Fallser

I tie both hair and marabou jigs. 1/4 oz for my spinning gear, and 1/20th oz for my fly rod.

I was up in the Poconos. We get a house on a lake for a week at the end of May. I went down to the dock to see if I could catch a few panfish for dinner with my fly rod. After a couple of casts there was a big swirl. I set the hook and the rod bent over. Fortunately, I had a heavy tippet(20 lb fluoro) on but no net. I was able to drag the fish around the end of the dock and down the dock to a spot where I could land it. Certainly not as big as some of the bass already posted, but it's the largest bass I've caught with fly rod. You can see the fly in my avatar. It was about an inch and a half long. Still the biggest bass I've caught on a fly rod.

Not a whole lot different than you. I tie some on worm hooks. The ones I've had the most success with are tied on 1/32 oz jig heads.

My spinning gear is gathering dust. The only time I really use it is when I go up to a lodge in NE Ontario. If I'm fishing in more than 10 to 15 feet of water, I'll switch to spinning gear. I'm certainly not fussy about the flies I use. There are certain lures I like to use. So I'll experiment with the flies I tie. I have a "fly" that imitates a Jitterbug, one that mimics a Zara Spook both are foam. Even came up with a Senko fly, when my fishing buddies started using them. I mainly fish warm water and these days I don't really chase trout.

Not sure if it would be consider weird or not, but the majority of the time I use a fly rod, either a 6 wgt or an 8 wgt when I'm chasing bass, largemouth and smallmouth.

Not sure why the moderator moved your post to the Southeast region. Since the Susquehanna is in PA. I haven't fished the Susquehanna in years so I can't really give you any help. Repost in the Northeast Bass Fishing. That should get you some replies.

I've never been a fan of wire leaders. The only time I've used 100# fluorocarbon is when rigging small lures for inshore and off-shore fishing in the salt. The larger lures usually were rigged with 225# fluorocarbon. I don't fish for pike that often, though I do fish for there smaller cousins chain pickerel. I've got a week of fishing in Northeast Ontario coming up next month and I don't plan on using them. Normally, if I'm spin fishing or trolling I just tie the lure directly to the braid. I do use long minnow style lures which give me some bite protection. If I'm fly fishing which I do most of the time, I just use a straight piece of 20 or 25# fluorocarbon. Of course, I don't own any $150 lures.

I've never caught one. I had a large one come after me while fishing a local creek. I could see it coming toward me and poked it with my wading stick. It kept coming so I retreated to the shore. Once I got out of the water, it turned around and went back to deeper water. When I was in school in Tennessee I was fishing one of my professor's farm pond. I had a nice stringer of bluegills attached to a fence that ran into the pond. The fence started shaking and I notice the stringer was straight out. I pulled it in and found a snapper munching on my dinner. It let go but my fish dinner was mostly gone.

Nope, not a buffalo. The Delaware doesn't have them. Just a common sucker. You can tell by the downward facing mouth.

When I was in school in Tennessee we would occasionally eat drum. We usually made a fish chowder with them. Carp, my grandmother would sometime ask me to bring one or two home. She used them to make gefilte fish. Bluefish I actually like, well anything under 20 inches, usually broiled them. The snapper blues fried up pretty well. The one in the 4 or 5 pound range ended up in the smoker. They were very tasty.

Most of the time I use a fly rod when fishing for largemouth and smallmouth. I'm a "dry fly snob" so I use poppers, sliders and the occasional crease fly. Over the years I've caught several 20 inch smallies up in NE Ontario with them. Largemouth my PB is 21 inches. I use a 6 wgt most of the time, but the 8 wgt is handy in weeds and lily pads. The local lakes I fish are tannic, but the lake in Canada is clear. You can see bottom in 8 to 10 feet of water.

It's one of my favorite lures. Probably because I caught my first 4+ pound bass on one. I have a few in my tackle box and even made up a couple to toss with my fly rod. I picked up the ones I have at fishing flea markets. Most cost me $1 to $2. I just clean them up and replace the hooks and they're good to go.

We have a few fishing flea markets around here. As you walk the tables you'll see tackle box displays that look just like your picture. Most times the lures are for sale for $1 to $3. Sometimes you can get a beat up one for $0.50. It took me a long time to move away from bobber and worm or a bobber and minnow. Rather than lures of my childhood it would be lures of my teens. A Rapala minnow was probably the first and since I've always been a top water person, the Jitterbug, Hula Popper and the Tiny Torpedo. I've never had much luck with the Lazy Ike. I do have a couple that I picked at flea markets in my tackle box. Along with a couple of Canadian Wigglers. My friends in Ontario who gave them to me a few years ago swear they're not Lazy Ikes. There is a bit of difference in the angle of the lip and the width of the body. I figure it's just a Canadian knock-off of the Lazy Ike. I have caught anything with them either.

Welcome, I'm also from SE PA. I've fished both Nockamixon and the Tohickon over the years. Like you I start off the season fly fishing for trout, but I don't put the fly rod down when the weather warms up. Mostly I fish the Wissahickon since it's close to me or head up to the Poconos and fish the lakes and ponds there.

Looks good. If you're thinking of it as a top water fly, I agree with the above that the rabbit strips will pull it down. I've caught bass and chain pickerel on sub-surface frog patterns. An option would to use marabou for the legs. Again, if you're shooting for a top water, pack on as much deer hair as you can, and pack it tight.

I'm pretty sure they're VMC. I got them from Barlow's. It's also possible I got them from Jann's Netcraft. The 2024 Barlow's catalog has them. I haven't gotten a 2024 catalog from Jann's Netcraft yet. You can probably check on line to see if Jann's carries them

The quality of craft store marabou is really not that great. The stems get thick rather quickly so there isn't a whole lot of marabou available for wrapping. To get the most out of them you have to strip the "feathers" off the stem and then wrap the individual bunches around the shank. It can get messy but it can be done. These were tied using bunches of marabou rather than trying to wrap the marabou around the shank. You're not going to get the "bushy" type of jig you get when you wrap marabou, but you still get a fishable jig. The jig in the upper left was tied with some marabou I picked up in a craft store.

Over the last two or three years, I've replaced the trebles on all my lures with barbless trebles. Same reason as everyone else. It's easier for me to get the hooks out of the fish, my clothes and me. It's not that great of a jump for me. I do a lot of fly fishing and I've been using barbless hooks for years and I'm use to them.

They definitely stand out. They stock a few of them in the local creek. Most are caught quickly but once in a while they get washed out of the easy to fish spots and survive through the summer. They get some competition in the local creek from goldfish that were dumped into the creek. Once they get out of the fish bowl, goldfish can grow to a couple of pounds. One time after some really high water koi showed up in the creek, at least for that summer.

I thought I had a few more. They might be stashed somewhere. All of them weigh in between .1 and .2 oz and between 1 1/2 and 2 inches long. Two Rattle Traps, a Zara Pooch, a Rapala UL Shad 04, a Rebel minnow of some sort and one that I think is a Yozuri. I wished I checked my tackle box last night. I went to a fishing flea market with a couple of friends today, and one guy had a whole tackle box of these tiny lures for sale. Two or three dollars each. We're going to another fishing flea market next week. I'll have to keep my eyes open. I have an UL rod that I must of built for fishing these light lures. I could throw them with my fly rod.

I caught my first big bass, a 4+ pound fish, trolling a Jitterbug, at a local reservoir. It was run by the local electric company. We hadn't even gotten out of sight of the dock. Turned around went back in. Had the fish weighed and my picture taken to put on the photo board. They worked great on the local farm ponds I fished when I was in college in NW Tennessee. I still have them in my tackle box and use them when I put down my fly rod. All the ones I have now I picked up at local fishing flea markets for a dollar or two. Cleaned them up, put on new trebles, replaced the skirts on the ones that have them. They'll be making the trip with me to NE Ontario this summer.

Barlow's has the lips online not in their catalog. They have a small size, but looking at the lip on the "micro" Jitterbug I have. The body is 1 1/2 inches long. I can toss it with my 8 wgt fly rod if I want to. The small size lip may be too large for a "micro" jitterbug. When I started tying flies, I was always trying to make flies that imitated my favorite top water lures. The jitterbug still is one my favorites when I use spinning. I came up with these and they did work.

The only time I run into that situation is when I go up to a lodge in NE Ontario. The lake is known for it's walleye, but my buddy and I prefer to fish for smallmouth. We do catch walleye and smallmouth from the same areas, particularly on the mid-lake shoals and humps. Smallmouth during the day and walleye in the evening. There's a small window in the evening where we'll catch both, but as it gets darker the smallmouth bite dies off.

There is no difference. "Sili Legs" and silicone skirt material are the same thing. It just costs more to buy them at fly shops. I've been using the silicone skirt layers/spinner bait skirt layers for my flies for close to 25 years. I buy them from tackle making catalogs like Jann's Netcraft and Barlow's. I even use a full spinner bait skirt for some of my bass bugs. If I'm tying 1/8 oz or smaller jigs, I prefer the the "traditional" materials, bucktail and marabou.

Since I mainly fly fish, I'm use to fishing barbless hooks. They're required in some of the trout streams I fish, but I use them also for warm water and salt water fly fishing. I never been able to talk myself into removing the treble hooks from my lures. What I've been doing the past two years is replacing the barbed trebles with barbless ones. I buy them from either Barlow's or Jann's Netcraft. So far they've worked well. Easy to remove from fish or net. Not to mention myself.