Bass Slayer 1

Yes, it was very crowded. The ramp area was packed. Lots of recreational paddlers and johnboats out. Didn't see or hear much of anything being caught. Spotted lots of arches on my graph, but in deep water and suspended...couldn't get them to bite, though.

I fished the reservoir on Sunday afternoon and the bite was really tough. Got skunked. Water was really muddy with water temps around 64-65. Worked the blowdowns with spinnerbaits...nothing.

Very nice! Where did you go and what did you catch it on? The cooler weather this past weekend kept me off the water, though I wanted to try for some catch-and-release stripers in the Occoquan River.

That's a real interesting setup. I had a problem mounting a transducer on the inside as my Moken as it is really difficult to get inside the hull. So I picked up a Eagle Cuda 300 portable. Tried it out last Saturday and it works great, but, the suction cup transducer on the side of the kayak caused drag so it made the kayak track to one side. I have a flat spot on the rear of the kayak near the carry handle that I'm going to try sticking it there next time to try and reduce the drag.

No sir. I hit Burke on Friday but was nowhere to be found on Saturday. We had friends in town from NYC, so we went hiking in the Shenandoah. That said, my Pro Angler is dark green. I hope to see you out there. How did you do at Burke? My buddy and I have sworn off that place as we always get skunked there. You wouldn't by chance were at Burke maybe 3-4 weeks ago on a cold, windy Saturday? I chatted with someone in a dark green Hobie there.

Is that Brunswick, MD (across from the Route 17 bridge?) Can the smallies be found anywhere farther south on the river, at all? I'm trying to stay more local to the Northern VA area.

DC Bandit, was that you that I talk to in the dark green Hobie on the Occ River last Saturday?

Yeah, I think I do remember you guys motoring past us a time or two. How did you guys do that day? So we missed the big YP slaying by a couple of days, eh? I guess that was before the river got too muddy, I suppose?

Yup, that's us. We got skunked. Though we did see a few boats out catching a few perch on chartreuse jigs. We saw a few bass boats out, too, hitting Hoffmasters hard, but not sure if they had much luck that day. Sunny and cold conditions, with the river fairly muddy. A week after that, we tried Burke, with no luck at all. Same conditions...sunny, cold, windy. We did see a guy in a john boat out fishing hard and catching a few and a guy in a green Hobie that said he didn't have any luck, either.

I hear that the upper Potomac River is killer for smallies, but I don't know where to start. Is it around the Algonkian park area? In a kayak, how's that area for paddling around? We're in SOT yaks so they're mostly set up for flatwater or slow currents, not good for rapids or rips at all. What's the best lures? Thanks.

Dan, you are the Man! That's really slaying them. Yeah, my buddy and I have hit it twice back in February, but didn't get any bites both times...maybe bad luck, bad conditions, bad angling, etc. Last weekend, we wanted to get out, but that was during the middle of that big rain system that come through. Wish we could get out during the week, but Saturday's the only day we can do it. I love Charlie's fishing reports in Inside Nova's website. He always has the lowdown on all the local hotspots!

Yeah, that's my concern, as well, that the YP have done there thing and left. I've been looking forward to having a fish fry of YP all Winter. Usually, I've read up on Charlie Taylor's fishing report, but I havent' seen a post from him in a couple of weeks to see what's up in the area. Might need to roll the dice and just hit it and find out what's up down there. I guess we could always paddle down to the mouth of the river near the Occ Bay to see what's there if its too muddy near Hoffmaster's.

My buddy and I were there 3 weeks ago in our yaks, but the water was muddy that day we went out after some recent rains/melting snow. So it really slowed down the yellow perch bite. Hoping that the the 4-5 days since the heavy rains have past this coming Saturday (along with the warm weather) will settle things down in the river and get the YP (or whatever else) to bite. My buddy has sworn off ever going to Burke anymore as that place has been a tough place catch fish.

He popped the hook out with some braid line twisted around the shank. Does anyone know this technique to get a hook out with the barb past the skin? This might come in handy knowing how to do this.

I was looking at this product as a possibility for my kayak. The bottom edge is getting gouged up pretty good from all the rocky shore launches and beachings. I guess an alternative that I was thinking of, as well, would be to just layer up some good old fashion duct tape! Did you guys happen to see that "Mythbusters" episode where they used a backplate made of duct tape layers to fire a cannon from?!