fishwizzard

I have been out of town for work the last 10 days and I'm going stir crazy. Tomorrow I pick up a new rod and hit the canal hard in the next two weeks. I am going to try and take my kayak to wide water. Has anyone been there recently? I am wondering about the water level, the launch spot there isn't awesome looking when it is low.

They are great. I fish them on a 1/16oz-2/0 Keitech shakey head jig and have very good luck. They also work great weightless fished like a fluke. They are pretty fragile though, and panfish seem obsessed with biting their tails off.

Keitech recommends a 4/0. I was doubtful at first, but a 2/0 ended up working very well on the 3.8" ones I fish the most

I gave up on bank fishing this summer and just wade for smallmouths in smaller rivers. It makes the heat more bearable and on light taclke even a 9" smallie is a blast to carch.

I splashed some Gulp juice in my mouth once. It was so bad that I hiked back to my car and drove to buy a toothbrush and paste. Even then I swear it lingered for a day.

I pinch the barbs down on all my perch and panfish lures to make it easer to unhook them. I have started doing the same on my MWF jigs as my catch rate is sometimes high enough that the barbs slow me down. Most of my larger presentations I leave the barb on as larger lures and hooks seem to be easier to get out of the fish.

I fish mix of hollow bodied frogs and plastic frogs. The hollow ones get more hits, but less hookups, the plastic ones get less hits, but I get far better hookups. My solution is to just river fish for smallies until the weeds die off. But really, I think my issue is using too light of a rod, but sometimes I swear I get two or three good pulls in only to have the fish spit it. I am starting to wonder how many of my hits are from snapping turtles instead of bass. The main pond I frog in is full of them and I landed a monster of a snapper there last year.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019X0EID2/ref=twister_B009ZNI49C?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 Just a basic duffle bag, they are very well made and a good value at $30, but if you check weekly there is almost always some color on sale for $10-12, at which point they are absolute steals. I must have five of them at this point, keep my waders/gear in one, my cold weather kayaking gear, in one, a third for the emergency kit in my car. I am on a work trip right know and have one with me ull of tackle. I can get maybe 4-5 Plano 3600 series bags in the main compartment with room to spare for a few smaller boxes and my reel. Each side pocket will hold maybe 15ish bags of plastics, more if you really pack them in.

Right by the trail at Savage Mill. I drove up to the parked and fished up there a while as well. Saw some very nice fish in some of the deeper pools, but only caught a few smaller ones. It's a great area, but there is a lot of very skinny water between the pools.

Hit the Little Pax today to test out the new Z-man finesse tubes. Got one decent fish and maybe 2 more like the second one. I also got two or three large redbreasts, they are impressive fighters when they get above hand sized. I also saw, swimming long like 4-5' from me, a 15-20" snakehead, the first one I have ever seen up-close and in clear water. I will admit to a moment of panic before I realized what it was. I froze up and counted a very slow 200, then did a little underarm cast to where it was patrolling. Nothing. I saw it again maybe 5 min later, and I just fast-balled the lure right at it. Nothing, again. Now I really, really want to catch one.

Hah, I had forgot about them until I saw this post. I have been out a few times to some productive waters too. I have moved them to the top of my lure-mountain, so I will report back next time I get out.

If all goes well I will give them a little test tomorrow.

Yea, the ribbon tails were a good score. Outlet Bait has them super super cheap right now. I really should order more. Otherwise you can still find the SK equivalent on ebay.

Something Old: Something New: Excited as hell to try both!

OP, bank fishing in central MD is awful right now, anywhere that isnt pressured is going to be overgrown with thorns and swarming with ticks. Get yourself to the upper Patapsco River and wade for some (small) Smallmouths. Use a Ned/MFW stlye lures, or a small tube. If you hit an uncrowded section and can find some shaded pools, it would be hard not to catch atleast a few.

I refused to believe that the #4-6 hooks would hold a larger fish until I tried them. Now the only reason I go larger is to 1: Reduce bycatch of tiny panfish that swarm the lure and 2: Need to make the rig weedless.

Hah, yea, I am not looking to drop that much. I am about to pick up a new rod for senkos and light t-rigs, so I do need some 1/8-1/4oz weights.....

Where does one buy tungsten weights in bulk?

Nice work. I really need to hit the canal asap, but this heat is making me a big sissy. Going to try and get up at 6am tomorrow to hit two local spots and do some pad punching from shore, hopefully the somewhat cooler temps will get them to bite.

I recently picked up a few packs of the Keitech 1/16oz by 1/0 shakeyhead jigs. I have been fishing them with 4.5" Plasama tails in neon colors and 4" Reins Bubbeling shakers in natural ones. Very impressed with both. The Plasma is very durable but still has great action, but I have to skin hook them on their sides to get consistant hooksets. The tail section, cut down to 2-3" and rigged kn a jighead, makes an amazing panfish lure as well. The Riens worm is amazing as well, super soft amd when they soak up some water they literaly feel like a minnow in the hand. Durability is only "ok", with one lasting between 2-4 fish. Going to try and presoak some in Gulp Juice, I think this will be killer.

Owner Ultrahead finesse jigs in 1/16oz/#1 are the best common jigs I have found, Decoy Nail Bomb in the same size seem to hold the plastic better but I can only find them on eBay. they both have a slightly worse hookup ratio then a small jig, but they are better in that you don't get as many tiny panfish as by catch.

Woud a bass even survive being pulled up from that deep?

I usually like to fish upstream, then walk on the bank on the way back, stopping to hit any hot spots I had found. Spinners and micro cranks are good ideas, I fish them both for perch but never think to use them for bass. The spot I do most of my SM fishing is so productive with a Ned rig or other small plastics, I got into a mental rut I guess. The picture is deceptive, the stream was badly erroded for decades so the banks are still super steep. The riffles average 6-12" and the pools are up to 3-4'. I turned around that day when I hit a run that would have been above my waist. I have caught decent numbers of small SMs maybe 2 miles down stream of this spot, but the non-restored areas are tough to fish with pools that are crazy deep.

Yea, that is what I first used them for, but I realized they work great as a substitute for small spinnerbaits in a lot of the ponds that I fish, but they cast better and I can slow roll them more eaisly. But the 1/16oz Zman ones seem to be about 50/50 on actualy "chattering". Is there a way to tune them?

Have you tried the 4" zman finesse worms? They should slip through the weeds well and a 1/16oz worm weight should be a perfect fit to keep the rig streamlined and snag free. My only issue with the finesse worms is that small sunfish give them no peace, I have landed 3-4" bulegills that were not even hooked, they just would not drop the lure.