jeepcrazy

Thank you VERY much!!

Hey guys, I'm in the one-week lead-up to my summer vacation (just me, 3 kids, 1 woman, and 32,510 acres of water for me to fish) on Lake Norman. I've been trolling all over the place to try to find some local fishing reports to see where they're taking them and how, but I'm not seeing alot. Can anyone give me any advice down there? I'd love to have this trip be relaxing AND productive!! -JC

Personally, I don't even consider recommending Lake Frederick anymore. It's beautiful, yes, but the pressure there on the weekends is so high that I won't even THINK about going there and I live three miles away. It's not even the pressure on the fish that makes it so bad, it's the other boaters. Between the 45 minute waits for people to gear on the boat ramp and the rental boats cutting you off/beating the bank shallow its just not worth it. To answer your question directly, however, Frederick is beautiful, and really clear. It has massive fish, but they can see for ages so make sure you don't throw braid (they can see it) and use natural colors. They're extremely skittish, too. There is a single lane boat ramp and they offer boat rentals. I understand the bluegill/crappie fishing to be considerably better than the bass fishing. If you can fish on a weekday and it's close for you, check it out. Otherwise, spend your time somewhere closer to home. Nothing worse than driving an hour or more to get skunked, which a LOT of people do on Frederick. (For the record I've had two decent days on Frederick this year <Wednesdays> pitching jigs.)

I'm curious about this myself. I have Shakey heads but I struggle to identify the ideal scenario for using them. Is it best for open/deep water, for cover, etc? I'm just trying to figure out what the "right" time to throw one is.

Hey guys, I brought the family down to NC this week, we rented a house on High Rock lake. I got out this morning and had some real challenges finding fish. Does anyone have any advice for the fish here? We tried topwater early, found them breaking in a few coves but came up empty. Tried carolina rigging across a few flats and off some rocky points, nada...tried pitching some laydowns and docks, nada. 5 hours and nothing. What a beautiful lake, though! -JC

We got out late (long night last night) so we hit the water about 3pm. (RIGHT at low tide) I figured we'd hit some flats and do a little frogging, so we put in at Hope Springs (20 bucks really grinds my gears...but I digress) and made our way out of the no-wake zone. Right about the time I opened her up, we were porpoising like mad. I looked back and noticed the motor wasn't trimming up. I have a "blinker" style trim switch that worked just fine a week ago. Then the radio dies. Dead. I try the throttle trim...it works VERY intermittently. I get up and check the motor...works like a charm. d**n. Looks like we won't be going far. So Nikki and I decided to motor around Aquia a bit (idle sucks) and fish some of the grass there. There is plenty of it at low tide, that's for sure. We pulled all manner of frogs and topwaters through there, but it just wasn't meant to be. We decided to pitch some of the docks along the way, even though the water was mighty shallow along the docks. During the process we passed a nice big area of grass and I grabbed my frog rod and tossed her out there. BAM!!! Something killed Artemis Clydefrog. I mean SLAYED him. 1...2...I set the hook and almost had my arms ripped off. The fight was on! I had Nikki get on the trolling motor so I could fight this thing and, man, fight it did. I realized almost immediately that it wasn't a Bass because it was pulling like a Volkswagen and wasn't coming up. Now some of you might have caught my post a couple weeks ago about my trip on the Shenandoah where I caught a large carp on a Rage Tail worm. That was my last fishing trip. The carp was all I caught. This time? A 28 inch snakehead. Female. HUGE. ticked off. I realize I don't have anything in the boat with which to kill this thing. Hmmm...what to do? I drop her in the livewell. I figure someone at the dock will have something. On with the fishing...to no avail. I catch zippy and get more and more concerned (Read: ticked Off) over the situation with my trim and radio. I figure it's time to pack it in. We head back to the boat ramp and Nikki jumps out to go grab the truck and trailer. Pretty awesome, eh? She can back up a trailer. She should be able to, her Dad was a FLW guy when she was growing up so she spent enough time on the circuit. I tell her to be careful and she claims "This ain't my first rodeo." So I backed out and took up my place amongst the floatilla of boats waiting for their respective trailers. Nikki sees her opportunity and backs out. Evidently, it's been a while since she was in the Rodeo. She jack-knifed my trailer and it wedged against the tailgate and almost flipped over. The tailgate has a hole in it and doesn't close properly...the trailer winch handle is bent and needs to be replaced. She is glad we don't own a handgun. But wait...there's more! Remember the snakehead? Yeah. Her. We had to find a way to kill her, and there were no fisherman around. Nothing but pleasure boaters. What to do? I decide (in my infinite wisdom) that we'll just run it over. So I place the gargantuan fish under the tire. The *REAR* tire. Nikki hits the gas and the truck doesn't immediately run over the massive creature. So, if some gas is good, more is better right? Well she guns it. Gravel and FISH GUTS fly ALL OVER my boat. So for those of you keeping score at home, in two fishing trips I have: 1 Carp 1 Snakehead 1 Hole in my tailgate 1 Broken boat motor 1 Broken radio 2000 pieces of the afformentioned snakehead showered over my Ranger 0 Bass Happy Monday, fellow fishermen. I have pics of the Snakehead I'll add when I get my SD Card. -JC

Had the craziest thing happen on the Shenandoah yesterday. I was working my Rage Tail Anaconda off the rocks and I came through an eddy behind a tree, felt the pickup, and set the hook. HOLY COW the fight was on!!! At first, I was thinking "OMG LUNKER..." and as the fight stayed underwater I was more and more convinced it was a catfish. 10 minutes later I got it to the surface, and it was a BIG carp. I was only using 10lb floro, so I was very careful. It pulled drag about 1000 times before I finally wore it out and got it in. A little over 15lb. Hooked through the upper lip. Perfect hookset. It TOOK the bait. I've never caught a carp on a plastic worm! Has anyone else? Just the weirdest thing. -JC

66.8 Yesterday. Interesting, I noticed the big girls are just NOW getting up on the beds. That might explain part of the absolutely dead fishing there the last couple weeks. It's always been hard, but not this bad. The other thing is Frederick is very, very pressured right now. The river has been up and most folks who would go there have been hitting Frederick to relieve the fishing blues. I can tell you from experience there over the last few years, more natural colors and a good, clear fluorocarbon definitely make a difference. Good luck!

Badly. Got three, largest of which was a little under 2lbs. Just couldn't put together a pattern. They all came on different baits in different areas. Had one really good hookup on a lipless crank that I failed to set the hook deeply enough on. Water temp was 66.4 on Saturday. You guys are right about one thing, though. The panfish are huge. lol.

I'll likely be out there tomorrow, too. I can tell you, it's a tough lake. Very highly pressured. Last weekend I had 6 boats within a cast of me and was cut off fishing twice. They installed an overflow parking lot last year or the year before, which just makes me sad. It was hard enough before! Good luck!

I have ridden in both and owned an Xpress up until last week. Go Xpress all the way. That boat was not only indestructible, but it never disappointed me once. They really are great boats, IMHO.

Mikesjet was dead-on! My impeller had never been shimmed. Lots of space in there. I haven't gotten out to run it yet but I'm looking forward to seeing the difference. I found this other website that has a really nice breakdown of what the inside of the jet looks like and how to do the shim procedure. http://www.scottandjenn.com/etomite/index.php?id=22

I'm having a similar problem with my 60/40. I'm running 6200 or so at WoT and really not running all that fast. I've experimented with moving the motor up and down a hole and it hasn't made much of a difference. Something is most definitely not quite right and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. If anyone knows jets and would be willing to help me understand what I don't know, I'd be extremely grateful! Aside from being really slow getting on plane (very...I wouldnt dare try shallow water I'd need 100 yards to get on plane!) it acts like something is dragging. I looked into the impeller and the blades aren't nicked up and nothing is wound up in there. I'd love to see some thoughts too! My RPM's have struck me as a little high for a while. -JC

Nikki decided she wants the Rick Clunn RCX reel from BPS today. Why? Because it's "purple." *sigh*

Thanks for the advice on the spinnerbaits! I'll definitely check them out. I'm probably going to leave the trolling motor as is, as I'm in the market for a new boat. (Something bigger where I can take both kids fishing) Thanks for the tips! I'm looking forward to getting back out there again. If anyone experienced out there wants to get out, let me know! I'm available weekdays too.

Thank you very much for the replies! I do come from Front Royal, so it's a bit of a hike. I'll check out Hope Springs for sure! My trolling motor is only a 55lb 12v so I'm sure that was part of my issue. I'll just do a better job of cleaning off the salad from now on!!

Hey guys, I got out on the Potomac for the first time yesterday. It was pretty murky, but it was fun to get out somewhere where I can run my outboard for a change. I have a few questions: 1) Is there a better place to put in other than Leesylvania? The park closes at 830 and having to be out of the water that long before sundown really cost us some of the evening bite. I was looking forward to frogging those grass beds at low tide but it just hadn't gotten down that far by then. (We fished the beds off Aquia but didn't have a lot of luck with anything other than texas rigged lizards) 2) When is the "right time" to fish out there? We were in a transition from high to low tide the whole time we were out and practically couldn't buy a bite. 3) Any advice for managing your trolling motor in the grass? I found that unless I had it on full-throttle the weeds would wrap around the motor. Ultimately this happened to the point where the motor wouldn't run at all. After things cooled off it seems fine, but boy it scared the crap outta me! Thanks for any advice!

I have a Premier and I have two of the Chronarch 51mg's...and I love em all. The thing about the premier, I scored a 2010 model Revo Premier on eBay for 149 bucks. At that price there is no question, I'd go with it. It casts Senkos, worms, tubes...no trouble. Versus what I paid for each of my Chronarchs I'd have another of these vs those in a minute. They do a really nice job, I'd go with the Premier and save the money. (As much as I love Shimano)

T-Rage is spot on. The Minn-Kota removable mount has a spot on it for a lock. That's how I locked mine on.

Jason worked it today! Great day on the lake! (I'll post his pics later.)

I have the Co-pilot and I just upgraded to the iPilot. I loved my copilot and I REALLY love my iPilot. That thing is freakin SWEET.

Congrats on a great fish, and VERY cool shot of you guys letting it go.

I'm interested. No rental needed, I have a boat. Let me confirm with the boss but I can go pretty much anywhere.

I'm in Front Royal, too. I fish Frederick, the Shenandoah, and a few other places.

Ooooh on my way tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up.