mudkart

[ As Soon as Quantum and BPS copied Daiwa's swept handle, I wondered why daiwa didn't patent it (Obviously they couldn't for one reason or another). Shimano and Daiwa have always had their own styles...they are both big companies that have large R&D departments. The swept handle is an improvement, but I don't think Shimano will utilize the technology just out of principle . I'm being serious....

That is the method I'm thinking of, and its just another reason to love Zoom trick worms . Haven't used the nail weight though. A shout to flippin4it for showing me this, and he credited Wayne P.

X3

Wayne P. has posted pics of wacky-rigged worms that are essentially weedless. You could try searching his posts. Basically, the hook is the same you would use for typical wacky-rigging (e.g. a mosquito hook). It's hard to explain w/o pics. Let me know if you can't find anything, or you could PM Wayne P.

Nope, most local lakes/ponds are frozen. :'( Last time I tried to fish was probably two weekends ago, water temp was 38 deg. We lasted about half an hour.

Haven't been out for over a week. But, if you want to catch fish, simply go to any body of water where I'm not fishing.. . I've been in a bad dry spell lately, the fish are repulsed by me.

That's being kind. Call it what it was, a skunk for myself, and I thought for Jeremy too. Andrew caught a keeper that he thought was a snag at first, until the snag started moving. :D

Due, in no small part, to my large a**.

...or c-rigs...

Sam couldn't be more correct. A 7-2 caught with this very combo and a baby brush hog. After the $20 rebate, this is a great deal. No problems yet.

Can't this week, how about next week?

Lets do it. Any ideas as to where? I've been itching to try beaverdam, haven't been there in months.

On 10/30, we caught 3, all on c-rigs, the largest was 3-9 and is below, the smallest was 2 even. In between the dinkfest (10/15) and 10/30, we went out twice and caught nothing. I can tell you the swim senko bite has come and gone. Interesting disparity between the size of our catch earlier, and more recently.

..the largest was 2-7...

..and finally, another...

..another dink.., well, maybe not to our son, he seems pretty happy with his catch..

Posts about NOVA fishing have slowed recently, maybe everyone is having as tough a time as we are. Anyway, in the interests of livening things up, here is a report summarizing our pond hopping experiences the past three weeks. From 10-15 to 10-16 we caught 10 fish, all on swim senkos and all dinks except one.

when?

Electrics are OK in Royal.

Very true, the current policy on my "home" lake in NE Ohio is to kill any pike caught, much like the current snakehead policy here in NOVA. This is due to fish stocking mismanagement, i.e. a lake that already had pike in it was overstocked w/ more pike, in detriment to the populations of other fish (including, but not limited to, bass). Congrats on the fish! Thats bigger than any pike I've caught this year while in Ohio: I caught two back in June, each at 1.5 lbs. They are a great fight: the initial strike is often very savage. When I was a kid, my next door neighbor caught a two-foot pike in our lake and that absolutely made an impression: no more little bluegill for me. Was this caught in the Shenandoah, or a tributary?

One dink in two hrs. fishing. Which is an apt summary of my recent fishing: four outings = four dinks. All have been at Royal or Woodglen. Like I told Andrew, I really need some new water. We are camping at Pohick Bay this weekend, so maybe that will help. However, the marina is closed until further notice due to the loss of a police diver.

You may also want to try the 4/0 hooks from the manufacturers mentioned by RW, but not the EWGs, just the offset shank models. Beware that if you rig the Ika w/ these hooks the same as the EWGs, there will be more of the hook point exposed: thus, the tradeoff is an easier hookset/more hookups for an increased probability of hang ups. What exactly that probability is I of course don't know or care to speculate, but, keep in mind that the hook point does not exactly have to be buried in the soft plastic to be "snag-resistant", it is still covered somewhat by the thickness of the Ika itself. It all depends on the conditions you are fishing.

I'm going to Royal tonight, 6:30PM, starting at the dam if anyone is interested.

A little off-topic, but a big thumbs up on these hooks (and the similar ones from Owner), not only for the swim senkos, but worms in general.

I've been happy with a $60 combo I got at Dicks: Abu Garcia Silvermax on a 6'6" Berkley Lightning Rod. After a $20 mail-in-rebate, its a great deal (the rods are in the $30 range themselves). The reel is OK, not great, no issues yet with quality. But, your purpose is to catch fish, no? This combo can help you do that with a minimum of fuss, check out my post (insert shameless self-promotion) in the outings section entitled "Best of '08", I caught my best LM (7lbs 2 oz) this year using this combo. I'm not saying that more expensive gear is not needed per se, I'm as susceptible to the gear/bait monkey as anyone else (my St. Croix rods are testimony to this). This combo provides reasonable versatility and sensitivity at perhaps a more digestable price, particularly if this is your first baitcaster.