Tuckahoe Joe

Hit up 2 lakes in Howard County today. Centennial and Jackson's pond. It was my first time at each and didn't have any luck at either of them. I was thinking that at Centennial at least maybe the pike and trout would come out to play. Of course there was still a lot of ice so I had limited water to fish and had to do quite a bit of walking to get to it. And of course the majority of the soft water was at the end of the lake that was buoyed off as a wildlife sanctuary so I left that alone cuz I'm sure that that's a heck of a fine. I liked the look of Jackson's pond but it seems really small. I mean, there can only be so many fish in a pond that size right? And who knows if people are keeping fish or not and how many. So I'm wondering if that one is completely fished out. I dunno though. I'm probably just over-thinking it cuz I haven't caught a bass since the beginning of November. I'm gonna give it a week or 2 and let the water warm up a bit and then try them again. Also planning on trying Lake Elkhorn, Lake Kittamaqundi, Wilde Lake, and the Baltimore County reservoirs. I seriously hope were done with winter. It looks like its starting to warm up. I just wanna get back on some decent fish.

I just bought that same rod on clearance at WalMart for 25 bucks. Gonna use it for frogs and jigs. Thinking about hitting some of the lakes in Howard County this season even though I'm in Baltimore.

I hate Trilene with a passion. Way too much memory for my liking. Spooled up 3 rods with it a couple weeks ago even though I don't like it because it was all I could get a hold of at the time and just wanted to get out and fish. I fished with it for 3 hours and got so many twists and wind knots that I took it all off and threw it away as soon as I got home. It's Suffix Siege for me. Casts smooth, nice and limp with very little memory, and doesn't fray much at all.

My WalMart had the Vendetta's down to $19.99. Picked up one for the wife and also got myself a Bucoo Micro Guide for $29.99. All the WalMarts have they're fishing stuff on clearance right now. Around here the different stores have different stuff though. The one had rod's marked down while another close by had line/reels on sale and still another had lures/terminal tackle. Some of the deal's are better than others. You just gotta sift through them.

I'm the opposite. My wife has 16 years on me. There's no one I'd rather fish with though. She goes with me 95% of the time and usually does pretty well considering that me trying to teach her is kinda like the blind leading the blind. She likes fishing Yum Dingers and lipless cranks. Here's her best fish from last season.

X's 2 on this.

I'm ready to get working on my goal of mastering the art or the jig. I recently bought a 6' 10'' MH Falcon Bucoo Micro Guide that I'm dying to try. Gonna buy an Abu Garcia Orra Sx to put on it. Aside from that I can't wait for the topwater bite to pick up so I can throw some frogs and my Hula Popper.

4lb mono and 1/8oz or smaller inline spinners is what I use. You might also try a small crankbait like the Strike King Bitsy Minnow. I usually just cast it out and reel it in with a steady retrieve. If there's current like in the creek below the dam that you mentioned, I've heard people say to cast upstream for a more natural presentation. Makes it look like a small baitfish being washed downstream with the current. But I've done the exact opposite and caught fish too so give both a try. Never used Powerbait but I've seen others having success with it. I'm not personally a huge fan of the 'cast and wait' method.

I was fishing by a boat ramp when I looked down the trail around the lake and saw what I thought was a stray dog. It was rolling around playfully in the grass. I started to walk toward it and then I realized that it wasn't a dog but an otter. Probably about 3 to 4 feet long. Tried to get close enough to take a good picture but when I was about 20 feet away it stopped rolling and slid into the lake.

Hooked a beaver on my hula popper. Made the cast and then this beaver pops up right between me and the lure and starts swimming toward my line resting on the water. He swims into it, keeps going, and pulls the popper into the side of his neck. Fought him for about 3 minutes and was about to cut the line but by the time I got to my knife he had gotten himself off. Made me happy that I didn't have to lose my lure but felt pretty bad for the beaver cuz I'm sure that the trebles hurt like hell. I also recall a time when I was probably no more than 8 or 9 years old. I was crabbing with my dad. We had a 1000 foot trout line with chicken necks tied ever 3 feet or so. My dad was dipping and all of a sudden up comes this snapping turtle on one of the chicken necks. So my dad just takes the dip net and flips it into the boat. The shell on this thing was the same diameter of our bushel baskets. Seen bigger turtles since then but for an 8 year old kid, that thing was huge.

1. Break my personal best largemouth of 3.75lbs. 2. 5lb largemouth 3. Catch first smallie ever 4. Get off the bank 5. Improve my flippin/pitchin and catch my first jig fish 6. Help my little brother catch his first bass 7. Catch a tiger muskie 8. Fish as much as possible

This is stupid. It needs to get warm so I can fish. Now they're calling for more snow. Such crap...

I had them pestering me about a vacation the first time I ever went there. Someone asked me if I wanted to enter a sweepstakes for a free boat. Hell yeah! Why wouldn't I? Didn't realize that that's how they get ya. As I'm filling out the card, this guy approaches and starts with the 20 questions about where I usually go on vacation and how much I spend on one on average and if I'd ever been here or there and if I could go anywhere in the US where would it be and BPS has vacation packages available in this state and that state, etc. etc. etc... Didn't bother him in the slightest when I told him I delivered pizzas for a living and could barely afford to pay my rent. I even told the guy I only had enough money to pay for the rod I was planning on buying and the guy said that if I put that money towards one of their vacation that he'd give me that much plus an extra $25 bucks in BPS gift cards. And then after I finally got away from them, I was approached 2 or 3 more times while I was shopping. Very annoying.

Saw them on TW the other day. They look pretty cool. I've heard someone say that most of the paint schemes on lures are designed to catch fisherman rather than fish. Well I'm guilty as charged when it comes to this. I'm not gonna run out and buy one of every color or anything but I'll most likely pick up a couple. They probably won't catch fish any better or worse than any other crank out there but it's a cool design either way.

I've caught them on everything except topwater but they seem partial to spinnerbaits and Rat-L-Traps

I'd appreciate that. I'll shoot you a PM.

The Pro Qualifier seems to be a common denominator here and its a nice thought but I have a $60 gift card for Dick's that I'm going to be putting toward it so that's out. I might try and save up a couple more bucks and look at some of these other options though.

I'm trying to decide on a reel for my new setup. It's going to pretty much primarily be a setup for flippin/pitchin jigs. I'm on a budget and really like my BlackMax so I'm looking at either the SilverMax or ProMax. The ProMax has the higher gear ratio which I understand is important when jig fishing but the SilverMax has a flippin' switch which seems intriguing/useful. Which would you choose in this situation?

Went to Dundee Creek for a couple hours today but no luck. We did see some fish jumping but I guess they just weren't interested in what we were throwing. The water still felt pretty cold. Probably gonna wait till we get a couple solid weeks of warmer weather before trying for bass again.

I use it to flip and pitch to heavy cover. T-rigged on a 4/0 EWG with a pegged 1/2oz weight.

It must vary from store to store cuz I went to a different WalMart in the area and this one had no deals whatsoever on rods but a couple tables with Abu spinning/casting reels marked $10-$20 off. The other night was the only time I've gotten in on the awesome WalMart sales I hear people talk about. Maybe I was just in the right place at the right time.

Just a heads up guys. Don't know if this is just my store or just my region or what but I just got some stupid deals at WalMart the other night. Picked up a 7ft MH Vendetta for the wife for $20 and picked up a 6'10'' Heavy Falcon Bucoo Micro Guide casting rod for myself for $25. Total savings of approx. $150-$160! I wasn't even planning on buying fishing rods but with prices like that, I figured they wouldn't last long so I jumped at the chance while I still had it. There was a whole bin of rods with sale prices like this. All kinds of brands, models, lengths, actions, and powers. There was also a box full of Bomber, Heddon, and Arbogast lures for like $2.50! It's definitely worth a look on your next trip to WalMart.

The wife and I are planning on going out Sunday. Not sure if I'm expecting to catch anything or not. It'll be nice just to be able to get out and wet a line.

I'm planning on fishing Loch Raven. Definitely gonna rent a boat but don't have the cash to rent one every time. I've fished the area your talking about a couple times but never really did very well. Just trying to expand my fishing horizons and give myself as many options as possible. Also thinking I might buy a setup for stripers. Theres a lot of parks near me with salt/brackish water and fishing piers.

Cool man, thanks. Looking at google maps, it looks like all 3 are relatively close to each other so I'll probably check them all out and see whats gonna work best for me. How bout Harford county...any one know any good spots from the bank up in that area?