River Fishing Gear

I'm back out here on the river again today and we're going to take a few minutes to go over some of my river fishing gear. I get asked a lot of questions about the rods and reels and the tackle that I use so we'll go over some of that good stuff today. I can say right off the bat I apologize for the highway noise in the background. I planned on shooting this video a little farther downstream away from the noise but the water level is up about a foot this week so this is really the first patch of dry land that I've found out here today but we'll make do with this spot. So let's start out the rods and reels. I pretty much always bring two spinning combos and one bait casting combo when I hit the river for the day. I mostly use the spinning combos. I'm just a lot more accurate with them and and I like these short rods for river fishing. So we'll pull these two out and take a look at them and these rods are both pretty much identical. They're both St. Croix Legend Tournament bass rods, 5 foot 10, medium power, extra fast action. The only difference is the handle style. You can see this one here is the older style and this one here is the newer style and I've got Abu Garcia Revo MGX reels on both of these. They're 20 size and I have them both spooled up with 10 pound Trilene Sensation mono and I really like this older handle style for fishing the spook so this is pretty much my designated spook rod. I'd hate to snap the tip or something trying to free up a snag jig and have to send it back. I don't think I'd get the same handle style back with the replacement rod so I really only use this one for the spook. I just like that grip a little bit better when I'm doing that walk the dog action and the other one here I'd say it's kind of a general purpose rod. I use it a lot for throwing these bitzy bug jigs and I'll also use this one for the wacky rig. These are actually considered their skipping rod and it really is a great rod for that for skipping wacky rigs underneath those low trees. It's really a nice rod kind of on the short side but I like that for kayak fishing. They're good for getting into those tight spots underneath those low branches and they're good for short accurate casts which is what I do a lot of on the river. So that's the two spinning rods. Let's take a look at the bait caster and once again this is another St. Croix Legend Tournament bass rod. This is the six foot eight medium fast action and I have a couple more of these six foot eight casting rods. I have the medium extra fast and the medium heavy. I believe that one's a fast action so I'll kind of rotate between the three of them. I really like this one for the river. I'll mostly use this rod for throwing these reef runner cicadas just because these things vibrate so violently that I'm afraid if I throw them on my spinning reels it's going to cause my bail mechanism to fail prematurely. But I'll use this for, I don't know, sometimes bigger jigs. I've been throwing a BBZ One Rat quite a bit lately. I like this rod for that and I have a Quantum SL100 HPT reel on there. I swapped out the handle with the carbon fiber one. That handle is made for the Pfluger Patriarch reels. I like these handles a lot better than the ones that come with the smoke though and I have 12 pound Trilene Sensation line on this. Nice combo. It doesn't really get a whole lot of use on the river though because I'm just not nearly as accurate with a casting rod as I am with a spinning rod. When you're kind of floating and casting at targets as you drift by them you want to have that good accuracy. Let's open up the tackle box and have a look. I try to pack pretty light. I limit myself to one box like this and then I have another kind of a backup box that I can fit some spare lures or bigger lures that don't fit quite as nicely in this one. We'll start up at the top. I have some of these flasher jigs. These are just kind of a jig with a little spinner blade attached to them. Good for when the water gets a little bit murky. Put off a little bit of flash a little bit of noise and I'll generally fish these with a three or a four inch kalen scrub. Most of them are quarter ounce. I think these ones are eighth ounce. Got a little assortment of those and then the next slot over here got an assortment of just round head jigs. Pull some of these guys out of there. I've got an assortment of quarter ounce and three eighth ounce round head jigs and I'll mostly use these with the kalens grubs. I like the quarter ounce jigs for the three inch and the four inch grubs and the three eighth ounce jigs. As you can see here I've got a five inch grub on that one and I've got a couple of these weighted hooks. I believe these are made for fishing tubes but I like them for these yum crawdads. I got a couple of mushroom head jigs for fishing ned rigs. It's a good old assortment of jigs in there and moving over I've got a small size live target frog. I haven't really thrown this one a whole lot but I've got a few few smallies on the river with this. A lot of times they just kind of nip at those legs though and you don't get a good hook up. Then I got a bunch of bitzy bug jigs. I mostly throw the quarter ounce all black bitzy bug jig and then I'll throw a three inch kalens grub on that also a black one which I have on that rod currently. It's a good jig for when the current is a little bit faster on the river. If it was slower I'd probably be throwing a wacky rig today but the jig does pretty well when the current is moving. So I got a bunch of quarter ouncers. There might be an eighth ounce or two mixed in with there but I mostly throw the quarter ounce jigs. I already showed you the crawdad. I've got some more bitzy bug jigs. These are the bleeding bait bitzy bug jigs. You can tell they have the few strands of red in the skirt and then they have the red hook. That's just kind of a crawdad color. Another good color for smallmouth. They're pretty much programmed to attack crayfish when they see them. Then I got a bunch of reef runner cicadas kind of coming out like a barrel of monkeys there. I'd say my favorite color of the reef runner cicada is this gold and chartreuse. The hooks are getting a little bit rusty. I got hit by a rogue wave as I was re-tying on Lake Mille Lacs a couple of weeks ago and I got some water in my tackle box. It's my only gripe with these lures is the hooks on them do kind of rust easily. I really like these lures. They're awesome for river fishing when the water gets a little bit murky. They put off a lot of flash and vibration so you can rip them along grass lines and they'll draw the fish out. I like just whipping it straight across the channel and just reeling it pretty fast. I'm surprised how many catfish I've caught on this lure but I've caught just about every kind of fish that swims in these rivers on this lure. Bass, pike, walleye, catfish. I've even had carp bite them a few times which is kind of a surprise when I'm ripping them about as fast as I can. And then I have some ripping wraps in here. I don't really use these on the river much. This is more of a ball bait for me once the fish move into deeper water. They're hanging around those rocks. I'll toss these out and just let them sink and rip it up off the bottom let it fall. Did real well out at Lake Mille Lacs last fall with these perch colored ones. They're good little lures. And then I have a couple of shadow wraps. I've got the perch colored ones in here today because last week the water was real clear out here. If I was going to throw one of these today I'd probably throw one of the clown colored ones that I have in in my other little tackle box because the water's up and it's a little bit murky out here. It's got a deep runner and a shallow runner. The shadow wrap. I really like these in the fall too especially these deep runners. You can throw them around those deeper rocks. The bass really like them. And I have a BBZ one rat. This is the 40 size. I believe I have a 30 size in my case here too. 40 size I kind of like better for large mouth. Small mouth I'll usually throw that smaller size 30. Then I got an extra spook in there as well. Never leave home without at least a couple of those. That's about it for lures in there. Then I got some super glue. I'll use this to glue the grubs onto the jigs sometimes. And it's also good to have in case you have a pike cut up your hand or something. You can glue your wound shut in a pinch. Some super glue. Then I have a hook file so I can keep my hooks good and sticky sharp. And a little fingernail clipper style line clipper. I don't really use that one a whole lot because my hemostat here has a built-in cutter too. And this is a William Joseph Hemocuts. I really like this tool. Nice stainless steel and that little scissors will cut through any kind of line you throw at it. I also have a little backup pliers on this side just in case the orange handled one goes in the water. Which may have happened once or twice. Let's take a look at my other little box here. I've got the baby Barton here. Skip sent me one of these to try out. I threw it the other day with the smallies. They weren't really biting topwater so I'm waiting for September when they really hammer the surface lures. I think this one will be all right. I did like the action. Nice little popper. When you reel it in fast it kind of wobbles too. So those casts that you give up on and just reel back to the boat still got a good chance of getting a fish if it's chasing it. And I got a couple little mini spinner baits. Good little smallie size ones. And I'll usually tip those with a three inch white Kalins grub. Another good lure out here today with the somewhat murky water. And I've got some more shadow wraps. That one's a shadow wrap a deep runner. It's kind of a mess in this box but I'm limited on space so I got to try to cram as much as I can in there. There's another shadow wrap the shallow runner. And then I got a husky jerk. Kind of that same clown color. And I've got a whopper plopper. A perch colored one. I've thrown it a few times. Got a couple fish but the top water bite isn't in its prime yet. So a couple more weeks I'll be giving that one a try again. And I have another BBZ1 rat. This is the 30 size. This is the size that I prefer for fishing smallmouth. Got a couple real good days throwing these on the river. And I got a few spare tails for the BBZ rats. And then I just have some miscellaneous jigs. Crawdad one. And then I have some strike king finesse jigs. These are some watermelon red flake. I thought I had some crawfish colored ones but maybe I pulled them out. That's about it for tackle. I'll cram all that stuff back in there later. Let's take a look at the plastics that I used. Quite the assortment in here today. I've got a whole bunch of Kaelin's grubs. These are three inchers. I've got some black, watermelon red flake, some kind of crawfish colored ones. These are ron's craw color. I forgot what the name of that color is. And then I have some five inchers, some black, watermelon red flake, smoke hologram. And I have some yum crop heppies. These are another good trailer for those bitzy bug jigs. I usually have a pack of black and blue ones in here too but I must have taken them out. And we have some Z-man hula sticks. I still have these in here from the mayfly hatch. We are wacky rigging these and they pretty much stay right up near the surface. So when those mayflies were landing on the water these were pretty effective. And I got some of these yum craw bugs. Pretty realistic looking crayfish. I haven't used these a whole lot on the river but I think I'm going to try them out this fall a little bit more. Especially once the current slows down a little bit. And I got a bunch of wacky worms, yum dingers, senkos, whatever you want to call them. I have some watermelon red flakes, some watermelon gold flakes, and some black and blue flakes. I'm really liking these this year. These have caught me a lot of fish, both large mouth and small mouth. So that's quickly becoming one of my favorite ways to catch them. That's about it for the tackle. In the back pocket I've got this soft cooler bag that I use to store those plastics and then there's a little pouch in the back. That's where I'll keep some of these hooks. I have some of these finesse wide gap hooks for wacky rigging. I prefer these offset shank EWG hooks, the 1 oz size. I thought I heard somebody over there. So I got a couple packs of those 1 oz. I got some 2 oz. I got these mosquito hooks. These are what I was using with these Z-Man hula sticks just because I wanted a little bit lighter hook to keep it up at the surface. That's about it for hooks. I got some 2 oz. I prefer the 1 oz though because with this 10 pound line that I use I get better hook penetration with these thinner hooks. You probably can't really see it all that well on camera but they're definitely a little bit thinner than those those 2 oz hooks. A little bit thinner gauge wire. So that's about it for the tackle. Here's the net that I use. I get asked a lot about this. This is a Freyville rubber handled trout net. It's their model number 3672. But this is a great net for bass fishing. They actually make a bigger size too. Maybe if you're down south and you're catching those bigger bass. But I've caught bass up to six pounds with this net no problem. And I really like it. It comes with a leash. Although I pop that cap off and replace the leash with a little bit thicker bungee because usually when I catch fish I'll pull it out of there and just drop the net into the water. And I didn't want that thinner bungee to snap off if I drop it in some strong river current So that's the net. And I always bring a little towel to wipe the fish slime off my hands. Then I got some bug spray and some sunblock. Those are always good to have. I've got this little anchor float. I don't really use that on the river. That's more for later in the fall when they're in deeper water and I drop anchor. If I snag up on a rock I can just clip that onto my anchor paddle over to the snag and grab it. I don't have to pull up my anchor. And I got this little pull strap. I think I showed that in my kayak setup video. Good for multiple uses. I'll throw it around that front handle and use it to drag my kayak if I have to pull it over grass at the launch or if I want to tie off to a tree or something like that. When I'm on the water I'll just wrap around the tree and then hook it onto my anchor cleat here. It's a simple little thing but it is definitely coming handy out here. I'll show you my beverage how I do those. I like to pack light when I'm fishing the river. So I'll leave the cooler at home and I'll just freeze a few of these water bottles and then I have these little neoprene sleeves on there. It's probably about 11 30 right now. It's still a good third to a half ice. I pulled that out of my freezer at about five this morning. It's still pretty warm out here today too. I don't think if I missed anything. I think that just about covers everything though. Got my sunglass case and just my camera there. But that's about it for the fishing gear I guess. I hope you enjoyed the video and I hope this answers some of your questions. I'm gonna hit the water and get back to fishing. So I'll see you guys next time.