on either the river or lake and I still don’t lose stuff. With plastics I fish them till they just about fall off the hook, not a good way to get rid of baits. Or buying a couple hundred Producto tourney grubs for Ned rigging that work great but last like Z man stuff for me. Will take a while to use those up.

We don’t have grass on the lakes I fish but I fish them shallow all the way out to the inside weedline in 10-14 fow. I generally am a straight in retrieve with a pause added in once in a while, but will do what is needed to get bit. Even fish them in and around reed beds. The best rod I have is a MH moderate st Croix premier, and I have tried many others. Baits 1/2 ounce red eye Shad and the 6th sense quake series in the 70 and 80 sizes are my firs5 choices. The 6th sense suspending quake showed a lot of promise last year and will see the water more this year.

I have fished a bandit 100 in reed beds and it was just as awesome as on the river and writing that I can’t figure out why I don’t use it more often. I bought a buddy a bandit 200 for watching our cats and it is one his best baits. For me to remember what the heck I have. I am ashamed to say how many I have lol. Plastics I have like 15 4700 double decker boxes and having a way to quickly find the bait I want helps a lot. My problem is sales, I overbuy sometimes on unproven baits for me. Auctions to, as I got a great deal on like 50 vintage raps. Yup winter and not being able to fish really sucks.

I am with MN Fisher on this is a winter project when even the rivers are froze up. Definetly not a summer project unless I could fit it into break or lunch at work. I wish I didn't have so much stuff, but 20+ years of that darn monkey means I have a stash. Crankbaits in particular add up because generally I don't lose that many compared to plastics which I also have a lot I have acumalated too. I numbered my plastic boxes and the spreadsheet has the box number listed. This has save me a lot of time when looking for a particular bait.

A small screenshot of my topwaters

Wow that is a lot more detail than I have, but glad I am not the only one. I kind of like this idea, but right now I need a field for baits I still need to try. I know topwaters work for some, but realistically if I got rid of all mine my catch rate would go up because I am not wasting time with them.

Recently I commented to my wife that I wasn't sure if I had a certain crank bait and she suggested I put a spreadsheet of all of them seperated by brand, type, color, and number I have. Thankfully she didn't enter them like she wanted to, because I have way more than I thought and some that I forgot about. So yeh it is I am emberrased by how many cranks I have, but the list will help me figure out what baits I can put together my father in law and what baits I might be able to get rid of. I will also try a few more baits this year I forgot I had! I really don't think that I suggest doing this even if it was ultimately helpful to me. It did probably shut down the crank bait monkey for a while.

Nope, I always watch the bait coming back to the boat and dial in how fast I reel to get the bait moving at the speed I want. I do have a couple of higher speed reels I paired with my lipless and spinnerbait rods. Then I found an old Black Max 3600 at an estate sale and put it on my lipless rod and it balanced perfectly and that turned out to be one sweet reel, my new favorite in fact. So my lipless rod went from my fastest reel to my slowest lol and I couldn’t be happier.

It came out of WI so of course it’s backwards lol. Seriously though I believe a version of this was produced and sold under the uncle josh umbrella of companies. I tried it and caught some fish. Probably did the best using a bell sinker with a tube. Ultimately I quit using it because I caught more fish using other methods.