Super User gim Posted July 17, 2017 Super User Posted July 17, 2017 Ya dude that's a ridiculous smallmouth. Pounding waves on that lake suck but if the reward is a 6+ pound smallmouth its worth it. Quote
geneoh Posted July 18, 2017 Posted July 18, 2017 21 hours ago, NathanDLTH said: Looking for recommendations for a 7ft MH rod ideally for jigs, flipping, frogs, flukes, and senkos. Price range is $1-200  I'd probably break that up into two different rods. One for flipping and frogs, the other for jigs, soft plastics.  If you want to still stay in the $200 range I've been surprisingly impressed with the Cabelas ZX rod line (http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabelas-Tournament-ZX-Bass-Casting-Rods/1619298.uts)  You could get both rods for $200. What I like about them is they are very light and have a great grip so they are comfortable. Cabelas has a lifetime warranty so if something happens to a rod you can bring it in and replace it with a new one. I already did this (stepped on an eye and the center piece fell off).  Otherwise, the Black *** 2's are nice, and I love my Loomis E6X. I have the E6X worm and jig rod as well as the dropshot rod and use them the most out of all of my rods.  Quote
NathanDLTH Posted July 18, 2017 Posted July 18, 2017 Well I'm a bank angler, so I was at 3 but my arsenal is up to 6 now. I have a heavy rod for heavy cover frogging. This rod is more multi-purpose because I'm not gonna frog with it in heavy cover, more open water poppin and other applications. Thanks, I'll take a look. Quote
punch Posted July 19, 2017 Author Posted July 19, 2017 Got a nice 3lb 9oz fish tonight on a strike king poppin perch (their new poppin frog). I was able to cobble together about 6 fish off dropshot and topwater, which has been my one-two punch the last few weeks. Since it warmed up I'm basically tossing one or the other and getting a some nice fish. I fished a wacky stickbait and power fished a jerkbait bait and got no bites.  2 Quote
redbirdsfan44 Posted July 20, 2017 Posted July 20, 2017 I've got a trip planned to Mille Lacs coming up in August. Any tips? Quote
Super User FryDog62 Posted July 20, 2017 Super User Posted July 20, 2017 12 hours ago, redbirdsfan44 said: I've got a trip planned to Mille Lacs coming up in August. Any tips? If you've not fished there before there's a great guide - Jim DaRosa.  Otherwise, use your side imaging to find the boulder piles out in approx 20 fow.  Go above the piles and drift in the wind back over the boulder field with a drop shot rig.  Again a good guide like Jim is a great way to do this as he knows where the best boulder fields are.  Big lake, be prepared to search around if your a first-timer.   Quote
Ranger518vx Posted July 20, 2017 Posted July 20, 2017 3 hours ago, FryDog62 said: If you've not fished there before there's a great guide - Jim DaRosa.  Otherwise, use your side imaging to find the boulder piles out in approx 20 fow.  Go above the piles and drift in the wind back over the boulder field with a drop shot rig.  Again a good guide like Jim is a great way to do this as he knows where the best boulder fields are.  Big lake, be prepared to search around if your a first-timer.   I second Jim DaRosa. Great guy and an awesome guide. Unless you get lucky and stumble onto a few good boulders you can chew up A LOT of time graphing before you find good fish. Quote
geneoh Posted July 20, 2017 Posted July 20, 2017 I'm with punch, dropshot or bust. I went out to the local lake yesterday for a few hours in the afternoon and caught good numbers. 90% of all the bites we on a dropshot (roboworm straight tail 6"). No lunkers but average fish around 2lbs.  I was fishing offshore weedlines, everything kinda just tapered off, I couldn't find any abrupt edges. It was all in about 10 FOW. Tried a few different tactics but nothing else was successful.  Dropshot is becoming a confidence tactic. It's funny how quickly things can change, just in the beginning of this thread, I stated I wanted to gain some confidence in the dropshot. Now it's always on my deck because I know it'll catch fish! 1 Quote
Super User gim Posted July 21, 2017 Super User Posted July 21, 2017 19 hours ago, redbirdsfan44 said: I've got a trip planned to Mille Lacs coming up in August. Any tips?  I assume you aren't hiring a guide and you have your own boat...  In that case, the advice given above is pretty good. The fish are in deeper water and on offshore structure, especially big boulders. You will have to spend a significant amount of time searching for these areas. Quote
BassThumb Posted July 21, 2017 Posted July 21, 2017 On 7/17/2017 at 3:45 PM, Ranger518vx said: Got a pic of the 6.25? That's a beast. No pics. No regrets though. It was too windy and wavy. I would have been blown off the spot had I taken the foot off the trolling motor and lost boat control. Those fish are in such tight schools, when you catch one, you gotta get the lure back in the very same place ASAP. Quote
FishingMN Posted July 21, 2017 Posted July 21, 2017 4 hours ago, geneoh said: I'm with punch, dropshot or bust. I went out to the local lake yesterday for a few hours in the afternoon and caught good numbers. 90% of all the bites we on a dropshot (roboworm straight tail 6"). No lunkers but average fish around 2lbs.  I was fishing offshore weedlines, everything kinda just tapered off, I couldn't find any abrupt edges. It was all in about 10 FOW. Tried a few different tactics but nothing else was successful.  Dropshot is becoming a confidence tactic. It's funny how quickly things can change, just in the beginning of this thread, I stated I wanted to gain some confidence in the dropshot. Now it's always on my deck because I know it'll catch fish! how far off the bottom do you set your dropshot when fishing the gradually fading weeds? Quote
geneoh Posted July 21, 2017 Posted July 21, 2017 38 minutes ago, FishingMN said: how far off the bottom do you set your dropshot when fishing the gradually fading weeds?  I had to retie a few times so roughly 8-10 inches. 1 Quote
FishingMN Posted July 21, 2017 Posted July 21, 2017 11 minutes ago, geneoh said:  I had to retie a few times so roughly 8-10 inches. It is funny you mention no clear end of the weeds, no clear weedline.  I noticed this year on lakes I fish a lot of just gradual thinning of weeds.. still with tall stems but just less density.  Like a weed stem every 3 feet going into the deep water, then finally they start to get short.   Quote
punch Posted July 21, 2017 Author Posted July 21, 2017 I've actually been getting a lot of my dropshot bites fishing IN the weeds, not the edges. The bigger fish like to hang out right in the junk when it's warm this time of year. punching the weeds with a texas rig/jig or dropping a dropshot into it and keeping it still while shaking it seems to get some pretty good bites. It can be an adventure getting the fish out though with the lighter dropshot setup.  Point is, don't feel like you have to be a ninja around the edges of weedlines with the dropshot.. dive right in there and see what happens. 3 Quote
punch Posted July 21, 2017 Author Posted July 21, 2017 On 7/19/2017 at 11:51 PM, redbirdsfan44 said: I've got a trip planned to Mille Lacs coming up in August. Any tips?  I really hope you have side imaging.. it's KEY in finding spots to fish on Mille Lacs IMHO. You gotta drive around and find packs of rocks/boulders, mark them, then fish them to see if anyone is home. Smallies relate to the cover, so they may not be right on top of the rocks but they will likely be 'around' the rocks. The key is finding isolated patches of boulders or bigger rocks.. anything that kind of stands out as being unique.  Dropshot is key BUT be sure to have a 3" or 4" swimbait tied onto a 1/4oz jig head. It's a fantastic search bait on Mille Lacs. Just find those rock piles and launch the swimbait out and let it hit the bottom. Then slowly bring it back letting the swimbait bang off the rocks. This is a deadly tatic in the fall.  Don't rule out that fish might be suspended higher in the water column right now. Mid-summer smallies can be suspended in schools. If you're marking fish up off the bottom it could be a sign that fishing bottom contact stuff isn't going to get much action. In that case tie on a bright colored jerkbait (xrap for instance) and work it fast. Ripping a loud jerkbait that dives like 4-6' in 15' FOW over suspended fish can be pretty productive.  Honestly I'd probably have jerkbait, dropshot, tube, swimbait, and a jig/craw or craw on a shakeyhead all tied up. Probably cover all your bases when trying to find the brown fish. Quote
geneoh Posted July 21, 2017 Posted July 21, 2017 23 minutes ago, punch said: I've actually been getting a lot of my dropshot bites fishing IN the weeds, not the edges. The bigger fish like to hang out right in the junk when it's warm this time of year. punching the weeds with a texas rig/jig or dropping a dropshot into it and keeping it still while shaking it seems to get some pretty good bites. It can be an adventure getting the fish out though with the lighter dropshot setup.  Point is, don't feel like you have to be a ninja around the edges of weedlines with the dropshot.. dive right in there and see what happens.  Ha, funny you said this. This morning I couldn't really find any edges, the lake I was on is basically all weeds everywhere. So I fished in/around thicker clumps in 10-15ft of water and caught two 4lbers. Dropshot of course. What made it even better is that this is a lake I haven't done all that well on in the past. Redemption with the trusty dropshot. Quote
Tlauz Posted July 22, 2017 Posted July 22, 2017 Fished Wed night, Thursday, Friday morning.  Hot without much wind.  Fishing was steady.  Nice mix of smallmouth and largemouth. Most fish have been in 6-12 feet on weed edges.  I've caught most fish on wacky jig and 5 inch worm.  Thursday morning had a good frog bite on edge of reeds.  Friday morning caught fish on swim jig with seismic grub, wind picked up for about an hour and caught some nice fish on a spinnerbait.  Two questions for you guys, first how the heck do you keep dropshot from tangling when not using it.  I hook the hook in the keeper, but the line from the hook to the weight seems to get tangled a lot ( I probably shouldn't keep so many rods out).  Second,  as I am going along with my trolling motor, I have been seeing roaming smallmouth in real shallow water.  I usually throw a weightless wacky worm or weighted wacky at them, but this year I can't seem to get them to pay attention to anything.  Any tips would be appreciated. Quote
OperationEagle Posted July 24, 2017 Posted July 24, 2017 I just might give that drop shot a try this week or weekend. You all have convinced me that it's something I need to add to the arsenal. Quote
shimmy Posted July 24, 2017 Posted July 24, 2017 Fishing July 4th week. Had an early reunion with family at this time. I would have preferred a later trip since the time of year was not fully past the post-spawn to my liking. Much like the posts I read here, the bite was slow. While I still have a few decent pictures, our numbers were few and the bellies of fish were still thinned out on most fish we caught. Only a few lakes we found had fish that were more thick. I was excited to try the whopper plopper out for the first time, but it never landed any giants for me. I probably didn't give it enough time though. Frog fishing was there, but we didn't realize it till the last day or two. Swig jig was not the ticket, which I thought it was. Slow moving jigs with a moving trailer was our best combo. The reaction bite ripping through the weeds still got bit, but I could NEVER get a follow up bite and they missed it 75% of the time. Was a very odd bite the whole week. Here are some of the 5+ with only one clearing the 6 mark. My brother in law caught a (not pictured) 6 lb 13 oz the day after i left...go figure.             2 Quote
Super User gim Posted July 25, 2017 Super User Posted July 25, 2017 Hey Shimmy I have a question. Are you harvesting all of these fish or do you guys catch them at the same time and then take a photo? I only ask because I noticed that one photo of you standing in what appears to be a cornfield. Quote
shimmy Posted July 25, 2017 Posted July 25, 2017 2 hours ago, gimruis said: Hey Shimmy I have a question. Are you harvesting all of these fish or do you guys catch them at the same time and then take a photo? I only ask because I noticed that one photo of you standing in what appears to be a cornfield. Heavens no! That would be worse than harvesting my own children...When everyone in the boat catches a picture worthy fish, we run into the problem of nobody to take the picture. So, in these cases, we either try to rig some weird contraption on the boat and risk something falling and breaking my rod (which happened this spring), or we launch the boat, take the picture with everyone, and then let them go at the ramp. Several of these fish i am sure i have caught again through the years. Every once in a while, i will find a 5+ or 6+ that has the same markings. They are like pets. They are still hard to catch despite the boat traffic on some of these lakes, but we have spent many years on these particular waters and continue to get lucky here and there. We will occasionally eat the walleye. I have many of these fish caught and released on film for my viewing during the long winters. Reason I rarely post them is they can be telling of the areas and exact approach we take on some of the more identifiable lakes/spots. 2 Quote
punch Posted July 26, 2017 Author Posted July 26, 2017 I made another terrible video if anyone wants to check it out. I've been spending some time working on some holes in my fishing game this year, one of which included river bank fishing. I live near the Coon Rapids Dam and have always been a little intimidated by it because in past years i've fished it and not gotten a single bite and had no confidence. I've been taking it more seriously this summer and I've managed to find some good spots.   1 Quote
Super User gim Posted July 28, 2017 Super User Posted July 28, 2017 Not bad Punch. I think rivers are very under fished in Minnesota. Everyone tends to go to the lake in the land of 10,000 lakes instead. The best part was when that pike completely inhaled the swim bait haha. Quote
Super User Jeff H Posted July 28, 2017 Super User Posted July 28, 2017 On 7/26/2017 at 11:06 AM, punch said: I made another terrible video if anyone wants to check it out. I've been spending some time working on some holes in my fishing game this year, one of which included river bank fishing. I live near the Coon Rapids Dam and have always been a little intimidated by it because in past years i've fished it and not gotten a single bite and had no confidence. I've been taking it more seriously this summer and I've managed to find some good spots.   I know that area well, spent many days of my youth there before there was a county park. It's also a good carp/sucker area in the spring. Quote
OperationEagle Posted July 28, 2017 Posted July 28, 2017 2 nights in a row....4 letters..... S L O W.  glad to to be out though as both nights were beautiful.  who is catchin em and with what and where?  1 Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.