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Hey all. Any help on these park ponds? Im new to the area. Tried El Dorado in Long Beach amd was skunked. Any bass fishing advice would be great.

Hello, Hard to go fishing in my Kayak on the Potomac with two feet of snow on the ground and ice on the river, so I occupy my time with foolishness, I created this video of my battle with the snow, hope you get a chuckle out of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGeqawM1BBw

Short report here: Snuck in a few hours of fishing at a lake I have never fished before yesterday. Got on the water around 0900 under extremely overcast skies. Temperature was about 70-72 degrees and the wind was blowing about 10-15 mph constantly and had some significant gusting. Trolled almost the entire length of the pond without a bite on Jig, Senko, Horny Toads, Chatterbait, Spittin' Wa...the list goes on. Most of the lake was clogged with vegetation, but I went towards the spillway area and the vegetation dropped off, and I started getting some nice looking grass coming up with my jig. I'd wasted probably 90 minutes without a fish, so for fun I slapped on one of my Spro Aruku Shads in Chrome w/ a silver back. Managed to land 2 fish in the remaining 30 minutes I had. Nothing Special but here is a picture of one of them - didn't even bother to weigh him, maybe 2lbs and a bit - at most.

Went out with a buddy from work and his tournament partner to do some fun fishing while the weather remains fairly nice here. We got on the water around 0650 in the morning - the hydrilla was incredibly high in the water column, but there were deep pockets where it dropped off right at the edge of lily pad beds. We threw topwaters for about an hour -The boat owner slaughtered us catching 16 fish - all on a white horny toad coming through the pads. My buddy ended up with 9 mainly on Jig dropping in the deep pockets, and I had 5 on buzzbait - including a 5 1/2 pound pickerel who ended up destroying the tip top guide on my Veritas - bent the thing straight down (I was pretty mad about that for awhile - until later in the day) Fish Count: 30 We decided to load up and try a different pond down the road that none of us had been to in years. we arrived there around 0945 and started fishing. Water here was clear with little to no vegetation - you could see the muddy bottom around 4-8 feet down. I was throwing a chatterbait, while the boat owner tried jig and my buddy tossed senko and jig alternating. We quickly found that the bass where holding on the limited amounts of structure sitting in the middle of the lake. Almost every single cast by the sparse logs and lily pads produced a fish - and soon we were tied 1-1-1. We went into a feeder creek in the back and the other two managed a few fish each - I caught nothing more on the chatterbait and managed two on senko in the creek. We came back out onto the main lake with the score 6-4-3 (owner, buddy, and myself). We started fishing the random lily pad beds. we came across a very sparsely populated bed (lily pads were not very thick, and it was only about 4 feet wide and 15 feet long). I summoned the power of Siebert Jigs at this point - and boy did it pay off. Tossed a black and blue dredge jig with black/blue fleck ultra vibe trailer in there and bounced it through the middle - first cast fish - both the other guys tossed in - a fish for each of them. 7-5-4 (owner, buddy, me). Spent the next 30 or so minutes moving between the two small pad areas within about 50 yards of each other and ended up with 8-7-7 on the fish count (My buddy ended up winning, the owner and I tied at 7 fish each). Fish Count: 22 Had to take off at 1245 as we all had afternoon plans. So 30 + 22 = 52 fish in 6 hours give or take a few minutes. Best part was that everybody was having a ton of fun, and that flurry at the end really had us all excited - the fish weren't even big 1.5-3 lbs but it was a blast to have our bragging rights competition come down to the very last minute. Great day - can only hope to replicate it in the future - minus the broken tip guide haha.

The Bowfin: you either love them or you hate them. Most will catch the toothy fossil and then bang them against the side of their boat or stab plyers through that bony skull after the infamous mudfish has ravaged their favorite lure. As for me however, I look at this fish with wonder an awe. The product of perfection, the bowfin has evolved little in 150 million years. In the rare instance I catch one, I make sure I safely release them into the water, to carry on their rather mysterious lives of ripping schools of baitfish or slurping crawfish off the bottom. Whenever I do catch them on artificials, usually a white spinner bait, I enjoy the hard pulling and headshaking fight they put up, making aggressive runs ripping drag and shaking the rodtip as thrash their heads, attempting to throw the hook or slash your line. They really are a work of predatory art, even more so than our beloved Bass. The rumors run wild with the Bowfin, from the terrible tasting meat, to their "bass only" diet. Both of these are rather untrue, as I have had delicous mudfish both fried and smoked, so long as it is fresh. Mudfish, depending on their area, usually feed on crustaceans and crawdads, as well as scavenge all the dead fish in the water. While a small bass may occasionally show up on the bowfin's menu, they do not target gamefish specifically. Therefore I must ask you of my beloved bowfin: Are you the fishermen that kills the fish and leaves it to rot, or do you release or eat them, just curious if any others share my opinion.