Mbirdsley

Either a 7 ft m/l st croix premier spinning rod or a 7ft M premier spinning rod. I Havnt decided which one yet. Im going to go handle a couple when we take my daughter to see Santa clause at cabelas on Saturday. I don’t know what spinning reel that I will pair it with yet though

Yes pb&j is a very legit color. Before I took my PB large mouth on a size #5 Shad rap in March. My personal best came on a pb&j jig. Very good color for the Saginaw river. I’ve gotten away from it though as I have been throwing more Black and blue jig/trailers

It’s because, he’s from Michigan. Smallmouth are every where and literally falling out of the trees here. Not saying there are not nice large mouth in the state but, generally speaking. chances are better that you are going to catch a MA smallie before a large mouth.

I usually just use twister tail grubs as trailers. 2 inch in the spring/fall and 4 inchers in the summer. Same for spinner baits. I’ve done well on them while making my own chatter baits. Three main colors of twister tails I use are white, black, and chartreuse

Once a year during the winter time or unless one of the reels starts acting up. Than I will do it at the next possibly time I have down time. This is also when I access if a complete tear down and lube job is necessary or not. this year including my brothers trolling reels, my own trolling, spinning, and baitcaster reels I’ll probably be looking at 20-25 reels this winter

I like it for its non stretch capabilities more than any thing and which, is why I use it for leaders tying onto braid. With that said, some lakes I fish up north you need straight flouro spooled up or run a 12-14 foot flouro leader on any thing not moving. In the 8-12 lbs range I’d rather use flouro than braid. So I like it for more finnesse applications. Other than that it’s mono and braid.

I’d be using a bigger minnow ,blue gill( check your local laws), or my personal fav a golden shiner on a circle hook. Up here using live bait like that I’d have to run a steal leader to keep toothy critters away. I don’t think you have that problem. I’d probably skip using a worm under a bobber. However, if you were to t-rig a live crawler that would work if you were fishing 6-8 foot of water I’d only put that minnow 2-3 feet down ( adjust for what ever depth your pond is). Run a big split shot 8-12 inches up from the hook. The split shot that far off gives the minnow free range of about a foot radius but, won’t let it go much farther. I liked using bigger bobbers just so you can see the minnow start to panic by the bobber moving. However, the minnow won’t take the bobber down As long as you pay attention and set the hook when your supposed to and use a circle hook. gut hooking should be non-existent. We used trebles all the time as kids. We currently still use trebles hooks for ice fishing and catch bass occasionally on tip ups and still havnt gut hooked a bass in over ten years in Michigan with all of walleye, salmon, trout, perch, pike, catfish, whitefish , sunfish species and all the other edible species bass are treated like 3rd class citizens but, they are gaining more respect.

I try to make my fishing excursions atleast 4-5 hrs at a minimum. ideally I like to fish 8-12 hrs. My closest place to take the boat is 30 minutes away which, is the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers. Depends if it is a new lake. if I’m fishing a new lake I take everything but, the kitchen sink. If it’s some where I have been before I generally have an idea of how to be successful that day and I plan accordingly. I really don’t enjoy bringing the kitchen sink with me, it gets heavy and messy after a while

Came in the mail today. I’m impressed with it for $100 bucks. If it pans out I’ll buy the MH for deeper crank

I mean that’s not what I would use and no I was talking like 5ft5-6ft

Ha, I don’t think I’ve ever caught a smallie on my ML wait, I did loose like an 17incher on it wading a river. I use mainly MH when not in a wad able river. If I’m in a smaller river than I’d use the ML. I’ve got a MH spinning rod that acts like a medium. Mainly, though my casting set ups are all MH that I use LMB and SMB. I am actually looking for another ML/M spinning set up though This winter any how, any rod works just depends on what your doing. Main concern would be length. As long as your not trying to use your shorter walleye jigging set ups. You will be fine

I’m a bouncing ball and depends on the day. My #1 thing I love to do is covering ground with cranks and spinner baits. I love to just crank and reel. Cranks or spinner bait is what I start out with each time. I hope that’s what they want because, if it is it’s easy fishing However, my number one technique that I’m actually good at is t-rigging, jigs and swim jigs. If they don’t hit a crank or spinner bait this my next go to. I can either power fish these or slow it down and pick apart stuff. My big fish come here 3rd is a wacky rig and what I call a light t-rig (but is a mojo rig with out the swivel) . For numbers this is probably my favorite thing to do. I throw both rigs on 8lbs-12lbs flourocopolymer 4th is ned rig especially in the spring time. For what ever reason when june rolls around I basically for get about it 5th punching slop with 11/4-11/2 jigs. Prrsonally this is my 2nd favorite thing to do but I’m still kinda learning it abd in Michigan you get about 2.5-2.00 month window to do it Normally if I try to take only 6 rods with me #1crank rod, #2spinner bait/square bill rod #3 t-rig/jig rod #4 wacky rig/ned rod/#5 I have a mh spinning rod that I use for tubes or swim baits #6 another mh bait caster for for swim jigs or I might do the opposite of what’s currently rigged on #3 rod obviously what I use in the fall or spring will change from what I use in the summer. Spring/fall more finesse. Summer more power. or if fishing a river I take 4 rods #1 crank #2 spinners/sq bill#3 jig-trig#4 my MH spinning rod for tubes

That does happen once in a while.

For a chatter bait I’d say reeling just fast enough to get the blade moving and keep it moving. Will also result in your bait being deeper or near the bottom depending on how deep you are. slow rolling a chatter bait is one of my favorite Things in the spring. I’ll slow roll a spinner bait any time, place or weather condition.

I don’t have a ton of experience with Carolina rig but, I’d use like 1/0-3/0 off set or ewg hook. I’d also would run either straight braid or flouro to the swivel than use mono to the hook. If your talking as big of fish as you are I would want to eliminate as many of the knots or weak points as practicable possible

Thanks. That’s more than I would have thought to bend the Blaid back

Could you post a picture of one of your chatter blades that you have bent ?

I mainly buy from net craft and lure parts online. Net craft is more walleye oriented and usually cheaper than lurepartsonline . LPO from the time you place your order to it being delivered is faster than net craft. barlows has a lot of stuff neither janns or LPO have. Pick your poison they all have the same and differnt stuff. If I lived closer to barrows I’d probably order more from them, they are located in Texas. Janns is in Toledo Ohio and LPO some where in Illinois. I’d like to take a trip to janns only about 1-1.5 hours away

I make/pour my own jigs. 1/4 oz 2 tabs, 3/8 and sometimes 1/2 2.5 tabs ( sometimes I go 3 tabs if I’m feeling froggy). Anything bigger than 1/2 oz I use a 3.0 tabs.

This is good info. This last Sunday the Saginaw river which is a big river had miles and miles of Shad in it. Every so often I’d run across a tight ball of Shad. Looking for the bait balls in the river would help locating active fish rather than just aimlessly casting up and down the bank for miles and miles in all of the Shad

I’m hoping to buy the 73sv UHD this spring. Cabelas has them on clearance right now

I just ordered this in the crank version a Okuma EVX Crankbait Rod. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/catpage-OKUMARDS.html?from=basres In a 7ft medium from TW. should be here when I get back from deer hunting next week. Ill have to get a MH for my deeper cranks down the road. My 6ft6 m black max rod can handle dt15’ and xd6’s no problem. I wouldn’t got much bigger though. I’m excited for it. Hopefully get to use it before everything ices up.

Buy in bulk as it is cheaper. Purchase like 10 in each size that you plan on using. I usually order once in the spring. Some sizes I use I might only have to reorder every 2 years. Plus when you have a stock pile of them you can wait for them to go on sale or clearance. honestly tungsten jigs arnt that expensive. I was buying 1 1/4-1/12 oz punching jigs for like $5-7 a peace on eBay

War eagles are pretty good. Seems like I get those to hold up better then the booyas and strike king. The booyas, strike kings and other still catch fish. I still buy them Just seems like they are worn out after 4-5 bass. When pike hit them even less catches. only spinner bait I tried and didnt like were these booyas 3/8 vibra wire spinner baits. I bought 2 and couldn’t get either to remotely run right.

No not on the rivers in Michigan or drowned river mouths dumping into the Great Lakes. You can drop shot on the great laker them selves or any inland lake