Fat Boy

Congrats to Brian for his win! Way to go Ken on your PB!!!!

I'd take a look at two different things...first, pick a good reel, if you take care of them properly they'll last for years and years. Check the on-line stores and read the reviews. I've been a Shimano fan for years. I've had Diawa's, Shakespears, ABU Garcia, Quantums and others, and although most of them were decent reels, I've felt that that usability, durability, and design of the Shimanos fit my fishing style better. I recently deviated by purchasing an Ardent flipping reel because it seemed innovative. Although I use it, I'm not happy with it. The quality isn't good. The flipping switch never worked, and the clutch doesn't engage every now and then properly. Most of the time when pitching or flipping, I don't need the flipping switch anyway, so when I use it the reel does an OK job for how I use it, so I just kept it, but I wouldn't buy another one. Although I like the flipping design for the most part, looking back in hindsight, I would have purchased another Shimano Castaic (always been good for me when flipping). Buy a reel that suits what you want to do, and that will dicate the price. If you want to flip, the Castaic is good, but so is the Core. If you want to just cast and retrieve, and maybe do a little flipping, the Curado is a good reel. I own both and love them both. As for the rod, again, find ones that suit what you want to do. If you just want one to start out, maybe think about the combos available by the on-line stores. The rod prices are reasonable especially when purchased as the combo. I've had good luck with rods purchased that way. I'm not brand specific, but I have yet to own a baitcasting rod that I didn't like. I've owned a Diawa flipping telescoping rod, I currently use a Powell flipping/pitching rod, and love both of them. I've owned Shimano rods which were good too. I currently use St. Croix Avids, and all of theirs have worked well with me. I'm a fan of graphite, and all of them have worked well for me. The "round" baitcasters are nice too especially when chucking huge heavy baits. I just bought a Shimano Takota for tossing big musky lures, and I love it. It was a toss up between that and the ABU Garcia 7000C, and after seeing them in person opted for the Takota. I would have loved to buy a Calcutta, but it was out of my budget at the time. But as a beginning baitcaster, I'd avoid the round ones for now. The low profile ones tend to have better magnets and such to help eliminate backlashes. By the way, you will backlash, and don't be embarassed. It happens to everyone at the beginning, and even happens to experienced users including pros. You will learn how to prevent them and how to pick them out. The more you use them, the less it will happen. Eventually, you will love them. Good luck in your choice Kevin. Again, read the reviews of those in the prices that you are interested in. If you start with a less expensive model, just make sure that it is designed to do what you're asking it to do.

I agree, the only way to learn is to do the Nike thing, "Just Do It", but practice helps. When I shore fish, I carry a baitcaster for my heavier lures and a medium spinning rod for my finesse stuff. If I'm in a boat, I'll have as much as two baitcasters, a pitching/flipping rod/reel, and two spinning finesse rods. The amount of space in the boat determines how many rods I bring, less space, less rods, etc. Baitcasting gear gives you a different way to present bigger lures like spinnerbaits, flipping with jigs,etc., crankin'...and they have a bit more crankin' power IMHO, and they're accurate because you can stop your cast with a simple press of the thumb. When you buy one and practice, learn to cast from any angle (overhead, side, back hand, underhand - pitch/flip). The key is to be versatile. Don't worry about casting distance but instead focus on accuracy. Distance will come with practice and experience.

Yeah Ken, take care of your eyes. The fish will wait for ya. Hang in there buddy, you'll be hookin' up some hawgs before ya know it.

Thanks Justin, this was very helpful. I'm also into making my own lures (especially spinnerbaits and buzzbaits), so I may try and make my own version of this, being the cheapskate that I am.

I haven't bought or tried them yet, but mainly because in my state it's not legal to fish more than two lures on one rod. You can use teasers though. So, I've been toying with the idea of attaching spinnerbait blades to several of the wires and one or two swimbaits, grubs, jigs or spinnerbaits as the "hooks" on the bottom of the rig. Anyone try that before? It would resemble a school of spinnerbaits! I've taken up musky fishing over the past year, so tossing the big stuff doesn't bother me. The way that I figure, chucking these will build up my forearms for musky fishing, and vice versa.

Funny, I just posted on my blog about this topic. In Maryland, I've been ice fishing on this day in the past, and with this warmth, everything is happening so fast. Last night, the lake that I had an hour to fish just had that topwater feel to it. Frogs and toads everywhere, bugs buzzing me, panfish dimpling the water feeding on them, spring peepers singing in the background. So, I tied on a buzzbait and withing a few casts toward the end of my legal fishing time, I hooked a decent three pounder...but the bass threw the hook right at my feet before I could lip it. Still, this was my first time ever in Maryland hooking a bass on a buzzbait in March. I'll be pitching topwater more and more this week.

Congrats on your PB!

Nice fish Bill, congrats on your personal best! It's a beauty! After arriving late after work with about an hour at best to fish, I fished at BH this evening with Monocacy and his buddy Mike (nice guy BTW). Mike caught one in the 13"-14" range as did I on soft plastics. But the interesting thing is that right at the end of the evening, I tied on a buzzbait, hooked a good fish near the bank that was probably 2-3 pounds. I wanted to land that fish badly, but it had other ideas, throwing the hook as I bellowed my frustration across the lake, scaring even the bats cruising around overhead. It would have been my first ever bass landed on a buzzbait in March in Maryland, but instead, became the first bass hooked on a buzzbait in March in Maryland. I just had a good feeling about it, frogs and toads everywhere, panfish surface activity everywhere, bugs in the air, warm temperatures and that evening calm on the lake...calling out for topwater. Could be a trend guys! More warmth on the way the next three days.

Thanks Kevin, glad you liked it! We are so blessed to have such a great river to fish. It can be tough down there, but at times, I can't think of a more fun place to fish. Something is always biting down there! I can't wait to get back. I'm going to try and match my wits against the largemouth at BH for a couple hours this evening. I hope that my luck continues. Who knows, maybe I'll run into one of you guys out there!

Bear with me on this detailed report, for yesterday marked a historic event! March 19th, 2012 marked a new day in the history of Mr. Steve Kelley and his fishing career, the maiden voyage of his brand new Mako boat. And let me tell you that his boat transformed from an expensive piece of décor or jewelry to a fishing boat in a matter of hours. The floor of his shiny white boat was soiled by snakehead blood, snakehead poo, milfoil and other SAV fragments, algae, general dirt from our footwear, and the outside was stained by the mighty Upper Tidal Potomac. And we christened it with good sized fish. What a great trip. We launched at around 11 AM, and on our way out from the ramp, debated whether to head toward the main stem of the Potomac, or to veer the other direction into the creek. Steve had main stem weed beds on his mind because of memories of past springtime success there, and the urge was well founded. However, I convinced him based on our experience (Mark and I) with bigger fish the other day to start in the creek. I opted to use the same blue/chrome Rat-L-Trap to start mostly since I had confidence in it and it was already tied on. The tide was low, water visibility had improved over two days ago to about 2 feet or so. Water temps were in the upper 50’s, the weather was beautiful with a few clouds and some annoying wind. Our plan was to focus on the vast emerging weed beds and toss lipless crankbaits and cover some water. Actually, the wind is our ally when fishing like this because if you position your boat correctly, you can use the wind to your advantage and cover some water. We fished the same basic area that Mark and I fished a couple days earlier, but fished a little more South along the deeper channel where it met the weed bed. I proceeded to move the weeds around while Steve hookup up on his very first cast, catching his biggest tidal river largemouth to date, a stout 21 inch bass that I’d say easily weighed 5 pounds, although we didn’t have a scale. Here is his first fish: It wasn’t a few casts later that Steve boated another fat largemouth, this one a fat bass at 18 ½” and most likely about four pounds. Meanwhile, while Steve’s boated 9 pounds of fish, I’m still cleaning weeds away so he can work his lure more easily. He proceeded to catch another nice 17” bass a few casts later. Not long after that, I was on the board hooking into a less than massive 12” skinny male largemouth. The tide stopped moving, and although we both had a few more hits, the water was lower and it was difficult to work that pattern. We tried different lures and also worked the channel edges without any luck. We knew that staying in the creek would have produced, but Steve was itching to play with his boat and run it a bit, so out of the creek and out to the main stem of the river we went. We stopped at the mouth of a popular creek to see if the weeds were growing and the bass willing. It was a bit slow in the crankbaits, no bites, but Steve managed to catch a white perch in his lipless crankbait. Steve changed tactics and worked the woody shoreline with the ringworm trying to see if he could get a few bass and some bonus yellow perch. He caught a couple chunky largemouth and a couple yellow perch. I decided to try something different and do a bit of finessing, so I pulled out my trusty spinning rod rigged with a ¼ oz. jighead, a Mann’s Sting Ray grub dabbed in Smelly Jelly (that actually smells pretty good), and proceeded to snag. I tried to straighten the hook with my strong braided line, but must have had a nick in it and broke it off…I could have waited for Steve to move the boat as he was willing to do so, but got impatient. LOL. So I tied on another one and proceeded to catch a yellow perch and a couple small but fat largemouth. As we moved toward the creek mouth, we noticed that the tide was coming in, so I switched back to my trusty trap, and hooked up on a nice chunky bass that would have been about three pounds, only to loose it while trying to yoke it in the boat Bassmaster style! Dumb…when things are tough, I should have reminded myself to be more careful. I had a couple more hits and misses, but at least the activity was picking up. We decided it was time to move up to the flats. We tried trolling a pass along the 12’ troughs to see if the breeder stripers had shown up. Although we marked a few fish of some kind, we didn’t see enough to warrant continuing trolling, so we moved in shallow and bass fished again, searching for the weeds. We pulled up to a spot that Mark and I found the other day that held fish, and I finally hooked up on a decent bass 18 ½” largemouth on the Rat-L-Trap. Steve has a neat scale on his cooler, so measuring the fish is pretty easy. I wish we had a scale to weigh them…(note to self: spend the money on a good scale). I caught a couple more smaller keeper sized bass after that, then we moved out to the weed beds. I landed some more fat largemouth along the weeds, but we really had to work for them. Steve opted to head toward shore and work the wood with a ringworm. On his first cast, he landed a fat 17” largemouth, followed by a yellow perch. Not long after that, he hooked into a fish that catapulted out of the water on his hook set, almost doing a back flip. I yelled out, “snakehead”! Sure enough, Steve landed this fishzilla: I’m not sure if it was the next cast or not, but he hooked into another one shortly after, not quite as big. We wondered if they were paring up to spawn and he caught the mated pair. If so, we spared the Potomac from a zillion more of these as we kept both of them for the table (Steve’s table). I tried the worm and caught a couple yellow perch, but really wanted to catch a snakehead at that point. I lost interest in tossing the traps. But, it wasn’t meant to be. I had a bite and got cut off, so unless chain pickerel are in there, my guess is that might have been a snakehead. Time was running out and we wanted to save the rest of the time to go back into the creek in search of hawgs. I’m still snakehead challenged. We went back to the spot where Steve caught his big bass, and worked it thoroughly. The tide was up, so it was much easier to work the tops of the weeds. We had a couple hits, but no fish landed, then decided to let the wind drift us toward the Northern shoreline. We noticed a bass, definitely a bass, in shallow water doing some sort of evasive maneuver, leaping out of the water several times. It didn’t look like it was feeding, it looked like it was leaping for its life. We thought it might have been chased by a snakehead. I managed to catch a couple more fat bass on the trap while probing a new weed bed area, a place to keep in mind for next time. We moved to the point where I caught my 21” fish the other day, and a few casts later, I hooked up into a monster. This 21 ½” fish was barely hooked by the back treble of my crankbait…my biggest fish in a couple years. Man was it fat and heavy. After that, I managed to hook and lose another one on a nearby weed bed that we found. Then, hooked up and caught another one so I wouldn’t be stuck on 13. Time ran out and Steve needed the remaining time to get his boat out and ready to go home. Newbies!!!! LOL. I started slow, but finished with a bang and equaled my last trip, 14 bass, including a 21 ½” fatty, a 18 ½” bass, and two 17” fat bass, and three yellow perch that thought they were largemouth. Steve landed 10 bass, including his biggest Potomac largemouth to date on his first cast, and a four pounder, along with two yellow perch, a white perch, and two fishzilla snakeheads (dead with the gills ripped out, probably filleted last night by Mr. Kelley).

Thanks Kevin! I think that Kevin must mean some sort of ancient language for "man addicted to fishing"!

Absolutely, great minds think alike! The trap and spinnerbait bites are tough bites to beat. I can't think of any better bite than maybe the topwater bite, buzzers in particular. OK, truth be told, all bites are good bites. I love wormin' and jiggin' too.

I think that you've had the mojo, you just needed the bass to make an appearance!

I fished the tidal Potomac courtesy of my friend Mark, Greenway Flats to Mattawoman. We arrived to our first spot around 9 AM. We both had bass on our minds, so that's what we primarily did. Water clarity, not too bad for bass, about a foot and a half visibility, perfect for cranks and spinnerbaits. When I think spring, I'm thinkin' emerging weed beds and lipless crankbaits, so that's what I used. When fishing isolated cover, I'll either flip or toss Texas rigged plastic worms. But open water over big tidal weeds can put up numbers of good size pre spawn bass that key on chasing shad and herring. Nothing imitates the blue back herring better than chrome/blue cranks, and the Rat-L-Trap or similar baits seem to call 'em in. I caught this fish on my third cast: The Rat-L-Trap bite was on. For me, the lipless crankbait caught me 14 largemouth, with my biggest going 21", followed by an 18 1/2", 18", two 17" and the rest between 14 and 17". When the tides moved, as you'd expect, the fishing picked up. Other than that, we picked up one here and there. The way we started out, I thought that we would have had a better numbers day. At the end of the day, we left a spot that was giving up fish to both of us steadily and went to a spot on the morning that gave up fish, but that move didn't pan out. We broke my golden rule, "Don't leave fish to find fish". Had we stayed, we may have been able to pad our numbers a little more. I'm getting out Monday, so at least I have a head start on what to expect. Maybe the numbers weren't all that great, but the size was. Wow, I love the Potomac. We are so blessed to have such a great place to fish. I also caught three spawned out yellow perch. Only one of the bass came off a different lure, as did the perch, by swimming a grub while taking a break from casting the trap, testing the waters for panfish. Here's the one that I caught while trying to catch yellow perch, on my ultralight while swimming a grub, a 17" bass. Although I'm a believer in the big bait theory, small lures will catch big bass. Here's the 21" bass: We were leaving one spot to go to another, and I said, OK, one more cast. This guy hit on that cast! The rest of our bass pics: The yellow perch were spawned out, long and lean: The funny thing is that. before leaving for the afternoon at 4 PM, I said, OK, last two casts. On my very last cast, caught another 15" bass. What a great way to end a beautiful warm March day. In summary, we had a wonderful time, wonderful weather, and the company was awesome! On top of that, we caught fish!

Way to go Sean! Nice fish man!

Nice fish Allen and Nate! Congrats! Not bass fishing, but... I had planned to fish the Lower Potomac with my buddy Howard today, but he had to cancel due to some health issues in his family. Fortunately, my buddy Bob had a spot in his boat and was planning on getting out today to target muskies and walleyes. Last night I scrambled to change my bag over from my tidal stuff to musky stuff, and eagerly looked forward to another chance to catch a 'ski. We started out with is Son Carson joining us, but a frigid 28 degrees left us with ice on our line and guides early on, and the cold was too much for him to bear, so we took out and brought him home to warm up. Prior to taking out, Bob caught a small walleye on a chartreuse grub, and I had a musky roll on my Musky Menace Glider. Bob and I returned to the river for the balance of the day. We worked a few spots without any more action, until one spot where I had a fish blow up on a Hot Tail without getting hooked. Bob had one follow and nip at a Bomber Long A at the boat. I changed back to the glider and had a fish rise more than once on it, and also had a different smaller fish follow it to the boat, and hang for an F8 without a hit. The next cast, the first fish took a swipe at the glider twice, before getting hooked on the third twitch later. I fought and landed my biggest musky to date, this one pictured, at 39.5". After the action here died down, and my arms aching from tossing gliders all day, we both decided to fish around the dam for walleyes. My buddy tied his grub back on, and I put on a Rapala Husky Jerk. Bob hooked up on a fish a few casts later, and after a minute or so the fish cut him off during the fight...a musky, we figured. He was using 8 pound mono. Two casts later, he hooked up again and fought a fish a while until it came off. Meanwhile, I was casting down river, working my Husky Jerk very slowly, twitch...long pause, twitch twitch, longer pause...hoping to tempt a walleye or smallmouth. About five minutes of this and I had a nice hit, and set the hook. The fish bulldogged and at first I thought it was a big smallie, but then it just didn't have the same type of fight, so I thought it was a big marble eye. But as it neared the boat, it ran, and that isn't like a walleye at all. I backreeled and it took some drag, and after a minute or two, I saw a musky on the other end. Here is my walleye, that turned out to be a 35" musky: Sorry about Bob's thumb in the pic...he's not savy with my phone yet I'll have a better pic once he downloads from his camera. All in all, it was a great day for me, my best musky outing ever, first multi-ski day, and my PB musky! 2 muskies and 6 follows/boils between the two of us.

I usually get the river temps at Little Falls from this site: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/md/nwis/uv?01646500 It's not working today for some reason. I checked a few days ago and the river surface temps were 48 and holding. I'd bet that the temps further down river are a degree or two warmer, especially after yesterday.

Rodger, I think that you need something like 3 to 5 posts before the PM feature works...at least that's the way it is on other forums that I frequent. If my plans for Sunday fall through, then maybe I can meet you there. I'm going in Howard's boat (you might know him) down to the Lower Potomac, at least right now that's the plan. We'll hook up. I'll shoot you a PM.

Wow, a blast from the past! Hey Rodger, how ya been buddy? You won't have to twist my arm to fish! Let's do it!

My buddy Bob and I went out in search of Musky and Walleye on the Potomac on Thursday. The river rose and muddied rapidly. I had one strike on a musky jerkbait but it was on-off...end of my day. No more bites. I was hammered by the skunk monster, first time I've been bitten by the ugly creature in nearly five years. My buddy got one walleye while the water conditions were semi-OK early on, but no bites after that. On Saturday, my buddy Howard and I headed East for either tidal water or pond adventure. Our plan was to check the Tuckahoe River and try for some yellow perch, but Mother Nature had other ideas. Not only did the Potomac rise to very high levels, the Tuckahoe was also very full and very muddy, as was the Chester River and just about every tributary that we saw. We opted instead to head to Tuckahoe Lake since it was close. The water clarity was a little better, but not much, and the lake was as full as I’ve ever seen it. We had about 8” of visibility. I caught this bass about 20 minutes after launching on a white chatterbait in the upper end of the lake. I caught it in an area out of the current (since flooding was still occurring) in a spot that is normally dry. We pounded the entire area with various lures without another bite while getting rained on in the process. So, rather than torture ourselves on unfamiliar water in bad conditions, we thought that it would be better to leave here for another Eastern Shore Lake So, we packed up, turned the heat on high to warm and dry ourselves and headed to the other lake. It's not that the fishing is any better at the other lake, but we know the structure and layout better. In fact, all of the lakes over there are good for action just about any time of year. The second lake was also very high and the water clarity was about the same, less than a foot visibility. We fished our bigger lures all over the place, spinnerbaits, Rat-L-Traps, crankbaits and chatterbaits with Howard and I only have one measly short strike hit each. So, I opted for the fish catcher there, a 2” Kalin’s grub on a 1/32 oz. jighead. For the next few hours, we fished the grubs hard. I managed to eke out four fat yellow perch, three bluegills and a mini chain pickerel on the grub. We smeared our offerings with Smelly Jelly just in case since bites were few and far between. I don’t know if it helped, but with bites being low in quantity, it couldn’t hurt. Howard fought the wind all day while controlling the boat, which didn’t help much on his bite to fish landed ratio. He couldn’t buy a panfish or anything. We struggled all day long, and the panfish bites were few and far between, while the bigger fish seemed non-existant. During the evening magic hour, just when Howard was about ready to heave all his tackle in the lake, he decided to go back to “Old Faithful”, the green pumpkin 4" plastic worm. He got bites and landed two twin fat largemouth that he found very tight to cover and close to the bank, in less than a foot of water. Were the fish finally waking up? Or, did he just figure out where and how to catch them. Go figure, green pumpkin in muddy water. I had a pickerel break off my little grub, and I lost interest in perch jerkin’ when the bass are biting, so I picked up my chatterbait and decided to see if there were any active bass. A few casts later and I had this one tailwalking and jumping all around the boat. He hammered it. Not long after that, I put a cast into a spot that we must have each tossed thirty casts into, and this weird looking largemouth crushed the chatterbait, and also put on an acrobatic act of watery leaps. Notice the black blotches. We’ve seen these in the Canal and Lower Potomac bass before, and I’ve read about Susky smallies having them too. Local Scientists have ruled out virus and parasite infections, and think that it may be stress from electroshocking or catch and release fishing. The MD DNR site says that they're basically like freckles and harmless to the health of the bass. This guys athletics support that concept. Here’s the other side of the same bass…looks almost like a different fish! Close up of the lips. Not long after that fish, I cast out away from the cover under an overhanging tree, and had a massive hit, but missed the fish. The fish nearly ripped the rod from my hands. Repeated casts then and 15 minutes later resulted in a zero. But a bit further down lake, I had another massive strike on the chatterbait, and landed this fat chainside with a nice sunset behind me. I owe a lot of thanks to my good buddy Howard for fighting the wind and putting me on fish all day long. I’ll be returning the favor someday soon. That evening bite saved the day for us. We don’t know if we made the right move going by switching lakes because we lost about two hours of fishing time. Maybe Tuckahoe would have improved, or maybe a different pond would have been better. Would we have found clearer water somewhere else? We’ll never know. We had fun, nonetheless.

The upper river was off color and up but not as muddy as I expected on Sunday. It should clear up and start dropping soon. I noticed on the USGS page that the river temperatures shot up to 44 the day it rained, and have been holding over 40 lately, and 43 today and rising. In my mind, the smallmouth bass should be on tubes, hair jigs, jerk baits and maybe even spinnerbaits. That said, temps will drop into the 50's the next couple days, but the water temps shouldn't drop a lot, but might go back down to about 40. I hit an upper river spot of mine that I've caught largemouth from and picked up a few fish on a small 4" plastic worm. Nothing big, but still fun...weird catching bass now when I should be out ice fishing...but no ice! No smallies...I was expecting a couple, just largemouth. I tossed a grub trying for some walleyes but no hits. Here's a pic of my biggest, about 16-17" or so... Also, some of the smaller lakes will give up bass on these "Indian Summer" days, especially after a couple warm sunny days like we've had lately. Find shallows along the northern shorelines where wind piles up the warmest water. Small plastic worms, maybe a spinnerbait or jig of some sort could turn up some active bass especially if deep water is nearby. You may hook into a hawg...those big girls should start loading up about now. Gene Mueller reported that he and his buddies caught 22 fat largemouth between 3-4 pounds in the Upper Tidal Potomac yesterday. The hot lure was his winter staple, a Manns Stingray Grub (avacado color) smeared with Smelly Jelly on a light wire 1/4 oz. jighead, fished on medium tackle with 14 lb. Fireline. The lure nicely imitates tidal baitfish in the killifish family called mummichogs.

Thanks Sean...I saw nothing, the woods was dead today, pretty discouraging. I'm off tomorrow and intended to hunt, but am thinking about fishing instead. It's supposed to be nice out. Today was frigid, sitting in a tree at 32 degrees w/10-15 mph winds. I was chilled to the bone even though I was dressed properly.

I saw the river today and it was up and off color, but not as bad as I would have thought given all the rain. In a few days, it should clear and drop, and the big smallies should be in their deep wintering holes waiting for our tube jigs...that said, I'm thinking walleyes and muskies since my ice fishing season didn't materialize. Anyone been to the Power Plant lately? Have they been generating any warm water? The Upper Tidal Potomac has been good according to Gene Mueller and his buddies. I haven't personally been down there yet though, but bass along with a mixed bag of other species are hitting stingray grubs, and I'd bet jigging spoons and blade baits would work well along with jig/pork combos. I'm hunting tomorrow and Tuesday hoping to cash in on the last days of bow season. But I could be talked into a fishing trip this weekend!

Thanks Peter. Just let me know when you want to fish. We'll make time.