NovaBasser

I'm in the same boat as Micro! Space Monkey has produced very well for me and landed me my biggest fish of the year. Fished T-rigged, weightless, stand-up jig head, or on a keel weighted EWG! Flipped, swam, hopping across the bottom! You simply cannot fish this bait wrong! I really need to put those away and start using the other RT baits that I have and give them a chance to produce as well! Go Team RT!

I live in Arlington as well, finding good productive water around here is difficult. Not owning a boat only increases my frustration because I'm limited to places that rent boats or shore fishing (which I am not a fan of). Fairfax county has the most water. Tons of small ponds that you can shore fish from, I use google maps and zoom in to find little ponds and make a list and visit them when I can. There is Burke Lake if Fairfax, tough fishing but the fish are there and they rent boats and trolling motors. Fountainhead Regional Park in Occoquan is a decent reservoir that rents boats and motors too, again tough fishing IMO. The Potomac is supposed to be a great fishery is you can get on it. I haven't yet because there is only one place that rents boats that I could find, that is Pohick Bay, and they have weird hours for rentals. Use this website to research and find water: http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/fishing/ Maryland is close too! Lots of lakes and stuff there too! There are a lot of knowledgeable people here on the forum that can point you in the right direction. Don't be shy of sending out a few PMs asking for help of suggestions. Everyone here is happy to lend a hand! Hope this helps ya out!

The Red Eye Shad is a great bait out of the box! My suggestion is to check the sharpness of the hooks after fishing it for a while, especially after hooking up a few time whether it be fish or veg, or logs. Then I would suggest to have one of the red eye shads dedicated for open water searching and replace the back treble with a step or two larger treble hook and experiment with red or dressed trebles. The larger hook will increase the hook up ratio in open waters a bit, I do it to alot of my crank baits. The dressed trebles often give any bait a different look that might trigger better strike out of the fish. Give it a try, and I hope it helps out.

Like WayneP said they sell them at Walmart for a good price, I bought mine there and have been using it for a year without any complaints. The model I bought is specifically for marine(deep cycle) use. Not sure if that makes a difference?? Just thought I'd add my $0.02 Hope it helps!

Rondef.....where would I go to check for small craft advosories? I had a hell of a time on Hunting Run Monday when that front moved in and that was on a reservoir, I had my 55lb trolling motor on 5 and was dead in the water against that wind. I would hate to get caught up on the Potomac in something like that. Sorry for the hijack!

Just picked up another Mojo Bass Rod, 7' Med Fast Action for fishing my Rage Tails! Can't Wait to use her!

Cool write up! I'm considering making Pohick my next "new-water" run. Researching where to rent a boat. I'm excited to get on the Potomac for the first time!

Took at trip out to Hunting Run Reservoir this Memorial Day. New body of water for me, no electronics so I was keying in on visual structure and cover. Overcast day with a slight wind every once in a while, so I thought I'd be slaying the fish all day! WRONG! We fished along the shore to the right of the ramp all the way to the third cove and caught nothing but a few punk bass and some annoying small pickerel. After giving up on the abundant submerged brush and trees that should have been a haven for bass I decided to motor on down to the d**n and fish the rip rap. Just as we got there the wind really picked up against the rip rap and I knew we'd get on some fish. For once I was right! We landed a quick half dozen 1-2 pounders using Yellow Perch X-Rap Shads bouncing off the rocks. After 20 minutes the wind died off and so did the bite. Vindication finally came! With the frustration mounting at an all time high, not a word was said in about 45 minutes besides colorfull four letter expletives when getting hung up or the occasional birds nest. Then I spotted this small clump of isolated green emergent veg off this main lake point. So I picked up my Okeechobee Craw colored Rage Tail Space Monkey with a 1/4oz Tru Tungsten flipping weight pegged to a EWG 5/0 Gamma dipped in JJ's. I patiently waited until I was in the right position to make a accurate flip to it, all the while praying my partner in the front of the boat wouldn't cast to it and spook the fish that I knew in my gut was sitting there waiting to ambush so poor baitfish. Just when the boat reached a good distance I laid that Space Monkey within an inch of the leeward side of that clump of veg. I let it fall on slack line all the way to the bottom, engaged the spool and barely lifted my rod tip and I felt the slightest "tick, tick" on the line. I lowered the rod, reeled up the slack and set that hook like nobody's business! I thought for a second that I just hooked into one hell of a log cause it didn't move and I was on the verge of cussing my head off again until the water erupted. That fish leaped a clear foot in the air thrashing its head back and forth. My buddy was more excited that I was as he screamed out "Holy S*#$!" After that I did everything by the book! Kept that line tight and fought him for a minute back to the boat. It wasn't a trophy fish but it was the best fish of the year for me so far, and considering the day I was having I was happy. So happy in fact that I celebrated Mike Iaconelli style when I got that fish in the boat! Screaming and "WooHoo-in" as loud as I could! HAHAHA! Here she is: My buddy was impress as I pulled another bass out of the next clump and requested to know what the hell I was doing and wanted in on the action. So I rigged him up with a June Bug Rage Tail Lizard on a 1/8oz weighted swimbait hook, rubbed some MegaStrike on it and he pulled this one out of some greenery too! So after a rough day, we ended feeling pretty good about ourselves! ;D That is until the trolling motor battery died on us in the middle of a storm that just rolled in, so we ended up rowing back soaking wet! > *A shout out to the fellas that helped out a bit with a tow! Thanks Guys!

X-Rap Shap in yellow perch (the more subtle perch color) is an absolute killer! Slays the Larry's and Smallies! The Silver color is another color that I've had success with in XR8 and 10 sizes.

Let me know how your warranty experience works out. I recently bought a Energy PT and after about 30-40 cast it started to grind on every cast. Never had a reel do that to me before. Kinda reluctant to send it in yet. Will definitely be anxious to hear what they did your reel.

The pro model what I'm looking at getting soon!

I think I have the same BPS soft case, and I totally wish that I had spent a bit more money for a hard case. Although I can carry all my rods a little more easily, the case is so flimsy I have doubts about its protective qualities, and its a PITA to velcro the rods in and out. Well, that being said, I would suggest to you that when making this investment, make sure that the case will expand to fit your needs should they expand. I see that you have two 6'6" rods and a 6'8" rod. If your thinking about getting a large swimbait or flipping rig or even a set up for larger game fish like musky/pike, make sure that the case will expand to fit those types of rods. Not sure how much that rod holder expands but I know I would kick myself for buying a $100 case and a few months or a year later looking to expand my fishing arsenal, was restricted when buying a rod cause my rod case isn't long enough to hold it or have to buy a new case all together. The reason I'm so long winded is because I'm in the same situation. I like how that model has the padded interior to hold the reels as well, but I don't think it will expand to hold say a 7'6" or longer rod. Plano makes some expandable rod tubes that fit the bill but it for rods only, not enough room for reels. BPS does offer a padded reel case though! This is the route I might take. Hope this is more of a help than a hindrance. :-/

I would use the 14#.... I use 17# Floro on my spinnerbait rig and 14# for cranks and lipless cranks. If you throwing around cover your gonna want the extra piece of mind if a hog gets you under/around some cover.

I agree, however I will throw a spinner just about any day regardless or wind or cloud cover. Its a great tactic for finding active bass, and you can cover a lot of water and fish it at all depths. Water clarity should dictate color selection and blade selection. I can never go wrong throwing a Chart/White with a large Willow and smaller tandem Colorado. Burn it, slow roll it, retrieve and pause, or jerk it back. Vary your retrieve to figure what will trigger the strikes on that particular day.

Thanks a lot Sam!

For the price, you cannot find a better rod. They are lighter, more sensitive than other rods in the price range. The only upgrade to these rods would be Fuji Guides. I picked up the spinnerbait rod and absolutely love it. Planning on buying these for all my rigs. Only problem is that I cannot find them, all the stores sell out as soon as they get them in stock!

Before hooking the bait: 1. Measure up your hook and make a mental note of where the hook will go through the body when its rigged. 2. Take a small knife, razor, scissors, ect., and slice open the belly about a 1/2" or so in either direction of where the hook will insert into the belly. (Works well with hollow baits, solid baits need to be sliced through to almost 1/8" to the back.) 3. Run the hook through the nose and out the bottom like you would normally but do not runt the weighted portion through the nose. It causes too much damage, this should allow the baits to last longer. Just run the eye of the hook up through the belly portion and through the nose. 4. Now push the hook end centered through the back through the split belly. The split belly bait will still right true and give the hook less plastic to go through on hook sets. 5. I personally use a sure set style treble hook rigged on the main swimbait hook off the bottom of the swimbait after several incidents of loosing fish by not getting a good hookset. Hope this helps out!

Nothing? On the map I see a few small ponds right in the area of the hotel I'm staying at. The nearest body of water of any significance is the Swift Creek Reservoir. Anyone fishing there this weekend?

Well I went out yesterday and my trolling motor (Minn Kota 55lb) is not working on all speeds. The prop only works on forward speeds 2, 4, and 5, and in reverse speed 3. Not sure how this happened and how to fix this. Just was wondering if any forum members have had the same problem before and/or know how to fix this before I take it into the authorized service center to get repaired. It's still under warranty, just a year old. Hope someone can help. Thanks

Hey Ya'll I'm heading to Richmond for the weekend for my daughters soccer tournament. I'm going to have a few hours of free time before and after the games and would really like to get some fishing in while I'm down there. Could any of you local Richmond folks give me some relatively close lakes, rez's, or ponds that I can hit up for a few hours (primarily Saturday afternoon-evening) No boat, but I have my own trolling motor so anyplace that rents is a plus! Thanks in advance!

Alright thanks man!

Thanks, if I can't get a solid answer by the a.m. I'm just gonna play it safe and hit up fountainhead and save Hunting Run for another day.

I'm looking to fish this body of water tomorrow. I don't have a boat, I know they have rentals, but I read somewhere that they rent only Thurs - Sunday. Can anyone confirm this? Thanks in advance!

Never made it to the rez, instead I fished Burke lake and wrote up a little report in the Burke Lake thread. I'll hit the rez soon, hopefully when the water is settled and not chocolate milk.

I fished Burke yesterday. Had a pretty good go at it. Got on the water around 9am (Late I Know) and started first thing on a topwater poppers, off of the little weed edges and the fish were sucking it under and not hitting the bait, very subtle strikes all day. The buzzbaits were too aggressive I suppose cause no hits on those. The topwater stopped producung fast. The pattern for the rest of the day was catching the majority of the fish on laydowns and stumps in the small bays off the main lake and around the island or isolated weed clumps in the shadows when the sun came out. T-rigged creatures, space monkeys on weighted swimbait hooks and wacky rigged senkos were the weapon of choice, all in watermelon with red flake. Around 2 or so the Sun came out and the wind picked up and the bites completely shut down. I did manage to pull a few hits on a "Sexy Shad" plastic swim bait, but they were short strikes and even with a sure set style treble rigged on the back of the main hook I couldn't get a hook set. Seems to be a problem of mine not to be able to get a hook set while using the plastic swim baits. I think I yank the bait out of the mouth before they get a good chance to eat the bait. Never counted but must have landed about 15 fish, the majority in the 1-2 pound range, 3 or so in the 3-4 pound range but nothing too big. Quality healthy looking fish though! Good chunkers. Hope that this report helps. Any questions just ask.