The Baron

Are you after largemouth, or smallmouth? For smallies, I use a sz 1 VMC spin shot hook with (mostly) a nose-hooked MaxScent Flatworm, Flatnose Minnow or an XZone Pro Series Finesse Slammer. 3/16oz. cylinder weight most of the time, 1/4oz if its a bit windy or I'm fishing deeper than about 15-20ft. For largemouth, I like 1/0 spin shot hook with a wacky hooked 5" senko or a 2/0 hook with a threaded 6" worm (exposed hook) or a t-rigged EWG (I think mine are Gamakatsu dropshot hooks) and a 1/4oz or even 3/8oz weight. Throw that and walk it back slowly along a weed edge and you'll be in business. Just fish it as slow as you have to to get bit - some days you might have to shake it in place for 10-20 seconds to get bit, other days they'll be all over it. And don't just think of a dropshot as a deep water presentation - we routinely use it in very shallow water and have great results as it's a way to hold a bait in place and wiggle it, so a very slow offering for those lazy ones.

VMC weedless wacky 1/16oz. jig heads (don't need to be weedless, but I just buy one type to keep it simple) 90% of the time, sometimes weightless if I really need to fish it painfully (for me) slow. Gary Yamamoto 5" senko (or a Yum Dinger or an XZone True Center Stick) with a rubber o-ring. Fished on #15 or 20# braid to a 10# Seaguar Blue Label fluorocarbon leader or a 6'6"-7ft. M/F spinning rod with a 2500 reel.

Work stress and just general mental exhaustion can really take it's toll. I've been there. Even today, I'm going fishing "later" - I could have certainly gone early, but a very busy work week wore me out. That said, my best advise is carve out a day or two and just go fishing - you NEED that down time and will be more productive and better able to deal with the rest if you get it. Sounds like right now you're maxed and just running on fumes. Be careful and take some mental down time before your body does something to make you. Yes, 100% I've been there. People appreciate a boss/owner who's human and honest - go get the kayak and pop in to say "Hi - I really need a day on the lake, so if at all possible just deal with whatever comes up until you hear from me". Your staff will understand that you've gotta unplug now and then.

All those people likely proudly saving the planet with paper straws in their Starbucks, have no clue they’ve killed a lake.

I couldn’t get myself going early, so I fished midday. Not surprisingly, shade was the key. The ol’ wacky senko tossed into shade or near weed edges worked well, plus a couple on drop shop including a few with the new Geecrack on a bubba shot setup… before a pike took it all.? Didn’t feel like retying that so switched and picked up with a few on the frog, tucked up in weeds and shade against a rocky shore next to deep water. The shallow pad spot I tried prior to that was empty.

Is that home made keeper in the bottom pic just a piece of shrink tube? Because I just found a YouTube video on using shrink tubing and am going to try that.

The setup I use most for that has 20# PP green braid to a 10# Seaguar Blue Label leader about 4-6ft. long (I start about 6ft and change it once I'm down below 4ft). I use this same line setup for jerkbaits. I figure on moving baits or dropshot in stained water I can go a bit heavier on the line and I find the 20# braid is much less prone to wind knots that 15# braid. My clear water dropshot setup is 15# hi-viz braid to an 8# leader.

I’m having a lot of trouble keeping Texas rigged beaver baits (Bandito Bugs and Palmetto Bugz) up on a basic EWG hook. I was looking at trying the Mustad KVD Grip Pin hooks instead, but I’d hate to think all the hooks I have might become waste. I tried rigging a B-Bug on a swimbait hook and that might work, but it didn’t sit quite the same. Now I’m considering super gluing a little wire tab onto the neck of an EWG to see if I can make them hold a bait better. What hooks or tricks do you folks use for t-rigging beaver baits, to keep them from sliding down?

I think my greatest weakness is probably believing the lure/presentation that worked well last trip will work just as well on the next trip… even if it’s a different lake. Then spending too much time not listening to what the fish are telling me.

We have a lot of clear lakes up here. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence are the most extreme examples - 20+ ft. of visibility, at times can see the colour on the bottom in 30ft. of water. Several back lakes I’ve been fishing are also fairly clear. Well, we hit a new lake yesterday that we now know is very fertile and the water is quite stained - almost like watered down chocolate milk. We caught a few on frogs in the pads/heat then over to dropshot but we really weren’t geared up for it. We were fishing a step bank - from 1ft to 16-18ft. of water in a hurry and a clean bottom at depth. Most of our fish came within 10ft. of the shore. Now the challenge is on and I’ll be back in the school of YouTube in the evenings to get it sorted out. lol Anyone have any favorite presentations/baits they’d recommend?

A local shop carries the Geecrack baits and I'm inexplicably fascinated by the Bellows Gill. I bought some 2.8", thinking smallmouth with a small jig head or on a dropshot. I’d like to buy some bigger ones, but I didn’t want to go crazy right out of the gate. lol Is anyone using these baits? How are you rigging them and how are they performing?

For fish#1 - my limited experience guess is you're using too heavy of a hook (are you using a thick "superline" type?) to get a solid hookset with a M rod and bungee line. Even then, any slack line is a bad thing. If you're using really large/heavy hooks, I'd definitely recommend changing to a light(er) wire hook. I attached a pic of a couple from my own kit, so you can see what I mean (it's more apparent with the hooks in hand, but you get the idea). Changing to braid would help a lot, but you may want to use a fluoro leader and that whole system has it's own new headaches (minor, but not as simple as mono fishing). Maybe just try the lighter hooks first. As has been said, never just grab your line unless it's a very small fish. Get a net... and I'll add the detail of get a rubber mesh one - not having hooks twisted in thin netting is worth the little extra money.

My pinpoint accuracy is horrible. And I can only fish from either a canoe or a borrowed boat with no trolling motor, so blowing down the shore making horrible casts "toward" good looking features is frustrating as heck. I know I'd catch a lot more if I could hit a barn, so I'm working on it.

Agree 100%. I don’t love the 2 hours before dawn alarm, but it’s worth it. One little hidden gem we have is usually great for the first hour or two, then dies right off as they scatter and move deep. Afternoon naps are a must though.

I'm having a lot of issues with wind knots, but it seems specific to my Diawa Fuego 2500LT spooled with 15# Sufix 832. I've not had any issue with either my Stradic or a Diawa Revros, but they're both spooled with 20# Power Pro. They're all been used for the same thing - dropshot (using spin shot hooks), wacky rigged senkos, 3-4" Keitech swim baits and tube jigs. Could it be that the lighter line is more prone to wind knots? Could it be the reel? Or maybe I just did a bad job of spooling the Fuego? I'll have to respool and might have to try the 20# just to see if that keeps me out of trouble.

I use the same rod for whoppers, spooks and medium-deep crankbaits. I’ve been very happy with it.

Not my evening for bass. Got about 6 casts in with a new hair jig I wanted to try and got bit off.? Figured it was a pike, so I switched to a tube jig. Caught one tiny smallmouth, then landed this joker and called it a night before I lost anymore tackle.

Nice smallie! I don’t have a scale either - I use the measurement and a conversion chart for lmb/smb weights I found online, usually try to be conservative. But I really do “need” a scale. My phone takes pretty large photos, so whatever ones I want to post I email them to myself and choose the “medium” file size when prompted. I then save them back to my phone again and usually they’re good.

I've got Sufix Advance 10# on my cranking rods and have been very happy with it. Good price, easy to manage, casts well and doesn't float like standard mono. I've also had good luck keeping fish pinned with it on a both a M/f and a MH/moderate casting rod. Published diameter of the Sufix Advance 10# is .012”, so about the same as the published diameter of (for example) Sunline FC Sniper 14# at 0.0122”, so shouldn't cost too much (if anything) on diving depth.

Trolling a whopper plopped behind my canoe… ? I’m stealing this idea!???

Count my photos... that's all my big fish, so I'm open to any thoughts. lol

@WRB Awesomen information! Yes, prevailing wind is west, most often SW I’ve found. We were fishing lake trout there in June and with the sensitivity at max. my old Garmin 535 showed the thermocline was at about 80ft - (edit: which, the more I research this the less sense that makes. A more knowledgeable buddy says he’d guess it would be about 35-40ft.) I didn’t check any water deep enough to see it on this last trip. The lake has lmb, smb, lake trout and panfish (perch, bluegill and rock bass). No pike, muskey or walleye.

Headed to my nemesis lake Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Couple little lmb in the weeds when we first arrived in the afternoon, then headed around the corner to some deeper water. Was still thinking lmb and throwing a T-rigged Bandito Bug when I got a great bite. It headed straight for the sky and a beauty smb threw my bug right back at me (pretty sure I also saw him flip me off. lol). I was both thrilled and disappointed as we’ve not found any smb over maybe 2# in this lake yet after many days’ trying, to the point I had thrown in the towel and just targeting lmb. Went back out in the morning to the same windward shore area, and was throwing a Heddon One Knocker spook only a few casts when this nice smb hooked up from about 18ft. of water (no scale - 19.5” and I’d say a very honest 3.5#). I feel like some of the puzzle pieces are finally starting to fall into place on these pelagic buggers.

I’ve been trying to figure out a medium sized lake in central Ontario. It’s a solid largemouth fishery if you work the docks and shoreline, but finding more than the odd decent smallmouth is proving to be a challenge. I strongly suspect the really good smallmouth are suspended and feeding on Cisco. The main basin is quite deep (100ft+) with several islands/bays/points and steep shore contours. Q is… are there any general rules I can apply when searching for these fish with only very basic electronics? I had some luck this weekend along the windward shore, and seemed to be in areas that dropped fairly steeply from shore to 25-30ft of water. Should I be focussing on the windward shore? Lake points? Islands? If anyone was bored and wanted to look at the lake contour map, I’d take all the expert suggestions I can get. https://fishing-app.gpsnauticalcharts.com/i-boating-fishing-web-app/fishing-marine-charts-navigation.html?title=Weslemkoon+Lake+boating+app#12/45.0300/-77.4250

Thanks @looking45. There are heavy weeds on the ledges.