Hello everyone. My name is Michael, and i live and fish in central jersey, as well as in my girlfriends area of northern Virginia. I've been fishing since i was young, but only recently have become a bit more serious about it.
A few weeks ago we went to a small lake nearby my home and i threw in my line for the first time in a few years. Great feeling, and i caught about a dozen blue gills. We were using some nightcrawlers with a bobber, and it worked well enough for my first time out in some time. I've been back to the various small lakes around about 2-3 times a week since then.
Then last week i was in Virginia and we took a ride to the Potomac River, at Riverbend Park.
This was a very exciting and rewarding experience. The first day we stayed on the banks of the river throwing lines in and just hanging out. I caught my first fish ever on a river, as well as my first fish ever using a lure. I was using a green popper, and the smallmouth exploded on it the instant it touched the water. It was a nice fish, about 14", and the first bass i'd caught in many, many years.
The following three days we spent 5-8 hours on the river, wading out to a large flat rock with our tackle, poles and lunch, and fishing from the area. All in all, between me and Chelsea, my girlfriend, we caught about a dozen small mouth bass.
Now, i have a ton of questions to ask, but i'll start with just a few simples ones.
First of all, i have been attaching all my lures directly to a swivel, with the swivel tied to my line.
Is this an efficient method of attaching the lure? Through a bit of research i've discovered that it may detract from the lures action.
Secondly, i was wondering how to best fish a moving river. That's not such a simple question i realize, but an important one. I really enjoy being on the river, wading about, being secluded. I used a popper to catch one or two bass, but the only time i could get them to hit it was when it was cast. All my other fish were caught on a small minnow, i believe it to be a crankbait, that stayed about a foot under the surface.
I'd cast the minnow through the rapids in the area and quickly retrieve it. This method worked very well after i'd seen a fish jump and placed the lure in the area, but i feel like i'm doing many things wrong, and could be catching so many more bass.
Okay, i'll stop rambling for now and see what kind of responses i get. Thanks in advance for all your help.
-Michael
