Mbirdsley

Tidewe’s ?

No dock no problem. Apparently the miDNR must have started pulling the docks for the local launches. We can still use the launches but, we don’t get a dock. Launching is usually dry, loading up though we might get a little wet. fished little crystal in Montcalm county mi. Kvd 300 in sugar daddy ( perch) did most of the work. Biggest came on a Berkley champ swimmer perch. Also caught 2 pike and a 10 inch perch. Luckily that first pike Kinda missed or else I’d probably have lost that kvd, Ended up booking him under the mouth may have been the last trip. The rifle Deer season opens next Monday on the 15th.

They are light wire hooks. If he’s Using a bait caster or a MH spinning rod with a fast action. Yeah I could see damaging the hooks if he cracked them good on the hook set. Or I’ve bent hooks using pliers unhooking fish I was debating on using the KVD hooks but, thought they would be too heavy duty as Im casting on a spinning reel. I didn’t want to change the action but, if that’s what A-jay does than I’m not that worried about

I use snaps on hard baits/cranks/jerkbaits. Only time I could see use a snap swivel is either casting,/trolling spoons, or when using a salmon fly with a flasher/rotator. We have even gotten away from snap swivels trolling hard baits IE rapalas, bomber long A’s, bandits, and challengers If you decide that you have to/want a snap swivel on lure. BUY a good quality ball bearing snap swivel. A good quality crane style swivel would work too I suppose. Spend the little extra money. It will save the heart ache of the snap swivel either not doing what it’s supposed to do or breaking completely with a fish

So I ended up buying a legalis 3000. Nice reel for the money. Mounted it on my dobyns and feels really good. I found it on sale for $55 bucks online. Felt way better than the president out of the box. right now due to it being fall and cooler temps up here. It is pulling a lot of jerk bait and shad rap duty. When it warms up next year it will go back to wacky rigs and other finesse stuff

As I posted in another thread. Grandpa used bomber long A’s on his charter boat for steel head off of planner boards. He had a whole drawer full. I seem to remember a lot of the clown color, black and silver, orange and yellow, and other bright steel head colors. he would also use them for browns in the spring. Run the boat up on the beach in 4-5 ft of water The steel head beat those things like they stole something. He would tell us stories of skamanies ( differnt strain of steel head) hitting those bombers so hard that he’d have to cut their heads off to get the lure back. The newer Ones are still good and a very good pike bait. Usually I just use them like a crank. Plus if I loose one your not out much

I do pretty well with dragging a mojo rig and a 4 inch yum dinger. A Carolina rig is basically the same thing except heavier weight. HowEver, I’ve yet to catch anything on a Carolina rig. I’d like to though. There are a half dozen lakes of the top of my head I think it would be perfect for.

Might as well cut out the middle man, save time and just buy some the old K&E, Ike-con or striper Kelly pre rigged worms. Get them for like $1.99. You even get to pull the little baggies off the card board backing heck if you buy the creme version it comes with a spinner for a couple extra cents edit: I can’t believe bass pro is selling those for $5.99. As a kid we used to get those for a buck

A good buddy that I havnt seen in a while and my self fished Clifford lake In Montcalm co Michigan. Temp was about 52 degrees. Here’s the two biggest we caught today. He was using a sexy shad storm arashi circuit board crank and my big one came on spro little John DD. The bass crushed it and it’s the first time I’ve had a bass choke it side ways. It bled a lot hopefully it made it. I tried not to rip the gills getting the hooks out but, she was hooked deep. I caught about 10 bass total with most coming on a 300 kvd suger daddy jerk bait. Hopefully that wasn’t the last trip of the year

First hard baits I’ve bought in a couple months. Picked these 2 up from Vandam ware house In Kalamazoo mi. Ordered and had them in 2 days. Perch color ( actually named sugar daddy, should be called perch though ) and a new pro black color. The suger daddy is going to replace the other perch I lost last Sunday. Tomorrow is payday so I’ll probably order either lucky strike or mega bass jerk baits.

Currently I only have one cranking rod. I’m working on getting a 2nd for deep cranking. Ideally I’d like to have a rod for 3-12 ft and than a rod for 12+ feet. Granted I probably only need the deep cranking rod for 3 out of the 8-9 months I’m able to fish. Now not all lakes or rivers I fish would need the deep crank rod. So it would be like my punching rod and be a situational thing. Shallow crank rod I always take

4 inch yum dinger on a split shot/mojo rig. Black and blue in dirty water or watermelon pearl in clear water. I need to get into shaky head though

Other than mega bass what be other refined jerk baits ?

That top 300 is a really good color

I like the kvd’s. I need to get some of the 3-6 ft ones as most of mine are the 10-12 ft ones. I feel your pain on loosing them. I don’t use jerk baits much as I’m not good at it. Finally worked up the nerve to put on a perch mega bass ito 110 and started killing the bass. Landed 5-8 in a row untill a not so friendly northern pike took it. I watched him grab it lifted the rod slightly and the mega bass jerk bait was gone. off topic but the mega bass make jerk bait fishing easy. I tried using some lc slender pointers 112 mr’s and didn’t care for the action. 6th sense makes a good jerk bait too

Yeah that’s what referred to unofficially as big crystal. Which, is only 10 minutes from my grandparents. This ( little ) crystal is only 45 minutes from my house.

Days re cap. So in celebration of getting a new job I used the day to do some fall fishing. Day started out at a balmy 45 degrees and never got above 50 degrees. Water was still 56 degrees. Fished crystal lake in Montcalm county mi Started out with a mojo rig with a zoom yum dinger water Mellon pearl which caught a 14 incher and about 4 other bass. Than decided to finally try using jerk baits. Put on a $22 mega bass ito perch jerk bait and start killing it. I caught probably 10-12 13-14 inch bass on it. I had originally purchased this lure last spring but, was to afraid of loosing it. Which, is exactly what happened to it. a medium sized northern took it. One of those deals you see the pike grab onto it and just barley lift the rod tip and mega bass jerk bait was gone Mega bass jerk baits are definitely worth the hype. They make using a jerk bait easy. Jerk baits however, are the only lure I have an issue with getting bit off. . Luckily tied on a #5 perch colored shad rap and nailed the biggest of the day a 14.5 bass and some other smaller fish. Last pic is match the hatch. Not a bunch of big fish but, Not a bad day for not getting above 50 degrees

I’ve got 2 mvp’s this year. 1st this strike root beer crank caught the biggest bass of the year in August which, was about 4.5 lbs I think. 2nd mvp was a a black and blue flake curly tail worm on the titabawassee river. Brand didn’t matter as I had success with both Berkeley and BPS versions

That’s basically any of of the old style bombers, thunder sticks, rebels, any of the floating or plastic rapala’s. Growing up we never knew you were supposed to jerk them. We either trolled with them or just casted out and retrieved them slowly. Caught a lot of fish. That’s how I still fish small streams with the j-7’s bombers were a mainstay for trolling for steal head back in the day on my grandpas charter boat. He would run 5 a side with planer boards

Glad to see people catching fish. My place of employment has been imploading from within. Which, has caused a lot of OT. Also been looking for another job . Sooooooo…. I’ve only been out once over the last month and caught one sheep head and smallie. Only thing worth taking a pic of was this little smallie from the titabawassee river about 2 weeks ago. Caught on a Berkeley black blue flake ribbon worm. I only went out due to calling in and being po’d from work. Hoping the decent weather holds before and after deer season.

Fished the Shiawassee and saginaw rivers. Not much in the bass front to day but, did land this nice 29 inch northern pike. Caught on a bps black/blue flake curly tail worm. Also caught about a dozen 13-14 inch bass I think the pike are starting to put the feed bag on trying to get fat for the winter. Historically this is the time of year I catch more numerous and bigger pike

Yes I’d agree with this. It seems the more the worm gets beat up by fish the better it is.

I like it

I have many favorites depends on conditions March- late April shad raps rule!!! These have been my biggest consistent crank producers so far this year. The spro flat sides were killer late April-mid June. The single strike king has been killer the last few weeks in clear and ultra clear water basically clear water and sunny: I've been running flashy silvers and green/root beer clear and over cast: black Sunny and dirty water: flashy silver, sexy shad, or chart dirty water and over cast: black my biggest regret was not purchasing spro’s sooner. Little bit more money but, worth it.

That legalis might be something to look at and put, on my dobyns colt rod.