GIANT Smallies DESTROYED This Rig!

howdy everyone i'm back out here on the river again it's a beautiful spring day here in minnesota it's mid-may right now for the past week we've had nice warm sunny weather and that's got the smallmouth starting to spawn so we're going to try to catch a few off beds today i know bed fishing isn't for everyone some of you are probably strongly against it i actually used to be myself until i accidentally caught a smallie off of bed one day several years ago i sat there right next to the nest released the fish watched it swim right back it wasn't the end of the world a bunch of fish didn't hop on that nest and raid the eggs it was pretty much like nothing ever happened so as long as you're careful you get those fish back in the water quick and you're not fishing them in an area where there's a ton of bluegill or perch or rock bass or little fish like that around it's really not going to have much effect on them so that's what we're going to try to do today i'm going to switch to my other camera get my rod rigged up and i'll show you guys what we'll be throwing at him i think i'm going to go with the nikko craw out here again today i threw one of these craws out here a few days ago caught a couple really nice mollies on it on that trip i had it rigged up like this on a round head jig and it worked all right it does have its downsides though so we're gonna rig it up a little bit different today we're actually going to nico rig it so for a weight what i'm going to use is i took one of these eight ounce jig heads if you guys can see the kind of bait keeper on that that is the ideal type for these nico plastics so i just took one of those jigs i snipped the hook off so i've got about three quarters of an inch of hook shank left there the sneaker plastic is real tough so it'd be difficult trying to stick a nail weight into there so i'm going to stick that jig right into the tail end of the craw just like that so we've got just the weight no hook and then for a hook i'm going to use one of these owner one not mosquito light hooks and i'm going to want to put that through right about there so we've got the hook at this end the weight down there at that end just like that now there's a couple reasons why i really like nico's plastics for one they're super durable i expect this one rig should last us all day another reason is that they're super buoyant so even with this hook this craw is going to sit nice and upright like that a lot of these smallie beds consist of golf ball to fist-size rocks and the problem that i was having with that jig was that it would get hung up between a couple of those rocks then it's pretty much stuck there you can't really give it any action once you pop it off that rock it pretty much pops it off the bed and then the bass just isn't really interested in it now where this nikko rig is going to shine is if that weight gets stuck down between a couple rocks i can still twitch my line and give it some action so if the fish is sitting there looking at it as long as i give it some action chances are it's going to pick that crop so i think that is going to be a killer rig out here today let's go toss it on some beds and we'll see if we can agitate some smallies into picking it up i'm just paddling along right now looking for beds there's one not real big fish i'm trying to get away from the lawnmower noise a little bit honestly we'll go back into this little cove here i'm gonna try to find one sneak up on it plant my gopro so we can catch the fish picking up that craw on camera there's a nest i didn't see the fish i might have got a little bit too close and spooked him before i looked though there's one that one's got a nice size molly on it i think we're gonna try to catch that one there goes another one he just swam by oh he probably came off that nest it's a whole bunch of beds back here in this area this is the kind of stuff i look for for somali spawning grounds on the river they like to get out of the current i'll find a few on the main river tucked into little slack water spots along the bank but the vast majority of the beds that i find are in these little bay type areas like this i'm gonna set my gopro up on this one we'll try to catch that fish i think this one's gonna be pretty aggressive he's not going too far from the nest usually when they do that they're going to be super aggressive that should be about good all right i've got my camera dropped i'm extra careful when i sneak up here to drop that camera i don't want to stir up a bunch of silt for one i don't want my footage to be cloudy but the main reason is i don't want to coat his eggs with a bunch of mud i don't know if that'll have a negative impact on him or not but we've got that camera dropped i'm going to back off the nest we'll give it a few minutes that fish should come right back and we'll see if we can catch him all right it looks like that fish is back on his bed over there let's toss that craw in front of him and see if he'll pick it up he comes he's looking at it he's looking oh yeah he's giving it the stare down there we go i just threw it back over there he picked it up [Music] yeah i twitched it right in front of him for a couple minutes there couldn't get him to go but i must have just tossed it back in the exact right spot to get this one all worked up oh yeah that's a nice smaller wow man that is a beautiful fish first one of the day on that nico cross i'm gonna get a quick length measurement on them and we'll send them back that one is about twenty and three quarters good way to start the day okay there was a nice one sitting on a bed right there there he is you see him we'll drop the camera down there back off let that fish come back and we'll see if we can catch him all right i'm getting out of here i'll let you go back to your nest there he goes right there see they just kind of hang around the area until i back off the nest looks like he's going right back over there i'll back it up a little bit drop my anchor and we'll throw that craw at him i see you up there i always like to toss it over just so i don't splash it down right on top of him that that one went right to it picked it up i didn't get him though that's all right he picked that thing up instantly he'll pick it up again got him that one was super aggressive it's nice to see because the last couple i tried to catch weren't i think we're still in the early stages of spawn the other couple i couldn't get to bite they might not have had eggs on their nest quite yet [Music] oh this is a good fish come on up here sit down get ready to net him come on up here wow man what a pretty fish no messing around out of that one he went right over that craw and grabbed it so a quick length measurement that one's about 19 and a quarter super pretty fish though all right set him free happy is gonna go right back over to his bed over there we found a couple nice ones back here willing to bite there was another one right off of that tire sticking up there that looked like it was probably 20 plus i gave that one about a half an hour could not get him to bite there are several other beds back here too the fish don't look quite as big though so i'm gonna keep moving along try to find those bigger fish i did end up giving this nico rig a little bit more weight that eighth ounce was working okay i just wanted something a little bit heavier so i could twitch that crawl without dragging it so much so i took a fifth ounce ned head jig snip the hook off it just like that other one stuck it in there now he's a little bit heavier so we'll go try to find some more big smallies to toss that in front of that's a big one right there [Music] yeah we're gonna try to catch that one and fish is back over there oh yeah he's looking at that craw got him keep them above that log right there i'll get away from that tire all kinds of obstacles out here yeah i just barely got that crawl on his nest he came and grabbed it come here wow that is a tank small mouth jeez look at that thing yeah we better get a quick length measure on that one i bet you that one's 20 plus his nose up against that end 21 inches wow what a fish off you go back over there to your bed so i've got my camera planted on a bed right up here the fish has been just kind of circling out front so oh there he goes he's finally going back to the bed i've got my crawl over there i'm going to give him a little twitch got him finally he picked up that craw i had to work this one for a little bit i was looking when i dropped my camera i didn't notice any eggs on the nest over there so i wasn't sure if we'd get this one to bite but finally he picked up that craw this is a big fish okay come on up here come on over here down get ready to net this one come on up here come here i just don't want them getting around my power pole anchor back there there we go wow jeez that is a monster smallmouth get that hook out of them now we'll throw that one on the measuring board 20 and a quarter man we are getting some tanks out here today this corner looks good back here oh yeah there's a big one on the bed it's up real shallow here we'll try to catch this one [Music] the fish is finally back on the bed over there yep we went right over that craw i had to wait a little while for this one to come back oh look at that but once he came back to that bed he did not mess around he picked up that craw instantly this one might be another 20 plus it is a big old smallie that's for sure thank you grab my pliers for that one he's just barely hooked in there wow look at that fish what a beauty we'll measure that one real quick before we put her back another 20 and a quarter it's fourth one today over 20 inches what an awesome day i'm gonna try to find one more there's usually a couple real big ones back here in this corner whoa look at that snapping turtle thing looks like a dinosaur yeah it's weird it seems every year these beds are in the exact same spots pretty sure it's the same fish that keep going back to them too that one's got a fish on it oh yeah it's a pretty good sized one might try to catch that one oh this one had one on it too i bet didn't even notice that one we're gonna paddle down the shoreline see what else is down here though there's one that's a decent one he's not huge we'll let that one be check this corner back here i don't see any more back here this big old carp right there that's not what we're looking for though i'm going to paddle back over the one right in the corner there before that fallen tree we'll go set the camera up on that bed see if we can catch that fish hey that turtle i'm gonna try to sneak up over here and see if i can see if that other one was a real big one though i don't think it was that bad that one's got about an 18-incher sitting on it oh that's a big one right there we're gonna try to catch that one that's the one that i want that one's pretty good size too but i think that one was a little bit bigger and get my camera going here all right we'll drop that down there hopefully we can get that fish picking up that jig on gopro pretty sure that fish is back on the bed over there oh yeah he's looking at that craw twitch twitch he's eyeing it this waves are making it really tough to see got him there we go i must have put that craw right in the perfect spot to irritate him enough to pick it up oh yeah nice fish get that out of the way so yeah this one's bigging come on up here wow jeez that is a tank smallie get him unhooked quickly toss him on the measuring stick real quick got his face up against that end he is 20 and a half unbelievable day out here a couple of these i'm not sure if they hit that jig in front of the camera i try to cast it right in front if i can hoping i got the heat on that one i might just pick up that camera drop it right down over here on that next bed [Applause] perfect spot right there pick up that craw you better get it it's gonna eat your babies pick it up pick it up get away from that tree oh that's a tank all right i got him away from those branches though maybe not don't want to speak too soon here geez i thought that other one on the bed next one was bigger this one might actually be the bigger fish stick my paddle into the mud to stop my kayak from spinning so much i'll get that out of the way i don't want the fish to get caught up in there oh i thought i had him come on over here man that is a beast of a smallmouth wow oh i think he finally broke my craw off after using that same one all day finally lost my craw we'll get a quick length on that one and send them back there we go 20 and about a quarter man what a tank oh hey there's my craw i just lost one of his pinchers it's missing pinterest right there on my hook not quite sure how that happened but still got my craw that's the important part well i think i'm going to call it quits after those back-to-back 20s here in this corner the wind is starting to pick up a little bit i've got a little bit of ripples on the waters making it tough to see those fish i'm about overdue for some lunch too plus i think i've caught all the big ones i've seen on beds back here there's plenty of others but i think i'll leave them be what an awesome day it's been out here though got six mollies today over 20 inches i think our best five went for 102.75 yeah that's an incredible day that nikko rigged nico craw got the job done i'll tell you what that setup is deadly for bass on beds not literally of course all those fish are still alive and i can pretty much guarantee you that they're back sitting on their beds but you get what i mean it catches them anyway it's time for me to paddle back over there to my truck i had a blast out here today though i hope you guys enjoyed it too thanks for coming along with me again i'll see you next time you

Channel: NDYakAngler

Views: 207,402

Rating: 4.9263544 out of 5

Keywords: NDYakAngler, North Dakota, kayak, kayak fishing, fish, fishing, smallmouth, largemouth, bass, bass fishing, river, MN, Minnesota, neko, nikko, craw, bed, spring, spawn, sight, clear, water, relaxing, asmr

Id: qjNbfSe200s

Length: 31min 20sec (1880 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 04 2021