Rather than tie up a lot of threads stating my humble opinion, I thought I would start a new one to get some other opinions/clarification. Here's my question:
Does anyone really "finesse" fish anymore?
I'll readily admit, I'm old school in a lot of ways but every thread I read that has something to do with finesse fishing it has it's fair share of comments that include...braided line up to 50lb test and non braid up to and over 20 test . All throwing baits designed for finesse presentations. To me, that's not finesse, that's throwing a finesse bait on a heavy rig. Make no mistake, I have heavy setups with 35lb braid for fishing in the slop, bed fishing and dragging baits but for the most part, I use 12lb test mono/fluro on my crankbaits, topwater, jerkbaits and spinnerbaits but for "finesse" baits including; Senko, Dropshot, Ned, Shakeyhead, Fluke and a few others I use MAXIMUM 8lb test mono on spinning gear. To me and this is just my opinion, finesse fishing includes your line. It makes a difference with finesse baits (leaders aside). In 15 years of going to Michigan and catching 3-4-5lb hard fighting smallmouth, I have only had one breakoff due to line and that was due to my buddy wrapping the line around his hand while helping me land a big smallie. He thought it was spooled with braid. I have had the inevitable musky/pike bite offs as well but heavier line doesn't help with that. I fish the heavily grassed Potomac with these same setups. With the quality of line and drag systems on the reels today, why do we feel like we have to overpower the fish to that degree? I realize I'm not in SoCal and not fishing for that 15+ pounder but that's a pretty small population and I would upsize if I was going there. I've landed my share of 8 and 9 pounders on 8-12 pound test depending on the rig. Just for reference I attached a 14lb Northern Snakehead I caught on 8lb test mono and a weightless Senko on the Potomac, buried in the thick grass. Some bass as well on my normal setups.
Is true finesse fishing dead?
