Drawdown

To quote the Plain White T’s, hate is a strong word! What’s wrong with trout fishing? I myself never go to Reliance to fish the Hiwassee trout because I always want to fish for bass way further downstream. But I don’t suppose I hate it.

Wonder if the glide bait bite is good at any point downstream from the riffle?

So, Michigan? lol

@Glenn that reaper video has me thinking a number of drop shot baits—particularly soft ones (e.g. X-Zone Finesse Slammer, etc.) could be fished the same way, rigged flat side up. Random dialect question: what part of the country does “all’s” come from? I’ve heard you say “all’s you’ve got to do, etc.” a number of times and find it fascinating—have never heard someone from the West Coast talk that way. Though I admit my sample size is somewhat small.

Picking on George Jones’ kin like that just ain’t fair.

Thanks for this. I like the look of that 7’5” Heavy iRod Genesis 3. Seems like it’d be perfect for summer (might even give heavy hair jigs a gander, too) and fall. While I save up for one (and a reel to go with it), I’ll probably throw 1oz spooks and frogs on the 7’6” MH/F casting setup I have now (Carbonlite 2.0) and do light poppers on my spinning M/F setup on 20lb braid. 1/8-3/16oz 3” paddletails on my ML. Ideally, by next spring I’ll also have a cheaper moderate fast medium casting setup with a cheap-ish Black Max reel for the light cranks. If not, I’ll just make it work with a medium spinning rod.

You never struck me as a Mets’ guy. ?

Picked up a Shimano SLX M/XF spinning rod for $38 from Academy last night! An additional 30% off the marked clearance price of $54. So grab whatever clearance rods you see off the rack and take them to a price scanner at the end of an aisle—you might be surprised!

I blame Jacob Wheeler’s marketing of those Duckett rods for putting this idea in my head.

Alright, I repent of my belief in the premise of the OP. Going to shoot for a Medium MF casting setup for cranks and maybe a Heavy/F casting for the frogs and 3/4-1oz spooks—maybe if I get a fever and try flutter spoons next summer the latter will be the ticket, too.

I’ve done perfectly fine with Seaguar Red Label for my 8lb fluoro leader. Holds up well abrasion-wise from bottom structure. But not as good as I’d like if you’re passing your bait over exposed wood or hang up on the bank. Next time I buy, I’ll probably step it up a tiny notch (Blue Label or something). Not *that* much more expensive. But not until I finish this spool.

Wonder if tying on a zebra midge or some other sinking fly fishing presentation with that size hook will haul them in?

I’d say you did the right thing. By the time you paid the 4Runner off you’d likely have the same mileage as your Taco does now.

Seems one of my biggest issues here for thinking through this is my unfamiliarity with topwater lures, insofar as I don’t know what they typically weigh. That’s generally true for most hard baits. If someone writes a post about a jig, they’ll usually mention the weight, but posts about topwater typically just name the type of bait. So I haven’t picked up on it so much.

I’ve accidentally foul hooked gizzard shad before on a moving bait with fine wire hook(s). First time was burning a small blade with two treble hooks on the edge of an island; second time was swimming a YUM spine craw on a small jig head, but I was bumping up against a sand/gravel bar between where I cast and the shore. So the takeaway is trapping them on a shallow underwater “ridge.”

Maybe a “parabolic” Fast action will do a better job of what I want for topwater, at least. Then just go cheap on a dedicated M or MH power, MF action crankbait rod (like a cork-handled Berkley Lightning).

Wondering if the ultimate solution is two rods: one M/MF and the other H/MF, to let me cast poppers/shallow cranks on the first, and frogs/deep cranks on the other.

TL;DR, at some point I want to get a moderate/moderate fast action rod to do both topwater and crankbait duty on the TN River in different seasons. But I’m not sure what power rod to get. Thinking of running straight braid for topwater, tying on a leader for cranks, etc. I’m at the stage of life where one rod has to do 2-5 things, which is why I’m wondering what power and length of rod would made the most sense for primarily running topwater on braid in the fall, but in the spring and early summer being able to switch to throwing cranks and maybe chatterbaits after tying on a fluoro or mono leader. Question would be, how heavy a lure would I be needing to throw? I would love to be able to get a good deal of distance on topwater casts. My MH/F jig, spinnerbait casting rod can’t quite get a 1/2oz popper as far as I’d like. Don’t know if a softer action M or MH rod would solve this, or if I need to focus on getting more weight on the lure itself (which might necessitate going with a Heavy power rod).

It can be especially frustrating having to rely on reviews from BPS’ website, alone. Just about any other brand I can find solid reviews on TW, but of course there’s only 2 places to get BPS/JM gear. So anytime BPS updates a product, you can feel like you’re shooting in the dark for a few months. The new Xtreme spinning rod had no reviews, last I checked, for instance. You should consider posting a version of this on the BPS site, too, if you haven’t already. I like my Carbonlite 2.0 combo very much. Nice having the peace of mind with the 10-year warranty.

Not wanting to derail OP’s fantastic review—but FWIW, my understanding is the merger was primarily the result of a hedge fund manager who bought a 10% stake in Cabela’s, and used his influence to convince the board to sell the company. I’m thankful the BPS-Sportsman’s Warehouse merger got shot down by the Feds.

Little guys were slamming some 3.3” paddletails on 1/8oz jig heads with 2/0 hooks today. Not bad for a bright, no-wind day in the stained water. Caught a few white bass too on the flats. Baitfish all over the place.

For some reason I thought they weren’t on the naughty list. At least, feels like I’ve seen them mentioned many times on the forum.

I guess what gives me pause about frogs is I’ve heard the hookup ratio can be terribly iffy. I suppose the hook design makes it to where fish have to really commit to it or hit it at the right angle. But, that may just be the cost one pays to be relatively weedless.

A funny part of living in a part of the country where you’re in between mountains and ridges is you almost never get the kind of wind one sees on the Plains. For us in SE TN, a 15mph day is pretty gusty. March seems to be the only time we consistently hit 20mph. So I fish and hunt a lot of relatively calm water here.

Buzz bait is the only topwater I’ve ever really fished and caught a fish on (white Booyah with a clacker and a fluke for a trailer). But it strikes me as very aggressive and loud. And since you can’t really leave a buzz bait to pause long lest it sink, it’s going to be moving a lot. So I guess I’ll be hoping to get more of a “visual + water displacement” approach only to complement it. I’m thinking of picking up some “pencil poppers” like Yo-Zuri (sp?) makes.