MrWrinkle

That definitely looks like a 4-pounder to me -- I'd say your scales are spot-on with that one. Nice fish! On more than one occasion, my digital scales have shown some wild weights. A couple of months ago, they registered just over 5lbs on a fish. It was a nice fish but I was skeptical of that weight, and so rebooted the scales. Second time around it registered 3lbs, which is what I was expecting.

Thanks guys. It has taken me 5yrs to get to the point where I can go there and (usually) pull in at least a handful of fish. It takes a lot of mental energy though -- I have to constantly keep thinking about what I'm doing, what the pattern of the day seems to be, what cover the fish are associating to, etc. Dan: Yes, all my smallies on Sat. had a huge tail on them. It's no wonder they fight so hard. I thought I'd hooked up with a huge largemouth until it flew out of the water like a missile! Shimmy: I managed seven or eight fish on a couple of occasions this summer, but the seven I got on Thursday was one of the most rewarding. I was lucky though -- I hit into a 'pack' of fish that were tight to structure in 2-3ft of water. I got four bass in maybe a dozen casts, all over 2.5lbs, including that 4-pounder in the photo. It took me another 5 hours to get the other three fish that day...

Haven't seen much from any NoVA guys lately, so thought I'd share an outing. Went out to a certain Loudoun county reservoir yesterday. Water temps were low 50s. Only managed four fish and had a couple of little ones drop off. But, unusually for this place, three of the fish were smallies, with the biggest going 2lbs 12oz, and another at 2lbs 10oz. That's the first time I've caught more than one smallmouth in a day on that water, and certainly the first time I've caught more smallies than largemouth from there. I was also there two days earlier and had 7 lmb with the biggest 4lbs 6oz, but no sign of a smb. Weird, but I'm not complaining! All but one of my fish this week were caught shallow... really shallow... and on a fast moving bait. Pics are my biggest smb and lmb from this week.

I use these guys for my flies: http://www.bigyflyco.com/ Considering the price, the quality is really outstanding.

I use these guys for my flies: http://www.bigyflyco.com/ Considering the price, the quality is really outstanding.

I use these guys for my flies: http://www.bigyflyco.com/ Considering the price, the quality is really outstanding.

Actually, I used no bright colors at all. Three of my fish yesterday were on a silver rapala flat rap -- a bait that does not have a rattle, and has caught me a lot of bass at Huntsman, even in very stained water. The other was a blue/black jig worked fairly slowly. Missed a couple of bites on the jig too. Chatterbaits work well there at the right time of year -- spring, mainly. But cranks and (since this year) jigs get nearly all my fish at Huntsman, though shaky-heads work well at the height of summer. I don't mind sharing my Huntsman bait secrets (where/how to use them... that's a different story )

Went back again today. Had four fish in 25-mins in a very small area, then nothing the rest of the day. Biggest was 2lbs 15oz... which sadly breaks my run of at least one 3lb+ fish every week for 7 straight weeks. I guess it had to happen eventually! Water in Huntsman is ridiculously stained right now. Less that 12" visibility. Makes for some tough fishing.

X2 on pretty much all of that. Good quality breathables are perfect for all-round -- light in the summer, and you can layer up in the winter. Stockingfoot absolutely! Different river bottoms need different boot soles, plus boots will likely wear out faster. Keep an eye on Cabelas bargain cave -- they frequently offload waders at very low prices. They also have lots of cheap wading boots in there too. Also try Ebay: I got a fantastic new pair of $300 Simms waders a couple of years ago for about $90.

Jigs. Before this year, I'd never caught a thing on them. During the hot summer months this year I made a determined effort to use them -- I even bought a Abu revo/vendetta combo dedicated just to fishing jigs -- and it has pretty much changed my bass fishing world. So many more fish, and a much larger average size.

Welcome! Lots of VA folks here -- I'm sure there'll be plenty of help/advice for you.

It's very popular -- I've seen several folks on here talking about it. I've done it a lot, too. You tend to pick up smaller bass, but I've had some very large smallmouth in particular using bass bugs. It's fantastic fun fighting a 2lbs smallie on a light fly rod!

Wow -- lots of interesting replies! I've never removed the split rings from new lures before, but I've never had one fail on me. I can't see a (reasonable) situation in which they would be the weak point in a setup. So I just hook my snap right to them. I also tend to use the smallest snap I can get away with. (Off the top of my head which size that is). Avoid the snaps that look like the below pic -- they'll open out on you with relatively little force. I've found the duo-lock or coastlock are very good.

I always tie line directly to jigs and worm hooks, but usually use snaps with cranks, spinnerbaits, etc, so I can swap out baits faster and easier. I've never had any problems with using snaps, but I see very few other people using them. So I'm curious as to what other folks do, and why?

Wanted to hit Beaverdam today but circumstances worked against me. So I got to Huntsman at dawn and spent four fishless hours wondering what I was doing wrong. Then I finally found my fall fishing groove and got six bass in the next 2.5hrs. Three of those went over 3lbs with the biggest a fat 3lb 7oz fish on a jig. Most of the others were caught on a Rapala Flat Rap (I love that bait!). Water was very stained -- more so than usual. Fish in the pics are 3lbs 7oz and 3lbs 2oz.

Where are the breaks occurring? At the hook knot, near the hook (within a few inches), or at the join between braid and mono/flouro? I've had breaks at all three but especially the second two. I find the first is caused by a bad knot. When you tighten your knots, get a good lot of saliva (yes, gross, but it reduces friction enormously) on there and then tighten up slowly. The second can be caused by line rubbing over a rough bottom. Nothing to do about this except regularly check your line. When fishing bottom baits, I give the bait a strong pull by-hand every 15-mins or so. It'll typically break in my hand at least once or twice per day. I often then have to cut off the bottom 12"-24" of line before I can get a good knot again. The third is caused by the wrong knot joining braid to mono/flouro. Braid is incredibly thin and can cut through flouro really easily. I recently had to change which knot I use because of this. I now use the albright knot and it's great. You could also try the uni-to-uni knot (google image search them). Again, use lots of saliva and tighten slowly. Whenever I make any knot, anywhere in my line, I test it... hard! I'd rather re-tie 15 times in a row than lose a fish. Constantly test! Test, test, test! Good luck!

It's these ones: http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=38.749197,-77.147584&spn=0.020751,0.045447&z=15 The WaPo called them "Kingstowne Lakes" but I think they go by a few names

This is sad. During the last heavy rains we had, the dam in one of the "Kingstowne Lakes" gave way. Fairfax County claim they knew it would happen one day but didn't know when and had no money to do anything about it. Seems like there are no plans to save the remaining wildlife. I've never fished here but it looks (looked...) a fairly nice place. Very sad that it was neglected like this. Any of you locals ever fish here? WashPost article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/05/AR2010100505873.html Another local article with more pics: http://kingstowne.patch.com/articles/kingstowne-dam-breaks-drains-lakes#photo-2140462

Thanks guys -- that certainly explains it! I only got into using buzzbaits this year so I'm not familiar with their behavior. I just assumed they should run straight but it all makes sense now. Will invest in a "counter" buzzbait so I can run it the way I want.

Anyone here know how to "tune" a buzzbait so that it runs true. I have a couple of buzzbaits that won't run in a straight line -- or anything close to straight. It's frustrating when you want to run them parallel to the shore but they quickly either arc out in to open water or straight into the edge and get snagged. I've tried to figure out which part of the lure is causing them to curve but no matter what I try tweaking (bending), they just will not run even close to straight. Any recommendations?

A few weeks ago I was telling a friend of ours about my recent fishing trip outing. She asked if I keep them. "No", I said, "I throw them back.". Her brow furrowed for a minute before she replied: "Oh. Well do they sink to the bottom, or just float on top?" :o "Wait, what? They swim away!", I reply. "Really?", she says. "You mean they're not dead when you throw them back?" I was horrified! Now every time I go out on my boat, I have a mental image of this trail of dead bass floating behind my boat as I release them! I set her straight, of course, but it's something I hear fairly often. People assume that we must eat the fish because catching them must kill them. I find that kinda sad. I haven't (knowingly) accidentally or intentionally killed a fish in years and I think that is also true for many of the folks that post on here.

My 2c... I use the Xtools one, too. It's OK. Seems accurate, though once or twice I've had to 'reboot' it as it registered an obvious 3lb fish as being nearer 6lbs. It's also relatively slow to start up/zero itself. That said, the feature for remembering your five heaviest fish is very nice, and is easy to use. There really aren't many choices on the market so I'd probably pick this one again, despite one or two shortcomings.

I like the Crucial a lot. I actually use it for finesse more than I do drop-shot. At a push it will do 'heavier' plastics, too.

Nice fish! I've always had a hard time at Mercer -- ~3lbs is the best bass I've had there. I'm sure there are big fish there though. Certainly are tons of bait fish, and a lot of cover up by the stumps. (Slightly off-point: I spoke to a guy once that claimed he caught a 40lb blue cat in there... but I'm skeptical...)

I had exactly the same problem fishing from my pontoon. I think it's because you're so low to the water, when the fish comes to the top near the boat, you don't have as much pressure on from above. With the short rods we use for bass fishing it's really hard to keep enough vertical pressure on a jumping fish when you're seated close to the water. The fish are getting just enough slack to throw the hook, even if you don't think you're giving any slack. So I made a couple of adjustments and I'm losing very few fish again now. First, let the fish stay deep for as long as it wants -- tire it out under water as much as you can (allowing for snags, etc). Don't try and haul it to the surface straight away. When that fish comes to the top, you want it to be tired -- then its jumping won't be as energetic or frequent. Second, instead of pulling vertically to get it to the boat ASAP, drag it sideways left and right in the water-- keeping lots of pressure on. Bully it, drag it around, keep it swimming, and control where it goes. Third, when it comes to the top and is about to leap/head-shake (that's when I was losing them) pull hard down and to the side with your rod tip very close to the surface of the water so that the fish just can't get out of the water properly. This disrupts their leap, and they just aren't able to shake their head the way they want. So this is what works for me but YMMV. I was losing about 40-50% of 'jumpers' -- I'm now at more like 10%.