Cdn Angler

LMB - 6.2 - Duo Realis Rozante - tiny jerk bait SMB - 4.3 (tie) Whopper Plopper 110 White & Rapala J-11 perch

Similar idea to you SwampGal. I fish topwater a lot and if I am fishing a floating topwater and I know I'm going to be pausing to do something in my kayak (tieing something on, looking at my phone etc.) then I cast and kill the bait, then do whatever. I've had bass come and nail a non moving topwater that's been there for a long time (10 to 30 seconds) so I figure it's worth a try. Better to have a lure "in play" while I'm not then the opposite. Another one that I don't do any more. I fish some waters that get nearly zero pressure and bass will sometimes follow me around under my boat, I assume for shade. I've caught a few throwing a Worm at them, but now I don't target these fish. It didn't exactly feel like an accomplishment to get them to bite.

Can't go wrong with a Cotton Cordell Big O in 77 size. It's cheap (5-6$), it looks cheap, and the hardware is not great (bait itself is reasonably durable though), but that little dude just gets bit by anything that swims.

I'm in Canada and spring is mostly out of season for the spawn, but in general I've found red to be not terribly productive here. Mostly fairly clear water that I fish. The only red bait I've had luck on is a red Bill Lewis chrome rattletrap.

I fish topwater A LOT for SMB and LMB. This is my general thought process: Walking Baits (large) - if there's any chop or if I feel like bass are aggressive, particularlyif busting bait. Open water mainly. Usually River2Sea Rover 128. Great in low light. Walking Baits (small) - calmer water, clearer water/sunny, smaller bait, less aggressive fish. Open water mainly. I mostly use an Ima Skimmer or 98 Rover. I think the profile is more attractive in some lakes as long/skinny (I'm in Canada). Whopper Plopper - Anywhere with minimal pressure this is often first up. I like the larger sizes (130) if there is a decent chop, on any lake. Great for rivers for paralleling the bank or around cover, usually the 75 size. This has IMO the most drawing power of any topwater if fish aren't conditioned to it, so I often use it on huge oligotrophic lakes around here to cover water, mainly if fishing pressure isn't too high. Popper - Summer when very hot, targeting cover. Mainly use PopMax if I want bigger or Ima Finesse if I want smaller. The Ima I've had a lot of luck on when fish are being finicky (i.e. I see fish, but can't elicit a strike). If I feel like fish are eating bugs or tiny minnows the Ima is my go to. Prop Baits - Mainly River2Sea Lane Changer. Rip rip pause. This is new as of last year and I've had great luck when it is slick calm. Works well fished faster in Open water or target fishing. Profile is perfect for SMB around here IMO. Jackal Pompadour Jr. - Night Fishing Spro Rat - Low Light Conditions Wake baits: Speedwake (6th Sense) - this is my favourite bait for covering water as it can be fished extremely fast, but works well paused or slow also. Fish it when I know there are bigger fish. Bigger lure so works well with moderate chop. Very good in Spring. IMA Roumba - Clear and calm water, especially around rock. Works on active or lethargic fish so a good option if sunny mid-day, even in clear water. Mainly for SMB and covering water. Pike seem to love this bait, for better/worse. I find I have to fish this on braid to get it to work optimally. Small wakebaits that look more like reg crankbaits - moving water and reeled upstream. Buzzbait - Rarely use, haven't had good results. When I do it's usually an Evilution Grass Burner. I like being able to pause a topwater. Frog - Only if I absolutely have to and even then I'd rather throw a toad or light Texas rig if I can. Pads are the main place I fish a frog and fish seem to absolutely suck at actually hitting the target. That's my general thought process. I've seen some very tiny bug like topwaters that I'm kind of curious to try, but they always look flimsy/expensive and I don't know what I'd throw them on. In terms of colour I'm 70% white, 20% ghost/silvers (mainly very clear water in sun when calm) 10% green or bone. Around here anything mostly white seems to work in nearly all situations.

Smaller lakes follow the same general annual patterns as the bass still have to spawn, it's cold in winter etc. I fish a lot of smallish natural lakes amd some of the main differences I've noticed are: Establishing a "pattern" is often less straightforward. Let's say a bunch of bass are on some boulders in 15 feet of water. There might not be another place on the lake like that. It tells you something, but it's less clear cut. Or you might find 1-2 good docks. Whereas on big water I can zoom a mile to similar location a few times over. Similar to above, less variability, like very dirty water vs. clear. It's more likely the entire lake is consistent. Same for water temps (mostly). The other thing I do notice on many smaller bodies of water is that the whole lake will often seem to be feeding at the same time (or not). Whereas on bigger water I might see more random blow ups and fewer all out frenzys. So they run a bit more hot/cold.

Normal. It only goes down to about 3-4 feet I'd say.

AJ interesting that the profile of most your baits is so similar. Makes sense if you are targeting mainly SMB. I'm going to buy your a-rig setup as I suck with my current one. My winners for this year, measured by numbers/big fish: - 6th Sense Speed Wake - I am sold on this bait. You can fish it effectively at any speed and it gets bit year round. I caught two 4 lb bass on this bait in late June. - On Point Lures 4x4 - Spinnerbait with 4 blades, almost like a mini a-rig. This works amazingly well on active fish at the top of the water column, but you can fish anywhere in the water column. Good for SMB, LMB, Pike. Seems to excel in the fall. Got my biggest pike of the year on it. - Hybrid Hunter Jr. It is rare that a shallow crankbait is the deal around here, but I had one day when I thought it made sense and I caught probably 20 fish on the HH, including one of my biggest LMB (5ish). - River2Sea Lane Changer - Topwater Prop Bait. This thing killed it in the summer for SMB in clearwater situations. I was pleasantly surprised. - 2.5 Yamatunuki - White. I fished this on a tiny ned head in deeper water (for me so like 10-15 feet) and it caught a ton of fish and big fish. It seemed to do better than a ned rig in terms of quality of fish. - Zoom speed worm and local Chatterbait/Mini Max. Losers - Whopper Plopper. Just doesn't work like it used to around here. - Big worms/bigger creature baits. Maybe the conditions weren't right, but I feel like I did far poorer this year.

1. Texas Rig Creature Bait - Versatile and I can use a different weight depending on where I want to fish in the water column. Likely 3.6 Keitech crazy flapper. 2. Senko 3. Bladed Jig 4. 4 inch swimbait 5. Topwater, probably a popper that can be walked (Popmax or Ima Finesse Popper) I'm fairly certain one of those will always catch a bass on any lake I fish.

The only thing I can think of that I do that I never hear about is when fishing rivers with heavy to medium current, usually bigger rivers in shallow areas. I'll fish a small shallow crankbait, cast it and let the current take it with my spool open, basically until it is close to unspooling a 4000 series spinning rod. It's probably a couple minutes watching my crank float away. Then flip the bale over and reel it in against the current extremely slowly. I can cover what feels like hundreds of meters. This is usually a wading or shore thing, but I've done it out of my kayak too when I don't want to go down a set of rapids. There's actually one other "pattern" that I haven't heard of, which has happened to me multiple times. I've encountered areas where the fish will literally follow my kayak around like it's a floating dock, usually LMB in summer in clear water. Toss a senko at them and boom, fish on. They then seem to learn their lesson and I don't target them as it isn't exactly sporting. But I can't think of anyone else saying they've caught fish like that on multiple occasions. Third one, kind of stupid. If I know I'm going to be stopping to use my phone or to go rifling through some tackle, and I'm fishing a topwater, I'll usually make a commotion and then kill it on the surface while I do whatever. I've had enough scenarios where a SMB will explode after 30s to 2 mins of a bait just sitting there to think it just might work. It rarely works, but I keep trying.

The white blades/skirt combo has been my go to. Can't catch a cold on the chartreuse/yellow!

I've used River2Sea Bling for probably 7 years now and they are great around cover (grass, wood) and d**n near indestructible. I've caught a lot of pike, bowfin, muskie, and they are still going strong. Never had any component break in any way.

I'd also say going the Facebook Marketplace/Craiglist route is a good one, but it really depends on where you live. There might be a lot of fishermen, there might not be. From what I've seen it is hard to get people to buy HUGE lots of lures unless they are underpriced by a lot as the market is basically a reseller looking to make their own profit. The best way to maximize price with minimal hassle is to group them into lots based on type of lure, assuming your collection isn't completely all over the plac.e

This site is my go to for trying to find any info on what line to use for what. I can figure out baits in the water (usually), but line is something I don't want to get wrong. The wrong line is a pain in the butt and waste of money. Can render an entire setup inoperable on the water and I don't need that.

The Shadow Rap Shad has always gotten bites for me. The Duo Realis Rozante is also a good small jerkbait, but I find it only dives like 2 feet, versus about 4 feet for the SRS, which also comes in a slow sink if you want to get it deeper. The Rapala bait doesn't look like anything special, but it gets bit. I think it must be the profile/size, which is bigger than a tiny minnow, but not as intimidating as a Vision 110. And very slender. It's also fairly cheap.

I've literally never talked to anyone about fishing in my neck of the woods. I have zero friends that fish and I don't often see people at the ramp either.

I always wonder about this with kayak fishing derbies where you take a photo and then release the fish. To get the bass lined up perfectly on the board, mouth shut, not moving, takes forever. And when you watch videos online they invariably jump ahead to the photo i.e. it took a long time. I don't really do derbies and try to take 1-2 photos ASAP, even if the photos are poor quality. Then get that sucker back in there. If you have to have a fish out longer because it takes a while I try to let it chill out in the net. With muskie / pike I try to never even take them out of the net, where possible.

For those who are good with technology I think the learning curve will be less to become good at fishing with FFS compared to learning fishing "old school." At some point a large number of fishermen will be at Josh Jones' level and many will be better than him. You'd think, given that everyone will be fishing the same way, that the results will eventually be extremely even in terms of tournament results too, with fewer guys repeatedly dominating. Catch rates and quality of fish should go up, but diminish over time due to increased pressure on fish IMO. If you are a kid that grows up 100% on FFS it'd be interesting to see how well you'd adapt to fishing without it. It'd be supremely annoying, at minimum, like us using a cane pole. I don't buy that FFS is only seeing fish targeted that never got caught before. It isn't like a suspended fish lives its entire life as a suspended fish. They move between suspended, bottom and shallow at different times of year, so might be caught at any time. It does mean there isn't anywhere a fish could temporarily be located without being at risk of getting caught. And that people will become more efficient at catching both big bass and more bass. The thing is with forecasting all of these changes, that it doesn't feel like anyone is actually systematically keeping track of anything. If things change gradually over the next 10 years I'm not sure there will be a lot of empirical data and we'll all be on here arguing back and forth.

Yep, and I've seen people have a lot more success through the ice. But I'd still say only maybe 10% of people ice fishing own one. As the prices comes down and people upgrade and sell used units eventually that number will get closer to 80%.

Eventually the price will come down, like everything else. And even then it's a pittance compared to an expensive boat. It 100% changes the nature of fishing when you can always tell if a fish is there or not. And can see what the fish is doing in real time. Personally I enjoy trying to figure out where the fish are and piecing that together. And I don't want to look at a screen all day. I go to great pains to escape my computer, which is why I'm fishing in the first place. I can appreciate that Livescope makes you waste less time and stop fishing dead water, so you can spend more time seeing what fish are doing. On the other hand, you don't need to spend half as much time thinking about seasonal patterns or bass behaviour. Jury is out on the impact it has on fish populations. I can't imagine the result will be anything positive, but the extent is hard to gauge. The one thing I'm certain of is that ice fishing will see fish getting hammered. So many people ice fish and it's freaking hard. If it becomes 20x more efficient (not an exaggeration) that's a lot more fish. And most of them end up in a freezer. As far as tournament fishing is concerned, there are limitations on tournaments already, same as in every sport, so I think removing it is fine on those grounds. But if pros don't use it and regular Joe Blow does, Joe Blow will potentially outfish a pro due to his tech advantage. And I don't think the pros like the "look" of that. But if catching fish via livescope is seen as its own category, similar to using live bait, that might not be a problem. Personally I don't enjoy watching people LiveScope, same as bed fishing. Tech won't stop. At some point if you know where every fish in the lake is at, the boat drives itself, maybe you have a self-casting rod/reel, AI picks your lure for you. You don't even need to leave the house anymore. Is that still fishing?

Even if you have a killswitch, lifejacket, aren't drunk etc. The number one thing you can do to stay safe is to pay attention and be conservative. Go slow, don't go out in crazy weather, pay attention at all times (don't be on your phone, eating etc.), and be mindful of hazards. Boring, but prevention is the best medicine. I think a lot of mishaps come from simple inattention, which is easy to do. Anyone can get distracted for 5 seconds, which is all it takes. The more you do something and nothing bad happens, the more you let your guard down.

If it's still useable, it goes back in the bag. Even if a bit dirty or discoloured, I doubt the fish mind. A lot of baits can be repurposed as trailers, drop shot baits etc, if you have the patience to comb through them and organize them. Or just put them in the trash.

New bait for me this year was the Gary Yamamoto Hula Grub, an old bait, in dirty plum, which was a fish catching machine. I was trying to figure out why and I think it is basically the same profile as a small football jig/trailer, except with an extremely slow rate of fall, depending on the bullet weight you use. I fished it wacky, weightless, in heavy cover, pegged, unpegged, clear water, dirtier water, down to like 15 feet of water. It just worked over and over again in terms of generating bites. I also found it surprisingly durable for a GY bait and it still got bit if I rigged it differently after it got torn up. I've never had much luck fishing a chatterbait, but I made some changes that worked. Changed from 3/8 to a 1/2 oz, and from a "chatterbait" TM to a locally made bladed jig. Changed to a 4.5 spunk shad trailer. And mainly used it in low light conditions (dawn/dusk). That seemed to be the formula for me. I used a white/pink version and probably caught 50ish fish on that setup, many of them decent, and also many pike and even one big walleye. Lastly a keitech tungsten casting jig. Those three baits were probably 30% of all fish I caught this year. I had many similar days with a Ima Finesse Popper, which is also tiny. Same deal where bigger topwaters weren't working, then switched and it got bit quickly. I don't know why, but I don't get bit nearly as much on big/loud topwaters anymore (large spooks, whopper ploppers), whereas previously big smallmouth were committing suicide on them. Not sure why the change. The only thing I can think of is that the ubiquity of the Choppo/Whopper Plopper has made fish wary of big/loud topwaters in general.

I caught a comical number of bass that were exactly four pounds this year. And nothing bigger. Mainly on flipping baits: ManBearPig, Keitech Crazy Flapper, 5 Inch Senko. Those were all LMB. My biggest smallies were caught on a whopper plopper, locally made bladed jig, and a GY Hula Grub. I focused more on lakes where the biggest bass top out at 4-ish pounds, but are plentiful. Mainly to experiment trying different techniques/baits.