RSBreth

For Smallmouths in particular I stick with two-hook lures, like the smaller McStick or X-Rap. I like subtle, natural colors on cloudy days and bright colors on sunny days, or stained water.

You guys have fun - I gotta keep the fire going at the homestead.

One of my absolute favorites - Trans-Siberian Orchestra "Carol Of The Bells":

I've read enough Stephen Bodio books to be really interested - but I barely have enough time for the outdoor hobbies I already have. Cool post HK -maybe more in the future.

Most of my pictures are on film for that stretch - but if you get chance just go in the off season and the upper South Platte is wonderful. Many memories of good fish Eleven Mile is great too.

"Tweed cred" maybe perhaps... , but not for carp. These threads are bad enough pushing a fish almost no one will ever care about but then the "your wife says that" thing - wow. Just bad manners.

It's pretty easy to make your own guards - Matzuo sickle on the left - right is my own made on a Tiemco Bass Bug 8089 with old guitar string. I mostly use the Gammy B10S these days instead of the Tiemco. You can easily do the same with heavy mono.

Get two for the price of one is a great deal.

With my stupid leg injury I was out most of the summer. Trying to make up for it now also. Tons of Honey-Do's to do though .....

Thursday I walked out of my office and went to the car, got the flyrod and walked down to the Finley and caught two Smallies and one green fish on one of my poppers. If you like Smallmouths you owe it to yourself to learn to cast a fly rod.

Never. Simple as that. As long as I can make it there, even with help, I will.

Ned Kehde (of Ned Rig fame) does this - but his gear is a little more "seasoned" - with modern spinners just use superlines and skip the fuss with mono.

Most people here will be really helpful - but it's up to you to narrow down what you expect from where you go. For Trout I usually split my time between Taney and Crane - Taney for the bounty of both size and numbers - and Crane to keep me humble - the fish are there but you will have to work for them - and then every good one you will always remember.

There's several spots on the Finley and James like that. There's a place in the park at Ozark that I caught my first Bass after getting the damnable cast off my leg this summer where I parked, hobbled over and made one cast - boom - 3 pound Largemouth. Sometimes even places that get pounded hard there's a some hidden cover or not-so-obvious hole that the fish like.

If you head upstream you should be fine, but unless you have a powerful electric motor and aren't careful there's a fast chute just down from the access that would be hard to get back upstream from.

I have never back-reeled, either. I did start out on good Diawa reels though. Every reel is different, so you may need to experiment with different line sizes and types for ANY reel to get it to work trouble-free. I have said way too many times that if I had to go back to using mono for spinning reels I'd stop using spinning reels. P.I.T.A. factor is way too high. Superlines are the way to go, and then just argue about leader/no leader.

Even within the strain of Smallmouths in the James there is wide variation of markings. Wait until you catch a "War Stripe Blondie". Very sandy color overall but with dark gill cover stripes. - very cool.

Yeah - I'm a "tenter" too - a Eureka Solitaire is a small price to pay for no mosquitoes. But anyway I miss those days of saying "screw it - I'm going (wherever)" for a couple of days.

Yeah that's weird because I usually get most everything out of every bottle of the Loc-Tite. I don't Ned really at all but I do glue lots of trailers and other plastic baits. Maybe you got several bad bottles in a row?

Thankfully my mother and my family had a plan - but it doesn't make it any less painful. Prayers.

Cool. All the years I've fished the James I've never snagged one, accidentally or otherwise.

I was gonna go but still limited to wheels instead of feet. Hope everyone had fun.

Another trick to make a lighter jig (besides the great tip about the Bismuth that was mentioned earlier) is use either a hollow metal bead or a glass bead on the hook shank right in the middle of the jighead. I have a mold that makes perfect 1/8-ounce heads, but I wanted a 1/16-ounce one. It's kind of a hassle but it will work.http://www.lurepartsonline.com/Online-Store/Glass-Beads/Round-Glass-Beads.html http://www.lurepartsonline.com/Online-Store/Brass-Lure-Parts/Hollow-Metal-Beads.html

Most of the places I stream fish anything over an 1/8-ounce is instantly on the bottom Seth. Great if you are getting bit there like you said - but I get most of my finesse jig bites on the fall - slower is better. A cut collar helps slow the fall but I found even 3/16 it just too much most days. You must fish bigger water than me most of the time. And Ham - I have one rod that's a medium power fast action just for these jigs or Texas rigged plastics - I use it for wacky -rigged sticks, too. 7' Spinning because the lighter jig is just too hard to get out there on regular casting gear. Hard to get by with just 4 rods, but I do it. Maybe Tuesday I'll get a picture of these little guys. Too hard to do right now.

Since I am out of fishing action for a while with my busted leg I've been tinkering around with my tackle -making. I used several "finesse jigs" for years until I got frustrated and started making my own. Anyone using what's out there and happy with it? I know some just use the Ned Rig all the time - but have fun tossing that inside a sycamore root ball.