My two sons (15 and 9) and I will be taking our first trip into Sylvania wilderness June 13-16. I am working on overhauling our tackle box to accommodate the different rules (barbless hooks, unscented plastics) that Sylvania has. I will be changing the trebles on a lot of our go-to SMB/LMB cranks, and have filed off barbs on several different spinnerbaits as well. If there are any specific lures or unscented plastics you have used for Smallmouth or Largemouth in barbless/scentless areas, Sylvania or otherwise, that you feel I should make sure we have along, please let me know. I want this to be a great experience for all of us, but am having a hard time with the tackle portion.

We will be stopping at the outfitter outside Sylvania for purchases as well as they stock plenty of lures legal for those waters, but I would like to have most of them ready to go ahead of time if at all possible. Thank you for any input you can give.

Just catch the mosquitos for bait and use a treble hook.

I went there once in May and the mosquitoes were impressive.

No live bait or organic material. Unfortunately as tempting as that sounds, I'll have to keep the mosquitoes off my trebles.

The time I was there we just wacky rigged a senko worm in the middle, cast it out and let it sink to bottom, and you caught smallmouth till your hands were sore......

ned-rigged senko, crawfish colors
drop shot, zman leech

Senko's were part of my plan, but I haven't found anywhere locally that sells unscented, unsalted senkos. Any leads? I'll order them if needed, but I'm having a hard time finding them that way as well.

NB12-
I had similar concerns. When we got to that little store there, the outfitters, the stocked regular old Yamasenkos and told us they were OK. We caught lots of fish on wacky-rigged senkos and white jerk shads. Caught a a skinny 20" .
For a meal, try for some crappies on that one lake with crappies you can keep-I forget the name.

Mr Twister, Jack-All, Bassassassin have unscented plastics, lots of guys on the internet making hand poured baits to order, you can just request to not have the scent added.

google "hand poured bait"

Jak's custom bait is one company i have purchased from in the past.

i personally use zman and just soak and rinse them in water at home, dry and store in a bait binder.


Happy MN fishing opener to all!

I hear lots of talk about lure types but precious little about presentation. I have not been to Sylvania but am familiar with it via a close pal who would spend many hours talking about his methods and experiences there.

Clear water is the word...........and that means if plastics and finesse is the game then light line is the watchword. Sure, sometimes if they are chewing then it doesn't really matter but more often than not the big girls will be more difficult to fool.

Options..........you could go the fluorocarbon route. That means purchasing it before hand and becoming familiar with the material. Big smallies pull very hard and fluorocarbon can be fussy to work with at times. So test, test, test is imperative. Stuff has to stick!

Or you could go with a co-polymer line like Gamma in 6lb test clear. Indeed 6lb test is very light line to tie to many hooks which lend themselves to plastics. The issue is typically the hook wire is a bit to thick to tie 6lb line to. (mono likes to join itself to like diameters). The diameter problem can be bridged however admirably well however via two methods. The first method is to employ a fas snap which is a fly fishing clip of diminutive nature (very small). The addition of the clip allows for better physics with the knot. The other option is to tie a Gryp Knot with a tie fast tool which is the par excellence for tying a small diameter line to a larger diameter hook. Clearly superior than any other knot I have used.

My pal used 4lb green trilene XT and was the one in fact to turn me onto the stuff. He caught many 5lb smallies off beds in Sylvania with this line in conjunction with a smaller culprit rubber worm texas rigged with a 1/16 oz cone weight. Yes indeed it can be done with the skinny line.

My advice is to have several spools of line and keep dropping in lb test until they eat. Start with 8 and if they will eat that stay with it. But you may have to keep dropping. Light line requires 100% knot strength however. What I have laid out freely was hard won and probably is a decade of trial and error.

My favorite finesse method for smallies is a light 1/16 or 1/8 oz super premium jig head and a 4inch plastic like a robo worm. And of course I usually opt for 4lb green XT and use the tie fast tool and a 6 turn grip knot. They will eat that without question. Wether or not you land them is up to you. I like to back reel as opposed to using a drag........much better. The 4bXT has a breaking strength closer to 6lb test but its knot holding characteristics are superior than XL IMO. You will still get amazing distance casting the 4XT provided your spool isn't tiny. Do not use clear XT as it is anything but clear but rather chalky and disgusting stuff to try and fish with. Green is the ticket. I guarantee success........well mostly ;-)

This would be very hard combination to beat IMO in Sylvania. Just make sure your line is matched to the thickness of the hook wire. If you need to bridge the gap use the fas snaps. If it is close then just use the Gryp knot via a tie fast tool. I like the plastic offering in the pic as well.......color and all. You can send me a Christmas card later ;-)

Poor boys darter jig head

quote fcrugbyhooker: "The time I was there we just wacky rigged a senko worm in the middle, cast it out and let it sink to bottom, and you caught smallmouth till your hands were sore......"

Well, instead of overthinking it, this is exactly what we did, and the results were what you said- nothing short of phenomenal. Bass were still on their beds on one lake, and just stacked up in the shallows on another (June 14-16). 3 hours of fishing one morning, overcast and breezy- my two boys boated 59 smallmouths with 10 of them being 18" or larger, biggest at 19.5". That doesn't count the dozens of fish they lost on hit and drops or on the way to the boat. We could have easily hit the magic "100" by mid afternoon, but decided to go swimming instead. I didn't even fish, I held the boat steady and kept the 9yo happy by landing his fish, releasing them, and rebaiting as needed. Both of my thumbs and both of my 15yo's thumbs were torn up and raw by lunch, and we loved every minute of it. My 9yo said his shoulders had never been so sore before- these fish were battle ready and gave him a good workout!

For good measure, on another lake in the system the following day, we boated 85 bluegills (about 2/3 of which were 8" or larger) in just over an hour using white mini-mite jigs just outside any lily-pad covered area. We even had several "triples" with the gills.

I'll definitely be going back with them in future summers, as even the worst mosquitos we have ever seen didn't dampen the experience.

quote naturboy12: "

quote fcrugbyhooker: "The time I was there we just wacky rigged a senko worm in the middle, cast it out and let it sink to bottom, and you caught smallmouth till your hands were sore......"

Well, instead of overthinking it, this is exactly what we did, and the results were what you said- nothing short of phenomenal. Bass were still on their beds on one lake, and just stacked up in the shallows on another (June 14-16). 3 hours of fishing one morning, overcast and breezy- my two boys boated 59 smallmouths with 10 of them being 18" or larger, biggest at 19.5". That doesn't count the dozens of fish they lost on hit and drops or on the way to the boat. We could have easily hit the magic "100" by mid afternoon, but decided to go swimming instead. I didn't even fish, I held the boat steady and kept the 9yo happy by landing his fish, releasing them, and rebaiting as needed. Both of my thumbs and both of my 15yo's thumbs were torn up and raw by lunch, and we loved every minute of it. My 9yo said his shoulders had never been so sore before- these fish were battle ready and gave him a good workout!


For good measure, on another lake in the system the following day, we boated 85 bluegills (about 2/3 of which were 8" or larger) in just over an hour using white mini-mite jigs just outside any lily-pad covered area. We even had several "triples" with the gills.


I'll definitely be going back with them in future summers, as even the worst mosquitos we have ever seen didn't dampen the experience. "

That's awesome! Glad you found the big gills too! Nothing better than watching the kids rock it....