Dogwoods Blooming

[Sam]

Direct from Bon Air, Virginia, where the men are successful, the women are beautiful and the children are above average, the Dogwood trees have bloomed today, Tuesday, March 31, 2020.

 

This means that the bass in Virginia are on their beds; getting ready to get on their beds, or are already on their beds.

 

Just like the outstanding guys on this Forum, who have to stay home in quarantine with their wives and girlfriends, spawning season is  upon us.

 

Lets' get to work and show those nasty little green monsters who we are.

 

Let's go out there and let the Bait Monkey know that we have not forgotten him.

 

Lets' go out there and tell the women in our lives to shape up and get out of our way as we are now in the planning stages to hit the water with all of the pontoon boats, skiers, jet-skis, swimmers, tubers, and the other 10,000 bass guys who will hit the waters this week and weekend.

 

Tell your ladies who is boss. Tell your ladies it is spawning season and you are ready to rock and roll.

 

We are men. We are bass fishermen. We do what we want and when we want.

 

OK, that's all for now. I was just told to put out the trash.

 

Good luck and be safe.

 

 

 

[Bird]

Wow, can you do online counseling with my wife  ?

 

She's quite liberated. 

Just the other evening she ask me to take her someplace she's never been.....I politely escorted her to the kitchen. 

 

Oh yes, I have VA dogwoods blooming here and will be in hot pursuit. 

[N Florida Mike]

Interesting. In North Florida it’s when azaleas are blooming. I just noticed the dogwood in my yard looks like it was blooming too.

And yes, I caught that fish off a bed. 1983 I think.

[RichF]

Just in time for recreational fishing to be cancelled!  I really hope VA doesn't follow MD's new order...

[rickyg]

As of a few hours ago, the VDGIF facebook site had a reminder to practice social distancing while fishing which was posted today.  They have closed some waters.  Burke Lake and Merriweather (sp?) were closed.

Oh yeah---did what ya said Sam and told my wife it was spawning season and time to rock and roll.   She told me to take a cold shower!?

[flyfisher]

too bad the two lakes i went to this weekend were way up and muddy as hell from recent rains so i couldn't do any sight fishing....oh well.  i will try again soon hopefully.  

[TnRiver46]

I wonder if you are allowed to fish off your own dock on closed areas 

[ATA]

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I wonder if you are allowed to fish off your own dock on closed areas 

as long as you don't get caught 

[Sam]

10 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I wonder if you are allowed to fish off your own dock on closed areas 

Good question.

 

I suggest you call the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency and ask one of their game wardens or someone who is in the know (not the telephone operator) if fishing off your own dock is acceptable in closed areas.

 

I would think the local sheriff and police would tell you "no" as they want to error on the safe side.

 

Let us know what you find out.

[TnRiver46]

4 minutes ago, Sam said:

Good question.

 

I suggest you call the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency and ask one of their game wardens or someone who is in the know (not the telephone operator) if fishing off your own dock is acceptable in closed areas.

 

I would think the local sheriff and police would tell you "no" as they want to error on the safe side.

 

Let us know what you find out.

Well so far the boat ramps are open. I communicate with a few game wardens daily so I’ll let ya know 

[CountryboyinDC]

Dogwoods haven't bloomed yet, at least not where I'm confined in Vienna, VA.  The Japanese cherry in my front yard already bloomed and is getting its leaves.  I'd love to be out on the Occoquan River or up around Fletcher's pulling in some hickory and American shad right about now, but I'd hate to be the cause for anyone including myself to end up on a ventilator.  I guess I'll miss the largemouth and smallmouth pre-spawn, but I hope they lead to good spawns this year.  We've had a couple of bad years of smallmouth spawns around here, and it'd be good to have a really good class year for 2020.  I think there's many good fishing days ahead if we can just be patient and prudent.  

[Sam]

Country, yes, the Japanese Cherry trees are beautiful. Pink and white and lots and lots of pollen.

 

Your dogwoods should be about 7 to 10 days behind Richmond. Just note the buds and one day you will wake up and they will have the nicest pink flowers on them signaling the spawn is going full blast.

 

And you are correct about having fewer guys fishing bedding bass so we may have some strong spawns, which we need.

 

All we can do is stay home and wait for the all clear signal and then run to the ramps!!!!

[gbassman519]

Gonna try to get some of those green fish this comeing week  my self.

 

[novafx4]

Fountainhead is closed to all but hikers and bike riding. No vehicular traffic, no parking and no boating. I've got my PA14 all rigged up with nowhere to go at the moment.

[Bird]

On 4/1/2020 at 2:11 PM, CountryboyinDC said:

Dogwoods haven't bloomed yet, at least not where I'm confined in Vienna, VA.  The Japanese cherry in my front yard already bloomed and is getting its leaves.  I'd love to be out on the Occoquan River or up around Fletcher's pulling in some hickory and American shad right about now, but I'd hate to be the cause for anyone including myself to end up on a ventilator.  I guess I'll miss the largemouth and smallmouth pre-spawn, but I hope they lead to good spawns this year.  We've had a couple of bad years of smallmouth spawns around here, and it'd be good to have a really good class year for 2020.  I think there's many good fishing days ahead if we can just be patient and prudent.  

The bad spawns or should I say non existent spawns were do to very high murky water 2 years in a row here where I live in VA.....according to DNR.

 

MUCH improved this year. 

[RichF]

39 minutes ago, novafx4 said:

Fountainhead is closed to all but hikers and bike riding. No vehicular traffic, no parking and no boating. I've got my PA14 all rigged up with nowhere to go at the moment.

I was just about to order a yak since Fountainhead is closed and I can't rent a boat at the moment.  Now I'm seeing that all NOVA parks are closed to boating.  I'm still relatively new to the area so I don't know of many public access points to the local waters but the ones I do know of are all closed.  Madness.

[Black Bill Dance]

@Sam I will be hitting up some ponds tomorrow morning, I haven't seen any on beds as of yet, but that was at the beginning of the week.

If you aren't bed fishing, what is your go-to technique this time of year?

[Sam]

Hi Bill.

 

I like plastics this time of year.

 

Dragged across the beds while leaving them in one place in the beds for about a minute to see if they will try to remove or kill it.

 

Shakey heads and Texas rigged plastics that are bottom bait presentations I would try.

 

Also, would try a buzzbait, Whopper Plopper, RICO, and a RICO or popper for topwater bites.

 

Let us know how you do.

[WdyCrankbait]

I went out yesterday Sam.  Nothing, ugh!  I will call you soon.

 

This is about the only thing positive during this here in Virginia, socially distancing.  But, the bass are practicing that as well!

 

Wdy

[Sam]

1 hour ago, WdyCrankbait said:

I went out yesterday Sam.  Nothing, ugh!  I will call you soon.

 

This is about the only thing positive during this here in Virginia, socially distancing.  But, the bass are practicing that as well!

 

Wdy

No surprise. The bass are on their beds and you have find the beds and drag your plastics through the bed, allowing it to sit in one place about 60-seconds in the bed.

 

The ladies are not eating and the small males are guarding the nest, meaning that bites will be few and far between.

 

We are handicapped when fishing from the bank and can't get to the beds. 

 

By April 20th the fishing should pick up again.

[Black Bill Dance]

21 hours ago, Sam said:

No surprise. The bass are on their beds and you have find the beds and drag your plastics through the bed, allowing it to sit in one place about 60-seconds in the bed.

 

The ladies are not eating and the small males are guarding the nest, meaning that bites will be few and far between.

 

We are handicapped when fishing from the bank and can't get to the beds. 

 

By April 20th the fishing should pick up again.

Went to private pond in Saluda yesterday, caught 12 bass all buck bass though under 2 pounds. Did catch 3 rainbow trout before the water warms up too much and they die out. My buddy's father stock his pond every winter.

[CountryboyinDC]

The dogwoods' blossoms in the side yard  came out today.  A beautiful day it was, fishing would have been tough anyway.

[Sam]

Just have patience.

 

Two more weeks and it will be a lot of fun.

 

That is if you can find a ramp without all the crazies trying to launch or trailer their watercraft and then some calm water without the pontoon boats, ski boats, jet skis, swimmers, divers, other bass boats, kayaks, catfish guys, crappie guys, secret tournaments, clean water after the rains we are experiencing, DG&IF conservation officers checking for booze, safe boating card and fishing license and locals around a pond running you off, and the beat goes on and on and on and on................?

[CountryboyinDC]

@Sam, there's a couple of other reasons to not get too sad about missing a day fishing.  I guess if it gets too bad, the park in my neighborhood has Wolftrap Run running through the middle of it.  When my son and I go down to catch some minnows and crawfish, we've seen some maybe 6" chubs in it.  I can get the old ultralight out and at least say I wet a line.  

[Bird]

3 hours ago, Sam said:

Just have patience.

 

Two more weeks and it will be a lot of fun.

 

That is if you can find a ramp without all the crazies trying to launch or trailer their watercraft and then some calm water without the pontoon boats, ski boats, jet skis, swimmers, divers, other bass boats, kayaks, catfish guys, crappie guys, secret tournaments, clean water after the rains we are experiencing, DG&IF conservation officers checking for booze, safe boating card and fishing license and locals around a pond running you off, and the beat goes on and on and on and on................?

I found a way to clear out the congestion at the boat ramps under the current conditions.......250mg of Niacin. ?