everythingthatswims

Fish were hitting the bull shad when I was waking it across the top (sinking bait so I had to move it pretty fast to make it wake) this morning, I landed 3 nice ones, 2.2lbs, 2.5lbs, and 3.4lbs, and a couple 1-1.5lbers. The strikes were absolutely savage! 3.4 2.5

I'm going to be ordering a couple s-wavers from tackle warehouse this week and I plan on getting trebles to change out on the rest of my baits with stock hooks. Keep in mind that I am kayak fishing, and the boat moves on the hookset so you lose power. I got a 7'9" st. croix mojo swimbait rod yesterday rated for 1-4oz, and tried it out this morning, fishing a 6" bull shad I landed 8 fish out of 9 hookups, WAAAY better than last time. Using 20lb suffix mono

Beat my PB smallie yesterday, 23" and surprisingly only weighed 4.2lbs but still a awesome fish! The fact that she was probably at least 12 years old makes her a trophy in my book. Hit an s-waver 168

My friend caught a 3lber (largemouth) on his first cast yesterday, still dark out and we hadn't even put the kayaks in the water. He tossed the spook out and the fish hit it before he even started his retrieve. We crushed them that day!

Pitch baby boo jigs with zoom speed craw trailers at cover, and work them across the bottom through eddies and current seams

Been thinking about getting a slammer...but first I need to quit throwing my swimbaits on a 7'6" flippin stick and upgrade, I think some of my hooksets don't get them well enough and I lost more largemouth in the 4-5lb range than I care to admit yesterday. They would just start thrashing and spit it every time even though I put the rod tip under water and cranked like my life depended on it.

Tied my PB smallmouth today fishing the River2Sea S-Waver 168, the fish was 19" long, a mark that seemed impossible to beat, I had landed about 5 or 6 that size and never one bigger. Then I totally blew my PB out of the water with a 23" smallie, it was definitely the biggest smallmouth I had ever seen in my life, and the fact that I was able to spot him, back off and give him some time (about 10mins) to calm down, then go back to the pool, fish for him, and actually catch him? Priceless! I was fishing some heavily pressured water (although not known for smallmouth) and I acutally watched some fish spook off of senkos that I threw at them, but I guess they haven't seen swimbaits before here in VA. Released to be caught another day!

If I ever log on to matt's site when those things aren't out of stock, I'll probably get one.

What jig?

I will say that if a BIG bass swims up to look at you, they probably aren't interested in eating...this happens a lot when I'm bank fishing in really clear water

I like fishing jerkbaits on schooling fish, but sometimes they are just too keyed in on the baitfish to worry about eating something else

Depends on how well it's hooked (or how well I think it is hooked), line size, and fish size.

Don't worry, there's a rod breakin', hook bendin', line snappin' slaunch out there just waiting to break your heart

Well...I use a net...It's nice to be able to have the bass contained when you bring them in the boat so they don't flop out of your hands and make a mess of everything (and possibly injure themselves). I think it's silly that you find a net to not be "sporting", but, to each his own.

I'm just thinking about all of the rivers and small lakes that we have in VA, big lakes are few and far between. Depends on what is considered "big" though

Most bass in VA will never have the opportunity to hang out in 15+ FOW haha

That's one heck of a first smallie! I have caught piles of them and 19" seems to be as big as I can get to!

Yep, 6" floater. I have caught piles of fish on it, they may not be a flashy $100+ piece of art but they get the job done.

Here in VA, the stocked fish like powerbait, power eggs, trout magnets, gulp minnows, and occasionally worms and other natural baits. If you are just starting out I would stick with power bait. If you are fishing lakes, carolina rig the powerbait with a 1-3' leader, just cast it out and wait. In a creek or river, use a couple split shot about 15" in front of the hook, and drift the powerbait through pools. For hooks I would suggest a light wire #10 (#8 and #12 will work too). Make sure you don't use too much powerbait, just enough to keep it from sinking. I rarely see many fish caught on spinners and spoons, there are some situations when they work but 9 times out of 10 they don't work nearly as well as a jig or piece of bait.

Habitat and forage!

Actually mainly brook trout (and yes there are some BIG girls in there, that I have yet to figure out). Bass that have never seen a trout in their life will eat trout patterns though.

Crappies over 12" are completely different animals. I have caught some big ones on buzz baits

Get rid of those spinners and start fishing trout magnets and gulp minnows!

Fish 17lb mono or fluoro and then you don't have to worry about leaders or spooking fish