LoudounFisher

I fished there on Thursday and got a small smallie, 16" ~2lb LMB and an 11" crappie. I went back on Saturday and got nothing. The biggest bass I've caught there have all been smallies. The one in my avatar came from there.

I checked out it for the second time on Sunday since I was passing by on Rt15. I fished from the dock on Landing Rd for an hour and got one 12"er on a pro senko.

I was out there today. Something seems wrong with the lake. The water is down about two feet, but that can't be the reason for much of the grass being gone or dead. What grass I did find was covered with muddy silty stuff. I didn't catch a thing and only saw one fish caught, a sunfish.

Must've been released recently at close to that size. I can't imagine one surviving the winter.

You could check out Lake Frederick near Winchester. They have a few boats they rent. I'll be out there Sunday morning before heading to my dad's for a BBQ.

I'd like to know if any of these products have thiamine aka vitamin B1. I saw a program about alligators dying mysteriously. It was traced to the fish they were eating being deficient in thiamine. They showed some fish that looked to be on the verge of death. Just adding some thiamine to the water totally revived the fish. Here's a report that shows the importance of thiamine to fish. http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/_files/factsheets/2006-1%20thiamine%20deficiency.pdf

I mostly fish Beaverdam Creek Reservoir since it's close by. Last weekend I caught this 17" smallie during the late morning. Unless my scale is acting up it only weighed 2lbs despite being about the same size as the fatty in my avatar.

"Catfish" isn't a species. It's a family. Ictaluridae in the case of North American catfish which includes white, blue, channel, madtom, flathead and bullhead. Channels and bullheads are both of the genus Ictalurus, i.e. pretty d*mn closely related.

I hit up a shallow medium size creek yesterday where the smallies were hitting my firetiger Strike King bitsy minnow. I caught three of them, one 9", two 10". They weren't interested in the white bitsy minnow. I'm thinking my firetiger Bomber A ought to do the trick to catch some bigger ones when I fish some deeper and wider areas of that creek. < -- The Bomber A is what has worked for me in the past in a reservoir.

A couple weekends ago I attempted to catch some carp with some corn and lima beans. Instead I got 15" and 18" channel cats. Later a caught a small white perch. Stuck a big hook through the back end and tossed it into deeper water while I fished the edge of the grass along the shore. I hooked up with a 10+lb channel cat. Before I figured out where I would put it in my kayak, it dove underneath the yak and the line broke. :-[

Jeremy Wade should do another snakehead episode, but at the Potomac instead of Florida.

I went to my step-sister/BIL's house at Lake Gaston this past weekend. We stopped at Walmart on the way to get some groceries and fishing gear. Saw these these on the rack and figured I ought to get them since I've heard good things about them. I put one on a jig and fished a large empty boathouse over 20ft of water and got this. It was a screwed up cast too. The jig went where I wanted it to, but the line blew to the side and hung up on the dock. I couldn't flip the line off the dock so I started reeling it in to pop it over the top only to find a bass hanging on the end.

I'm heading down there tomorrow to my step-sister/BIL's house. My step-BIL says he always sees bass boats in the cove where his house is. So I guess it's a good area. It's not deep at all, there is hydrilla (at least there was last summer) and on one side there is a pretty big patch of lily pads. I haven't had much luck there. The only bass I've caught was just as we were leaving his dock to go fish elsewhere.

I haven't pulled anything out of the grass. But last week I caught two using a silver/green Little Cleo spoon after using a spinnerbait with no luck.

Here's one that was caught in my county this year. 71.6 lbs 54"

I've bought two of the Potomac kayaks. Only paid $180 or so when I got them, one last October, the other last month. One is setup with a Cuda 350s/map and two Berkley rod holders. And to keep things cheap look for the Field&Stream SQ220 4-piece paddle. $35 at Dick's -Item Number: 3079317. I had to order my second one online since the shops in the area didn't have anymore. I keep an anchor and float in the storage area with the cover removed. I use the elastic strap to hold on a milk crate which holds my tackle box. Once I get to a fishing area I just keep the box between my legs.

The GPS isn't super detailed, but close enough for me. Shorelines aren't perfect. It doesn't show every single little body of water, but it does have the local 350 acre reservoir I frequent and some even smaller lakes in the area. The are several screen views. Full map, full sonar, split screen and some others. You can check it out in the manual. http://www.eaglenav.com/upload/Eagle/Documents/Manuals/Cuda-350-SMAP-0152-32A-120808.pdf

I have one on my kayak. I'm happy with it. Haven't had any problems relocating structure that I marked with waypoints. Definitely turn off the FishID feature, otherwise it will register every leaf you pass over as a fish. MarineBoatSupplies.com was the cheapest place when I bought mine.

This is from just a few days after the ice cleared.

Were you at Beaverdam on Saturday? I saw someone there with a canoe and motor. I fished from about 7:30-12:30 and didn't catch anything. Tried all depths and a range of lures. I think it needs to warm up some more.

That's what I'm thinking. I record all the fishing shows to DVD-RW, watch when able then erase it for some more. Currently watching what I recorded today.

I've never seen any wardens. Beaverdam Reservoir is one of the few places I fish. That dock there is gone. I think it got blown away during the big storm in December. It ought to be thawed out by now so this next time out there in my kayak I will be searching for it.

If it's of any use, here's a map I put together of the area near the power plant.

6' Shakespeare medium action/Zebco 33 with 10lb line and my very effective 1/3oz silver/green Little Cleo. I've been meaning to put some better line on it but haven't gotten around to it, not that it would've mattered.

Here's what I have to show for 4MR yesterday. Bass shown in actual size This one was 14". Then while working under the bridges I hooked into a monster, unfortunately though not on the heavy duty rod. I thought I missed it at first because the line went real slack. I started cranking it back in to get another cast off, only to find it was still on. A few seconds later it was under the kayak, my rod bent in half and then the line snapped. >