Tuckahoe Joe

100% right on! I fish from the bank and there have been several times this season alone where I have fished a single laydown for 15+ minutes without a bite and then all of a sudden it's 'fish on!' and I end up pulling out a 3-5 pound fish. Patience and persistence definitely pay off.

I'm pretty sure it didn't have the tentacle on the dorsal fin but I suppose it could have been bitten off or lost somehow. I mean, people catch catfish that are missing whiskers sometimes right? It was really slimy but I didn't notice any kind of smell. Whatever the species, I know it's a shad now and that's good enough for me.

I was running my Red Eye Shad along some shoreline weeds the other day and ended up snagging this guy in the back. What is it? I was looking online and I think it looks like a gizzard shad. Can someone verify that for me or else just tell me what the heck this thing is?

I've recently started using braided line on one of my baitcasters and I used mono backing. I want to put it on my wife's spinning reel as well but wasn't sure if you would use backing on a spinning reel or not.

I'd have to go with some sort of stick bait such as a Senko, Yum Dinger or BPS Sticko. If the water is stained or muddy, go with black. If the water is clear, go with something with watermelon or pumpkin in the name like green pumpkin or watermelon red flake. My personal preference is the Yum Dinger. The GYCB Senko seems to have a little more wiggle to it but the Yum Dinger is way more durable. I can get at least 2-3 fish out of one Dinger where as a Senko is usually killed after just 1. Texas rig it (without a weight), cast it out (preferably to some sort of cover), let it sink on a slack line, and let it sit. Hop it once or twice and let it sit again. Hop, sit, hop, sit, etc, etc, etc... Or you could just reel it in really really slow. Most people will say to hop it but in all honesty, 90% of my stick bait fish have come from slowly reeling it. If you think your fishing too slow, slow down even more. You might also try whacky rigging it. Basically, you just hook the worm right through the middle. The hook is exposed so you'll probably get hung up more but the worm will have more action. I've had more snags than luck this way but I know a lot of guys swear by it. I saw a picture of a weedless whacky rig the other day (kind of a whacky/t-rig hybrid) that I want to try the next time I go out but my confidence with these baits is T-rigged and reeled slow.

The wife caught a nice one earlier today at Loch Raven. I didn't catch anything but for some reason I think I like it better when she's catching anyway.

Here's a couple from the last week or so. Having a great start to my season so far. I've only caught 3 small ones. Everything else has been about this size. All caught on jigs.

Thanks for the tip guys. Maybe I'll go with braid. I know that'll be fine for jigs/frogs but she was probably gonna use this rod for heavier spinnerbaits too. Would that be an issue with braid?

I recently bought my wife a med heavy rod for jigs/frog fishing. The reel she has on her med rod is an Abu Cardinal S30. The top line rating is for 10lbs. She has small hands and is really comfortable with this reel. The next size up looks to be a bit bigger so I wanna get her the same one that she already has. The problem is that I wanna go up to 14lb mono for the jigs. Aside from not being able to put as much line on the reel are there any other consequences to putting heavier line on a reel than it's rated for?

Thanks for the input guys. Glad I asked cuz I probably wouldn't have thought to fish it that way. And yeah, it does seem kind of light for baitcasting gear but my topwater rod is a spinning rod so its all good. Now if the topwater bite will pick up around here I'll be in business.

Found a Cordell Crazy Shad the other day. I've never fished a lure like this. I'm assuming its just cast, retrieve, props create wake, and the fish slams it but I was wondering if anybody has any tips on how to fish these?

I found this the other day. Trying to figure out what it is. There are no markings anywhere on it.