Nitrofreak

Truly hard to believe that happened that long ago, I was working in the D.C. area at the time as an automotive tech, we watched the whole thing from launch to when the unthinkable happened. There are a lot of things that have happened to us as a nation that should never be forgotten about, America is the greatest place on earth because of her people and the courage they have.

LC Pointer 100's in Ghost and shad patterns.

I just got a boat with a set of Lowrance elite 7 HDI's, I can not speak for the humming bird models but make sure that if you do end up with a pair and you have them both on at the same time that you set the ping speed differently for each, or put the console unit in standby mode before jumping on the deck, it interferes with the front unit otherwise, setting the console on standby helped my front sonar tremendously.

LC Pointers are awesome at Anna, Congrats on a good day and thanks for taking the time to share it with us !!

I like what he had to say here in this post, especially the part about finding the right water temp, a power plant lake varies greatly in temps from top to bottom, if you find the more active fish in the colder water it may also be because of the slowed movement of the bait fish in colder water making them easy prey for the bass, we all know how lazy the bass are so the easier it is for them the better. One other tip I failed to mention was that there are usually marinas that have a great fishing reports, don't forget to look those up and read them first, they can be very helpful in narrowing your search, one more tool you have at your disposal on the water is your eyesight, keep an eye out for birds feeding on schools of bait fish, also very helpful in locating active fish.

In order to catch fish you must first find the fish. something I learned here a long time ago, something about power plant lakes are just a little different with reverse currents mid to down lake waters, I fish one here in Va. A good bit, in reality the only part of the lake that fishes a little different is areas that have a reverse current, usually these lakes have a great amount of pressure, otherwise there really is not much difference in the way you would approach any other lake, find the schools of bait and you will find the bass not far away, while the lower part may hold the larger sizes of bass, usually the lower warmer water is vast in size making it more difficult to find fish, above mid lake the narrower arms of these lakes will normally hold concentrations of bass and can be much easier to locate and fish for, reducing your time looking and giving you more time to fish. hope that helps, good luck and be safe !!!

Pork chops, Ribs, and cracklings! Whats a pig skin party without the pigskin right !!! Yummy !!!

Many thanks Wayne !!!

Very helpful Wayne, I fish five lakes in Va. Kerr (Buggs Island) Claytor, Smith Mountain, Moomaw, and mostly Anna, the private side does not bother me not having any kind of coverage, it's very rare that I get the opportunity to fish that side anyway, the plus card sounds like the way to go, I had no clue that you could download only the lakes that you want or have a need for, how does this work? they send me a blank chip and I call a number to download maps that I want? as I stated, I am brand new to this game so please forgive the elementary questions.

I think he just called you an alien robot Catt LOL !!

Just got a new to me ride this past September guys and it came with 2 of the elite 7 HDI sonars, neither included a nav chip, there are several on the market and I am looking for some input on which way to lean with the different options, best place to purchase etc..., I am new to this Nav chip deal, never had a sonar before that offered this option, thanx in advance !!

here is the link as promised, all you have to do is in the header at the top of the page is click on videos, there is so much information in here that will help you with anything you need, need anything else just let us know. http://www.bassresource.com/fishing-techniques/

Just got back from Cabalas in Pa and picked up some sweet swim baits, something I have been wanting to try my luck at for a long time, the family and I camp a lot over at lake Anna mostly at the state park, the foundation I am associated with "reel American heroes" puts together an event on the Potomac every July, beautiful place for sure !! Enjoy your equipment, best of luck this season and be safe !!!

If you have a smooth concrete floor somewhere that can be used as practice but nothing beats practicing on water, I have jigs, flukes, swim baits and worms down pretty decently, not perfect but with minimal backlashing, or as we like to say around here, "professional overrun", working on skipping crank baits now, at least as much as possible, use jigs when your first starting out, especially arky style, they help the bait stay on top and do quite well, don't try to get as much as you can at first, keep it simple and just make it skip a few feet first, use a medium rod to start but stay with a rod that has a little whip in the tip, that helps a lot, flipping IMO is simple, pitching is a lot more technical, again, start with short distances, bring your bait down close to the front of your reel and learn to use your wrist and you will get the hang of it in no time at all. you got this, just don't do too much at first and it'll come to ya! good luck and be safe !!!

I know, my past few years have been hit and miss as far as time on the water with the economy and all the stuff happening around the home, always seemed something broke down just before the weekend that I could go or ended up spending my trip money on home repair. Hope you get that new ride and if you do, make sure to share some pics with us, we love pictures here for some reason... Anyway, have a great season, good luck and be safe !!!

dang, dagummit, dangnabbit, dependin on what fer part of the kuntry you liv in...

If hooting around a body of water gets the fish to bite then who am I to argue, there, does that simplify it enough for ya ??? LOL !!!

Thank you very much !!!

You say that as if it's a bad thing, besides, I'm all about trickin some finicky ladies into biting my worm, whatever helps right !! LOL !!

Be sure and let us know how that works out for ya, I may just have to take up a new technique LOL !!

Thanks Catt, I am remaining open minded about this whole thing I promise, what I am trying to understand and maybe I just have not gone over enough of the structure with a good sonar that I have in question, but, I am finding groups of fish on my lake in places that have no discernible breaklines to speak of, not like a creek channel or a ledge or even a change in the feel of the bottom from one type of structure to another where you can say Hey, this is what the guys were speaking about, I remember a post in the beginning where GeorgeWelcome was introducing us to current, I am left assuming that there may be an underlying current of some magnitude in this area even though I can not feel one with my bottom baits that I use, would current aid in the process of making structure like this productive?

Well, if I am basically right that means I am soaking up something right LOL ! Thanx MFBAB for all the help !!

First of all Congrats Jason, thoughts and prayers passed along for good health and a safe delivery for mom and baby. The Nitro burned two pistons on the weekend before Veterans day last year, I took Chop out with me because I had an open seat, the weird thing was that I fired it up the night before we went out and everything was fine, I unloaded it at the dock the next morning and it had a really hard time starting, more than usual, we made it about a mile and a half up the old river arm and ended up trolling back, Chop caught some decent fish which made the day better but when I got home and found out what happened to her, I did a cost analysis on replacement and decided that I would look around first, I found a Pro Craft 19 foot with a 200 merc along with upgraded electronics both bow and console and decided on replacing the Nitro instead of fixing it, I still have it just incase I run across a really good deal on an engine for her but I am enjoying the upgrade, I have only had it out 3 times since I got it and cant wait to explore more with her this year. That sounds like a great season you have planned there for sure !! Good luck and be safe !!! I do as well, I hope this season brings you lots of big fish and lots of great memories !!! I have been really working hard on my skipping baits with my bait casters, there are a lot of uses here for that as well as flipping and pitching up here where I am at, man I hope to see some fatties posted with your success this season !!! Good luck and be safe !!!

Obviously I don't understand as much as I thought I might LOL, I swear I did read the whole thing again and I thought it made sense, ok if I am not being too annoying I wish to make sense of what I am looking at in the picture, maybe I am projecting my questions in the wrong way, maybe I am not getting it at all, I have points just like these on the waters I fish, in fact, this one in particular in the picture is almost a mirror image of one on my home lake. During the summer months on high pressure days (bright sunny days) correct me if I am wrong about that terminology, I can find them up shallow in and around the patches of grass and around various stumps on the point (my home lake has very little grass due to the over abundance of carp that was introduced) so understanding structure is even more important to me, during the day after the morning bite has deteriorated they will move into the saddle or I will find them out on the deeper point, much like the one pictured, I guess I am trying to make sense of why they would locate themselves in such an area.

So basically it's picking out plausible structure like the one pictured and exploring it to it's maximum. Looking at the picture it shows a weed line, could that not be considered a breakline if the weeds were dense enough or am I thinking too much? Or is a weed line simply determined by a round about depth knowing that grass has a hard time growing past the 15 foot mark?