Maryland's Who's who!

[Deleted account]

6 hours ago, Lendiesel22 said:

15lb big game does it all lol

I'm actually more fond of 12, and I'll go to 10 or 20 for some things, there is a place and time for everything (except fluorocarbon). I saw several big fish That I'll be visiting in the next couple of weeks, I find in some of the local small waters, they hang within a cast of the nest for a few weeks. I see it as my reward for letting them be while they are spawning.

[Lendiesel22]

The great thing about big game is it's cheap for a good size spool, durable, and reliable. I change line often on my moving bait set ups and never have an issue with BG. If it ain't broke I dont fix it. 

[Falkus]

The weather has screw everything up, we are expecting RAIN all week.

 

 

[Joshua Vandamm]

11 minutes ago, Burke said:

The weather has screw everything up, we are expecting RAIN all week.

 

 

Screwed up how? Fish don't mind rain. 

[Falkus]

Just now, Joshua Vandamm said:

Screwed up how? Fish don't mind rain. 

LOL - I hate fishing in the rain at the shore. 

 

but you will me find me out there ! 

[Deleted account]

8 hours ago, Joshua Vandamm said:

Screwed up how? Fish don't mind rain. 

This ^. Anything remotely resembling a crawfish pitched where muddy runoff flows hard into most places in SoMd is a real consistent what ya'll call "pattern". I was out yesterday, and caught 10 in the rain which didn't get too bad until the afternoon on a spinnerbait, cause I just felt like throwing one. "Fish are already wet" 

[JeepFisher]

Topwater has been good also with all the rain...at least at Elkhorn.  

On 5/7/2018 at 9:54 PM, fishwizzard said:

Finally got a nice bass from my kayak this year;

 

If his butt was as big as his head he would have been a real monster.  

 

I also got a pickerel who swarmed up from about 5-6' of water to smash an S-Waver right as I was about to lift it out of the water.  

 

I want to start throwing more big baits in here as I have seen some real bruisers on beds, but the picks really give me pause.  

Lol...i was throwing a Phat Pat's Perch last spring and caught a decent pickerel at the shoreline in the lillies.  Was so scared he was going to break me off...   Since Pat doesnt officially sell them without a waiting list or one of the raffle groups on fb, demand is high and prices are high... havent thrown it since, but really like the action of it.  Convinced myself to start throwing this year or sell it.

[fishwizzard]

Yea, I am setting a hard ~$30 limit on big baits until they really start producing.  There are too many picks around to mess with the more expensive ones at this point.  

 

 

[Lendiesel22]

I had 14.86 in yesterday's tournament on the Potomac. Despite all the rain the water was clean and we had a decent day

[JeepFisher]

On 5/19/2018 at 1:21 PM, fishwizzard said:

Yea, I am setting a hard ~$30 limit on big baits until they really start producing.  There are too many picks around to mess with the more expensive ones at this point.  

 

 

Yep thats why I throw the spro rats most of the time.  Afraid to lose my more expensive stuff unless i know the underwater structure of a location really well.  

On 4/28/2018 at 5:09 PM, Buffdaddy54 said:

Has anyone had any luck fishing the small lake by the Stanford Grill off Stanford Blvd in Columbia? 

Ive been here 4 times and never even got a nibble. I know there's fish in here, I've seen them jump.

I tried once a couple years ago, think i caught one little dink on a short outing.  

On 4/29/2018 at 11:07 PM, Joshua Vandamm said:

Good to know! Greenbelt not as good? I'm sure I'll see you there at some point. Whats the biggest one you've seen come out of there? Artemesia I mean 

I caught about 6-8 little ones at Greenbelt on Monday.  Action is definitely heating up in spots.

[fishwizzard]

 

Between this guy and three of his friends, I have a 100% hit to land ratio with a frog this year.  Not counting ones that missed my lure by like a foot, come on bass, get your act together!

 

I am also thinking that a short, like 6', frog rod would get a lot of use around here in some of the more informal rodside wetlands in SoMo.  I am using a XH/M rod for frogs this season and am liking it so far, other then it make walking them harder.  I wonder, is there any kind of saltwater rod that will be close to that spec, but in the 6' to 6'6" range?  I see a ton of short, heavy looking rods at tackle shops but I have never looked at them.  

[Joshua Vandamm]

On 5/22/2018 at 8:08 PM, fishwizzard said:

 

Between this guy and three of his friends, I have a 100% hit to land ratio with a frog this year.  Not counting ones that missed my lure by like a foot, come on bass, get your act together!

 

I am also thinking that a short, like 6', frog rod would get a lot of use around here in some of the more informal rodside wetlands in SoMo.  I am using a XH/M rod for frogs this season and am liking it so far, other then it make walking them harder.  I wonder, is there any kind of saltwater rod that will be close to that spec, but in the 6' to 6'6" range?  I see a ton of short, heavy looking rods at tackle shops but I have never looked at them.  

6&6.6 Ugly stick. No need to spend a ton on heavy rods, imo

[Junger]

I had about an hour to kill yesterday while my truck was getting an oil change, so I brought a light spinning rod and the tiny Rebel Pop-R and uber'd over to Lake Whetstone to mess around. Low and behold, I caught a decent lb'er right off the bat, then two more dinks farther down the trail right of the boat house. 

I would have had another decent one, but I had casted near a brush pile, and the bass headed for it and the mini-popper got snagged on some branches. I was using 8lb braid so it snapped off while trying to get it back. Luckily it wasn't far out so I could use wading boots to get it back, but they were at home.

So this morning, determined to get my mini popper back and encouraged by the hits on the popper yesterday, I headed out around 7AM back to Whetstone. Last year, I threw poppers about 4 times and got zero hits and gave up topwater at this lake, but it was the middle of summer and probably not under the right conditions when I tried. This morning it was almost zero wind, started cloudy, then became partly sunny behind clouds. I threw on a Lightning Shad Rico, and got a nice 1.5 lb'er on the second cast, followed by 3 more dinks.

Then I started back west of the boathouse toward the dam. I've never done well on this stretch, but it has always looked good. Lots of isolated wood with some decent bank drop off to about 4 feet. Worked the Rico methodically near a large fallen branch, and got rewarded with one almost 2LB I'd guess. I feel bad about his bloody tail, he was actually only hooked with one barb on the trailing treble hook, and I hoisted him up the bank and the treble hook snapped, the bass took a spill onto the pavement and split his tail. Hopefully he'll be OK.

Got a couple more dinks, barely bigger than the Rico and decided that it was time to upsize the lure. I was competing with a TON of carp splashing all about and making a ruckus all around the banks, so I needed something with more rattle/pops and threw on a Yellow Magic 3.5" Gold Shad popper. That did the trick and I landed a nice one, I'd guess about 2.5lbs, and long. Cast it far out away from the bank, and made very loud pops then about 20 feet from the bank when I got into the strike zone, started to go more subtle and longer pauses. It smacked the YM popper about 6 feet from me and pulled drag.

I'm so glad to get on the topwater bite again, it's been almost a year since I had a good day on them.

[fishwizzard]

Very nice!  I never really throw topwaters unless I am out at dusk or dawn, I clearly need to change that. 

[Junger]

47 minutes ago, fishwizzard said:

Very nice!  I never really throw topwaters unless I am out at dusk or dawn, I clearly need to change that. 

This lake is pretty shallow around the bank, so I think right now they're willing to actively hit the action under the right top water conditions, more so than the time of day. I think they'll be less wiling when the water temp rises in the heat of summer and then I'll have to wait for dusk and dawn too. Gonna have to check out that BFS set up.

[fishwizzard]

4 minutes ago, Junger said:

This lake is pretty shallow around the bank, so I think right now they're willing to actively hit the action under the right top water conditions, more so than the time of day. I think they'll be less wiling when the water temp rises in the heat of summer and then I'll have to wait for dusk and dawn too. Gonna have to check out that BFS set up.

I have a couple of light power/bfs casting rods, shoot me a PM if you ever want to meet up and give them a try.  It's fun stuff but I would have a few less rods if I had known more when I got into it. 

[Somd Fx4]

fishwizzard, where in SOMD you from?

[Deleted account]

Im down for a popper Palooza get together somewhere in SoMd. 

 

[fishwizzard]

13 hours ago, Somd Fx4 said:

fishwizzard, where in SOMD you from?

I am just south of Annapolis, so stretching the definition of SOMD, but I fish down there a lot due to less traffic.  I'm mostly a weekday fisherman and crossing 295/95 requires an all day trip.  Also SOMD has Texas 202 bbq and that adds to the appeal.  

13 hours ago, reason said:

Im down for a popper Palooza get together somewhere in SoMd. 

 

I would love that, I am getting better at working them but I still never really catch much.  

[fishwizzard]

All this topwater talk got me excited so I went out yesterday to fish a rat for a while.  I got a couple of small blowups, but they were all atleast a foot away from my lure.  I gave the rat up and decided to give a huddgill a go.  Almost immediately I got a great hit and landed this guy;

 

About 2.75lb and the lure was stuck in the roof of his mouth, one of the better hits on the gill I have gotten.  

 

I kept fishing it and got a few more hits and had a few bass on, but could never get the hook set.  A few times a nice fat one would slash at it just as I was speeding it up at the end of the retitrve.  I started running the lure back a little quicker and something smashed it.  I was very excited for about 3 second, then just cranky.

 

This is not a bass;

He was pretty rough on my lure;

 

Hudd bite was over for the day.  I had an other gill-lure with me, but it was a Savage Gear gill and they have a really different action and the bass were not into it.  While it lasted it was the most attention I have gotten on the huddgill in such a short timespan, I need to fish it a lot more.  It's annoying in that the gill seems to get more attention, but has an awful hookup ratio while the 68Special gets hit way less often, but I seem to land a greater percentage of fish on it.  

 

[Junger]

Went to Black Hills with my dad and my youngest son this afternoon. After waiting for what seemed like an endless line of kayakers, I finally put the boat in around 4:30PM. It was partly cloudy, hazy, with little to no wind. Last time I fished this lake was when I was about 12 years old and we fished from the bank near the bridge overpass using minnows. So really I had no idea how to fish it for bass, so I just started around the right side of the lake from the boat launch. Hit the first cove on the right, saw some shaded areas and some laydowns and started to work that bank. Continuing with the topwater theme, I threw on a new popper I got yesterday, an Evergreen OB in Magic Gill. Almost immediately got hit and took it under, it was a good size and I was trying to work it with the rod, it jumped and I evidently gave it too much slack and it spit the hook. I'd guess a good 2-3lber. Good sign for poppers though so I kept going around the cove and the next spot was a secondary point with grass to the left. I threw onto the point, huge pops with long pauses and the OB submerged and disappeared instantly. I knew it was a good fish, and it turned out to be my new PB, 4.92lbs.

 

 

Got another hit on the popper and tried to let my young son reel it in, but by the time he had the rod in his hand, it jumped and spit the hook.

 

After I had my fun, I tried to get my son on some fish by using the fish finder...we had stopped and gotten a dozen minnows, half of which died not long after I put them into the bucket that had an aerator. Left around 6PM just when I know the bite was about to get hot, it was now totally cloudy, just a tick of wind, and lots of top water activity. Can't complain, had an amazing afternoon with my dad and son.

 

 

[fishwizzard]

d**n dude, that is a nice bass!

 

I realy gotta get over my topwater aversion.  

[Junger]

9 hours ago, fishwizzard said:

I realy gotta get over my topwater aversion.  

If there's not too much wind, I'll always consider throwing a popper. To me, it's the easiest way to fish. 1) You hardly ever lose a lure, 2) There's no guesswork if you have a bite, 3) it's probably the most exciting way to fish. I look for fishy spots, such as structure, shaded points, transitions, etc...basically anywhere a bass would be just hanging out during the day and not actively feeding. Put a popper near them and it either gives them an easy meal or annoys them.

 

Hit up Whetstone for an hour today at 3PM before a golf lesson and got two decent ones, one just over 2lbs, and another probably just over 1lb. I had another one that hit the Evergreen OB just as it hit the water and I wasn't ready for and didn't get a great hook up, it had too much slack and jumped and spit the hook.

 

 

I feel bad that I keep posting Whetstone bass, but it's just so convenient to everywhere I go around 270. Maybe Needwood next time I'm running errands.

[Junger]

Got a new popper rod and took it out to Lake Needwood for some topwater action this evening. I've never done that well here, but I didn't feel like fighting 270N traffic to get to Whetstone to try out the rod. Lots of people fishing the bank when I got there, so I started casting and moving. I managed to catch 3 dinks on an Evergreen OB Smash Shad/Magic Gill. Took 2 pics, the other one I let a kid release it by the rental boat ramp.

 

 

The new rod is a Lew's Custom Speedstick Plus 6'8 Topwater Special ML/F. I'm loving it for poppers, it has a short handle and soft enough tip. No more banging my forearm, and walking is even easier than my mod/fast Tatula. I'm using mono with it for even a little more give. It's rated for 1/8oz, but really loads 1/4oz and up better.

 

 

Nice sunset, never gets old.

 

[fishwizzard]

Had like 5 days of just brutal work and had today off, so I hit the pond for like 90min.  I had ordered some flick-shake style worms from a garage producer online and wanted to fish them against the Jackall OG's and the BPS version.  

 

The testing was a failure as the bass just killed all three of them.  These are the best off of each worm;

It was an amazing time, I think I got about 9-10 bass with only one under a solid 1lb+.  At one point I was jigging one of the worms (the bps one I think) like 6" down maybe a foot of the bank to look at the action and a bass shot up out of nowhere and grabbed it.  

 

I switched to a t-rigged 7" Culprit and the bite died.  I tried it for like 15 min, then switched back the flick-shake and it was on again.  I only left because I was already late to meet my wife for a happy hour thing.  

 

I did miss a few bass that gave solid hits and held the worm for seconds. I am using those generic tungsten wacky jigs that everyone sells.  On all the bass I landed the hook was very well set, with it taking pliers to get them out a few times, even with the barb mashed down.  But I feel like I was missing too many that really had a good grip on it and while I "set" on each, the hook would just pop out as soon as the bass surfaced.  Any of you guys use these things?  I use the 1/16oz ones, but it's this style.