Red Bear

this little guy was hungry. all 3 trebles in the mouth...he was barely bigger than the bait...

i have a Penn Fierce i use in the 4000 size for catfishing, i have it spooled with 17lb sufix siege. you may want a smaller size for bass fishing though. and you could probably get by with 12lb line on the 3000 size reel, any smaller size reel and i would go with a smaller line...

i was on Smith Mountain Lake for Memorial Day weekend, me and my uncle came across a huge school of baitfish flipping in the water all over this one cove and couldnt get bit on anything.

well, i know you cant access it anymore by turning in at the water treatment plant there. you used to could pull right in there and fish the reservoir or walk down below the spillway and fish goose creek itself. if you can paddle in there without accessing it via the water plant you can probably fish it, im not really sure on that though. People didnt respect the place and its no swimming rules, and it always seemed trashy, cant blame them for shutting it down for one reason or the other... and yeah it was dangerous to swim there. my moms husband says people used to also jump their four wheelers off the spillway and fly down into the creek back in the day...guess the water was low or something, not really sure how deep it was/is to begin with...

sometimes bass will make their beds in deeper water than you think... also, maybe that bed hatched. someone caught and removed that fish. or the bed was destroyed by some sort of predator. could be anything...

nice fish, i hope to catch one or two at Smith Mountain Lake this weekend. thats if i can get my uncle out of his recliner and on the boat lol

palomar for drop shot, improved clinch for everything else. improved clinch knot hasnt failed me yet so i figure if it aint broke done fix it...if something works, im not gonna change it just for the sake of changing it...

and? so? im entitled to have my opinion, i gave it, not gonna argue over it...

people have over-hyped shimanos for years. im not saying theyre bad reels either, all-in-all they make a quality product, but theyre also over-priced. i refuse to buy one because of those reasons. i've held them in stores, even fished with a friends, i dont feel theyre worth the money they want for many of the models, and the fact theyre severely over-hyped turned me off to ever wanting to own one. If thats what someone wants to fish with, by all means its their right and more power to them, but im going to stick to my pfluegers and abus which i feel are just as good or better than shimanos at a much more reasonable price. once again, this is just my opinion, im not gonna argue over it if someone feels different or disagrees. its all in how much someone wants to spend on something they have bought into. but honestly, how much do you need to spend on a spinning reel, for example at some point you have to stop and think is it worth it to buy a $250 reel versus a $100 reel that can do the same things and is made of virtually the same materials and has the same features?

remember, if you havent already done so, take a VA boaters safety course class or atleast the online version on boatus website, you can find the link on the VDGIF website. It is required fully this year for all ages starting in july i think, it has been tiered in by age group over the last few years. I dont own a boat but took the free online course and got my certificate because i sometimes drive my uncles boat on SML, you can mail a copy of your certificate with a form you have to fill out thats available on the VDGIF website along with $10 to get a plastic card you can carry in your wallet which is more convenient than carrying around a certificate as proof. the online course is broken in 6 sections with a 10 question quiz/test at the end of each. first they give you all the reading materials and you have to wait so many seconds per page before you can go to the next page of material so you cant just skip ahead to the quiz. if you fail a section you can take it over, once youve passed a section you dont have to do that section anymore. best part is you can do it at your own leisure...

many times ive pulled bait away from a bluegill thats grabbed it and a bass swoops in and picks the bait up before the bluegill can get it again. whether it be a plastic worm or live nightcrawler...

last year i paid off my car in april, in october i totaled it. right back into a car payment...

adding your location should be required upon registration. so many people post questions where knowing their general location could provide better answers if it was available...

i read what you wrote, dont try and twist it now. you just admitted you get mad when people keep fish. that says it all and completely validates my post. you wont answer my questions because you cant, and not because theyre silly but because you know im right...

just because someone eats a bass or two doesnt mean they dont respect nature. theyre just bass fish, people have been eating them for hundreds of years and they arent gone yet. answer me this, why do you feel the need to put bass up on a pedestal? other than liking to fish for them, what makes them so special that causes you to question peoples attitudes because they keep a few to eat? and you do know bass have a life span dont you? theyre not gonna live forever. why not harvest a few and make use of them other than for recreational purposes? are you out there shooting and killing all wildlife that eats an occasional bass fish to survive as well? i could go on all day, but instead i'll just suggest you rethink your position and if it really makes sense to worship bass...

i love my pflueger supreme. light weight and super smooth. i'd say go for it.

i believe theyre still going to allow fishing, you can fish now as well. any shut down is so they may repair the dam and such. apparently it will close for a couple years 2017-2018, but is supposed to be open again in 2019. im just hoping this leads to improvements for bank fishing and around the shorelines, maybe a few fishing docks, more parking, etc. Now that the reservoir is actually owned by loudoun and not just in loudoun it seems theyre willing to spend money to make improvements. we shall see the final results, but i dont think theyre going to suspend fishing altogether, just for a couple years, would suck if they didnt reopen it to fishing. i would hate to see it go the way of goose creek reservoir and the spillway there, aside from 9/11 security concerns the biggest problem there was mexicans swimming when swimming isnt allowed, and the partying. i have a friend who has personally saved someones life there, others have drowned...

move south

ive seen bass eat their own fry...

oh, haha, i guess i read it wrong

longevity, really? i will leave mono on my reels for years if i dont use it up first. i have had no problems with it "aging". unless improperly stored, mono will last ages, and a few hours out in the sun every now and then doesnt really affect that either in my experiences. only reason i change my mono line is if its getting low on the spool or if i just simply want to try a different brand of mono line. i've never had to change it because it was old or brittle. now one of my uncles on the other hand, stored his fishing gear in an uncontrolled(temperature wise) garage for years and you could grab a section with both hands, pull and it would snap right in half. for some reason he got mad at me when i made him change all of it with fresh line lol. i got tired of pulling his broken off hooks out of bass in my other uncles pond... but i swear, and i try to keep my mouth shut about it most times because people can do what they want if it makes them feel better, but it ticks me off to see how many people waste line, and in particular mono because its cheaper. there is virtually no need to change line after every fishing trip, NONE!!! so long as the line isnt total crap to begin with. i dont care if you fish recreational or tournaments. your line isnt going to go bad in a week or two...

yeah, account for all of the missing variables... also, you see it as complaining for some reason, i see it as me simply disagreeing with the method used...

you actually list many of the reasons(i bolded) as to why i dont think its an accurate test, too many variables missing for me to even think its remotely accurate. you actually help my argument with that post. in addition to those, dead hanging a weight isnt the same as a hookset that would jerk on the weight and move it forward. a hookset is a swift motion, takes like a second or two, how long did that weight hang there on the line during testing? and how many people are actually setting the hook into 8lb bass on the regular? etc etc etc...

another vote for the ugly stik striper rod. admitted, i dont have one..yet, but ive been looking at them lately for my striper fishing on smith mountain lake. the guys down there who fish livebait(shad/alewives) on smith mountain lake swear by the medium-light ugly stik striper rods. as another comparison, they say the closest thing to them would be the eagle claw rods...

when you say you lifted your rod, it just sounds like you didnt set the hook hard enough. i fish t-rigged baby rage craws with my light rod all the time, i dont have the problem you did...sometimes the mistakes are on us as fishermen, not our gear...