Ksam1234

Sooo I have been going out as much as I can 2-3 times a week but haven’t had many good results. Been catching lots of small ones but nothing picture worthy. Finslly decided to try something new since I was getting lots of bites and finally caught my first frog fish!! I wanna keep learning how to use this and when but it was super exciting to watch them hammer it.. and seeing how we had overcast skies I brought out the buzzbait , I saw it to under , no huge explosion no big vacuum just a little tug. I thought it was a dink so I set the hook and started to reel.. well it wasn’t no dink! Drag started pulling and I finally got a decent fish little under 5 pounds but very pretty fish

Congratulations I remember my first time getting a decent sized bass, I was forever addicted after that. Keep it up man

Yeah sometimes im not paying attention and the keyboard on my phone is tiny and I fat finger it.. guess I should read before posting oops ?

Sorry .. hello and welcome , this is such a great place to learn and nice fish.

In the area that I fish the splash is usually a good thing. The water is very muddy usually and the splash held the fish know where my lure is, also I can’t even count how many times I casted and the lure made a splash and as soon as it made that impact the fish would bite it out of reaction. So I like a little splash

Hell and welcome ! Such a great place and nice fish!

Should of thought of google lol. My mind went straight to BR

We had the same thing happen here in western NY. I live right on Lake Erie and we had ice until mid April and the air temps went from 40 degrees to 75-80 in a week. We caught tons of smallmouth that moved in and it usually lasts until mid June but it last only about 2-3 weeks and we didn’t see any beds in that time and they have already left. There is a few straggler smallies and we see some maybe a bed here or there but nothing like normal. We have had a lot of guys come from Virginia and West Virginia who were disappointed bc they came all the way for nothing .. wonder what happened

So I just started trying tubes a couple weeks ago and I have been using the tube head jigs to go inside the tube itself with the line tie comming out. My question is that is the line tie supposed to come out the side of the tube? Or the tip or top of the tube or I guess the head. i Asked someone at cabelas how to rig it and he said to take the tube and wet it, stick the jig head threw the back of the tube as far as it will go, hook is sticking out the back of the tube exposed so it gets better hookups. But it looks weird bc the line tie comes out the side of the tube instead of the tip or head of the tube.

Sadly I went out last night and as soon as I got to the lake it started thundering and lightning.. sooo I’ll go tonight Instead and try and go out

I fish from a kayak and this has happened a lot recently but 1. When I’m in my kayak and everyone around me has a bass boat so they make fun of me and say I need a bigger boat but then I out fish them ? and 2. After they all see me catching fish all the bass boats hurry over and start casting lines where I am and everyone is in the same spot with no respect for me

I wasn’t going to use just that I just was hoping I could finally get a topwater bite. I have some soft plastics ready to use though along with some spinnerbaits etc. just wondered if topwater could be a choice during this time

So there is this small lake near me about 25 minutes away , it’s 45 acres called new Albion. The water has been in the lower 60s the past few weeks like 60-62 degrees. Now I haven’t been there at all this week and the air temps have been between 75-82 during the day and 60 during the night. I was thinking about making a night trip tonight and see if they are eating top water. Or just hungry in general. Max depth is 15 ft , lots of weeds for them to hang out in shallow and figured today’s high was 82 and tonight’s low is about 66 .. anyone think it’s worth the trip or if the bass would eat topwater .. would be nice to have my first explosion this year

I don’t think I have ever seen you with anything under 5 lbs lol, your just the hawg magnet!! Awesome catch

awsome thank you and thanks everyone for the help. Can’t wwit to get my first on a tube DO they not sell those anymore ? Those look awesome to use also? I would love to try multiple ways to see what works best for me

Awesome thank you that’s great help!

I plan to use 3.5-4.5 inch tubes ether T rigged with a small bullet weight or was going to use the 3.5-4.5 inch with the lead head inside jig head kind of like Hanks showed on his video with the hook comming out. Just wasn’t sure what size hook etc. I saw some 1/8 and 3/16 weight but the hook looks tiny and the line tie doesn’t come out the tip of the tube. More of out the top about 1/4 inch from the tip

They do make some hooks that help that called circle hooks. Also what sofla said , waiting to long to set the hook can cause them to be gut hooked. Try keeping your fingers on the line to detect any subtle bite a fish might do

So I been catching smallies on jerkbaits and wacky senkos but it seems like it’s getting a little slower on the bite. I have read and read that smallies love tubes so I figured I would give it a shot. I saw most people would T rig them or use a jig head insert of like 3/16-1/8 weight. I fish mostly shallow waters of 2-10’ft. I’m wondering what is a good tube jig head insert as far as company or size etc? I looked for this but couldn’t find anything specifically mentioning this (sorry if I missed it). I’m fishing mainly for Lake Erie smallies in the harbor where I’m from. Or what is a good hook to T rig a tube. I tried a 3/0 EWG but it seems like there is still not enough room for good hookset. I think they make a tube hook but unsure. Thanks for any advice in advance

YEah that’s exactly what I meant and should have clarified, I don’t ever let slack back in I just sometimes give it that extra “pump” when the rod already has a load on it. I don’t ever release that tension

Yeah sometimes I think I just worry it wasn’t good enough and I give it a little tug to make sure. Guess I should just set as good as possible once and not worry after that ?

So I’m wondering if anyone else does this and maybe I should stop doing it if it’s bad .. sometimes if I retrieving a spinnerbait or even using a swimjig or soft plastic or any bsit the bass just bite down hard and start pulling and I don’t get a good hookset like I want so I’ll try and hookset again just to make sure it’s in there good .. is this bad thing to do? Or anyone else do this

Was wondering if you could delete a topic once you posted it?

I use the cavitron and love it! Usually use black with red blade or I use black and blue clacker and they work amazing, tried few others but these produce the most and biggest for me. Pretty much straight retrieve only thing I change up is speed, burn super fast or just enough to keep it above water. I also fish super early mornings vs nights with it. I usually get on the water around 5 am in the summer and just nail them till the sun is fully up

Yeah I’m going to stick with it bc he is s good friend and we always have a good laugh. Just want him to enjoy it like I do I guess but not everyone is into fishing that much. Was talking todsy about some baits etc and he got excited so I know he enjoys it. Sometimes people take little more Time. If I wanna go and catch fish I’ll go alone but if I wanna just enjoy the day I’ll bring friend. I use the time on the water to reflect a lot also. On troubles of the real life and fishing helps bring those into focus