Dreadhead47

Highly recommend a Thermacell! It truly works maybe even better than bug spray .

In my river and creek fishing experiences here and Ohio I've found smallmouth tolerate current much better than largemouth. I've found smallmouth sitting right in the middle of ripples, or right below waiting for food. I have never caught a largemouth in faster moving water, or even in small eddies or slack next to it. For me I find largemouth to be sitting on or right behind heavy cover in large slack areas or just slower moving water areas. Due to current the fish regardless of species are usually right up against cover like logs, trees, or rocks. I find it most productive to cast upstream and bring the bait with the current as close to the cover as possible.

I think the 5 inch is the best all around length. The 4 and 6 inchers have produced better for me depending on the situation, however 80 % of the time, I stick with the 5 inch.

That's definitely in my price range, thanks for the suggestion!

I am looking to get into swimbaits, nothing huge, maybe baits up to 2 oz. I purchased a BBZ 1 shad and a gantarel jr just as a starting point but found my 7'6" MH rod feels a little "stressed" with the gantarel jr. So my question is what would be some good rod choices to start with. Also any specific reel and line?

Are they worth $25? not for me, but they are worth $20 or less any day. I'm always on the lookout for them being on sale, especially if you can find a 2 for 1. Seriously though they are worth the $25 in my opinion. Personally I think the 110's are perfect, their action, the way they suspend, the paint, everything. I've used LC pointers and x-raps which have caught me fish, but smallies especially, seem to smash the 110's more so.

Plasma tail!

Personally I think they work so well is because the cover a lot of water, and can be fished in various depths depending on retrieve speed. They are pretty weedless, and mimic a shad very well. Also another big plus is the flash and vibration they put off. A lot of places during pre-spawn experience rising muddy waters, which is where that extra flash really shines.

I have a Jackson Coosa HD, its pretty wide and very stable , which allows me to stand up and fish from it. I would suggest getting a larger kayak with a wider base just to feel more comfortable and add much more stability. So I would suggest checking out a Jackson Big Rig, or a Hobie pro Angler. I'm not sure what your budget is but Hobies are very expensive, however they are very wide, spacious, and are pedal propelled. A pro anglers weight capacity is 500lbs. Big Rigs run about $1,700 brand new but I'm sure you could find a pre-owned for around $1k. I think the weight capacity is around 450 lbs. I fish with some bigger guys who have Big rigs and they say it works perfect for them. If you're on a budget you might check out Ascend kayaks. I don't have much knowledge on them, other than they are supposedly pretty stable and are cheaper for a wide 'stand-up kayak'. The weight capacity on them are 350lbs. If you are on a budget I would suggest searching through kayak fishing forums for used kayaks, and maybe even Craigslist. If you live near a kayak/canoe dealership, they may have used demos for sale, which is how I bought mine. They may also be able to direct you to someone looking to sell their kayak.Demos are basically brand new, with a few hundred bucks shaved off. I hoped this will help you out on your search! Jackson Big Rig Hobie Pro Angler Ascend

This year I learned a lot about crankbait and jerkbait presentation. For soft plastics, I learned to slow down and adjust bait size till I find what work that day, rather than throwing the same bait all day and basically burning it back. I Have always resisted fishing deep and I feel I made good progress this year. On to equipment. I learned spooling my spinning reel with braid and using a leader is a whole lot easier to work with. Micro guides are terrible when faced with cottonwood(I think it's called), and during winter. Most important thing I've learned is to periodically check my line for any abrasion. I Learned that the hard way, several times this year.

Personally I use a bump board because I fish from a kayak. I always carry a scale in my bag, to get the weight of any fish over 20 inches, or if they are abnormally fat. I started out just using a digital scale, and now I predominantly use a bump board to measure length.

The only smallies I've caught on hard baits, were caught with a megabass 110 jr.

Texas rigged Rage Craw, with a 3/8 oz. tungsten weight, and punch skirt. The most versatile bait I've ever used.

Has anyone used this swim bait? I'm aware there is a paddle tail model, and a curly tail model, and would like to try them out, but I'd like a little feedback on them before pulling the trigger.

If you have a PC open up the start menu at the bottom right corner, and type in google earth, and it should bring it up. If you have windows 10 on your PC I believe you'd still look at the bottom right corner, and type it in where it says "Ask Cortana. Ask me anything." Now if you have a mac, you'll want to open up finder and use the search bar after selecting downloads. Not sure which one of those you use, but that should generally cover all of them. I may be slightly off about windows 10 because I have a mac, but I'm about 90% sure about it. haha Hope this helps some more!