basser89

Congrats on your catch Mountain Angler! I really like the coloration this one has! The ones I typically catch on the upper Potomac are typically the clear phase. What did you catch it on?

Mike, Not sure why I hadn't thought about this before but there is a boat ramp guide on the MD DNR site. Here's the link: http://dnr.maryland.gov/boating/frederick.asp From what I can tell, there is a boat ramp near Thurmont off of 550 (the link shows it). The other spot to consider is Cunningham Falls. There is shoreline access and there are bass in there. They do stock it with trout so you will need a trout stamp to fish there). Hope this helps and let us know how you do!

Hi Mike, Welcome to THE boards! I believe there's at least one angler (possibly more) that fishes the Monocacy on the boards (not sure of what section(s) that might be). Check out the MD Who's Who thread as well, that's a fairly active thread so you may get some insight on there as well.

Nice smallie Allen! I didn't make it out to dam 4 as I hoped but to my surprise, my daughter wanted to go fishing. I decided to take her to Beaver pond behind Big Pool. The wind, as with most places, was crazy and couldn't really get her on anything there. I saw some interesting spots but we weren't really set up for that, wasn't expecting to see so many lily pads. From the spots we hit, everything seemed really shallow. Can anyone clue me in on where the deeper water is there?

Good luck Allen! I pic up my daughter for the weekend tomorrow so the only chance I have to get out is probably tomorrow morning if I leave early and go before its time to pick her up. IF I do make it out, I was thinkin about hitting dam 4 for a little while to see if I could get a few smallies. I did make it out at lunch today. Lost a good one on a spinnerbait.

I have to agree with Brian on this one. Those 3 are reasons that have kept me from the water from time to time. There was one point of time that work had completely consumed me (working all kinds of crazy hours) and when I was able to have a little time off, I spent that time with my daughter. While fishing was always on my mind, I had to keep the priorities straight!

I had a conversation this morning with one of my co-workers about this. I'm glad I read the article fully. My co-worker was under the impression that DNR would pay $200 for each snakehead caught. I had to explain how this actually works.

Great post Kevin I! Losing those big ones is painful for sure! One thing I do when throwing spinnerbaits is add a trailer hook about 99% of the time. Typically, the only time I don't use a trailer hook is when I'm fishing extremely heavy cover (yes, even thicker than the stick ups)! Good to see you getting out too Bill! Good luck with the yak this weekend! It was good getting out for a little while last evening with Brian. Always a good time! I did manage to get a water temp last night, my little pool thermometer read 55 so it appears that temps are warming up slightly again! I watched Brian pull in several of his smaller bass he caught last evening (I missed seeing him catch his big one). I did see a pic of it so I do actually believe he caught it. LOL! As Brian mentioned I had a kayaker decide to fish right in front of me fishing the same water as I was covering which really gets my agent orange flared up! Poetic justice was watching the goofball get his crankbait stuck and pretty much ruined the area I was trying to fish. I moved around to another spot and had something cut me off. Not sure if it was a musky or a snapper. Didn't act like a musky so I'm leaning towards a snapper (was working a fluke style bait on a drop shot at the time). I did manage one little scrapper on a t-rigged lizard. He went about 14-15 inches. Like Brian, not sure when I'll be getting out again myself. Keep up the great reports everyone!

I popped on Strike King's forums to see if I could find any info on there. From the one post I read, it sounds like they're supposed to float, if they don't then there's a bad seal. I'd contact Strike King and let them know the issue you're having. They should be able to be tuned but with your sinking issue, I'd definitely contact them and see what they say. Hope this helps some!

X2 on the Rage Tail Toad!

Hey Allen have you been to Big Pool yet? How's the fishing been there?

Welcome to THE boards Pescado!

If memory serves me correct, they close the park for that day because it is THAT packed, even the boat ramp parking area. I did get to sneak out for a little while after work last evening. I had 1 dink on and didn't even land it. It hit a Strike King soft stick bait. I don't think I even had it hooked, I believe it just had the bait wedged in its mouth and when it jumped the bait came out. LOL! But the whole reason for mentioning my outing was that I finally remembered to bring a thermometer with me. I about fell over when I read the temp, it was down to 54 degrees last evening. I figured that cold snap would have dropped the water temps but didn't expect it to have dropped that far. The last time I had checked it, it was up at 59 then and that was before that warm stretch we had before the cold front moved in. It was good to see the water clearing up back at the stick ups as well. Seemed like it had stayed stained for several weeks!

Welcome to THE boards Top Sarge! I know this thread is a long one, but if you look through the pages, I'm sure you'll find some anglers that may be close to you! Thanks for the heads up Brian! Allen, I'm out of town this weekend so I won't be able to join. Hopefully some others will be able to meet up!

Like Eric mentioned Bill, catching or not, ya still got out so it couldn't have been too bad of a day! I like Brian's signature, you didn't fail, you succeeded at figuring out what they didn't want. 301, maybe we could meet up for a lunch time outing next week and see if we can figure out what's going on with your reel if you don't get it figured out before then? If I remember right, you're off on Wednesdays? Let me know. What I do with my pics is upload them to myfishingpictures and use the links provided on there to post my pics on here.

I'll second Brian's reply. Distance will come in time. Try to be patient, trust me, I know that's a tough one! As I had mentioned in a previous post, practice as much as you can, whether that's on the water or at home. I'm not familiar with your reel, not sure if it has any internal braking system or not. If it does, then as you get more comfortable with the reel and remain backlash free keep, you can back off the braking which will give you more distance. When I first started, I was told to adjust to line tension knob so that you have to move the rod some to get the bait to move. Then make smooth casts, not getting the rod to load up, until I was comfortable and not getting backlashes. After I was comfortable, that's when I backed off the line tension slightly so the bait dropped every so slightly and continue practicing. Keep making the adjustments with the line tension until the bait would basically "free fall" with no tension at all. Hope this helps! If you have any questions, let me know and I'll help out the best I can!

Good luck Bill! Let us know how you do! Great post Kevin! Always enjoy reading your reports! I've always heard that buzzbaits work well this time of year just like lipless cranks but I've never thrown them myself this time of year. I may have to break some out as well. Hmmmmm???? As for the chatterbaits, I haven't thrown them too often myself. I do have a couple of the original chatterbaits and haven't had any issues with them. I've heard good things about Strike King's Pure Poison as well as Booyah's Boogee bait as well.

pagliaroj, I'm assuming you're referring to Waynesboro, PA? I popped Waynesboro, PA to Black Hill Regional Park (Boyds, MD) into Google maps and it's a fairly straight shot for you from there. Come down 15 to 270 and get off at 121. There's signs that will lead you into the park. There is a decent amount of shoreline fishing in the part as well. This time of year, you don't need to have a boat to catch some decent bass. Good luck and please share your outing with us!

Traditionally, it seems to come right around the first week of May (depending on the moon phase). With the water temps I got the other week, it will probably start a lot sooner. I just double checked the weather, and even though tonight through tuesday seem to be more common to the temps we're supposed to have this time of year, I see the spawn more than likely kicking off on the next full moon (April 7th) or at the latest on new moon (April 21st). I really hope I'm wrong and its later!

Keep in mind, I'm playin catch up here. Had a death in the family, hence not being on much lately. Boett, glad to see someone has had some succes at PEPCO! I haven't had any luck there yet this year (at the discharge and the canal). LOL! Bill, the pond in middletown is kind of the same way (guessing) as baker park. What I've done at the pond in middletown is cover as much water as possible with some bottom bait (t-rig, carolina rig or jig) to figure out what the bottom is like. There could be keys to the bottom that could hold bass, whether that's a change in the bottom (say from mud to gravel or depth changes or even a weed line). Congrats on your personal best too! Kevin W, great report as always! Awesome pics too! Nick, with everything going on, I completely forgot about us talkin about a spring get together!!! Would someone like to take the reigns on leading this one? Not sure I have the time right now to lead this one. Not saying I couldn't participate, the work load is just a bit much right now! 301 and Kevin I, a lot of great posts regarding baitcasters! I started using baitcasters back in the late 90's. Took me some time to settle in with what I felt confident in. Just don't start off with something low end. Its best to save up. Spend time practicing with whatever reel you decide on, whether its actually on the water, in your back yard or even inside. I do use both left and right handed models. I base my decision on which one I use based off of the technique I what to use. Some techniques, I feel more comfortable with lefties over righties. Ken, congrats on the new PB! I think that covers most every thing! If I did miss something, I do apologize! I have got out here and there during my time off to take my mind off things. I've had some success here and there but nothing decent. Caught a few on lipless cranks, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits and wacky rigged stick baits from what I remember off the top of my head. With the cooler weather coming, hopefully it will prolong the prespawn. I hadn't checked the water temps lately but they have to be getting up there.

You can technically blame me for the confusion Allen. No, the stick ups is not across from the boat ramp, it's actually the area on the arm closest to Germantown, instead of hooking a right on the main arm to go up the 10 mile creek arm, make the left and go back the channel and follow that back around to the stand of trees back almost to the end of that arm. When I first started fishing Black Hills back in the mid 90's, some friends at work introduced me to that area and that's what they called it. It just stuck with me from then. And I guess I have some catching up to do. Last I knew, we were about 4 pages back. LOL! Will try to catch up with everything else tomorrow.

Great post Kevin! Think I'm seeing a lipless crank theme here! LOL!

Welcome to THE boards TheKingFisher! Thanks! Glad I could "inspire you" into trying them! LOL! Thanks wv! Glad to see you guys getting out as well! Sounds like you found the area I call "the stick ups". I was throwing 1/2oz Ratltraps, Red Eye Shads and a One Knocker. I've had some success with the KVD 2.5's as well. Haven't broken them out yet this year. Will have to do that soon.

Sorry, spent the most part of the mid-day there 301. LOL! Good luck and give us a report when you get back!!! I figured with as hard as I hit them yesterday, that I'd throw something other than a lipless crank. Ya know, show them something different. Well.... I threw jigs, lizards, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and even a large senko style bait. Not...... even...... a...... nibble. LOL! I realized that I hadn't taken my box of lipless cranks out of the bag so I tied one on the softest rod I had with me which was a lot stiffer than I like throwing my lipless baits on. I made the best of the time I had left, managed 4 and lost about 4 or so more. My best one was about a pound and a half or so. Smallest, about a pound. 2 of the ones I lost were better bass. I got a decent look at the one and guesstimating it went about 4lbs or so. Sorry, completely forgot my thermometer today.

Thanks Ken. Much appreciated! Hey Bill, no need to feel that way. One of the reasons I created this thread was to share information to help others become better anglers! Any specific questions, just ask away! There's a lot of skilled anglers are on here!