Mbirdsley

Those mega bass Deep six and deep-x 300 cranks are worth every penny of thier price. Mega bass natural patterns can’t be beat in clear water. They work just as well in warmer water as cooler water. I have also come to appreciate the Norman DD series over the last summer. they are affordable and they work. those Damikies look good too. I might have to get some of those soon

I always use a net to land fish. I’m not a fan of flipping fish into the boat. Also, I’d rather let them flip around in the net while I’m holding it rather than they beat them selves up on the boat deck. I recently upgraded my landing net from the cheap Walmart nylon webbed model to a EGO rubber net. the Walmart net was fine other than trebles getting caught In the nylon. I love the EGO net but, I ordered a size too small. I should have went a size bigger with the handle and the basket. The one I have now would be good for a kayak. I need to get a bigger one this summer.

Last summer I did well on Carolina rig in Michigan and never went heavier than 3/8. I’m 3/8 tungsten 3/8 worm sinker, braid to bead, swivel, to 14 lbs mono, and either 3/0 or 4/0 hook I had tried to use it before but, heavier 3/4-1oz weights and all I did was just dredge up a gob of weeds. Seems like all the stuff that I would read on the internet keeps saying use the heavier weight.

Beginning of April I usually end up selling or just giving away lots of used tackle. I hate throwing stuff away that some one else could use. I’ll sell the lots for a 2/3 less than I paid. just to get rid of it and not throw away. One spring I gave 2 1 gallon bags worth of hard baits and plastics to a co-workers grand son to use. Granted a lot of those were bombers, other cheaper cranks, and the Janns net craft house brand bait kits hard bait lures. But, still god enough for younger person to fish and if they loose it not be out a lot. if I haven't used it within a year of buying it or I’f it hasn’t caught anything after trying it for 1.5-2 years it’s gone than I buy more useless lures that I either won’t use or I can’t catch anything with and the cycle continues.

Currently my garmin 73sv transducer is mounted at the back of the boat with the screen mounted at the port console next to the wheel. At the very least I’m going to move the fish finder screen to the bow. I may mount my striker 4cv at the console so I have a way to check depth. if I wanted to mount my transducer on the bottom of my minnkota terrova. How do I prevent my transducer cable from being tangled up on the shaft of the trolling motor? Is there some sort of after market swivel system ? I actually have a transducer in the trolling motor. I forget what minnkota calls it. If I use the transducer in the trolling motor I’ll loose the down scan and side view.

Kvd jerk baits and don’t forget about the smithwicks which, are about $7-8 a piece.

Deep Cranks along the cliff faces and there is probably a step ledge in there before it drops totally off , jigs along the rocks , wacky worm and let it float down side of the cliffs , arkie jig or tube in the shallow rocks. Probably also a square bill in the shallow rocks. I don’t drop shot but, If I did probably on those cliffs.

10-12 lbs for mono and flouro on MH rod

Match the hatch. I tend to use smaller lures in the spring as the bait fish are generally younger and smaller in the spring. As things warm up I get bigger as the bait fish grow. Fall is basically as big as the bait fish grow. I would throw bigger lures even with cooler water temp. by winter most baitfish have spawned and a lot of the older ones die. The next spring the cycle continues.

I was on a pretty good spinner bite for large mouths and smallies this year on the Saginaw river system and other lakes. Bite seemed to die early June. I hoping it comes back. I’ve got one Sv-3 the rest of mine are war eagles. the Colorado blade with rattles is throw on dark cloudy days. The Indiana blade one on sunnier days. On clear lakes I’d throw the war eagle screaming eagles in natural colors

Kinda hit a wall with fishing. I’ve only been twice in the last month and it felt like half hearted attempts and didn’t fish long. Took time to maintain, fix some equipment issues and re-spooled my rods. Ready to go for the last push. I have basically 2.5-3 months left up here in Michigan. Im ready for the final push untill ice up.

I love fishing cranks. However, sometimes that’s not what they want. I have one lake that I fish the only time I am successful with anything resembling a crank is a shad rap in march and April. After that it’s t-rigged 6 inch Ochoes, flukes, and wacky rigs pitched into the pads So far with a milder summer it has been the year of the crank bait in Michigan though.

At least as far as finesse fishing goes .3 years ago I would have said yes, That their are techniques better suited for spinning than bait casting. However, with the advent of BFS I don’t know if I could say that any more. I’ve never used a bfs set up but, I think with bfs rigs they can do anything a lighter spinning rod can do

Fished a new lake in Ionia county called long lake. Great day !!!! All fish except 2 came on a mega bass deep crank or a bass pro shop summer craw bull hog in summer craw color. The possible war mouth and another bass came on a wacky rig I built my Bushido deep cranking rod last winter to do just this. The bigger bass came out of 12-16 ft. Carolina rig is becoming one of my favorite ways to fish. After the third pike I caught on that deep-x 300 I started to get nervous and decided to call it a day. While I still had it

Launched out of center street today and ran up the titabawassee to m-46. Water is way low but, I could still launch my 17 ft sea nymph with a 90 hp. Just had to back a ways in. Didn’t have any problems going up river and could still run wide open. Caught 3 fish and lost 1. Biggest came on a pb&J jig with yum craw junk. The smaller large mouth and the little smallie came on a black and blue jig with rage menace as a trailer. I lost a nice bass on a smith wick rattlin rouge chrome and silver jerk bait

Today was a struggle and almost took the L. However, I was able scratch out one to avoid the skunk . Launched at lee street. Started on the Shiawassee and nodda. Went up the cass a little bit and nothing. Ran back down to down town Saginaw to one of my historically better spots. picked up one large mouth on one of my pb&j arkie jigs that make. Nothing special but, about 15 inches. Today was struggle to say the least. Did real good this spring on bass on the Saginaw and Shiawassee but, summer has been a differnt story. we need rain bad. I was leary of the titabawassee but, should have tried it I guess. Probably would have better protected from the wind. Rivers are down in the Saginaw Area probably 3-4 feet from the past summers. We have not had much rain since April

Not that I’m aware of. I fished it a bit yesterday

This is how I’m doing it. It swims straight and the tail has a lot of action. When you kill it. It kinda flutters and cork screws down

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that The average joe sucks at fishing and gets lucky once at a while with a decent fish. How do I know that because, I was that average joe at one time. I made the same mistakes that they did. The people on these forums are probably the top fisherman in their respected areas outside of the pro’s and weekend tournament people. If they are not already pro’s or weekend tournament anglers which, I’m sure a lot are. I took the advice of upgrading hooks 4 years ago on my cranks and my hook up to land ratio greatly increased 100%. Every moving bait I own outside of spro, mega bass, etc etc gets up graded hooks. If I didn’t I would be waisting my time. I don’t like to waist my time.

No regularly rigging it. The hook point goes through the hook slot

No it seems to swim fine in it’s own. I’m using 6/0 beast hook with 1/4 wieght molded onto it.

I’m using the 6/0 beast hook on the 130. I fished it for the first time yesterday. I had a couple decent hits and water was clear enough that I could see what was probably a 2lbs bass hitting it. I think he just got the tail though. I love the action on it so far. I may have to buy the smaller version. As it would have to be a fairly large Michigan bass to choke a 130.

Hit up little crystal In Montcalm county Michigan. I left work at 6 am and I was fishing by 7:15. Took the first decent and 2 smaller bass on a spro silver and olive little John DD finally decided to fish a Carolina rig. So I pulled out my old 7ft lighting rod and put it to good use. I picked up a nice large mouth and then 2 smallies. The 2nd one was a dandy smallie. I was using a Berkley maxx scent GP tube with 1/4 oz thungsten wieght on the Carolina rig. these were the First small mouth I have taken out of little crystal. We have had such a mild summer that the smallie are very shallow still. The bigger smallie was caught in 6ft of water at 12pm

I’ve got a 10 year old accurist ac30pti and the thing has been a tank. When I bought it all I was doing was river fishing by wadding. So it got the crap kicked out if it. I havnt fished it much in the last 3 years but, it’s outlived 2 presidents, 1 okuma avenger, and 1 okuma cemar-30. If the reel was a size smaller I would still be using it. I also have a quantum accurist bait caster with the flipping switch. Again havnt used it much as of late but, it’s out live a supreme and a silver max. for some reason quantum and especially the accurist line doesn’t get much love. I feel they are underrated.

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