stevecastle

Glad to see some are out there braving the cold and wind. It was my 1st time catching on a jig. I had tried many times before but no luck so i kinda gave up on it. However i read the sticky on jig fishing and figured i would give it another go. Looks like i have another weapon in my arsenal now!

Went out with my son to a local pond and found it still half frozen over. Tried real slow fishing but no bites. Then tried, just for kicks, punching through the ice just as our Canadian friends do. I got 4 nice bass between 1-2 lbs and my son got one also. Couldn`t believe it. We were falling about in laughter when i pulled the 1st one out. Great day out with some of the strangest fishing i have ever done.

Sterling/Dulles here. Starting to sort through all the gear in anticipation. Should have a boat this year at last!

I`m taking my son to the res tomorrow morning.Does anyone have any advice of where to go. We are renting a jon but taking our 6hp evinrude so we can get around. Hopefully we can get on them .

My son and i are looking forward to the meet. We have just picked up a 15 ft Princecraft v hull aluminum jon boat and should be using it this year. It`s going to be great to finally get out in our own boat.

Another vote of thanks to Traveler for the wonderful photos. That was very kind. Also thanks for sending us our water bottles back. We are looking forward to the spring meet with great anticipation. Hopefully we will be in our new boat by then!

Alex and i will be up for a trip to Mattawomen. I`ve always wanted to fish down there. I also like the idea of a weekend trip, we`ll get more fishing in. That`s snakehead country down there isn`t it?

I just wanted to say what a great time my son and i had at lake anna with you guys. Many thanks to Eric for taking us out in his boat for the whole day. It was great to be able to put a face to all the names i see on the forum and to get to know you guys. Thanks to Nitro and his family for making us feel so welcome. I see there is already a post for next year. I will definitely be interested in going again. Hopefully we will have our own boat by then.

if you still want to get the dobyns savvy, there is a 7'6 heavy flippin rod, it is rated from 1/4 to 2 ounces and it looks great for the job you mentioned. it may have a fast action tip but i use a swimbait rod with a fast action tip and it seems to be ok for me considering i have caught a ten pound largemouth on it. i think you should get the dobyns because i have read reviews that it is almost as sensitive as the dobyns champion. good luck with what ever you get.

the 200E is a great reel, i have one and it is amazing, it is very smooth on the retrieve. the new chronarch is the same as the 200E just with a different paint job, and a few tweaks and a higher price tag. you can check if you want but the 200e chronarch weighs the same as the 200e curado

Ok. So my son and i are going to the reservoir tomorrow morning after the ice storm today. Where should we be looking? I am assuming they will have gone deep with the cold?

Thanks for resizing my pic. I was struggling with how to do that.

Thanks guys. Hey Mrbassface how are you doing? Great to hear from you. Hope your fishing is going well. I am looking forward to the river going down a little so we can get after the smallies. Fishing is great so far this season.

Thanks. It was texas rigged with a Gamakatsu 4# ewg hook. This weekend is looking good.

Heres a monster i pulled out of a pond last night with my son. Played it for approx 3 minutes as it just kept running. My best fish ever! Caught it on a brush hog using my new Kistler Argon and a pro qualifier. Don`t know what it weighed as i didn`t have a scale. But it was a good bit bigger than the 9lbr that my son caught last year. Hope the season continues like this.

I`ve been out with my son probably a dozen times now and have had our best luck with jerkbaits and wire spinners. The water is still cloudy and cold. We haven`t had enough warm days in a row to get things warmed up. That said, he did catch a few recently on texas rigged craws in some old lily pads that haven`t grown up yet. I would try jerkbaits and spinners. By the way i tried out my new Kistler Argon rod yesterday and it is the best rod i`ve had so far, which isn`t saying much. This coming weekend should be the best so far. Spawn should be on soon.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm leaning towards the pontoons as my son is 15 now and should be able to assemble his own waterside. I really like the idea of extra height and stealth. I have been looking at the Creek Co pontoons as i have to buy 2 as these seem reasonably well made. Steve.

I am looking at getting off the bank this next season with my son. I was originally looking at a pair of belly boats, but have decided i would rather look at either kayaks or a pair of pontoon boats. I've read quite a lot about kayaks, but have heard very few people post regarding pontoon boats. i'm looking for opinions on pontoon boats, especially from those with first hand experience. Steve.

Thanks guys for the all the replies. We went out to our favourite spot on Sunday and he did very well with it. Only 4 backlashes all day. The Revo reel is really a star.Unfortunately though his rod didn't do as well. It broke at the tip when setting the hook on a largemouth around lunchtime. As i bought this off Ebay i don't know whether Allstar will honor any warranty issues. It strikes me as strange that the rod should break so easily with a 15 year old at the controls.

hi i'm alex, i am the one who is getting the rod, thank you very much for the reply and it really helped with setting it up. thanx again alex

It's my son's birthday today so he has a new All Star/Revo S combo present and he loves it. My question is how do i set the weights on the reel? I have always used a spinning reel and don't know squat about baitcasters. I found out how to loosen the screw to get the sideplate off and reveal the weights but what should i set them to. Are they on when they're pulled out or in? I would be grateful for some advice as i want to take him out to the local lake this morning.

It's owned by friends of ours who live west of leesburg. This was the first time we used the boat, and what a difference it made. I'm going to look for a Jon boat now instead of the float tubes that we were thinking of.

Took my son with me this morning. Arrived 6-30am and fished until 12-30pm. Had our best day ever today! We pulled in over 60 fish today. My son caught a mixture of panfish and large mouth with the biggest fish a little under 5lbs. i caught all largies except for 3 bluegills. I had 8 fish in the 4-5lb range which is remarkable [for me]. Great weather with the sun in and out all day. The lake is about 6 acres with a weed mat about 8-10" under the surface. We used 4" Berkeley power worms and some Zoom ribbontail worms all nose hooked just twitching them along above the weeds. I have pictures on my cellphone but i need to get a cable first to upload them. We were fishing out of a 10' jon boat. It's days like these that make it all worthwhile. ;D

Glad to hear that the float tubes are a viable option. I figure we should be able to fish without waders for the rest of the summer and then pick some up for the fall as the water cools. [quote aut hor=182D3A313B3A335F0 link=1277494041/48#48 date=1279999654]I've seen guys use small trolling motors on Huntsman -- I think it's fine. I've never actually seen any park police there either, though... Steve: float tubes are fantastic fun -- highly recommended! I used one for a few years until I upgraded to a pontoon boat (which I actually prefer over a kayak).

I think we were talking to you. We came out of the trees from the cove area. You had two rods set up and a small bass in the water. We only got 3 smallish bass at Huntsman as the bite was really slow. We then went to a small lake in Reston and caught a dozen each. This made it a much better morning. I suspect that the larger fish at Huntsman had moved into the centre of the lake to find cooler water. When i get the float tubes we will get out there after them!