ThypeBassin

Yes I was fishing Mid Lake and Down Lake areas

I went to Smith Mountain Lake on Friday, March 29. The week prior I was there fishing the VA college championship and personally had a terrible day of fishing. My co-angler and I netted 3 fish for 10.5 pounds. This is mostly thanks to my partner capitalizing on good fish. Myself, on the other hand, could not land a fish to save my life. I had a 5lb Smallie, an absolute stud, come off right at the net. It bent the hooks out of my Vision 110 and even snapped one of the hooks on the front treble clean off. I horsed the fish towards the boat instead of playing it out(stupid). It was pretty devastating and set the mood for the rest of the day. We shoulda, coulda, woulda, cashed a check that day if we executed clean. Hindsight is 20/20. The rest of the week I was pretty ticked with myself as I went to work and classes. I decided to head back out to SML the following weekend to clean up my mistakes, and what a beautiful day it turned out to be. It didn’t take long to get a bite. At first I threw a 110 in the middle of the backs of main lake pockets and picked off a 4 pounder who absolutely crushed it. I made my way further in to the pocket and threw a jig on the backside of a dock in the shade line, and crack, it took the jig under the dock. this one weighed just under 3lbs. I was feeling myself with the 7lbs of fish racked up in 15 minutes, lol. There was a brief pause in action for 30 minutes or so. I made my way around to the next main lake pocket working the Vision 110 and got bit on the back side of the point leading in. This one was a chunky two pounder. After working the next few pockets and not getting bit I found something that looked similar on the graph and changed locations. Next set of pockets had more chunk rock and set up well for cranking. I Cranked all the way back to the first pocket and saw two bass 3lbs or so cruising the bank. They weren’t interested in anything and eventually swam off in to the depths. As I worked my way out of the pocket cranking my bait got crushed, I thought it was a striper, “no way this is a bass” I kept saying out loud. One flash of green near the surface and I had a “oh ****” moment. After a solid two minutes of peeling drag and me free spooling the line I eventually landed the beast weighing just under 6.5lbs. At this point I was thinking this is gonna be a really special day, I kept cranking around the same area and produced nothing. I picked up a 8 inch swim-bait and on my 3rd cast I got whacked, set the hook reeled down hard as my line swam right and then… nothing. “Man, f***me” I said out loud. I wasn’t mad like I typically would be though, because I knew at any point another giant could bite. They were chewing. My fifth fish came doing something completely different. Same type of area, but different strategy. I found a dock in the back of a pocket with four different buck bass. All of them sitting really high on the dock pilings. I skipped a little swim-bait under the dock gave it a few reels and about a two pounder hit it. I managed to fish cleanly in those five hours of fishing I had, besides the random big swim-bait fish that popped off almost as soon as it hit the bait. I had approximately 18.5 lbs. Don’t get me wrong, it definitely felt really good but it still stung that I couldn’t fish cleanly a week before. I’ll be back on SML this weekend and give another update, but right now the jerk bait and crank bait bite is on fire. If it’s warm enough, you should be able to catch a few decent bucks off docks in the backs of calm pockets. I believe this time of year bait choice is less important, location is everything, as you read above I caught fish on three different baits but all in the same type of areas. I also found that where there is one fish there is a bunch more around the same area right now. Color of baits: Jig Green pumpkin Watermelon trailer. Jerkbait: Vision 110 in the trout pattern. I don’t think SML bass eat trout for what I know but this just shows that super specifics don’t always matter as long as it looks close enough to the real thing when they’re feeding. Crank bait- craw pattern in the dirtier stuff, and ghost shad pattern in the clear stuff. Hope this helps!

@Choporoz Couldn't agree more, the river is a learning experience. Ill also learn something one day contrary to what it taught me the time before. It must be worth it though, cause I keep going back.?

The Potomac River is still chilly with temperatures stable in the lower to mid 40’s. However, this doesn’t take in to account the multiple water discharges where water temperatures this time of year rarely fall below the ’50s. Those of you familiar with the Potomac know that it doesn’t take much of a warm front in early spring to really start heating things up all over the river. The Potomac is a beast and it can test your mental toughness more than any other fishery I'm familiar with. However, it is also my favorite fishery, toe-to-toe with Lake Marion in S.C., because it offers some of the most intense brief periods of action I’ve ever experienced. This being said after 10 years of heavy bass fishing (I’m only 22). I used to hate the Potomac with a passion. I fished Junior State Qualifiers out of Aquia creek from when I first started tournament fishing. I stunk it up just about every time. I tried to fish the river my way, instead of listening to the river and ultimately the fish that call the Potomac home. So, this is where I’d like to give my first pointer to anybody trying to figure the Potomac out for the first time. You have to understand the TIDE. As with any tidal fishery, the fish relate to the tides more than almost anything in the river. Of course, bait, vegetation, and structure all have a weighted say in the position of fish, but on the Potomac, there is no shortage of forage in just about every creek, pocket, ditch, marina…etc. A few general pointers for Potomac tide IMO 1. The best tide is outgoing tide for just about every creek. 2. Feeding windows are tight and determined by the tide 3. Read tidal charts, understand when your best opportunities are 4. Don’t get discouraged. If Bob says they’re biting one creek up, your creek is probably about to start popping off once the tidal conditions become simultaneous with the creek Bob’s in. 5. Expect lull’s especially during slack tide 6. Use Low tide to your advantage to spot areas that you couldn’t see during high tide 7. Also use the low tide to pick apart obvious cover methodically, as fish will often hold tighter to cover in low tide. 8. High Tide can be tricky. But I almost always just cover as much water as possible during high tide Tides can be funny, and these are in no way full-proof pointers, instead, they are guidelines I use every time I fish the Potomac. Tides can be fun, just as much as they suck. A buddy and I one time caught close to 60 fish in two, one hour periods, during a tournament in June 2017 because we used the tides to our advantage. When it's on its on. The next big one is Grass. Love it or hate it, the Potomac has grass everywhere, some areas are just grassy(er) than others. I won't get too scientific, instead, just go over some baits and approaches to fishing the grassy spots of the Potomac. 1. Lipless/ Rat-L-Trap - One of their best Potomac pre-spawn baits. Any color will work as long as it RED. Just rip it through the grass. (IMO) 2. Chatter Bait - Better on grass edges and early grass that isn’t very dense yet 3.Swim Jig 4. Weightless Fluke 5. Any type of weedless swim-bait can produce well (what our 60 fish were caught on) 6. Some type of craw to pitch through pockets of grass. 7. TopWater! I'm a frog addict and they’ll hit topwater in the back of creeks when the waters in the 50’s on the Potomac. Sometimes, as much as you think you know the Potomac you just don’t. Eventually, you’ll have one these days on the river. You’ve tried just about everything and followed the tidal charts. You got yourself in a good position to take advantage of feeding river fish, yet it doesn’t pan out. That’s when I run like crazy around the river… just kidding…not really. JUNK-FISHING! Honestly, sometimes you gotta just go junk fish. Sometimes you have to run around and fish the rocks at Leeslyvania state park. (sorry if I gave away anybody's favorite spot). But in all seriousness, the Potomac is littered with various man-made structures and marinas that you can junk fish your way to a limit. My biggest bass out of the Potomac was an 8lber caught junk fishing in early April North of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. We junk fished our way into my most unforgettable day of fishing because what we thought we knew didn’t pan out. 1. Marinas are everywhere on the Potomac and they hold plenty of fish. Lots of Snakeheads as well, if you’re into that kind of thing. 2. The areas around the Woodrow Wilson have a high concentration of man-made structures. 3. Some of these areas are community holes, but even the unsuspecting areas in the section of river hold beast. 4. Bridges. There are tons of bridges and you can use outgoing and incoming tides to your advantage with bridges by positioning your boat the right way. 5. Docks. There isn’t a ton but there are stretches of docks that produce fish in all conditions. In addition to all the other pointers, one of the most important tips I can give is to use your mapping charts wisely to navigate safely, find depressions, and abnormalities in your favorite creek. The Potomac can look the same in every creek, so find the abnormalities and ditches the fish use as highways. Also, the Potomac can become inches of water deep just about anywhere at any given time. People get stuck on mud flats and sand bars all the time! Until the tide rises them from stuck, to floating, after a few hours. I hope this helped anybody who is looking to get out on the Potomac or at least made an interesting (or laughable) read for those Potomac lovers like me. This is just some information I wish I had when I first fished the beast of a river the Potomac seems like at first. Whatever you do, don’t let the Potomac discourage or scare you, it is simply just another puzzle in the bass fishing world that is highly rewarding when you figure it out…or think you’ve figured it out. Mix it up on the Potomac once you get comfortable, the tried and true lures work, but sometimes, the Potomac can be an awesome big swim bait fishery (hint hint). I hope whoever reads this gets a chance to tear the river up this year. I am currently in my Junior year at VT after transferring this fall, so I'll only be able to get up there a few times during prime-time. I can't complain too much because I’m on the fishing team here and it opened up the door for me to experience plenty of new bodies of water and bodies of water I only sparingly fished beforehand. Good Luck, and let me know any Potomac juice you’re willing to share below.

The Potomac River is still chilly with temperatures stable in the lower to mid 40’s. However, this doesn’t take in to account the multiple water discharges where water temperatures this time of year rarely fall below the ’50s. Those of you familiar with the Potomac know that it doesn’t take much of a warm front in early spring to really start heating things up all over the river. The Potomac is a beast and it can test your mental toughness more than any other fishery I'm familiar with. However, it is also my favorite fishery, toe-to-toe with Lake Marion in S.C., because it offers some of the most intense brief periods of action I’ve ever experienced. This being said after 10 years of heavy bass fishing (I’m only 22). I used to hate the Potomac with a passion. I fished Junior State Qualifiers out of Aquia creek from when I first started tournament fishing. I stunk it up just about every time. I tried to fish the river my way, instead of listening to the river and ultimately the fish that call the Potomac home. So, this is where I’d like to give my first pointer to anybody trying to figure the Potomac out for the first time. You have to understand the TIDE. As with any tidal fishery, the fish relate to the tides more than almost anything in the river. Of course, bait, vegetation, and structure all have a weighted say in the position of fish, but on the Potomac, there is no shortage of forage in just about every creek, pocket, ditch, marina…etc. A few general pointers for Potomac tide IMO 1. The best tide is outgoing tide for just about every creek. 2. Feeding windows are tight and determined by the tide 3. Read tidal charts, understand when your best opportunities are 4. Don’t get discouraged. If Bob says they’re biting one creek up, your creek is probably about to start popping off once the tidal conditions become simultaneous with the creek Bob’s in. 5. Expect lull’s especially during slack tide 6. Use Low tide to your advantage to spot areas that you couldn’t see during high tide 7. Also use the low tide to pick apart obvious cover methodically, as fish will often hold tighter to cover in low tide. 8. High Tide can be tricky. But I almost always just cover as much water as possible during high tide Tides can be funny, and these are in no way full-proof pointers, instead, they are guidelines I use every time I fish the Potomac. Tides can be fun, just as much as they suck. A buddy and I one time caught close to 60 fish in two, one hour periods, during a tournament in June 2017 because we used the tides to our advantage. When it's on its on. The next big one is Grass. Love it or hate it, the Potomac has grass everywhere, some areas are just grassy(er) than others. I won't get too scientific, instead, just go over some baits and approaches to fishing the grassy spots of the Potomac. 1. Lipless/ Rat-L-Trap - One of the best Potomac pre-spawn baits. Any color will work as long as it RED. Just rip it through the grass. (IMO) 2. Chatter Bait - Better on grass edges and early grass that isn’t very dense yet 3.Swim Jig 4. Weightless Fluke 5. Any type of weedless swim-bait can produce well (what our 60 fish were caught on) 6. Some type of craw to pitch through pockets of grass. 7. TopWater! I'm a frog addict and they’ll hit topwater in the back of creeks when the waters in the 50’s on the Potomac. Sometimes, as much as you think you know the Potomac you just don’t. Eventually, you’ll have one these days on the river. You’ve tried just about everything and followed the tidal charts. You got yourself in a good position to take advantage of feeding river fish, yet it doesn’t pan out. That’s when I run like crazy around the river… just kidding…not really. JUNK-FISHING! Honestly, sometimes you gotta just go junk fish. Sometimes you have to run around and fish the rocks at Leeslyvania state park. (sorry if I gave away anybody's favorite spot). But in all seriousness, the Potomac is littered with various man-made structures and marinas that you can junk fish your way to a limit. My biggest bass out of the Potomac was an 8lber caught junk fishing in early April North of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. We junk fished our way into my most unforgettable day of fishing because what we thought we knew didn’t pan out. 1. Marinas are everywhere on the Potomac and they hold plenty of fish. Lots of Snakeheads as well, if you’re into that kind of thing. 2. The areas around the Woodrow Wilson have a high concentration of man-made structures. 3. Some of these areas, above the Woodrow Wilson, are community holes, but even the unsuspecting areas in this section of river hold beast. 4. Bridges. There are tons of bridges and you can use outgoing and incoming tides to your advantage with bridges by positioning your boat the right way. 5. Docks. There isn’t a ton but there are stretches of docks that produce fish in all conditions. In addition to all the other pointers, one of the most important tips I can give is to use your mapping charts wisely to navigate safely, find depressions, and abnormalities in your favorite creek. The Potomac can look the same in every creek, so find the abnormalities and ditches the fish use as highways. Also, the Potomac can become inches of water deep just about anywhere at any given time. People get stuck on mud flats and sand bars all the time! Until the tide rises them from stuck, to floating, after a few hours. I hope this helped anybody who is looking to get out on the Potomac or at least made an interesting (or laughable) read for those Potomac lovers like me. This is just some information I wish I had when I first fished the beast of a river the Potomac seems like at first. Whatever you do, don’t let the Potomac discourage or scare you, it is simply just another puzzle in the bass fishing world that is highly rewarding when you figure it out…or think you’ve figured it out. Mix it up on the Potomac once you get comfortable, the tried and true lures work, but sometimes, the Potomac can be an awesome big swim bait fishery (hint hint). I hope whoever reads this gets a chance to tear the river up this year. I am currently in my Junior year at VT after transferring this fall, so I'll only be able to get up there a few times during prime-time. I can't complain too much because I’m on the fishing team here and it opened up the door for me to experience plenty of new bodies of water and bodies of water I only sparingly fished beforehand. Good Luck, and let me know any Potomac juice you’re willing to share below.

Take a couple minute drive and fish the Chic River, you will probably have better luck. You can just about see the river from the campground below the dam.

Learn how to fish big swim baits before you go out and buy a roman-made. Also like some have said, make sure you have appropriate gear (Rod, Reel, Line) for big swimbaits are you'll end up losing all your investments and fish. just have fun with it and throw some cheaper-mid range swim baits at first. S-waver, Spro BBZ, 6th Sense flow glider, 8 Inch Megabass mag draft... are all relatively inexpensive swimbaits that I catch plenty of fish on to this day... even tho ive got a few more swim baits in the box with some drip...

My brother has the RB 190 and lives on a lake. He is a multi-species angler but still does quite a bit of bass fishing. We have gotten that ting into backwater ponds and bass fished with 3 people on it no problem. I have an Rt 188 so basically the bass boat version but this because I am a (b)ass head. The Rb 190 is an awesome boat though, especially if you plan on using for all different types of fishing. It also seats about 5 people nicely.

I have an RT 188 that came with a bimini top. I took it off and stored it. As far as install and removing it on and off, it was super easy and takes a matter of minutes to put on/take off. My boat still has the mounting brackets to put it back on. I figure if I bring my fiancee or family out in the summer I can just reattach it.

Hello all, I fish for VT and have a boat down here, however I'm looking for somewhere to store my boat in the winter so it'll be out of the elements and ready to go for the intercollegiate tournaments in the spring. Looking to store from mid December- beginning of March. I am willing to pay if its nothing crazy but I am combination of the two poorest types of people, a college student and fisherman. Thank you! Please let me know, much appreciated.

Let me know how you do, I won a federation tournament on Buggs Island two years ago and got bit six bites the whole day and only capitalized on five and got my limit. First 3 on a River 2 sea rover which is just like a spook. And the other two on a Carolina rig off some ledges. Defiantly got to have your mind set when fishing Buggs island, wish you Good luck and a full live well.

Kill em on the spook, keep throwing that for atleast the first hour. Most tournaments this time of year on Buggs island are won on the person that can get them to hit topwater first thing in the morning. It's a tough lake. Have hope in a topwater spook. And if you start fishing shallow and don't get bit, get out deep. Find some good points they're holding on or some ledges. You might only get bit there 5 times a day so make every single bite you get worth it. Best of luck.

I'll take you out on the best lake in Virginia if your willing to make a little drive and pay a little fee, just message back if you want to see pictures of the bass caught out of this lake. Just yesterday our best five bassies were 28lbs. I'm dead serious and I fish tournaments all over the easy coast and there's not a lake that compares. And the funny thing is that it's right here In Virginia. You've never heard of it because it's private. And some would say Illegal to fish without a deed. But it's not a joke, and one of the countries best largemouth bass fisheries is tucked away in Virginia. If you really want to fish somewhere in Virginia that will blow your mind away then let me know. It's a bass fishermen's paradise. And I've spend hundreds of hours out there and know every little stump, rock, and grass patch there is. So let me know.

Go deeper like you said, use search baits to find new spots like a crank bait or spinner bait. And a must use if your trying to locate good deep structure is a Carolina rig. With the C rig you will feel every little stump, rock, etc.. Also think about what the bass are feeding on at the lake most of the time, match the hatch. If you know what there feeding on and can use a lure to Match that type of presentation and find new spots then your gonna step your game up. It might take a lot of time and patience but it does pay off. Bigger fish tend to stay deeper. Just go hunting for some offshore brush piles, ledges, or some chunk rock, and even deeper vegetation. Best of luck.

Jackall flick shack hook, with a flick shake worm, very finesse, catches a lot of fish. Best wacky rig presentation I've ever used.