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Took my boy Womack out fishing for the first time ever today. He is 3 and just now getting calm enough to do stuff like go fishing. He was nervous at first but got the hang of it pretty good. He did mess up my 1 picture fish. Not sure if it was the fish splashing around, or me grabbing the net, but just as I did, it sounded like someone threw the entire toilet in the lake. Looked back and he was completely under water. Big doofus. Managed to land the bass, weigh it, dump it all before he got back to the boat. Got soaked getting him back in the boat, but at least I didn't have to go swimming after him. Water temp was 58 and air temp was 46. That would have ended my day. Bass was 5.95. Sure wish I would have had time for a pic. Oh well. This was just before the event happened: Jeff BTW- old timer on the lake was across from me about 45 yards hollering if I needed him to take a pic when he heard the bass thrashing in the water. Just about the time I said no I heard him start laughing at the whole situation. It is funny now, I guess....

I am very excited that I have a new PB. I finally moved over the 3LB mark and did so in a big way (at least for me). I boated this monster who weighed 7lb 4oz, length was 24", and girth was 15". I would like to get a replica made to mount as a memory. Any recommendation would be appreciated. Thanks, T-Rick

Finally able to find a J Dream limited for a good price and in really good condition. #dreamteam

Fluorocarbon line should be one of the three types you use. It is best for some applications but not all.

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with all of you friends here on Bassresource, been on he run for sure! Got to see and have dinner with several of you while at the Classic and enjoyed getting to talk with each of you. I've got some really fun stuff coming out at this ICAST and will share it with you in a week or so. Here's a photo of a pretty gal that I caught recently on a Rage Hawg pitched in 8ft. water. It was all I could do to HOLD on until she gave up. Hope this years fishing is great for you and I am trying to keep up with all messages that you send me here on BR so keep in touch

Dumb dumber dumbest

The Elites or any other 100+ boat tournament trail won't be implementing MLF style rules anytime soon for full-field events. I really enjoy MLF also...But it's a made-for-TV product and the issues that could potentially arise from 100+ scales to calibrate, 100+ officials, 100+ other things are going to make it hard for the top level tours to adopt it. Back to the Potomac: This new slot 'rule' is not a regulation at all, it's a stipulation on a tournament permit. Permits have been required for the past few years for any tournament in MD and they attached this 'rule' to the permit application. So if you are not in a tournament you are still free to catch and kill/eat 5 bass over 15". The reason DNR did it this way is because they didn't want to go through the long and potentially difficult process of actually changing or creating a new regulation...And because they likely knew it wouldn't hold up to scrutiny (my assumption), since VA and DC are not on board with it. Joe Love confirmed to our club that it can not and will not be enforced at VA or DC ramps. There is a local guide outfit that has a long history on the river, in the last 8-10 years or so they have become increasingly anti-tournament. It's to the point where they openly chastise tournaments and tournament anglers on their weekly fishing reports. One member of that organization was put in a high position with the MD DNR Tidal Bass management program in mid-February. IMO that's a pretty obvious conflict of interest given the long history of anti-tournament behavior. Since that time we've had the C&R only zones and now this slot rule, both directly targeting tournament anglers (one explicitly, one implied). I'm not blind enough to think that tournaments have zero effect on the bass fishery. Especially in the last few years where the amount of fishable water has been significantly reduced due to the lack of grass...Areas are getting fished harder. But I don't believe it to be the primary cause or even a significant part of the issue. Something or multiple somethings happened to kill off a large percentage of the grass...Not talking about a few acres either, there are many MILES of grassbeds that are gone. But as of right now, I've seen ZERO official explanation or effort to address this issue. There are also commercial fishing operations that are having an effect on the river. To their credit, the same guide outfit that is opposed to tournaments is also very vocal against these practices...So I do share that concern with them. None of these other issues have made it to the chopping block, only tournaments... I'm not a biologist or a policy maker, just a guy that's spent an awful lot of time on the tidal Potomac over the past 15 years.

You think there's a difference? They come out of different back doors of the same factory, made by the same workers, made with the same components......

Finally got this baby home to PA! Can't wait for the summer !!!! 31 hours on the motor 10ft talon 80 minnkota 1199-959 hummingbirds and a 728 on the dash . Super clean!!!!

If there is smallmouth I'm throwing it, even in clear water!! I agree with Bluebasser though, if there is a little color to the water, clown is what I'm going with, something with that color that they have to hit it. Not all clown colors are the same, there are 3 different types, you have the Rogue style which is a gold chrome with white belly and red head, then there is the Rapala style and that is bright chartreuse with a little bit of clear on the side and a bright red head. Last is the Nishiki or LC clown pattern and it has a chartreuse back,silver sides and belly and a red head with red spots, and while all of them are a little different, they all work. slight stain or anytime smallmouth are involved.

I take my Golden out in mine. Makes it so I can't take a crate in the back, but it does draw some attention for sure. Cassidee is a vet at the whole boat thing now that she's been doing it for a couple years. It's funny because she's a different dog on land versus what she's like in the boat. She's a nut when we get to the ramp and while I'm strapping the boat down to leave, mainly chasing her tennis ball. Then as soon as we get in the boat she lays down or just stands next to you and watches. Very rarely does she get excited about anything in the boat unless someone picks her ball up. Never had her jump in from the boat either. Fall in yes, but she's never jumped in. Her first time meeting a bass at 4 months old. And now showing how excited she usually gets about one of my catches.

A shark fin mask was a bit of a surprise while dragging a jig on a lake, but the Delta has a bit of a reputation for some things you'd never want to see being "cemented" on the bottom. Once played around with a snag that was awkwardly heavy but would slowly give with pressure. My brain started playing some what if games with me so I decided to break it off. It was just a large branch I keep telling myself...

Idiot #1 "i've got a great idea..... let's go target some bigass fish and anchor the kayak up. that way we can greatly increase our odds of the thing flipping over while we have sharks under us!" idiot #2 "that is a great idea, i'll bring the beer!!"

Keep the line tight and try to pull back against the fish, not with them. Do everything right, I can guarantee you 100%, you're still going to lose fish.

Only brought my pup out once with me, but she seemed to love it. She napped the whole time except for when I would bring fish in the boat. She is actually scared of live fish, but makes an awesome fishing buddy. Plan on bringing her out a lot more this year as I will have more space in my craft.

Since, we're doing handle upgrades.

Dogs and fishing just seem to go together.

You might have to install a tuna door to get him back in Jeff. LOL. Having your best buddy with you while fishing is priceless.

I usually weigh my fish by holding it up, guessing the weight and then doubling it... Works for me!

something about a man and his dog, period.... if you both can manage to go fishing together too, priceless!! Some are calm and some go nuts! My dude Tripp was born for it, loves it and gets mad if i leave him behind!! He really is quite calm on the kayak too, he loves staring down into the water. Here's his "headed to the lake face"!!

First day of Spring Big Head Wobbler Fish Went to Wolf because I wanted to get one on a Deps 175, but the wind wouldn't allow it. The fish really liked a big head wobbler. Unfortunately my streak of not catching drum ended.

About 20 years ago I pulled up to the dock from all day fishing. When I tied my boat up I was looking up at the sky and lost my balance and fell in. Well if that wasn't enough, when I came up my prescription sunglasses was gone. Got the boat loaded and took a Bagley DB3 and started casting for them. On the 10th cast I caught them. That was about a $350 cast.

I have been using the gripper since I saw it used on MLF. I zero the scale with it hanging on the hook and then clip it to the fish to get the actual fish weight. Don't have to account for the weight of the gripper.

You don't hang them from the gills... they hang from the bottom jaw in front of the gill opening. oe

Someone not from the KC area finally took me up on my invitation to come fish, and what a day to do it! Kickerfish1 and his friend joined me for a day chasing smallmouth. We had wind, rain, snow, and sleet, but we caught over 50 fish with several pretty nice ones in the mix. You can see the snow in the last picture of kickerfish1 with his nice smallmouth. Believe it or not, it snowed a lot harder than that for quite awhile.

Well the fiasco continues, after putting in catch and release areas on the Potomac and Upper Bay the state has put in requirements for tourneys allowing only 1 fish over 15inches. This is only for tourney's, meat fisherman can still keep 5 over that length. With this announcement it appears BASS will pull the Elite series tourney and move it somewhere else. The limit on tourneys is only for tournaments launching from Maryland, if you launch from Virginia you do not have to follow it.

I've used the regular Swing Impacts on the A rig and the Speed Shads, never have popped for the Fats though. There's not a time of year when paddletails, especially the Swing Impacts, don't work. Might not be the best option, but they'll always work.

Storm Twitch Stick is $5.99 on TW..............it is a slow riser and not a true suspending bait...........but a suspend dot just forward of the front hook hanger makes them (at least all the ones I have) suspend in a nice "nose down fashion in 40 degree water.

One of those heavy duty 35 gallon garbage bags full of water out sturgeon fishing on the bay. It was running with an outgoing tide and put up one hell of a fight!

Love the coat. ?

I'm always happy to see bass showing interest in what I'm offering because I know I can get their attention. I've solved the oh so important piece of the puzzle; location. Fishing is like figuring out a puzzle, you accomplish the task by following clues. Those fish are giving you a big clue, they're showing interest in what you're offering, but they're also telling you something isn't right. That puzzle piece looks like it should fit, but something is off. Did you try slowing down your retrieve, or speeding it up? I'm not talking about once you've seen the fish, I mean the entire cast. Mix it up on the same cast. If that doesn't work, try something else like changing colors, size, a similar lure with/without rattles, or as someone mentioned the line. Rarely is a major change (switching the type of lure) needed to turn followers into biters.

I know they are made in the same factory, but man they feel so different to me. I love the Lew's, and the Abu's are ehh, feel very cheap.

If I could take my dog(s) out on my kayak, I would. Priceless pic.

I once caught a red tailed hawk in mid flight. I was fishing the alley and made a long cast across the canal. A hawk flew out of no where and into my line, while the lure was in flight. The lure went up out of the water and into the wing where it meets the body. The Hawk dropped like a stone into the canal. I pulled the hawk to the boat on its back with the talons opening and closing. Luckily we had two big towels in the boat that we used to control the bird while we removed the hook. It was a weird day! I also caught the back end of a GMC S10 back when the Alley was a two lane road with dirt ramps. The GMC was in one of the cuts at a bridge. My crank bait was firmly attached to the tailgate . I notified FHP and the truck was removed several months later. I think someone dumped it at the bridge.

When the line comes up when the fish is about to jump I lower the rod and sweep it in a motion away from the fish to keep the line tight.

Take a look a Lake Fork Taxidermy. Tom

Leave the skirts alone. They are tied like they should be. The weed guard is of personal preference. I suggest fishing them like they are until you figure out how you like the weed guard. Jeff

Cmon... Are you new here? Raider is EVERYBODYS superior.

if the water is 2 to 4' deep then i imagining that the grass has surfaced. where its thickest its most likely shallow, where its thinned out a bit then its most likely deeper. i use several lures for the exposed grass. 1) a nickle plated johnsons weedless spoon with a white 3 inch grub trailer 2) a hollow bodied frog 3) a 1/4 oz jig and pig (black and blue) with a rattle 4) a weightless white 4" slugo texposed i fish these all as you would a frog, with the frog and slugo being the "slow" baits, jig and pig a bit faster and the spoon whatever retreive speed it takes to keep it on the surface. Personally i like the jig best, when a fish strikes and misses i let it drop in the hole for a few jigs.the slugo and spoon also double for open water lures or should i say thinnest weeds. as for submerged weedbeds i like a big double bladed willowleaf, or a big single colorado bladed white spinnerbaits. a silver colored rattle trap, a white or silver double bladed buzzbait, and probably my favorite being a manns baby stretch 1 minus in a color that matches the prevelant baitfish in that lake. i have recently added a 1/8 oz weedless jighead with a kvd caffiene swimbait, again prevelant baitfish colored search for any irregularity, albeit a laydown, holes in the weedbed, lilypads mixed in the grass, points of the weeds edge sticking out into deeper water, rocks,docks, stumps, anything that differs from the grass the spinnerbaits i will "bulge" the surface, rattletraps and swimbait tick the top of the weeds, the buzzbait i bend the wire so the blades just barely tick other. the 1 minus i vary the retrieve greatly until they tell me what they want spinnerbaits and buzzbaits get a white manns spinnerbait trailer that i dip the very ends in red spike it dye these are the lures that "I" use to fish any type of weeds, and i attack any weedbed the same,... methodically,... i dont miss much , my casts are placed so that if they left a trail, like in duckweed they wouldnt be more than 5 feet apart hope this helps and keep your line wet!

The colder the water, the longer the pauses. Sometimes I will even use pauses up to 30-45 seconds.

I made the dealer drive the boat 30mi to the closest lake without a speed limit as so I could see how the boat felt on the water. I personally want to see how the boat runs and handles before I buy it. Better to test it and see instead of buying and being disappointed. That's just my opinion. They want my money for their boat. If they really want me to buy it, it's going to a lake and see how it runs and handles or they can find someone else to take it off of their hands as it won't be me.

Your line always exerting a upward pull on your lure, the deeper the lure, the greater it gets. In order for a lure to stay at a certain depth, at a certain speed, it needs to fall faster/equal to the rate of your line's "upward pull". to fish a 1/4oz lipless at 10 feet, you need CRAWL that thing, but you can burn a 1oz lipless it will still stay there

BREAKING NEWS: Average sized shark flips over 20 pound kayak!

Got out for a few hours on Wednesday and got one bite, went 3.58 pounds.. I was crawling a T-Rigged cut tail worm probably 10-20yards offshore in one of the deeper spots along the shoreline. After catching and releasing the fish I anchored on shore and saw about a dozen or more dead 3" silver baitfish that I could not identify. For one thing it had me wondering what they were, and secondly how and why there was a number of them dead. Some looked like had been banged up by something in the water but not all of them. It had me interested considering this was the one spot where I had gotten hit all day. I theorized that there was either a ball of bait that some bass had run through and killed a decent amount in the process or the people living on the lake tossed some dead bait in the water. I have no idea. They were skinny silver fish no more than 3". All in all ready to get back out on the water!

I'm such a goofball in the mornings. Singing songs about plenty o bait and practicing my Minnesota accent. I must be a real delight in the boat ?

Hugo OK My buddy's 6.4 and my 5.3

One of the better posts I've seen on here in a while! I'm calling BS on this one. Go throw a DT14/DD22 for an hour on your 7:1, and then go put a 5:1 on that same rod and throw those same baits for an hour. I'd bet the farm that you will be able to tell a world of difference. I can't even stand to throw a DT10 on a 6:1 because of the lack of power and the strain it puts on me, and I use all high end Shimano/Diawa reels, so it's not a matter of reel quality.

After a long break from fishing the bait monkey sucked me back in. Have made a few orders in the last 2 weeks. Here are my first couple. Diawa steez xt paired with a diawa ballistic, a nrx 852, 853,854,895 all paired with chronarch CI4's then 2 mega bass levante rods paired with chronarch CI4's. Bait monkey talked me into Ordering a few sencos and cut tail worms this last week and just got them in.

Dang I can't remember the last time I put the boat in and didn't atleast catch a fish. There are a few 2 or 3 fish days mixed in there. Usually if the bass are slow I can swap over to shooting docks for crappie and catch a bunch of crappie and a few decent bass. Dad caught a 4-14 lb bass a few days ago on 4lb test and a 1/32 ounce jig while we were shooting docks. I'm glad I live in the alabama where it never gets too cold to fish