chadfish11

Fair point.. I'm either fishing really small, weed-consumed ponds or out wide-open Lake St Clair, where the water is as clear as day, so my goal was to have a versatile setup I could use on either one. However, I think I'm just gonna run straight 15# flouro and call it a day.

Interesting. So you cast as normal still? Just letting it go as far as ya can or?

Gotcha. I'll probably just run straight 15lb flouro then. Not worth the hassle honestly. The likelihood of line failure does not seem high enough to be risky.

Hi, I am currently in the process of setting up a rod for jigging, something I rip heavy jigs with in smaller bodies of water for heavy cover, and also for football-head jigging in deeper, open water (Lake St Clair). I was gonna go with 50lb braid to a 15lb flouro leader (about 4ft. long), however I just feel uneasy about casting the knot through the guides. I've only used leaders of about 1ft. in the past, so I never worried about it until now. This line combination seems superior to a straight flouro or straight braid so I really wanna fish it, but my concern is that passing a knot through the guides could cause wear on the rod and knot, so I am unsure of what to do. Any advice or recommendations would be much appreciated. Rod: Lew's Mach II 7'3 Heavy Fast Action Reel: Lew's Mach II Speed Spool 7.5:1

Thanks Dwight. Yeah sometimes you just gotta be thankful for getting the opportunity to catch these guys.

Unfortunately no. Nonetheless no matter the number this fish weighed in at he was a heck of a good fighter and a blast to catch. Thanks Darren! Very true, you can't measure the feeling of reeling one of these guys in

Forgot the scale, and I'm not used to catching smallies this big as he is my personal best: https://imgur.com/a/VzelOnI Was wondering if some more seasoned fishermen could give me some estimates. I'm thinking 5lber. He was caught on Lake St. Clair in about 10ft of water using a Strike King Perch-colored 12-foot diving crankbait rigged on a Lew's Mach 2 Combo baitcaster.