.dsaavedra.

hey Will glad to see a st. marys boy! the fish in my avatar is 7lbs and i caught it in st. charles (waldorf)....secret spot...cant tell how do you make out at st. marys lake? anyway, to answer the specifics that i should have included... boat: 12' leaky jon, no electronics/way to locate structure veggies: lots of fluffy underwater grass (hydrilla maybe?) and tons of fields of stumps. time: any time i can/feel like it....not winter though strengths: shallow crankbaits, weightless plastics baitfish: i have no idea...will says bluegill minows and craws...i guess thats right...i know all of them are in there but idk if they are primary forage or what.

haha looks like a koi! but yea ive caught a few fish here and there w/ black spots...nothin as serious as that. all of the fish were big and fought nicely.

hi guys, biggest lake i hav access to is St. Mary's Lake, 250 acres. i hate fishing there cuz its so big i feel like i have no chance. but something makes me like it, cuz it has features not typical of small ponds, like dropoffs, points, ledges, creekbeds etc. i have no clue where any of these are, but hey, at least it has em. this pic might not tell you much, but its the only pic i have of it. here is a link to the DNR page for the lake. http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/recreational/stmaryslake.html thanks for any input.

ive heard the term powerplant lake come up recently and i dont know what it is. what is a powerplant lake and why do the fish pre spawn in the middle of the winter there???

im just curous, ive heard that when you get replicas, they take a form (or whatever its called) off the shelf that is whatever weight your fish was....they dont customize it or anything. is this true?

get the 200 if you got big hands get the 100 if you got smaller hands and dont like holding big heavy reels. get a 7'MH..probably the best all around for jigs! happy buying

killin' em as always, craig! good job out there. it is interseting how you catch such monsteres out of this creek. you should tell us about the creek...

sweet dude!!! what an awesome first year!! got some tru hawgs there!

HAH! not nearly enough for what i was invisioning....that thing actualy has quite few appendages...only 8 :-/ but no i havent used them. dont like the style or the yamamoto (kinami) brand. i see em at my local walmart all the time though.

well howdy craig!!! glad you made it over here! anyway, i dont know the first thing about trophy bassin' but i know that most ppl use jigs...

dude you are an awesome writer!!! go make an inspirational desk calaendar or something!!!! ;D but seriously, everything you say is so true. and even tho i get burned out alot and fishing usually sucks i still wanna go immediately afterward because i wanna go back and see why things were working and try to fix them.

i like risto raps! im gonna check out his boxes of rapalas next time and see if he has any good ones. so anyway, after a good, off topic, rant, anyone have any pics of their lure collections?

well.... if i could see the hook and had any chance at all to remove it, i would try like hell. and usually i succeeed in this, by going in from behind in the gills (carefully of course!) then i will plop him in the water, move him back and forth, and if he swims off, great! if he stays there i'll give him a few minutes and see if he livens up...if he dies, i grab him and eat him if i have a way of bringing him home (cooler, bucket w/ water, etc..) i love the taste of bass and i love releasing fish so either way works for me!!!

dude, just read the post....great post. i can totally connect to that and i have empathy for every word of that post. sometimes it really sucks for me to be fishing in a dinky, tipsy, cramped, leaky 12' jon w/ my dad in the back complaining about not catching fish and the water getting in. i feel like a bad day was just a waste, considering all the time and effort i put into it and i feel like i have just gotten up early (a thing i hate to do) for nothing.

jeez i get burned out almost every time i go...unless something great happens. usually i dont catch much and its hard to catch any and what i do is usually not of any notable size. just seems like no matter wht i try nothing will work and i get p****d.

he's right!

hey buddy, guess what i caught on a floating rapala? yup caught that baby on the orig. floater thats on the top row in the middle w/ the red bill and hooks.

ok thanks for the input. i didnt think it would be worth much, specially cuz it doesnt have a box and since they are still very popular. i do have the box for the fat rap (i save all my rapala boxes)...next year i will pick one up and i wont open the box now...what about that risto rap? those are discontinued.... i love that thing...i caught a big ole south carolina bass on it. if it turns out they might be worth something, i'll have to get another one cuz i cant retire that thing..i like it too much.

good job guys. its good (re-assuring) to see others catching under 10 dinks in a trip and still calling it a good day....thats usually about all i can get. it irritates me when some fisherman dont even recognize dink bass and just think of em as a chore to haul in and then throw them back w/o even looking at em. good job looks like you had fun!

oops i almost forgot! heres one more rapala do you think thats worth anything? its my dad's from when he was a kid. very old but as you can see its in ok shape. i could still fish it if i wanted to...the hooks are all rusted out tho. it was one of the originals that were made in finland, and finland is printed on the bill.

just checked e-bay, these things are going for 10 bucks for what looks like a 5 pack

FER-REAL??? wow i got it for like 2 or 3 dollars at the local annual fishing fair. they dont carry up to date stuff, they always carry years old things. and this one guy is there every year and has 2 big cardboard boxes overflowing w/ rapalas. he has a deal where if you buy 3 you can get them for 3 each. its 5 each if you dont take the deal. i get alot of rapalas from him. only bad thing is thers no selection. its many duplicates of the same few baits in the same few colors. if he still there next spring i'll pick up a few of his fat raps.

lol i couldnt resist making that joke!!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D but seriously...for a long time i had been waiting, wanting a bait w/ lots of stringy attachments, cuz when bass are real finicky, ive always had some internal feeling that tells me to use something w/ lots of wiggly appendages. well i finally found something and i think its VERY innovative....anyone know where i can get a pack of these???

well for many of us our season has come to a close. this is the time when most bass anglers (except you lucky southerners) put their rods on the rack and take a break from fishing. we clean, organize, re-organize, and just plain look at alllll of our tackle. well last night i decided to look at my crankbaits. while some of yours may put mine to shame, here is my personal collection of rapalas. the inline spinners on the right are actually made by bluefox (ownded by rapala) and it might be clear in the pic, but rapala makes the bodies for them....these are the best inline spinner i have found. anyway, thought i'd post this just to keep us in the spirits....lets see some pics of your lure collections!

i'd keep the thing!!! you got one steal of a deal. like everyone said, that is a beautiful crankbait reel. either go buy a crankbait specific rod for it, or put it on the st. croix. if you are using jigs on it, then i'd put it on the fenwick, like RW said.