Chaz Hickcox

So the wonders of fishing in the South. You know back home LM Bass were the top of the food chain, minus the stocked Stripers (obviously the two species can coincide together because they don't cross paths too often). Anyways, back to fishing in the south. One can fish all day long, using what should be lures prescribed for only the wonderful creature known as a bass. However, one has no idea down here in the dirty south what the he11 you may catch. Running a lure just under the serface, and wham you get hit. But no, what you saw were two thin long tooth filled jaws of a longnoesed gar snapping your favorite soft swimbait in two. You did nothing wrong that hot sunny day, that dock looked perfect for an apex predator to ambush your bait from. Well you were still right. Then, a windy, cloudy day. The perfect day for a buzzbait, oh and yes it was. You spend the whole day catching bass after bass. Some really niced sized 3-4 lbers. Some really healthy 11 inch dinks. Then you get the hit of a lifetime. A large flash of silver and down goes your favorite buzzbait. You saw the approximate length, and you feel that this is no 4 lber. He11 yeah! From the amount of fighting going on this has to be your first double digit bass. Strange though, he doesn't jump. He's fighting more like a striper than your coveted black bass. Then you get him next to the boat. What you thought was the silvery white side/underbelly of a large black bass taking your bait under, is actually brown. Ugly, and full of teeth. It's an 8lb BOWFIN >. He bent your Strike King Tri-blade Buzzbait, and he was never meant to be caught. So, there you are, getting rained on, and you finally realize why you can't land a bass bigger than 5lbs, the Gar and the Bowfin have stolen their pride. Any larger than 5lbs and there would be too much conflict for food. So, when 5lbers are the dinks back home, were stuck with them being the good catch here. I guess the fish know this to be the Dirty South as well. Fighting for everything.

Sorry - Virginia

What's the deal with chatterbaits. I never saw them out west and here they're everywhere. Are they worth it?

AGREED But sometimes the skirt will get caught up in the blade. Just trim the top part of the skirt and you'll be fine.

So I have been a huge Castaic Swim Bait fan since '99 when I bought my first hard headed threadfin shad when I was fishing chrystal Clear Resevoirs of Az. Since their new craze of Catch 22s and their Platinum Series has come out I have been using those. Unfortunately now I am in Virginia where LM Bass are not the top of the food chain like back home. My Catch 22s were destroyed by Gar, and my hard heads don't move enough water for the muddy rivers here. I have since gone to the Rock Hard Rainbows. Still have some run ins with gar, but my lure is not destroyed. My biggest problem is that the trout, while it still works, doesn't match any of the forage out here in the tidal rivers. I think they would work better if they matched the forage, either baby bass or shad. My problem is they keep pushing back the dates on the release of all that stuff. So does anyone know of any swimbaits that would match my forage, and still move enough water to get the bass' attention in severely stained/muddy water where my visability is only about 8 inches? The picture is the little dink that started a very good day with that little trout (until it went to its final resting place in a sunken barge).

Ok so valkrye just proved that I was incoherent in thought. I don't know why that didn't cross my mind before. Question answered!

I have a broken 2x4 on my boat trailer. I know I need to replace it at some point in time, but obviously I would have to do that at the lake. I was thinking that I would just get a 2x4 cut it to size and cover it at home then do the switch at the ramp. Obviously I need the boat off the trailer. My question now is what is a good way of securing the 2x4 without having bolts coming out and messing up my hull?

Hey all, just moved to VA about six months ago from out west where the weather was hot, the water was clear, and the bass were huge. Now I have to deal with mud, grass, and a whole mess of weather changes I've never had to learn. So with that being said I need all the help I can get out here. I have fished Lake Chick a few times, but living in Va Bch I have spent a lot more time on North Landing and Northwest rivers. I had a few good days out on the Chick, and do decently enough on North Landing River, but I have yet to catch a bass on Northwest. Anyways, just saying hey yall, and tight lines.

Go to YouTube and look up 'Pike eating bass' for a video of what you described. I would post it here, but apparently I am too much of a newb.

Hey just read your post. I fish North Landing on my Javelin on a weekly basis, but I put in down on Blackwater Creek. For me, personally I found that the marshes north of the bridge for Pungo Ferry Road to be the hotspot for all day bass fishing. I have had some issues with getting any size out of the fish up there, but the area never fails me. If you get up into the back of the marsh on a cloudy day you will be able to chase numerous large schools of baitfish all over the place. I have been back there and have seen up to four balls of a few hundred or so bait fish. All you have to do then is mimic them. I am not a big soft bait fisherman, so that may be my issue with size out here. (Out west soft plastics was only a last resort on the few cold days in the winter, otherwise we just stuck with swim baits). Other than that, if you go south near the state line, you can troll the main channel for stripers. Any further south than that and your in the sound with brackish water. Good for stripers, but bad for bucketmouths. The picture is of the barge graveyard in one of the horseshoes. Good fishing, but I won't take my glass boat back there again, too many metal farings from the sunken barges to run into.