okrod

Cool! I have yet to catch any smallies.

Mepps#3 inspired me to hit the river with the family and sneak in some back seat fishing. All I know is the shenandoah river company. Does anyone know of any other canoe trip runners in the area? Anyone know a good camp ground or close hotel to the river?

Nice fish. You've inspired me to hit the shenan. Were did you put in?

That's a huge cat. What's he using to catch the hunkers?

I have a LLBean Manatee you can see in my post image. Going to upgrade next year to a true fishing yak. I added two flush mount rod holders in the back, a scotty in front and today I just added an anchor trolley. I have a fish finder on order. I also installed a pulley system in my garage to hang my yak. Paul, nice enhancer. Why do you use chain on your anchor and why is 2ft better than 1ft? About Sunday, I am still working on the weekend schedule and will PM if I can meet up.

What day are you planning on going and when? I'm trying to juggle a few things so I can get optimal fishing this weekend and the U.P. is definitely one place I've been waiting to fish.

Hey guys, Here's a pic from my kayak. I've improved the rigging and will post a pic soon. I'd love to see how some of you're rigging. Has anyone installed a anchor trolley? I've been spinning in the wind and think a trolley will help out.

I prefer the dick's in Fairfax with their large selection and "one" associate who knows his stuff. He's there only during the week and you'll recognize him by his Berkley jersey (didn't get his name). I haven't found any other good advice there. While big box stores like Walmart will return almost anything, Dick's management has been very reasonable and allows you to combine coupons for big discounts. Also don't hesitate to ask if you can use an expired coupon, they most likely will take it.

Awesome fish.

I was watching a discovery channel show that said Taxi cab drivers tend to spend more time on the road on hard days and less time on a good day when fares comes easy. Their point was that this is counter productive since on bad days they should just go home and on good days stay out and make more money. Of course I saw this show after spending five ours in a yak at Fountainhead on Friday. Yah, my @ss hurt. I planned on being off the water in 3 hours and probably would have if I caught some keepers. No bird would have made me feel better, but as we say, any day fishing is a good day.

Just got back from Fountainhead and all but struck out. Tried everything in the tacklebox and only landed a dink and a couple sunfish. They must be deep, where I don't know how to get at them. Good luck,

Rob, I'm heading out tomorrow to Fountainhead and will give it a try. If anyone is interested in joining me, I'll be on my yak by 7am. Rich

Awesome fish! Congrats.

Looks like I missed a fun weekend. I was up in NJ saltwater fishing with my brother. It's a lot different when your wading out in waves over your head and using 3 oz sinkers, but a blast none the less. We landed a few strippers between 20' - 25", but I was out of my element completely.

I found a kayaking club on meetup.com, but it's not fishing. I haven't been able to attend yet so I can't say how it is. Let us know if you find any fishing clubs.

Matt, Glad to hear you did well, even if you didn't bring home a check. Don't think for a minute that you suck. It sounds like you came real close and learned a great deal. I'm sure you can whoop most of us with a rod.

This was my first time there Nitro, so I can't say if it's picked up.

Tossed you a PM Nitro.

No, Rachel stayed home. I don't think we can both fish from the yak without me getting a face full of hook.

Does anyone have a topo map of Fountainhead? I dropped my kayak in there yesterday for about 4 hours and got only two fish. I'm used to shallow water, so I hit the brush and laydowns in the coves and got only one, 1 lb LM. After another 2.5 hours I decided to snoop on some guys hitting good in a jon. It looked like they were hookin-up on the drop-offs. Low and behold, on my second attempt with a soft P. and bullet, I hooked but lost something real big. About 10 minutes later I landed this guy (3.5 lbs). I was anchored and he still dragged me about 20 feet. It took about 5 minutes to get him in the yak and I thought I was going to break my rod. I recently said I wanted to catch something larger than 4 lbs, but I'm not so sure anymore. At least not in my yak. :-/

I found another pond in Burke that had fish kill. I only saw dead shad (about 50), but another pond real close to it was still OK.

Hey Paul, The boat looking good. Congrats. We'll have to get back out there and give it another try. I landed a 3lber yesterday at one of the Burke ponds. It was way up under cover on a short watermelon senko.

Fantastic fish! Seeing that fish race in for the hit must have been awesome.

I've had the same experience lately with bass making strong runs. I also had a carp jump twice right next to my yak and I almost sh@t. A buddy said he's heard of carp trying to ram or jump into boats. I think he was putting me on. So where are the large bass? I've also been consistently getting 1-3 pounders under cover and laydowns primarily with Senkos. The yak is great for skipping into this stuff and a 2 lber is fun, but I'd sure love a 4+ fish every once in a while. Especially if the warm water will have them towing me around the lake.

Sounds like a blast. Look forward to seeing how it goes, Okrod