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So my local little jon boat lake I fished at regularly is now closed off to non-residents of the lake ?. I am super disappointed, the next closest lakes are about an hour away but I have the James river in downtown lynchburg about 20 minutes away! I usually avoid the river because I have no real understanding of how to fish it but now I dont have much of a choice. I will be taking my lil 12 ft jon boat (trolling motor powered) to the james river and was hoping someone could help me out where to start. What types of things should I be doing differently, what should I look for, ect. I fished it a few times in the past from a kayak and basically just cast at laydowns and any eddy I could see. In the summer I had (some) success casting a texas rigged senko down a grass line I found. I know Ill get the hang of it eventually, but would love if someone could help cut down the learning curve. Thanks

Why are large mouth bass in my pond grey? and i mean grey, not even a little bit of green.

Hey fellow fishermen and fisherladies, Got a question for you more experienced fisherman. I need to give a little pond description before I ask it though. -130 acres in size, max depth 15 feet -10'x10' MOVING giant reed mats (wind pushes them everywhere) when altogether due to wind covers an acre easily! -extremely stained water, brown almost. In a float tube you cannot see your feet! -weeds are pretty much everywhere some places right up to the surface -alewives do come up in there (which is why I believe they are so big!) In the dead of summer i use to struggle finding bass. This last summer I found a top water lure that works. I have my spots where I know there to be decent fish but with the floatillas moving around by the hour fish in there rarely stay in one spot (so I think). As for subsurface lures the ONLY thing I can get them to hit is chartruese tipped green colored worms texas rigged with no weight. It drives me nuts because the fishing technique with these is literally to cast at a grass mat, let it sits for like x amount of minutes and then just watch your line drag side ways. I DESPISE fishing this way (albeit it semi-effective). It is boring as all hell and every once in a while a fish gets the hook swallowed and I am all catch and release so I hate it. If I have any tension on the fishing line the fish will not hit the lure (trust me, I know you are thinking I am just not setting the hook soon enough yada yada). So the question becomes do you guys have any advise on a lure or on a fishing method that might work in this pond? Has anyone come across a shallow stained pond with tons of weeds (in a colder climate, Florida doesn't always understand Maine bass). and found something successful. I have tried jigs, they legit fall into about 3 feet of grown up weeds under water and don't work. I have tried spinner baits of all colors, I have tried cranks and jerks but they get weeds unless super shallow divers in which case nothing hits. I have tried swimbaits with hooks buried and nothing (or they get in weeds). I am open to any suggestions of any kind. This pond has some GIANT bass in it, I spent 2 hours one morning in the summer hauling in 22 fish all above 3.5 pounds, biggest being 5.4 and I know there are bigger ones in there but I don't think I am offering them what they truly want. The pond does have a population of black crappie, pickerel, perch and carp. Although besides the carp I haven't seen/caught any of them more then twice in 4 years! Thank you ahead of time and sorry for the long winded post. With giving fishing advice for a pond there is never enough information and even then unless you've fished it, it is really hard to gauge as no two ponds are the same.

Hello Fellow Central Mass Anglers, My name is Brian, and have been fishing Central mass for over 10 years. I have found Buffumville Lake, in Charlton MA, to be one of the most productive small bodies of water in central MA. Target = Largemouth Bass. My main setup involves a 12' pontoon boat, with trolling motor, and as such I have become intimately acquainted with this lake and its features. I am starting this thread in order to share experiences on this lake and talk fishing present day. Please reply if you have anything to share, or have any questions about Buffumville. My last trip out this past weekend was fruitful, catching a limit of mostly ~2lbers, with one good fish ~5lbs. Medium diving crank in craw color was most productive (wiggle wart), around deep drops with wood cover near the shallow. Considering all the rain we have had, the water level is still slightly lower than normal. Day was mostly sunny with some clouds late, breezy all day...in the 60's. Thanks and tight lines! Brian

Hi all. Just wondering. What do you all have more fun catching, Large Mouth Bass or Peacock?

Names Andrew, I started fishing about two years ago on live worms wrapped around an available hook, since then I've moved on to the fly and have caught the bug. I am interested in majoring and attaining an advanced degree in a marine biological field, or possibly a fisheries specialty. That leads to the point of the thread. At the moment I am exclusively wade fly fishing (9 weight) a medium sized pond (Width=40 yds Length=120-150) It seems to be extremely well taken care of, I see what seems to be an aerator, there is a rather large pier, plenty of sub surface trees, a few overhangs, and points. It seems to be about 4' deep 4' off the bank I'd guess 8'-10' in the middle. I am starting a fishing log right now and so far the data I am going to collect: Conditions: Sun/Moon rise, noon, set, distance from earth at the time of both, moon phase, Weather: air temp hourly for whatever time fished. I also intend to record what flies I use and what retrieves were used for both succesful and unsuccessful attempts. Lengths, girths, mouth colorations, and where specifically they were caught. I have drawn a map of the pond with a legend of all structure and available cover I am aware of with the intention of adding too. About 5 years ago there was a fish recorded (or so I've been told twice) at 8 pounds. I saw about 4 bass of 5 or more pounds obliterating bream in a shallow flat, and what I believe to be a bass (skepticism comes from size) 12-15LBS on a glance. (Never seen carp, or cats in there, and it was facing the bank at night when I got to see it. My questions are: What am I missing for my daily log? (it is only going to be for this pond.) How should I measure water temp? How to best determine gender? Does anyone have knowledge of what I can derive from the coloration of the inner top lip? Also I am looking for fly patterns that immitate a rather large Bream, I want to target the lunker. I have read pretty religiously since I found this site a few weeks ago and intend on becoming a regulare poster. All tips are welcome, especially fly specific. ...And this turned out to be pretty long and dry, thanks for reading it.