usaustrian

thanks for all the replies! It definitely was not a snakehead, it looked like a catfish to me as well, but then again the whole no whiskers thing kind of threw me off. But I guess if catfish with missing whiskers are not that uncommon then that's what it was.

I am fairly new to baitcast fishing, especially when fishing for smaller species like bass - I've really only fished bigger baitcast reels on the ocean. Now I got a Quantum Energy PT reel for Christmas, and am looking for a rod to match it as the only baitcast rod I have is too big for the reel. I saw an abu garcia vendetta rod in a store the other day and weight/proportion wise that looked a lot more appropriate. I'm on a limited budget so the max I'd want to spend on a rod is $100, but preferably below that. Of course the matching Quantum rod would be an option, but I've heard mixed things about it - may however not matter for someone not (yet) fishing baitcast setups too much. I am just looking for a decent, reasonably priced rod that would work with the reel and is fairly versatile (don't have the money currently to get a whole set of baitcast rods to match all applications). Thanks in advance for the advice. Florian

I caught this fish in the Potomac (Four Mile Run/Alexandria area) last summer, but have been struggling to identify it. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have. At first I thought it was some sort of catfish, but it was missing any significant barbels. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks, Florian

Hey everyone! My name is Florian, I grew up in Europe and I have been fishing on and off pretty much all my life, but only recently took up bass fishing. I moved to California a few years ago, figured I'd give bass fishing a shot, and have been loving it ever since. I live in Santa Barbara, so Lake Casitas is the closest spot, but I also spend a good amount of time in and around DC fishing the Potomac. I'm still fairly new to the bass fishing world and figured I'd join this forum to connect with fellow fishermen and learn some more about bass and how to catch them! Looking forward to some good conversations!