Red Bear

usually i try not to give up on one thing too quickly. ive seen some people consistently change lures after like 5 casts. id drive myself nuts if i did that, as one of the previous baits might have worked had you tested the water a bit more. i also dont buy into the 'search bait' thing, as the last thing you throw that day might should have been the first thing you threw. also because somedays certain lures work great, the next day theyre the biggest piece of junk in your tackle box. my advice would be to go with what you know best and works for you, if after awhile it doesnt work that day, then start changing things up and trying different lures. the exception to that being if its your goal to learn to fish a certain lure/setup that day. if nothing works, then it just wasnt meant to be...

hahaha, thats a great story

for bass in real clear water that wont bite artificials, i would recommend trying live bait. a small 3-4 inch bluegill(if legal in your state) hooked through the tail just before the fin, weightless, with a 4/0 wide gap hook will entice a big bass every time. they just cant seem to resist the bluegill jerking and struggling to free itself from the hook. anytime ive seen nice bass swimming around in clear water, casting past them with artificial and reeling back through the area of the fish, a majority of the time it seems they get spooked and swim off. the times i have hooked fish like that with artificial it was with a fast sporadic presentation which has run them off at times too.

try a suspending lure if theyre coming up but not taking the top water lures. if no luck, try fishing deeper when the temps go up

the link doesnt seem to be working

so in other words just throw the entire tackle box at them and see if you catch something? lol

im sure you dont mind the shore being opened up some at the other places you fish, so why not beaver dam too? the parking was also better there at one time if i recall correctly.

thats what i mean by clean it up, cut some of the brush and trees away to clean up the shoreline a bit. i hate that it isnt very friendly for shore fishermen because i know it used to be in the 80s when i fished there regularly. i dont have a boat and such right now, so thats why i take that stance. i also know why they wont clean it up/improve it/or however you want to say it. which is why i said i wish loudoun and fairfax would get together and work something out. they dont even have to build anything, just make it more accessible along the water, i dont mind walking around the muddy trails there. i also know about the otherside as well. you used to be able to park right next to the water pretty much. if it wasnt for people insisting on swimming there and drowning in the past it may be more accessible these days. i got a friend who has saved a couple of hispanic people from drowning there before. the place seems like a much better fishery now than it did before though, when i was a kid as the place was still young itself. also i dont think its fair of you to hate on shore fisherman just because they dont have the means of a boat, i can think of a million simple reasons to hate on boaters if i wanted to, but it really accomplishes nothing.

i fish a pond with a lot of vegetation on the bottom and my best luck has been on plastic worms. spinnerbaits work well but you have to keep them out of the grass on the bottom of the pond.

If your problem is finding fish then you may need to change the places where you fish as others have suggested. sometimes you have to throw technique out the window as well. what works great one day may not work so well the next even in similar/same conditions. for example, ive been fishing my uncles farm pond a lot lately because its close by, i get good practice in there, and havent had a lot of time to go elsewhere to fish. ive had good luck there in past years just throwing out a berkley red shad worm and reeling it in, the fish would chase it down and bite. this year not so much the same. ive had to trick the fish or just get plain lucky. one day i had great luck on a tiny rebel crick hopper, even hooked a small blue gill that day that got gobbled up by a huge bass while i was bringing him in, instead i brung in a bass with a full belly of blue gill. yesterday there was a huge bass swimming along the bank, appeared to me he was hungry looking for food. so i walk up ahead of him, he swims under an algae patch and i drop a rebel crawdad right in the next clear spot in front of the algae and the bass annihilated it, yet when i casted the crawdad out nothing would hit it. it was one of the easiest fish youll ever catch(had i got the hook set, instead i was dodging a lure flying out of the water right at me). so after that i went to my beloved red shad worm, and nothing would bite it either. so i changed tactics, threw it out and let it sit on the bottom a few minutes(patience is key, you sound like you could use some). eventually i would bump the lure a bit to draw fishes attention. then i would let it sit again, leaving my line slack. all of a sudden i would sense something grabbing the worm and then i would see my slack tightening up and set the hook, caught two that way before i had to pack it up and go home. bass dont always like to chase things, sometimes they like an easy meal thats sitting right there for them with minimal movement. ive seen a lot of bass in that pond chase my lures and then just veer off no matter how i adjusted. ive also seen them chase a lure i threw into an algae patch on accident and reeled in really fast across the top of the water to clean it up and try again. happened the other day, this bass was flying so i stopped my algae covered lure right before the bank and he nailed it. my point being is, conventional methods and techniques dont always work, and sometimes when you least expect it you will catch fish in weird ways. never be afraid to try something new, sometimes people get too caught up in the technical aspect of fishing that they forget to actually fish and enjoy themselves.

i remember fishing there as a kid with my uncles and the place was much more accessible. i rode by there not long ago and looked around by the church but did not fish. the water was really high compared to when i was a kid and a lot of weeds were in the water along the edge. i do plan to eventually fish there sometime this summer. i dont remember seeing many nice sized bass caught out of there back then, its nice to know there are some in there now. from what ive seen, the best fishing there is from a boat/canoe/kayak/etc. mainly because the place is so inaccessible. loudoun and fairfax counties really should get together and clean that place up a bit

if you cant cast more than 5 ft then im not so sure you know how to use them. perhaps the spinning reels you have arent suited for ultralight, or it could be the line youre using.

sometimes its the operator more so than the equipment

if my memory serves me correct, i believe it did say the 22nd at one time i also would like to know how they did

Seems you are looking down your nose at the use of live bait. I'm curious to know why. If I misunderstood, disregard the rant below. I mean, if you prefer to do the fishing and catching, why use any method other than your bare hands? Do you use electronic devices of any type to help locate fish? Heck, do you ever fish from a boat? All of these, including artificials are designed to give anglers an advantage over the fish. I'm sorry, but I've read that some consider the use of a landing net to be unsporting by those who pursue bass in 60,000 dollar boats with GPS, color fishfinders, side scanners, and several thousand dollars in tackle. But let some guy fish from shore, a dinghy, kayak, canoe, jon boat, zero electronics, a couple of zebco rods and a few lures pull out a net, and he is unsporting. i agree, people shouldnt stick their nose up to live bait. after all the artificial baits theyre using are all designed to emulate live bait. just ask Fish Chris about live bait/night crawlers. he posted links to very informative articles about fishing with night crawlers that he wrote. some of the biggest bass ive ever heard of were caught on night crawlers. and from my personal experiences sometimes it can be just as tough fishing with live bait as artificial and vice versa. to me, when it comes to the love of fishing, you dont have to have the best and latest equipment to enjoy yourself.

this telescopic crappie grabber poles are fun too. the feel of it is so much different than reeling a fish in. i was fishing with a red wiggler one day. my friend next to me threw out a jitterbug and brung it in with no hit, seconds later i caught about a 1lb bass on it, that was really fun too.

maybe they slathered theirs in scent when farmpond1 wasnt looking =]

hahahahahaha, hilarious ive never had a fish get off while jumping, and ive never put my rod tip in the water when they do so. i just keep on reeling them in...

i had this problem last weekend. and figured it out by the end of the day. i got tired of trying every lure i had so i said ill just throw on a crickhopper and catch some bluegill and might get lucky and get a bass with it too. well, the small bass bit it but not the big ones hanging out around the bank. and most times a blue gill would go to bite it a bass would swoop in and chase them off. just so happens i hooked a small blue gill with the crickhopper and as it was struggling to free itself in the water a huge bass came up and crushed the blue gill and i felt lucky to get the bass after that. so i would catch some tiny blue gill and use them for bait

i would definately try the berkley red shad worm, i was about to recommend it. pond bass love them

i'll have to check that out. i remember a store called partlowes around beaver dam that used to sell them but i havent been there in years. so i dont know. as for lures to catch bass, just keep trying, you will find one that works well for you in the places you fish. i've caught a bunch of bass on berkley red shad worms with a 4/0 hook and spinner baits alone. i had one of the rainbow trout xrap's for about two weeks, caught 4 bass on it and they absolutely destroyed it, the thing that makes it dive broke off and both the eyes fell out.

Hello people, im located in Loudoun County, VA. Been reading here the last several weeks, this is my first post here. I've always loved fishing since i was a kid and go every year a few times, but recently got back into it where its starting to feel like an addiction . I dont eat fish, i just love to catch them no matter what kind of fish. This place has certainly been helpful to me, and i appreciate having the platform for everyone to share their fishing knowledge and experiences. Havent had much free time lately so i have just been fishing my uncles pond for the largemouths. I threw everything i had in my small but constantly growing tackle box at them this past sunday and was having NO luck other than one i caught on a spinner bait the first 5 minutes there. so as a last resort i threw on a tiny little rebel crickhopper and figured atleast ill catch some bluegill if nothing else. ended up catching 5 bass on that and 3 nice bluegill. then as i was getting into "a few more casts" mode i hooked a tiny bluegill and was kinda like man, why i gotta catch this little thing. so as i watched this bluegill struggle in the water to free himself right off the bank i see this huge bass come flying out from under an algae patch and nails the bluegill. a brief tussle follows and i leave my line slack, the bass tailwalks with half the blue gill sticking out of its mouth, hits the water and tries to swim out, my line tightens, he circles back toward the bank and dives out of the water like superman, all i see is the bluegills head in its mouth, at that time i yank, he swallows the blue gill and the tiny treble hooks on the crickhopper hook him right in the side of the mouth and pull him in. it was a sight to see, i never had nor seen that happen before. i dont have scales but i estimate it was in the range of 4-5 lbs. Been to Smith Mtn Lake a couple times this year as well were i caught the only fish that ive ever had to LET take my line out. i was reeling and it was still running out line so i just let it go, every now and then it would turn back and give me a chance to bring in some line before running again, eventually i got it in though, it was the realest fish fight of my life and the adrenaline rush i had was amazing, took over 5 minutes to land him. when i got it up to the dock all the fish could do was lay on the water on its side, no more fight, before i netted it. unfortunately i had no camera and was on a dock night fishing by myself. it was definately my personal best bass. also caught a monster personal best catfish out of SML 2 years ago. oh yeah, anyone know where i can buy live minnows in loudoun county?