cjbs2003

I agree, even catch and release fishing kills about 5-10 of the fish caught ones you never thought would die. Especially when caught with a multiple treble hook lure. Depending on the fish species and time of year it can be even higher. If you don't want to kill fish, don't go fishing... You can take precautions and practice proper catch and release fish handling methods, but some fish are gonna die. Enjoy the protein, its good for you!

The water temp was actually down to 44 degrees? Or was it 54? If the water was even as cold as 54 you can kiss good bye the spawning success of our smallies this year. That cold high water will have killed all the fry and eggs. Hopefully not all the bass have spawned and once the water gets back to normal in a week or so they can get to business making some baby bass...

When it is muddy I like black, I was tossing a weightless rigged 4" curly tail worm and 3" tube. Just worked them real slow around lily pads and grass edges watching the line for movement then setting the hook. Having no weight means you can really slow it down which if you don't have a lot of noise or vibration to your bait means the bass can find it easier in muddy water. I like using super line, it is so sensitive compared to mono and the hook set it great. I really like Power Pro. It is round and keeps it shape. Casts great even out of a spinning rod which I typically use when going weightless, really the only way to go. If I would have kept the top 5 bass I'd have had a 14 lb 2 oz stringer. Not bad from a small pond!

Well, with the incredible rains we got here in northern VA and how disgusting the rivers and most lakes looked around here. I decided to try out an old pond I knew. It is only 3 acres but I knew it had some bass in it. In 4 hours of fishing I caught 14 bass from dink to 4 lbs 4 oz. Not bad for 4 hours... That water had already started clearing up in it and was much clearer than my normal fishing holes. I was surprised to still find several bass on their beds. Maybe an option when the water gets high and muddy... Hit up your smaller ponds as they may be more fishable?

My head is spinning with all the far ranging replies! First off, thanks for such a response! She will go fishing and enjoys it a little, but I am a fanatic and she doesn't understand that... She doesn't want to go fishing all the time. I work weird hours so I am not home as much as the average person to begin with. So the free days I do have I guess are all that much more important to her and me. The thing that set her off was when I left for PA last week for a 5 day trip to fish and turkey hunt. She just couldn't handle it, even though she knew I had this trip planned for at least 2 months. I mean I was planning on getting up early(3 am) to get on the road and beat traffic, and she starts into me and I am just trying to get some sleep. So for the next hour and half we argued over me supposedly fishing too much. Seriously, when I look at my fishing journal, I don't even fish two times a week! I definitely agree with the need to get the honey do lists out of the way first. Plus we are getting a dog so I hope the dog will keep her occupied instead of being ticked that I am gone. Perhaps I need to sit down more and talk it over more with her. But in the end say, I love you to death, but I fish and hunt and plan on continuing to fish and hunt... It's what I love and it makes me happy. But, if you can't handle that, pack up and move out! It aint easy to break up with a girl you love and have dated for 3 years and are thinking about marrying. At the same time, it aint easy thinking that my future consists of a wife who ******* and moans every time I fish and tried to make me feel guilty for it. Anymore advise??? God knows I need it right now! HAHA

OK guys... I am in need of some advice here. I have been dating the same girl for almost 3 years now. I love her to death, but she feels me going fishing 2 times a week is too much. It seems as though the longer we date, the more and more demanding she gets. I honestly don't think fishing 2 times a week is too much to ask! Any of you have experience in how you can get out fishing without ticking the wife/girlfriend off???

I was out on Raystown this weekend... Didn't catch beans for bass, but did catch a few decent lake trout. One thing about Raystown, you never know what you are gonna catch! It is a tough lake to fish in my opinion, but when you hit it right, it rewards you well!

Lake Anna has a lot of "night" tournies if you are looking for more of an evening fishing time...

Its all about the tides on that part of the Potomac. The grass beds are thicker than normal this time of year. Where the grass is not quite to the surface run spinnerbaits and mann's minus 1's over top it. On dropping tides work the edge of the grass beds with carolina rigs. If the water stays clear, you can pick at the holes in the grass with jigs and pig combos in black and blue. Sight fishing for spawning bass can be very productive. Smoke colored tubes seem to do the trick. Tease the bass with it long enough and they will eventually hit. A good website to try is potomac bass com one word... Look for the articles section. They break down each area of the lower Potomac into easy to read sections. Oh yeah, keep your eye for a snakehead... They are in there and they are getting big! The VDGIF electroshocked a 14 pounder the other day! Good luck!

Hmmm... You're telling me no one else took advantage of the cicada hatch in 04? Don't know what you are missing out on!

Yeah, I think Rebel does make some Cicada imitations also. I am sure anything that looks like a Cicada would work... Probably even a popper, but I like to try to match the hatch as best as I can.

I caught many on the Arbogast Cicada. I bought a few from Cabela's. I suspect local shops may have some as they are not that rare. Hula poppers seemed to work well also...

Diawa makes some great imitations of cicadas and so does Arbogast. I have used both and cleaned up the last hatch we had. Caught many nice largemouths but it was the smallies that I really hammered.

eBay has some great hard to find cicada imitating lures... I caught some huge smallies in '04 when they were gorging on the cicadas. Top water fun!

eBay has some great hard to find cicada imitating lures... I caught some huge smallies in '04 when they were gorging on the cicadas. Top water fun!

For all you guys out there who remember the cicada hatch of 2004, get ready... They're back! A different species is hatching this year and the hatch is scheduled to start in a couple weeks. There will be areas where they will be THICK! Fishing for smallmouth on area rivers where the hatch will occur should be top notch using topwater baits that imitate these tasty treats. Check out the web page called Cicada Mania for more info... I've included a map to show where the hatch will be strongest so you get an idea what lakes and rivers will be seeing the cicadas. Enjoy the fun!

For all you guys in the northern VA area who remember the cicada hatch of 2004, get ready... They're back! A different species is hatching this year and the hatch is scheduled to start in a couple weeks. They probably won't be as heavy as in 2004, but fishing for smallmouth on the upper Potomac River or other rivers where the hatch will occur should be top notch using topwater baits that imitate these tasty treats. Check out the web page called Cicada Mania for more info... I've included a map to show where the hatch will be strongest so you get an idea what lakes and rivers will be seeing the cicadas. Enjoy the fun!

I honestly don't think snakeheads are going to destroy the Potomac River bass fishery. The habitats of snakeheads and largemouths are quite different. There is so much baitfish(gizzard shad, white perch, golden shiners, banded killifish, small bluegills etc) the list goes on and on for bass and snakeheads to eat... I really doubt snakeheads are going to eat up all the food. I also seriously doubt they will eat the bass themselves or at least eat enough bass to adversely affect their population. If anything, the introduced snakehead will just add to the community of fish in the Potomac and increase the recreational opportunities in the Potomac. After all, largemouth bass aren't even native to the Potomac. I could see snakeheads causing problems in a small pond, but in a HUGE body of water like the Potomac it isn't gonna happen. Snakeheads are just 1 of 34 fish species introduced into the Potomac River. I would be more worried about blue catfish than snakeheads in causing problems to the Potomac ecosystem. Bighead and silver carp, also known as jumping carp are very different than snakeheads. They are filter feeders, feeding on zooplankton and phytoplankton. They reproduce in huge numbers and can simple crowd native fish species out. This diet of theirs also affects yound game fish since zooplankton is their primary food source. Snakeheads do not reproduce in extremely high numbers. Plain and simple, if you catch snakeheads kill them because that is what the VDGIF wants you to do. But in the end, it is a futile effort to kill them, they are here to stay! The common carp which has been in the Potomac since the late 1800's and by far makes a bigger mess of it than the snakehead ever will. So, the lesson is, STOP putting your unwanted aquarium pets in your local stream, stop importing live fish for consuption because people can't be trusted to actually eat them and not throw them in the local lake and last but not least, stop importing exotic fish to do God knows what with, only to have a flood come along and introduce them into the local river.

That is a grass carp, and it is extremely rare for them to hit a spinner. Common carp will take artificial if they are fished right, but grass carp are called grass carp for a reason... I have only caught one and that was using a dough ball. I have shot several while bowfishing though. They do put up a fight... From the looks that grass carp goes close to 30 lbs.

Bassin1887 is right about the bass in Japan. Since the Japanese love their largemouth bass fishing, they stocked several of their lakes with largemouths a number of years ago... The largemouths destroyed the native snakehead population. The Japanese are now working on controlling the largemouths. I am no big fan of exotics being introduced into the United States. However, the largemouth and smallmouth bass aren't even native to the Potomac but were introduced to it from the Ohio River drainage at the turn of the century. If you look at the biology of the snakehead and the largemouth, I think in the long run there will be little if any competition between the two. ONLY TIME WILL TELL THOUGH... One thing is for sure, they are here to stay! All we need is a good hurricane to swing up the Chesapeake Bay and dump a lot of rain, those snakeheads will get flooded out of the Potomac and with all the freshwater will be spread to the Rappahannock, James, Susquehanna and other nearby river systems. Some idiot will catch a few when they become even more common and drive them to another river system and before long they'll be countrywide like the d**n common carp!

I have fished it somewhat over the last couple years. There is a decent crappie population. Average around 8" my biggest was 14.5". There isn't much cover in the lake, my best method is slow trolling with tiny crankbaits through open water. It kills the crappies. There are some nice sized chain pickerel, biggest was 22.5". There are also white perch as well. There are some huge warmouths in the lake too, you'd be amazed at how big a largemouth bait they can swallow. The largemouths in the lake are BIG but smart. You can see them in the shallows this time of year. I caught one 23.5" and 7 lbs 3 oz last year but the average bass is perhaps 14". The channel cats average about 16" but I have caught them up to 16 lbs in there. You really need a boat to fish the lake, it is so long and narrow and bring an extra trolling motor battery...

That lamprey looks like an American Eel to me, but I could be wrong...

Probably be a couple more years before the fry the VDGIF stocked get big enough to return up the Rapp. They did the same in the Occoquan a year after the Rapp, I can't wait to fish for Americans in the Rapp and Occoquan. They are a blast in the Potomac.

Great fish! Those shad sure do fight... Any American/White shad or were they all hickories?

Not worth your time... Go to Abel Reservoir for channel cats, much better fishing there.