LoudounFisher

Since I don't have to work tomorrow I was thinking of going to 4mr since the weather will be good. I don't mind a challenge and Beaverdam is still frozen. I can't believe people keep what they catch there. That's nasty. I'm just looking for a fight with something big.

Walking out of the Bloom this afternoon I saw a bunch of them sitting on a rack in the entrance area.

Yeah

I tried it out on Saturday. Was that Steve there I saw? I was the one with the kayak. I had some monsters of unknown type on the line several times throughout the day. I'll be going back with some heavier duty gear so I can muscle them in faster instead of giving them time to get off. I really think these things would've busted my 12lb Trilene if I tried to force them in.

On the news tonight there was a report from along side the river in DC. There won't be any fishing down there for a while, it's packed with ice.

I think you can forget about fishing any ponds or lakes for a few weeks and that's if it were to warm up some at the end of next week. Only the rivers aren't frozen over now.

I fished a local shallow pond on Nov 16. The water was still fairly warm. I caught a few with a red lips and others that weren't red at all. All were caught in a limited area.

On the topic of structure, I'd like to get opinions on where everyone would fish my local reservoir. If you follow the link in my profile it will be a page showing 50 photos of the reservoir during a drought a few years back. So a lot of the bottom is visible. For reference, where that submerged bridge is, is 25ft deep when the reservoir is full. The bridge used to go over what used to be a creek that runs up the middle of the reservoir. I have an Eagle Cuda 350S/Map on my kayak and I've successfully located and marked the bridge. Viewed with the sonar the contour of what I haven't seen exposed seems to be how I expected it to be. All gradual slopes the same as the exposed slopes.

Up until this year I hadn't really done any fishing for the last 15 years because I was busy with the Marine Corps and then after that with motorcycle racing. My step-sister and brother-in-law bought a place on Lake Gaston late last year. I got down there twice this year and that started getting me back into fishing. After the motorcycle racing this year I bought a kayak so I could get to better locations near home. It wasn't long before I added a fish finder to it. I've been trying all the local bodies of water, but mostly at the local lake as much as I can and have done alright. The best one yet was a 1.5lb smallmouth on Sunday. I'd post a pic but my post count is too small still. My +15 year old crankbait in my avatar has been getting most of the fish, a crappie, bunch of small LMB and the SMB.

I like Beaverdam Reservoir, helps that its only about 10 minutes away. There is still a whole lot of it I haven't fished, but I've been getting out there in my kayak on average once per week. The only thing limiting me has been crappy weather and excessive wind. The VA DGIF website site says it has a small smallmouth population but they are of good size. I've caught a total of five fish there of any species, the most recent being today's 3.3lb smallmouth. Seems I got pretty lucky with this one. I'd really like to pull out some white perch and crappie to help control that population. I've fished Goose Creek occasionally but probably won't bother anymore. I've fished upstream from Rt7 and from Kephart Landing to the Potomac. All sunfish except for a smallmouth at the mouth of the creek. The creek is pretty shallow. Only near the river did it drop to 8-12 feet. There is sort of a hole where it meets the river. The river there is 6-8ft. On the day I got these depths the river was crystal clear all the way to the bottom, but the creek was really muddy. Edit= Adding pics now that I can post links.

I supposed I could call Beaverdam my home lake since it's the closest to me. I just started getting back into fishing this year. After the motorcycle racing season ended I've been going there as much as can since I bought a kayak. The last few times I've had a Eagle Cuda 350 w/GPS that I mounted to the kayak. The only lure that's been working for me is the crankbait in my avatar. My first fish this year was a crappie on that crankbait. I caught two bass on it last weekend. The best time for catching them has been in the last few minutes of light when I was about to call it a day, though the bass mid-morning Sunday was the exception. I've never fished the area south of the bridge. Are there any good spots in the southern half?