Logan S

When you're good at something, you know what works and what you like - So you refine and simplify it. You don't need to experiment with new or different stuff so you don't end up with a ton of whatever it is. When you're not so good at something (IE, not catching a lot of fish on it), you probably don't do it as often...BUT, you probably keep buying new or different brands/models/whatever in an attempt to catch that lightning in a bottle moment when it finally clicks into place for you. Which leads to big collections of stuff you don't use a ton. My theory anyway. I've purged a lot of stuff over the past few years to resolve this problem for myself - But part of being a bass fisherman is hoarding tackle so at some point you just live with it . Since we live in the same state...I can confirm that deep cranking is just not as applicable in this area, even expanded out to the region. With so much tidal water we skew shallow. Obviously it can be done and I'm some other local guys can come along and tell me they smash em on 6XDs all the time...But in over 20 years of fishing everywhere around here from the NC/VA border lakes, VA lakes, all the tidal rivers, the bay, and MD lakes/rivers - It just ain't a major player overall. Chatterbaits on the other hand...It might depend on how much time you spend on tidal water around here. I catch probably 90% of my chatterbait fish in our tidal rivers, so if you spend more time on the lakes it probably makes sense .

I'll briefly join you in winter wonderland from MD . I had planned to go fishing tomorrow... The boat is saying Yes, but the truck is saying No ? ...and I know this is a dusting for most of you, but you might recall hearing about drivers stuck on I-95 in VA for 24+ hours recently due to snow and ice...I need to travel about 50 miles thru that exact location to get to the lake I was planning on. I don't risk my truck and boat with ice and snow combined with MD/NOVA drivers.

7 lbs 15 oz - July 30th - 1/2oz flipping rig w/ZCraw Jr (I weighed it a couple extra times just in case it hit 8-0, not meant to be ?) I didn't catch any noteworthy smallmouth or spotted bass this year . Biggest SM was like 3lbs and I might not have even cracked 2.5 lbs for spotted bass. Had a different schedule this year so more just a factor of where I fished the most.

Talking specifically about the guys in their teens/early-20's with high class rigs...There's not some secret out there you don't know about - Those boats are either fully/majority supported by parents or other benefactors OR they are financed OR both of those things. It's not bad or wrong, its just the way of the world. Personally, I had a 17' Tracker when I was 16. I fished out of that until I was 21 when I bought a used 20' Stratos. The Stratos served me well for many years until I recently upgraded to my Skeeter. I'm 36 now, on my 3rd 'real' bass boat. I financed that Stratos when I was 21. I was fresh out of college with a decent job but not a huge savings account so financing was the right play for me. I had been fishing out of that Tracker since I was 16 so I was ready for an upgrade to a full size rig and there was no way I could do that without financing. The trade in from my Tracker plus a little extra gave me a modest loan at a longer term that I doubled up payments on, so I had the option to fall back to the minimum payment if any financial trouble hit. That's how I did it and it worked for me without issue. Some people run into issues financing boats, but in fairness the majority of those people start out with issues right out of the gate. Financing a boat is only a bad idea if you make it one. If you are smart and responsible, it's no issue at all. It's only going to fly past you if you let it. Even without a boat there are great alternatives as co-angler in a local club, local BFL (or similar) trail, etc...Jon boats and kayaks are also good gap-fillers until you land your own bassboat. Also don't get too caught up in 'good = new & expensive'. The boat is a tool to take you to the fish and you can be just as successful in a budget rig as a $100k rig. Also don't think you NEED the latest electronics and accessories, which can really inflate prices. You need to learn the basics anyway so it best to start out with the basics, which comes with the added bonus of being more affordable.

Yes it is. I was lucky and found some for sale back when they first came out about 2 years ago. Not cheap tho!

It's a Japanese brand called Kaesu. That color is great because if you put a GP trailer it's more bluegill/sunfishy...White and it's a shad/shiner...and my favorite is GP/pearl like in this pic, which can be almost anything (I like the orange highlights because we have so many goldfish in the Potomac).

I think this ones pretty unique for a non-custom or handmade bait...and I bet I've caught over 100 bass on this particular bladed jig.

Its that time of year again FOBA is an easy-going club without any participation commitments/requirements, pick and choose whatever you'd like to fish. Boater and Co-Angler divisions and membership is always open for both. Monthly club meetings are now on Zoom and the first one for 2022 is on January 5th. FOBA tournaments are good mix of fun and competition with relatively low costs. Anyone interested in learning more feel free to post or PM me. We have several other members that post here on BR too.

The DNR biologists seem to be OK with traditional weigh-ins provided that basic fish care is in place...Otherwise they wouldn't allow the waivers. Their methods are confusing (as seen in this thread), but they are still allowing them. I was only trying to relate real world experience on running and participating in CWR events and why it's not just as easy as snapping your fingers and thinking CWR is a cure-all.

No, many don't want to deal with the headache of logistics and increased potential for dishonesty. Catch-weigh-release isn't an instant fix and it has it's share of drawbacks. This is coming from someone (me) that fishes several CWR tournaments per year, was involved in developing the process, and helps run the tournaments, (for a field of 20-30 boats and random draw co-anglers). It requires a lot more work from tournament staff, more investment from clubs/organizations, and it's own set of challenges for the anglers on the water. CWR is a good tool, but not the ideal method for all tournaments all things considered.

MD put in a similar rule a few years back, only 1 bass over 15". It only applies to our tidal waters (where vast majority of bass tournaments are), only applies between June and October, and specifically and only applies to tournaments. You can get a waiver for a normal limit as long as your tournament follows basic fish care protocols (which 99% of tournaments already do). It's frustrating becasue it really just amounts to another hoop to jump through in order to hold a tournament from a MD ramp (on the Potomac we can just launch on the VA side and avoid it).... It's more frustrating because as you think about it, you realize that you and 20 of your buddies can go out and catch 5 big bass each, keep and then kill/eat them perfectly within the MD regulations. But if you and those same 20 friends go catch those same 5 fish limits each, but weigh them for a tournament and release them alive? Nope, illegal unless you file all the paperwork and get permission from DNR. It's silly. At the end of the day, its not that big of a deal since the waivers are accessible, hopefully it will be that way for OK anglers too. On a related note...I went to several of the public meetings that were held when this rule was implemented to oppose it. While there we heard from the DNR biologists on the reasoning for this rule and unfortunately bass fisherman shot themselves in the foot (at least here in MD). DNR went to observe local tournament weigh-ins and said that they observed poor fish care - Noting that bass were frequently put in bags without water, kept out of the water too long, dropped and/or put on the pavement, and that a lot of these local clubs had zero organization to their weigh in process. Obviously these groups are the exception to the rule, but DNR observed this stuff and felt the need to force tournaments to adhere to basic fish care. We need to police ourselves, if you are part of tournament trail you need to preach fish care to your members and if you observe poor fish care in your ranks you need to speak up and correct it. In my club, we'll hammer any member we see doing something boneheaded regarding fish care - Wish more clubs would do that.

Running the tournament isn't really that hard, just upscale what you do for your club tournaments. Put an emphasis on organization and orderly processes for morning check in and weigh in. I would recommend practicing the 'big' event process in one of your club tournaments beforehand to get the hang of it. 4 or 5 people should be able to handle it and you've got the basics in place it seems. What do you mean by judges/marshals? If you're thinking of going the MLF-style route, well...I wouldn't . It will be hard enough just filling a 50 boat field as an unknown, 1st-time tournament org that's skimming a percentage off the top (albeit for a fundraiser)...Let alone finding 50 people to not fish but still show up. Several people have tried it locally (also for fundraisers) and fell completely flat, it's just not workable for a small scale open fundraiser event. Team tournament format is the standard for fundraisers, easier on you and the anglers. For background - I'm the Pres and former TD of an 80+ member club and we run (smaller) fundraisers 4x per year. We also run several MLF-style tournaments per year (some fundraisers, some not)

Our club used to do length-paper tournaments during closed seasons, we used a chart of length to weight conversions for every 1/4". When measuring fish anglers rounded up to the nearest 1/4". We had a pretty slick excel sheet that did the conversion automatically and added up total weight....So anglers just recorded the lengths on their weigh sheets and the TD entered them into excel at the end of the day to tally everything up. You don't have to go to that level though, it'd be pretty easy to just provide the conversion chart to the anglers and they can look up the weight values and record those to be added up (I've seen other clubs do this). We've since moved on to catch-weigh-release on scales provided by the club in each boat for paper tournaments. As an angler I don't think I'd like the format you described with points and bonuses etc...But that's just me. If doing paper tournaments and you can't use scales, I think converting length to weight is the next best option.

Didn't measure length, just put her on the scale...But yes it was long.

Got a big one this weekend... 7lb 15oz

I fish the same lake you're talking about and use three group 31 batteries for my 112 Fortrex. Mine are Interstate, but same specs as you listed....They work well and while I can certainly run them down, it would take a lot of 'running' (like the back of Seneca to the back 10-Mile in the same day). I used to have 27's but they weren't cutting it for a full day. I plan to go Lithium the next time I need batteries but that's not for at least 3 years...Hopefully by then they'll be a bit more affordable. When "running" I usually don't go above 80%...Only like one or two tenths of a MPH difference between 80% and 100%.

Loops = Bloops

The Fuji hook keepers that you put on with o-ring/band hold the bait out a bit further than on-the-rod keepers...Might try those. I use them on my spinning rods and they work about the same way as hooking to a casting reel. The reel is really the easiest place to hook trebles though .

Hook the rear one to reel, let the front (or middle and front) grab the line, then give the line a twist around the rod once to make it snug. Very rare that the hooks ever contact the rod this way. I do this so the hooks are less likely to grab stuff in the rod locker, not prevent scratches...But it works well for both.

I was on the other end of the spectrum last weekend - Took a trip to Deep Creek where the only thing on top of the water was skim ice . Caught a couple smallies, but the bass fishing was a bit off...Thankfully the walleyes were spawning and I caught probably 20+ in only a few hours, none were big but it was fast action and a lot of fun. Every time I came to an ideal spot, a group of large boulders usually, I'd get 3 to 5 in a row. And yea, that's snow in the background and on the docks, they got a couple inches the day before I went up. Surface temps were 40 to 43 and every single bite was on a jerkbait.

Won a little preseason team derby this past weekend, great way to kickstart the season. Our limit weighed 12-2 and this 3-2 was our biggest. My partner caught a 2-11 which culled out a 1-10 with about 10 minutes left in the day, without that fish we would have lost by 1 ounce! It was a catch-weigh-release tournament and the 2nd place team is a good friend, so we got to know exactly how that played out when we talked at weigh in .

1: There's no right number, zero would be ideal though . It's all situational, some are easier to go get than others. Most people don't mind going to get a few if it's not in a sketchy spot or they don't have to back track a ton. The ones that are frustrating are if you can't stay out of the tree branches on the shoreline or end up snagged 100' directly behind the boat (bonus points for if it's windy/rough/current too ) or other things in that same category. Also, if it's just a soft plastic rig (IE, hook/weight/bait)...Just bite the bullet on it, they are cheap and easy to retie. 2: It's not wrong, but don't expect action on it...For better or worse, most boaters aren't going to ditch their plan for their co-angler/non-boater's ideas. The ratio of actual good input compared to garbage someone saw on youtube or 'heard from a buddy' is like 1 out of 100 though, so don't be surprised if someone shoots you down...It's a kneejerk reaction . 3: I'm assuming based on the context that the pairings are done at the meeting the day before? If so, I can see where some might get annoyed if a non-boater isn't there...They probably want to meet, talk to, and coordinate right then and there and then be done with it. Having said that, I don't see anything wrong with your solution either assuming you follow through and communicate. If you happen to draw one of the guys that wants you to be there you'll have to dig yourself out of that hole though.

Used to do it all the time before GPS was common....It's gone the way of the dinosaurs for me along with marker buoys (which made triangulation easier too) . If my electronics died or something (and couldn't be fixed within an hour or two) I'd be able to dust off the cobwebs... Even basic electronics these days makes it obsolete.

Putting my opinions of the lawsuit aside... Regardless of the outcome, I think it will make the directors/coaches of these HS events think twice about conditions they send anglers out in...Which is not a bad thing. IMO some of the HS circuits/anglers/events need a slight reality check, this might provide it. (The incident itself should have, but the lawsuit might drive it home).

Sort of, it's really only about a 1/3rd, the 'private' side is the cooling pool for the nuke plant and it's separated from the rest of the lake by dikes, with one small outflow near the dam (boats can't pass through). There are no public ramps on the hot side, only private ramps. So you either need to be a homeowner or know one to get access. It makes it essentially 2 lakes even though technically it's the same lake. The private side is traditional warm water discharge lake, remaining warm all winter. The nuke plant is midlake and the intake at midlake and outflow near the dam makes for a very unique lake for the 'public' side...The flow is actually upstream from the dam to the plant midlake and downstream from the rivers to the plant area. It's a very odd fishery. That's your Lake Anna 101