Glaucus

Yeah, I'm still going with the old boot. It's free and more enjoyable.

The water is muddy and moves so I got some 1/10oz heads and Junebug color in the 2.5in size. We don't see monster bass. Went with what I thought would be light enough and yet heavy enough, small enough, not huge, and a color good for the water.

So, I'm getting more into the river SMB scene rather than being exclusively a pond and lake LMB guy. I mostly throw Topwaters and small Spinnerbaits. I inquired about inline spinners. Now the Ned Rig... is a 1/10oz head enough to keep bottom contact in a moderately fast flowing river? I'm not fishing in white water rapids, but it also isn't still. The river just moves as a river does. Do I need to get some 1/5oz heads? The river also isn't big.

At Wally World, it's usually Abu Garcia _____ Max reels. Those aren't causing him to backlash. He's causing him to backlash. Unless he's getting something else that's completely horrible.

Deer carcass.

Nothing a good boot can't fix.

Good stuff, everyone! The 3 outfits I use 90% of the time are: 6'6" Lightning Shock Rod (Casting - MH/F) paired with an Abu Garcia Silver Max. 6'6" Lightning Rod [Original] (Casting - M/F) paired with an Abu Garcia Black Max. 6'6" Abu Garcia Vengeance Rod (Spinning - M/F) paired with an Abu Garcia Cardinal SX20. Nothing fancy. I really like Lightning rods and Abu Garcia as a company. Gets the job done just fine, and for a good price.

Ponds: Wacky Rigged 5" Senko in Green Pumpkin with Black Flake, followed by a Texas Rigged Original Trick Worm in Watermelon with Red Flake weighted with a 1/16oz bullet weight. Rivers: Lil' Mr. Money 3/16oz Strike King Spinnerbait, followed by the Whopper Plopper 90 and 110 in Bone. That little Spinnerbait always does me well, and it also landed me my PB LMB, weighing in at 7lbs.

I'm in Central Illinois. Our river doesn't see monster SMB, but they can be big. Our river also doesn't have a ton of heavy cover, but it does have some cover. We have a lot of wood and rocks, though, and getting snagged is to be expected as much as any other river. It's also not extremely deep. 4-8 feet usually, with a lot of 3 feet and less areas, and some areas upwards of 12 to 15 feet deep. Pike and Muskie isn't a problem, not that I would truly consider them a problem. I decided on a 6'6" M/F spinning outfit with 8lb mono and 8lb fluoro leader. I picked up a bunch of 1/4oz Rooster Tails in white with a silver blade as well as Fire Tiger. Wish me luck!

Kinda want the glove for battle effects now

I would take one for the team and commit a domestic with Mother Nature right now. Just saying.

I'm getting more and more into the River Smallies scene, whereas I've almost always been exclusively a pond and lake LMB guy. Inline Spinners are something I want to do more of. So, what equipment and what size spinners? Does a ML/F spinning setup with 6lb line sound good? And what size spinners for both numbers and quality?

What about Bama Bass and his pet bass and bluegill???

Yep, that's the one. Really like it for putting a quick Senko right where I want it.

I didn't put much into my spincast setup. It's a Berkley Cherry Rod and a New Zebco 33 Platinum. Good enough for what it's used for. The New 33s are pretty well made and durable. For what it's used for I wasn't going to go all out, but it is a quality setup. Something like $55. I've just recently gotten into Kayaking so I am considering getting all of these setups for that purpose at 6 inches shorter each.

Here in Illinois, we don't have a lot of monster bass, and I don't fish too heavy of cover, so my 5 favorite setups in which I find I can do everything I want to do are adjusted accordingly. I don't use frogs or braid. I prefer 6'6" rods over 7'+ rods. I feel like I have more accuracy and control, and it feels more natural to me. I'm an average 5'11" 185lb guy, so I'm not really sure why 7' rods feel so off putting to me. Baitcast: 7' MH/F, 17lb Mono: Used for everything from Jigs to the Texas Rig to the Whopper Plopper. FC leader when appropriate. 6'6" MH/F, 14lb FC: Spinnerbaits and Chatterbaits, mostly. Certain Topwaters. 6'6" M/F, 12lb FC: Crankbaits, Lipless Crankbaits, Jerkbaits, mostly. Certain Topwaters. Spinning: 6'6" M/F, 8lb Mono: Used mostly for Smallies, downsized baits, and finesse baits. Certain Topwaters. FC leader when appropriate. SpinCAST!!!: Here's a weird one. I like having a spincast setup. I only use it for Senkos. It allows me to do a lot of cool, ultra accurate, super controlled stuff. And as I said, the cover I fish isn't considered very heavy (usually) and we don't have very many monsters, so I never run into trouble. 6'6" M/F, 10lb FC.

Thing is, I almost brought some bass gear, but I didn't want to be rude, since he was the host and enjoys the cats. Would've been happy to just have had a Whopper Plopper with me, to take a few shots.

I never fish for catfish, so my boss invited me to go fishing for catfish with him yesterday. It was a great time. But. And but... I saw a bunch of smallies smashing the top, and it grieved my soul. I felt like I was drinking Bud Light when I could have been drinking Bell's Two Hearted Ale. All fine and well, of course, but a man has preferences... Tis the season for us in the North!

Cringe.

Illinois here. I'm going out for what looks to be my last fishing trip of 2017. We've had warm 50-60 degree temperatures for about a week or more now. I'll be starting with a slow rolled finesse spinnerbait, and a quarter ounce lipless crankbait. After that I'll be moving to 7 inch ribbon tail worms with a quarter ounce bullet weight, as well as 4 and 5 inch weightless Senkos. Hopefully it's gonna be a good one...

I've gone ultra finesse and ultra slow, especially with jerkbaits and shaky/Ned/drop shot, on light fluorocarbon, and it's been dead for 3 weeks. I'm not sure how else I can adapt to the conditions.

I'm a northerner. As such, does there come a point where the bite is just "over with" until the spring? The water isn't hard yet, but it's been 3 weeks and I haven't had so much as a sniff. I have tried: Senkos (Texas and Wacky, weighted and weightless), jerkbaits, lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits and inline spinners, Texas Rigged worms and lizards, jigs and tubes, shaky head, Ned Rig, and drop shot. I fish a half dozen ponds from shore and it's been the same at each one of them. I fish almost daily, at various times of day. This is the first time I have ever tried bass fishing past the month of October. So far, terrible! I have tried various rates of speed, all the way down to ultra slow, and when I thought I was going ultra slow, I slowed down even more. I have gone down to the lightest line I can get away with and in straight fluorocarbon. I'm not sure there's anything else to do?

1. 5" Green Pumpkin/Black Senko, Texas Rigged weightless (end of summer) 2. 3/16oz Strike King Spinnerbait (beginning of spring) 3. Green Pumpkin/Black Zoom Original Trick Worm, Texas Rigged weightless (dead of summer) 4. 3/8oz Strike King Spinnerbait (beginning of fall) 5. 1/2oz Gizzard Shad Rat-L-Trap (middle of fall) HM: 4" Watermelon/Black Senko, Wacky Rigged