fishwizzard

How do you like the reel seat on the Conquest vs the GLX? I finally got to hold a Conquest with a reel mounted and I cannot make up my mind if I like it more, less, or the same as the GLX seat. I am leery of super minimal seats in general but the Conquest one was more comfortable then I though it was going to be.

I’m also on the hunt for a shorter frog rod but I’m looking for something closer to 6 feet. I do a lot of bushwhack fishing and so many better cast angles are opened up to me when I bring a 6 foot rod vs a 7 foot one. Unsurprisingly, I am not having a lot of luck. I have found a few snakehead rods from SE Asia look promising but info on them is scarce and the few places I found that would ship them to me in the US have incredibly expensive shipping fees.

I don’t know if I’d want a picture of a grinning shark on my PFD, but maybe I’m just more superstitious than most.

The Jackall Cover Craw also has the same action as the Ika and is surprisingly durable, even with the flapping arms. I use them interchangeably with the Ikas and restock based on which one I find on sale. I would say they are more durable then the Ika if you dont use screwlock hooks. If you do it’s about even. The Kietech Salty Tube works the the same way as the Ika but is larger and heavier. It’s great for pitching into pads with heavier tackle that doesn’t fit as well with the lighter Ika or Cover Craw.

I used one of these for like two years with no issues. Ironically I broke it trying to weigh a huge suitcase. I replaced it with another $5 scale and it’s still chugging along. I do add a strip of packing tape over the battery compartment to add a little water resistance and use conductive grease on the battery terminals.

Are you using lead or tungsten nails? If lead, they are pretty big, maybe look at some of the thinner 6" senko knock-offs that don't use a lot of salt. If you want a floating worm you could look for a custom plastics maker who can shoot you some 6" senkos or Kut-Tails with floatent in them.

Beat my PB Bull Frog today; Before I have always caught them on topwaters or on plastics the second it touches down. This one picked that jig up off the bottom and ran with it. Thought it was a bass for about 5 seconds, thought it was a snakehead for about 5 seconds, then I got him up and laid eyes on the brute. He was just skinhooked out side his mouth and he hopped away once I got it out.

Amazing news! Of course it comes when I am about to start 15ish days of straight work. ?

I back most all of my casting reels with braid and then use a little bit of tape to cover the connection knot. If I ruin all of my mainline I will still have some amount of fishable braid protected by a bit of tape. The only time is it gone wrong is when I have cheeped out and tried to use thin braid as the backing in order to finish off the last bit of a spool. Sticking with 30lb braid works far better. I also will carry spare spools as the majority of my reels take one of two different spool sizes so it’s not a huge burden to have two of them in my tackle bag.

Moved on to tiny jigs. This is a single tab of crinkle silicone folded over twice giving a thick and short skirt. With the 3" grub trailer it comes in just above 5/16oz and in bathtub testing it looks like it will be nice little finesse swimbait. I have no idea where I got those heads from, I have had a pair of them kicking around my misc jigheads box for years. Anyone know what they are or what that style is called?

I limit myself to Black w/ Red Flake and Cali 420 or really any dark green w/ flake color.

You forgot to add snapping turtles to the list of swimbait killers. Here is one caught in the act of ripping a Huddgill to pieces.

I counter with the 783mbr. I have been using one for a season or two now and I have yet to find a presentation (within it's weight range) that it doesn't do reasonably well or better. Usually better. I do think it comes down to the conditions one fishes in. I can get away with the 783mbr as my bank fishing doesn't involve a lot of cover most of the time. If it was reversed I would reach for the 884mbr a lot more often.

I am a great lover of worms and even after "paring down" I think I still have like a dozen different ones in rotation. Perennial favorites are the Producto Tournament Worm (weighted t-rig and shakey), Zoom Trickworm (weightless t-rig, shakey, wacky, neko), and Culprit 10" ribbon-tails (heavier t-rig and shakey). This season I am focusing on a few newer to me worms: 1) GYCB Senko. I know. I never really got into them before and I decided to see what the fuss is about. Oddly enough I am having the most luck with them t-rigged with a 1/16 bullet weight and fishing them with a pop-n-glide retrieve. 2)Zoom Swamp Crawlers. Using them as a general finesse worm and loving them so far. super versatile, durable, and really cheap. 3)Don Invino Fat Boy Worm. Going to try the classic glass and brass once I clean up my tackle pile and find my brass worm weights. I have used them a little so far on a dropshot and have had some good luck with them. I use a lot of 6" Robos on the DS right now and the Fat Boys might be a strong contender to replace them.

If you want to drive yourself crazy, get a power drill, a foamy paint trim brush, and two empty line spools. Tie braid on to the reel, add the entire 150y. Then add mono to fill up the reel. Now, bounce line to empty spool #1. Now the mono in on the bottom and the braid is on top. Now bounce the line to empty spool #2. Now the braid in on the bottom and the mono is on top. Now tie the mono onto the reel and crank it all on. You have a reel with 150y of braid and the exact right amount of backing.

Look up "Blueprint Holder Tube". Lots of options, some are telescopic and will fit longer rods.

I am far more in the Team Swimjig camp then most people here it seems like. I will most always reach for a swimjig first and will generally only use a chatterbait in very stained water, very high winds that make casting a spinnerbait annoying, or when I am straight up out of other ideas and feeling desperate. I do catch quality bass on them when I do throw them but there’s something about throwing a big single hook lure without a weedguard thats just too much hubris for me to handle. Like we all saw what happened to Icarus. In all seriousness, I also kind of feel that between swimjigs and spinnerbaits there isn’t much “missing” that a chatterbait will provide me.

We hit up Three Lakes this afternoon and did a little fishing in the rain. Kid did ok and got one but I was bass-less. I generally do better in clearer water as I like to target specific bits of cover buy the kids “cast a blue/black stickbait right up at the bank” presentation worked. It’s a pond classic and I don’t know why I dont start with it every time. The rains chased us a way before we could really pick apart either pond but there are enough interesting spots to warrant return trips. I think tomorrow we’re going to hit some office park ponds in the AM, assuming everyone gets out of bed in time. Thanks a lot everyone who sent me info, it’s really frustrating how limited public fishing access is down here, I never knew how lucky I had it at home where I have 4-5 decent spots all within a half hour drive. I am especially excited about How good some of the wading spots right around Richmond are. When I get home I’m going to try to figure out which USGS gauges I need to start following and, assuming it ever stops raining around here, run down to take him out once the water levels are a little more cooperative.

I feel like I have missed or lost more fish already this year then all of last year. Swimbaits to a dropshot, I cannot seem to make a solid hookset for some reason. Yesterday was the worst, one bass landed for five on the line and maybe three more solid hits.

Thanks so much for the info guys! I love getting out with the kid but I am entirely too old to reasonably go trespass-fishing in subdivision ponds and I was having trouble finding decent looking public spots.

Unfortunately I’ll be out of town all weekend into next week. It’s a great spot but a lot of it requires a little scrambling to get down the water, a lot of the bank an unreasonable height to lift and then release of fish from. The side opposite the trail has a couple good spots but again will require a little bit of scrambling. It doesn’t seem obvious, but if you walk all the way past the most upriver part of Widewater there will eventually be a bridge letting you cross to the other side of the canal. All that being said I can spend a full day of fishing just the “easy” parts of the bank as there is so much underwater cover and structure that your jig will never hit the same thing twice. Bottom is a pretty normal mixture of chunk rock and wood on top of mud or exposed bedrock. There are a ton of carp in there along with numerous good size panfish.

Thanks for all that info! Echo lake was one of the ones I read a discouraging fisheries report about, but it's pretty close to where they live. Hopefully the storms change course and we can do some wading, Pony Pasture looks great!

Hi, I am heading down to Glenn Allan VA this weekend for a family thing and want to take my teenaged bass-obsessed nephew fishing on Saturday but cannot find anywhere to take him. All the spots he goes to are subdivision ponds that are clearly posted and from the hour I spent reading the Hernco County Parks website, none of the country’s ponds have reasonable bass populations. Can anyone recommend a spot within like an hour of Glenn Allan? We have gone to Pocahontas State Park before but the bank access there isnt great either. I would love to take him wading in the James but I am having a hard time finding info on wading spots closer to the city. Any info would be amazingly helpful, thanks!

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Mine all either pull to the side or will run on their side, even new out of the package. What kinds of trailers are you using that corrects this?