Years first topwater in VA

[68camaro]

Last night went to local pond around dusk, we've had a warm spell here and conditions seemed perfect for a top water, Sure enough caught a little over 20"'er, fat 5+lb'er on 1/2 oz buzzbait with black skirt and red blade. Had no luck with same colors but only 3/8 oz, tried trailers but nothing. Pond has been very difficult to fish last 30-45 days, noone catching any bass.

 

She was caught about 1' off bank just 2' feet from my left where I was standing, but I was back a few feet on bank, she hammered it also.

[Darren.]

Congrats!

[Sam]

Super!

 

Yes, she was either sunning herself and enjoying the warmer water or feeding.

 

She and her friends are still deep. They will move up for warmer water and a nice treat.

 

If she was near the bank others were near the bank, too.

 

Do you have a Whopper Plopper? Or a Zara Spook? Or a Sammy? Wake crankbait? You may want to throw a jerkbait out from the bank to entice the deeper bass to come up and hit it.

 

Buzzbaits are good all year in Virginia's waters.

[sc1978]

congrats, I haven't been out yet this year....I may try this sunday afternoon...

[cjvilar]

Nice!

[68camaro]

6 hours ago, Sam said:

Super!

 

Yes, she was either sunning herself and enjoying the warmer water or feeding.

 

She and her friends are still deep. They will move up for warmer water and a nice treat.

 

If she was near the bank others were near the bank, too.

 

Do you have a Whopper Plopper? Or a Zara Spook? Or a Sammy? Wake crankbait? You may want to throw a jerkbait out from the bank to entice the deeper bass to come up and hit it.

 

Buzzbaits are good all year in Virginia's waters.

Water was 52 but pretty stained, visibility inches. Most of my catches are close to bank under trees/shrubs, fishing parallel to bank causes a lot of tree snags but worth it. I do use whopper ploppers, sammies and wake crankbaits, topwater by bank is my most productive.

 

This is my first buzzbait catch and a 20" LM in this pond is very rare, usually their in the mid-teens at best.

[Sam]

You da man!

 

Congrats on a great catch.

 

May you have many more this year.

[MassYak85]

That's awesome man! I'll be out on Western Branch tomorrow just to scratch the itch, if anyone sees a guy in an Ascend kayak feel free to say hi. I have to imagine it's a lot colder than the pond you were fishing though so I won't hold my breath for any topwater action. 

[68camaro]

11 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

That's awesome man! I'll be out on Western Branch tomorrow just to scratch the itch, if anyone sees a guy in an Ascend kayak feel free to say hi. I have to imagine it's a lot colder than the pond you were fishing though so I won't hold my breath for any topwater action. 

Good luck out there, prior to this warm spell it has been freezin but I was catchin a few on ned rigs and jigging blades in the deeper water.

[MassYak85]

9 minutes ago, 68camaro said:

Good luck out there, prior to this warm spell it has been freezin but I was catchin a few on ned rigs and jigging blades in the deeper water.

Thanks man, that's good to hear, I already have a blade bait tied on for tomorrow and a few spots in mind to check out. 

[68camaro]

13 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Thanks man, that's good to hear, I already have a blade bait tied on for tomorrow and a few spots in mind to check out. 

How did you do?

[MassYak85]

7 hours ago, 68camaro said:

How did you do?

Skunked lol. I got there around 9 and had a few spots in mind but they were all towards the dam so I spent a good half hour paddling over there, and the wind was kicking up a bit and I didn't want to risk going farther in case things got any worse. I didn't want to paddle 2 miles back in whitecaps, so decided to anchor on the outside of a cove that drops fast into the channel. Tried a blade bait, a hair jig, and made about 10 casts with a hudd. I really only had like 1-2 hours of actual fishing time, the clouds started moving in and the wind died down so I paddled back to the ramp and packed up before 12 to avoid the rain. It was good to be out there though, the paddle back was really nice it got up close to 50. 

 

Any tips for fishing the cold water here? My plan was to target areas with structure that dropped off into the deepest parts of the channel. I really didn't put in enough time today to figure much out. My cold water experience up north is just fish super slow but I have more confidence doing that up in MA where the water can have 10-15ft of visibility and I have confidence that if I leave a hair jig motionless on the bottom with the occasional twitch that at least fish can see it. Cold, deep stained water is not my forte haha.