Choporoz

On Friday, I caught a 6 inch bluegill on a 5 inch fluke with a 3/0 EWG hook.

I'm in Woodbridge. I don't have a boat yet, so I can steer you to banks and boat rental places. I'd like to think I've found most boat rentals between DC and Lake Anna. When I do get a boat, I imagine I'll be putting in at Pohick and Occoquan Regional Park. Belmont Bay and Gunston Cove hold a ton of appeal for me at the moment. I rent boats at Lake Ridge and Fountainhead to fish the Occoquan fairly frequently. Lots of bass all around here.

Something else to consider is the balance of rod, reel and lures. I'd never thought much about it and moved reels around to different rods as tips broke or reels wore out. But a while back, I gave my wife a rig to use that had a smallish spinning reel on a heavy rod (I don't recall the specifics of each), but every five or six casts of a light lure, she'd end up with a mess. Took us a while to figure out it was actually my fault for mixing and matching unmatchable equipment. The stiff rod moved line faster than the lure could take it out.

I always keep at least a couple rods and a sampler tackle box in the car. I also keep a change of clothes in the car most work days. I'll stop at a bank or pier on the way home from work once or twice a week if I haven't been on the lake for a bit. Helps knock back the cravings a little.

Doesn't take much of a hitch in your swing to foul things. Once you've got it adjusted you still need to be smooth, smooth, smooth

Baitmonkey would be pretty lousy if I only had one color of any one type of lure. It'd be nice not to have 50 pounds worth bait in every color of the rainbow. I will say, however, that for plastics I almost always try new styles in a variation of green - something in the watermelon to green pumpkin spectrum. Reds, blues, pinks, whites, etc just don't have as wide a window to the bite....though they do have their place at times. If it's a hard bait that goes below the surface, I'll always gravitate towards shad-like and/or flash of orange on the belly.

Bingo. Especially the weightless flukes. Couple of my favorite small lakes get completely weeded over late May/early June every year. At the peak, I can't even get a boat on them. But before and after the peak, when most people ignore those lakes, I'll get out and drag a fluke across the tops very successfully. ......Thanks to Bassresource's videos, flukes have gone from zero confidence bait to full confidence bait.

What about "See a doctor if you have an erection lasting longer than four hours" ? oh...wait....nevermind I know what you mean....like "You can trust your car to the man that wears the Star......" or...."Have it your way".....and who can forget "Go see Cal, go see Cal, go see Cal"

I've found the $50 price point to really be the over/under for spinning reels. Those above have all been good value -- those below...generally not so much. That said, I've got a Mitchel 310 which I have found to have been pretty decent value - but it's less than a year old. You may not want another Mitchell, but the 300 has also done me quite well (for over 5 years now.) Pflueger President has not given me any problems. Shimano Sienna has been a tank and hasn't failed, but the Sedona is so much smoother. I've got an Abu Cardinal that's about 6 years old that is as smooth as the day I got it -- but I see a range of Cardinals nowadays, so I'm not sure what is comparable today. I would think that a Cardinal in the $50 range with 6 or more bearings would be great.

Great read, thanks. I thought it particularly interesting that most stay on the same side of the rez/lake. I give the Lewis and Clark award to the two "that were recaptured 12 km away within 2 weeks of their being tagged"

Mid to late Saturday afternoon I had 2 bass on 5 or 6 frog strikes. Early Sunday morning I had 6 fish on 7 or 8 strikes. Mid-day Monday, I had zero hook-ups on over a dozen strikes. Same frog, same rod/reel/line. Checked hook shapes and points. All good. I just think that during different periods, the bass hit the frog a little differently. Sort of a more tentative- feeler hit during higher sun. When feeding aggressively at dawn, I couldn't keep them off the hook. I know this doesn't help you too much, but keep doing what your doing and you'll start hooking them. Sometimes, I think the fish just slap the frog in such a way that hooking just isn't happening.

I found the poles to be unwieldy and only moderately successful. The big BPS knocker works, but storing it is a pain - due to the size, the line and the chain. I only carry Big Ugly nowadays. Got a handful of them over a year ago and only lost one (lure AND BU.) When I do lose another, I won't care since they're only $8 for four of them shipped. Easy to use, practically disposable, and a couple easily fit in the pocket of tackle bag. http://www.ebay.com/itm/BIG-UGLY-Plug-Knocker-Lure-Retriever-Quick-Easy-To-Use-NEW-IMPROVED-/331155075605?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d1a617215

Mike, your Owner Flipping Hook page doesn't show pkg size, so it looks like one per. I assume it is more like 3 to 5?

smart

I prefer poppers when weed conditions allow. I probably get fewer strikes, than when using a frog, but more hook-ups. Besides, that popping is so cool.

Not a store, per se, but it looks like TW has them

Do any of the suggested boxes also fit your buzz-baits?

I'd never heard of parasite clips before reading this thread. Appreciate the questions and answers above. The video isn't a whole lot of help. One more question: I can't visualize how these will help if using a 60 degree hook. I'm thinking that if I want to use 60 deg hooks with Senkos, I'll need to use hooks with spring keepers....or crazy glue....or try the toothpick trick

I'd never heard this, but there could be something to it. I'm a lefty and always used right-cranking spinning gear. When I started baitcasting, I (naturally?) got a right cranking reel. It took some time start palming the reel religiously on retrieve. If I'd have been forced to switch hands after the cast, I'd have held it 'right' every time.

Deadly weightless, tossed into cover and slowly twitched and jerked back to boat. And/or retrieved slowly just under the surface. The tail has great action even with real slow retrieve

Seems the majority side with: "I'll let him blindfold me and lie about honoring his wishes to keep its location secret even from me....and then when he can't see me, I'll go behind his back, against his wishes and have my way with his pond" But, I'll still let him call me 'friend'.....

I admit that I've never fished a tournament....but, if you believe it is a bad idea to fish bedding bass, why would it be OK in a tournament? I suppose that maybe being caught by tournament fishermen a lot better for the fish than being caught by others?

That sucks. Never happens to floating lures. I threw a spinnerbait halfway across the lake a couple weeks ago.

Took me a few years, but I've found that to be true of most anything. I tend to play up (and down) to my 'competition' (or collaborator(s).)

It took me almost a full season to realize that my Hummingbird is useless as a 'fish-finder'. That is, I don't think it has ever 'marked' a fish that I subsequently caught. It is, however, invaluable in understanding the bottom and on occasion, will paint schools or concentrations of fish from which I feel I'll have a slightly higher chance of catching a bass than from open water locations that are barren of fish and baitfish. Once I realized it is much more important as a tool to understand the bottom than as a tool to find fish to catch, I've had a far better relationship with it.