Jmurphy87

I got out last night in the rain and 57 degree temperature. I was at work all day yesterday thinking about throwing a frog, it was going to be over cast and ran so why not. This was the second day of a cold front that has come through. I had a fish roll on it within 5 cast, although he didn’t grab it. I could coax them into hitting it with either letting it sit there or popping it or changing my cadence with the walk. I had a few of them grab it and take it under. But when you tried to reel in and feel them to set the hook there was nothing there. I then deduced that they were either grabbing the longer tails and not getting the body or that they were smaller fish. I decided to break out the choppo and my conclusion was proven with the dink that I caught. He just barely had the rear treble in his mouth, so they were nipping at the bait. I tried the choppo some more and they were not hitting it so back to the frog, had a few more miss it and nippers so I moved around a little bit. By this time I was soaking wet and cold so I decided to pack it in. Hey at least I didn’t get skunked, fish was caught just outside the weed edge.

I am sure that you will really enjoy the 844, I had a hard time choosing a single rod to do a little bit of everything. I went with the conquest and I could not be happier, the rod is surprisingly good with a little bit of everything. My rod is paired with a curado 150 mgl and 14lb fluorocarbon, I have thrown rapala dt-4 on this rod and it casted them good enough for me. I have caught fish on about every presentation and it just keeps surprising me. This past weekend in a river with a 1/4oz tungsten swing head jig you could feel everything on the bottom. Enjoy the new rod.

No problem, I like sharing my experiences because someone might get some useful information that they can use someday out of it. I enjoy helping others out and being able to teach them new things. No clue why just do lol.

That’s a good idea, also I use a scale to weigh them to be as accurate as it is. I don’t really care how big they are, as long as I am catching fish I am happy. I still like the fight from the big ones. Although the little ones are real scrappers sometimes.

I got out twice today, wanted to try my choppo on mono instead of 14lb fluorocarbon that I normally use on my other reel. I was coming through some sparse weeds and had one roll on it and miss it completely. I think I startled it and it wasn’t going after it to eat it. I then kept fishing in the rain in my hoodie, felt good with the temperatures we had last week. Managed to blow my reel up on a cast and tried to get it out for 8 minutes and decided that I needed to go get some groceries lol. I was there for a hour tops at spring valley fishing. Off to the store I went defeated, the store was crazy busy. I got home and got the mess out of the reel and salvaged the last half of the spool. I have big game on it and could respool it but I didn’t want to. I was happy and figured that is still plenty of line. I had to pick my son up in allegan and figured that I might as well put it to the test again and make sure that I had enough line on the reel still. I was still using the choppo and bombing cast and had enough line on the reel. I kept at it a while moved spots and casted and came back through where I caught a pike a little while back. I had a light strike but it didn’t grab it. I kept trying different angles and eventually caught a small smallie about 20 feet off the bank. The spot was perfectly set up as a ambush point, shallow rocky point leading to a flat with a drop on the outside. It was a good day and fun, I can’t complain. I find it nuts how camera positions change the size of fish, one pic he looks smaller and the other he looks bigger than he was. I always like trying to make my fish look as small as possible. I catch fish and I don’t want to lie about there size.

I agree that it is probably 5lbs, has nice thick shoulders and a nice tummy to go with it. Great job today you are on fire like I knew you would be. I am looking forward to hearing about your future trips with anticipation ? have a great night.

I will check that out, I have a spider wire one that I bought my kid for school. He didn’t use it, now it’s full of soft plastics lol. Might just have to unload it and use it. The only problem is that I use 3700 size trays and you need a bag that accepts those with some room to spare.

Awesome, I am so happy for you. I knew that it was not going to be long and you would catch a big one. That bog looks beautiful and serene, that’s part of the reason I go fishing is to escape the madness of this world and to be lost in the serenity of nature and realize that the things that we worry about everyday don’t really matter. Nature provides you just got to slow down and realize it. Congratulations on the new PB.

I would say that it could be a factor of color or possibly the hooks, I threw a choppo yesterday and they were hooking there selves practically. I have had a similar experience with a megabass pop x, I caught a pike on it and it bent the rear treble hook out a little. I decided to replace the hook with a owner tournament trailer feathered treble with red, the lure color was baby bass. I wanted a different contrast, that lure gave me the blues trying to catch a fish on it after that. It took hours to make it happen. They would blowup on it and then I couldn’t hook them or they would completely miss it. I have caught multiple fish on the pop max like nothing. I know sometimes they just are not hitting it right and hooking them can seem impossible but stick with it. You will catch one even bigger and be that much more excited. I use owner hooks, although the Berkley fusion 19 hooks seem pretty good also.

I usually go light with my weight unless they are nipping at the tail, that’s when I go to a heavier weight to give them less time to look at it and trigger a reaction strike. One of the places where I fish that was the ticket to getting bites with a hookup, versus getting the tail chewed off slowly.

Thank you for the recommendation on the backpack, I appreciate it.I have had my bag for 3-4 years now, it’s starting to show signs of wear but it keeps going. I will probably get a backpack in the future. Although I have been downsizing quite a bit, I use to own way too much stuff. The problem is that I like to throw different things than most people, that’s how a collection starts.

Probably, last year they had a better selection at the local store near me. They have a lot of stuff. Since last year they are down to 2 colors now. I own 3 of them, but even when they had more colors they didn’t have the one with a black bottom. I am trying to simplify my tackle system a little. Less colors is easier with choices and makes the tackle bag smaller. Currently have poppers, walking baits, ploppers, buzz baits, spinnerbaits, square bills, wake baits, lipless, frogs, terminal and plastics, a couple jigs and bladed jigs, along with the appropriate trailers. I also have 3 reels loaded with different lines and my tools, clippers and scale, getting heavy now lol. I am good to go though from top to bottom and that all fits in this.

That would be a jackall gavacho frog, they walk amazingly easy and on top of that it’s a popping frog also so it has the best of both worlds. Maybe not the best choice for heavy mats, but light to medium cover there great.

Thank you, I try to take decent pictures. I like showing the baits that I use. Like the frog it’s one of my favorite models, I want a darker one but can’t find them locally.

Took my daughter out for a afternoon session, I told her to tell everyone that she caught the fish she was in the picture in. She told me that she would not lie and say that she caught the fish if she didn’t catch it. All in all a good session, finally caught a decent fish on a doob tube. That was a while to complete, odd sense I really like the color. The tubes are ok at best, I saw the fish when I was working it back next to a tiny mat, completely ignored it. I then lost sight of the fish and decided to pitch it right back where I saw it last, bingo fish on. I thought it was smaller until I hooked it and was like that’s a decent runt lol, I have high standards under 5lbs and it’s small. I also caught my first frog fish of the year, first blow up and hookup. Not huge but he was fiesty and right on the shade line up under a tree where they should be. I was sort of sad that my daughter got skunked but she still had a blast with dad and that’s more important than me catching any fish at all.

Got out this morning and caught 4 dinks, all caught on the choppo 90 in maverick. I didn’t take a picture of one of them but that one was smaller, just unhooked him and let ‘‘em go.

That sounds like a good day to me. Nice fish. Sometimes a different lure or perspective works.

Thank you,I will definitely give that a try. I had a couple hits working the weed line where it drops off butted up to a small pad field. I caught a couple of 3lb ones off the little pocket last year. I also figured that it should be broke up a little bit through there. It seemed like there is a small open spot on the side, where I didn’t get all fouled up as quickly.

I got out this evening for a hour and got skunked like I did last night. I was disappointed last night that the invasive plants at a place I like to fish are running rampant and it’s more choked out than I have ever seen it ?. I tried a weightless senko and as soon as it lands on the water it is buried in weeds. The good news is maybe a frog will be the ticket this year there. I don’t know but I will try to figure it out, between not losing my mind over my finances and how my job just isn’t cutting it anymore. Oh well I have a fishing rod and a fishing license so in all reality life is as good as it can be. It will get better I hope. Just keep pushing.

That’s what I was thinking too lol, sometimes you don’t have the scale when it happens. But you just know, sometimes I think if we quit chasing numbers we would be happier. I mean we are catching fish and that’s all that matters in reality, everything else comes in the correct location and timing.

Thank you, I still have a long ways to go and more to learn than I possibly can in my lifetime. But in the meantime I am going to have fun and keep at it.

Well I was off work today, wife had a doctors appointment and the car is going in to get checked out tomorrow. So I took 2 vacation days, it’s sad that I have to make a appointment to get my vehicle looked at when I know that it’s the lower ball joint, oh well if the warranty covers it I am fine with that. I was teaching my wife about fishing the river and where to cast. I decided to bring my daughters spinning rod, ugly stick gx2 medium action. I chose that cause I already had a Ned rig on it, a 1/16 Ned lock z with a trd craw in watermelon red. The reel was a daiwa regalis or something, the purple one lol. I have 15lb j braid on it, chartreuse color. first small largemouth came parallel to the rock wall, the smallmouth came about 15-20 feet in front of the pylon. I saw the line running with the largemouth, the smallie I just felt a tap and reeled in some slack and felt the tension and set the hook. I was hoping for a decent smallie today to show her, where to cast and how to fish it. Along with watching your line. I don’t know how much it weighed because I didn’t bring my tackle bag, just one rod and a single Ned rig. Not too bad for less than 15 minutes. My last pb smallie was 2.12lbs, this one seemed bigger than that. I used my arm to measure it and when I got home that part of my arm is a little bit over 18 inches. The thing took up all of that, tried to get the wife to hold it but she wouldn’t. Because it came out of the Kalamazoo river lol, I don’t care either way I am holding a fish. At least I got her in a picture with a decent one. Now she needs to show me that she can catch one like that, then the next lesson will begin.

No problem, I figure it will help someone out one way or another. I look at it as a piece that helps add perspective to the story as we tell them. This way you can feel like you’re there.

I got out this afternoon around 1:50pm, I was planning on fishing a small pond that I had not been to in a week or so. I have been seeing more and more people there recently than the past 2 years, not sure what to make of it but oh well. I always hit the river before I get to the pond, I mean it’s right on the way there and why not. I started off pitching past a rock outcropping that normally holds fish, nothing. I then thought about how it’s been warmer than it has been all this past week long. Temperatures between 85-90, decided to throw out towards the deeper water a little ways ahead of the pylon. Bingo, felt the tap and set the hook and got a nice little 2lb smallie. Bait was a 1/4 oz strike king tungsten football swinghead jig with a owner 3/0 j hook along with a black and blue bandito big. I then snuck the back way into the pond, this way I don’t have to walk past the only shady spot on the pond. Much to my dismay the water level was a couple feet lower than normal so a lot of the structure was not even in the water. I kept at it with the same bait that I caught the smallie on but no takers. I had a couple blow up on it when I was dragging it across the top of the weed mats but they never grabbed it. I then decided to change baits, I went with a weightless super fluke in Houdini on a 3/0 hook. I figured that I might get more action. I caught one tiny one and was ready to go, I was tired of picking the cotton off of my line and fighting with that. I stayed a little longer and caught another tiny one and left skunk free. I then decided to go to spring valley to throw the fluke because it is also very weedy but hard to catch much there. I was in one of the spots that I know of. Looked like most of the other spots were occupied from my vantage point, plus a couple kayaks out fishing also. This place is slammed with people fishing it most of the time. Less than 10 minutes I caught one working it back next to the brush in the water. I told myself that’s good enough for me, difficult fishery and less than 10 minutes is a victory. they were not big fish by far but I earned every one of them with my knowledge of the spots and also knowing where the fish are holding throughout the year at these places. This is what drives me, to be able to go places where people fish but don’t catch many and catch them consistently is a start. We can work on size latter, patterns, locations and weather are the things that we can use as tools to stack the odds in our favor.

I was struggling with the same thing with the mag 2 the other day, I upped the weight to trigger more of a reaction strike. It worked on the mag 2, it’s worth a shot. My next idea is using a 7/0 worm hook to get the point back closer to the tail, will try that when I get a chance. I love the rage craws, and craws in general they are one of my favorite confidence baits they work everywhere.