AManWearingAHat

still another 8 weeks to go here or so before anything starts warming up and biting...

I literally had this happen to me at Lake Norfork back in October. Water was still warm and the bite was super slow. Decided to downsize just to try and find SOME action. Finally found some active panfish on one of the steep walls. Fishing a Bobby Garland baby shad on a road runner head on a 6' Ultralight on 4# test and WHAM. Something hits it like a ton of bricks and bends my rod in half. Sure enough, 3 pound smallie. Talk about a good fight! Little bugger.

Wade in wisconsin a fair bit but only in the shallower slow moving streams. Generally know where all the holes are. Only close call I had was on the White river in Arkansas. Almost swept off my feet.

Bait monkey got me good yesterday. 75 dollar order from Lunker City..... of course I needed those colors and sizes!!!

All I use! So 100%

Shore fishing, I cast mine out as far as I can. I let it hit the bottom under slack line and then give it a few twitches. Then Ill pop it towards me, let it find the new bottom, twitch it more and repeat. It's a great technique for finding skittish fish holding near the bottom. This lets me survey a range of depths until I find the band the fish are holding in. Then its just casing back to that band and working the bait there. I had tremendous luck with the Drop Shot in 2021. Easily my most productive technique. Same technique will work for boat fishing too, but spot lock will help. If I'm fishing it with a friend who is working the shore, Ill cast out ahead of the boat on the other side as not to interfere with the shore cast and sort of work the lure back towards the boat as we move the spot I cast to, if that makes sense. I've picked off some very nice smallies doing that. Though this will only work if you've got a bottom where you've got a big depth gradient you can work. Otherwise Id just throw at the shore too.

My typical length is "That looks about good". In reality I usually sit around 18"-30" Much longer and my 7 footer starts getting a little spicy to cast. I generally only bring out the ole C-Rig if the fishing is really slow going. Netted me a couple early winter bass this year before everything froze out. I generally don't fish short leader C-Rigs because I tend to follow the rule of thumb that you use longer leaders for sluggish fish, and sluggish fish is the only time I fish it.

Don't worry Im in the same boat. I've ditched jig heads pretty much across the board on swim baits. I trimmed down to 4 presentations either use the EWG/Pegged weight, an Owner Flashy Swimmer, Mesu Swobble head, or a belly weighted EWG depending on condition. They all have their own action depending on conditions. The bait monkey is still well fed... believe me...

You can make just about anything work, but for me the feel and control is way better with a spinning rod.

Agreed on this one. Running on plane is fun, but I'm always focused on what's ahead of me and what's around. Last lake I was operating on had floating debris after a recent storm and other potential hazards. I'm definitely a "take it easy" guy on the water. Fishing is supposed to be relaxing.

As a newer boat operator here's what I learned in my first year 1. Take a boater safety class and pay attention. Even if it's online, find a quality one AND PAY ATTENTION. They're chock full of good information. I learned a lot despite the quality of acting in some of the presentations. 3. PFD and kill switch 100% of the time when running the outboard. No exceptions. 2. Start slow in an open piece of water. Get used to how your boat gets on plane, how it handles on plane, get some idea for it's turning radius. 4. Learn how to cross a wake. Learn how to operate in waves. Storms and white caps pop up at the worst times, especially when you're focused on fishing. This was my baptism by fire my first day out on a rental boat. Taking the boater safety class was the difference between getting a little wet and potentially getting capsized. 5. Just because you have a top speed doesn't mean you need to use it. Excessive speed can turn deadly very easily in a boat. I promise, nothing on or under the water is worth dying for. These are dangerous machines when not handled with care. 6. Practice around a dock, moving in and around a slip isn't like pulling into a parking spot. 7. Your boat doesn't have brakes. Don't come at the dock / slip / trailer faster than you're willing to run into it. 8. Save the drinking for dry land. Keep your head up. Most boaters I've met are fine people, but there are irresponsible idiots out there. Watch out for the pontoon crowd especially.

Tail to the side but actually, tail down.

Amen to that. Good friend of mine is a bigtime muskie fisherman, so I started going out with him. Makes my bass gear feel like I'm flicking a feather around.

Keitech Easy Shiner in Threadfin Shad or Smallmouth Magic

I love swim bait fishing of all sizes, I picked them up pretty quickly. Crankbaits are still elusive to me. Never had much luck with them.

Question regarding line choice on a bait caster. Currently running straight fluoro on my "do-it-all" MH-Fast casting rod. I mainly ran swim baits and swim jigs on it this year. I want to start learning more how to fish jigs and other falling presentations (un-pegged T-Rig, creatures, etc.). I was considering switching to braid as a mainline with a fluoro leader, but I have heard that the slack line sensitivity with braid is not very good. When I read about falling presentations, I've typically been told to let them fall on slack line for the most natural presentation, which begs the question about bite detection with braid. Should I stick with the Fluoro? Any shared experiences would he helpful.

I caught my PB small mouth on a Bobby Garland crappie minnow on a white road runner jig head on a 6’ ultralight with 4 pound test. Works for largemouth too.

Carolina rigged paddle tail on a 3 foot leader produced for me this afternoon in a northern pond. Dragging the bottom trying to show the deep sluggish bass an easy meal.

Addendum, local Cabela's had the Plano guide tubes on sale. Problem solved.

So plan is, I’ve got 8 long rods that are going up top in the clamping carrier. Butt pointing forward into the wind, all in rod socks. The shorties and the broken down and rubber banded two piecers are getting wrapped in a towel, and secured in the bed. down the line I’ll probably just get a dedicated locking hard case for rods.

Cab is out, have too many passengers. The rag suggestion is a great idea to prevent sliding. Definitely going to use that. the ride is a few hundred miles.

I’m not a great jig fisherman, I don’t have the feel for “fish vs rock, weed, stick, etc.” down yet and I’ve set the hook on some really stupid stuff. likewise with cranks. I’ve been really trying to get better with cranks and especially lipless cranks, but so far no luck.

No offense but that live target bait screams "gimmick" to me.

Megastrike works fine.

If I were to get a medium bait caster I personally would be using it to throw weightless plastics and jerk baits. I prefer to do that on spinning tackle so I don’t own any medium casting set ups. In a medium I really think there’s a lot of overlap between a bait caster and a spinning rod. I personally never saw the point in having a medium BC when I already have spinning set up in the same power. Just one fisherman’s opinion.