basspro48

The tides are perfect this whole week for fishing the weedlines on the pamunkey and the bite is hot. Went out this morning and caught 35 total with 26 keepers, biggest going about 3.5 Most came on a wacky rigged senko and a ZOOM 4" dead ringer in moccasin blue.

I still use the old reliable Shimano Curado CU-100B and a new Curado 100D for my flipping and pitching needs. But that being said you can pretty much use any reel to flip or pitch with, that is as long as its a shimano : lol

Yeah I've been really busy with baseball and work but I've gotten up there a couple times this summer. Haven't done nearly as good as last year though, biggest one in that section so far was about a 14 incher I think.

I t-rig em with a 3/0 superline and a 3/8oz weight and flip em in wood and grass. The fish around here have been tearin up green pumpkin/red

It's very easy to wade across, the water is no deeper than 3 or 4 feet in most spots and if you dont want to walk in the deeper water then just go from rock to rock. It should be especially easy now since the flow should be down some

I slayed the big spotted bass in Claytor lake this past summer with the kut tail on a dropshot rig. Now I've adapted it to the tidal rivers around here and have been very successful with it on the largemouth and smallmouth throwing the kut weightless and on the dropshot

Yeah going up the William's island bank is really one of the only ways to fish the area up by Z dam because the banks up there on the park side are all private. And if you encounter fish like that again, back off and fish around a different area for 20 minutes or so and then approach the area that was holding the fish again but stay back farther and make longer casts to them. Usually once you give them time to settle down they will resume smashing anything they see.

The pony pasture is one of my favorite places to wade for one simple reason, there's lots of 12+inch smallies to be caught. Now most peoples first mistake is bringing along the ultralight rig with the tiny beetlespin or grub and they just toss that around the landing for an hour and walk away with a couple bream and maybe one tiny smallmouth. Well to catch decent fish in this place you have to stick with your normal smallmouth baits you would throw in any other river or lake, DO NOT think you need to downsize just because the water is shallow and clear. My standard set-up for smallies at the pasture is a 6'6" Medium Heavy Loomis GL2 with a Shimano Curado 100D and 12lb Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon. My most productive baits are a 3.5" tube on a 2/0 gammy superline EWG and an 1/8oz weight, and a lucky craft pointer 78 in tenn. shad. I have caught some fish on a jig and a hula grub too but so far nothing has out produced the tube and the pointer. Now for spots, I don't even bother fishing anywhere near the landing because of all the swimmers and other rather obnoxious people that like to hang around. So I'll start about 100 yards upriver from the landing, there is a nice steep bank with a very deep hole on the park side of the river right there. Once I've hit that I'll just keep fishing my way straight across the river, being extra careful that I fish the several small islands extremely thorough before moving on. Then directly on the other side of the river you will see a dam (this is where the river splits and goes around Williams Island) this area holds a tremendous amount of fish, just go from rock to rock and fish every pool you can find. Here's a simple outline of pony pasture, the area's circled in orange are my favorite spots and the black dots are spots that have produced for me but aren't exactly the best. And here is a link to a satellite view of the areas I fish for a more detailed view... EDIT: the link is not working for some reason so for a satellite view just go to google maps and search pony pasture rapids or James River fishing school and you will get a detailed overview of that whole section of river.

I slam the fish around here on beavers t-rigged on a 3/0 gammy wide gap SUPERLINE hook and a 3/8oz bullet weight, and I throw em on a 7' Medium Heavy action rod with 15lb. seaguar fluorocarbon or 50lb stren super braid for heavy flippin

what weight do you use when you are pitching grass? basspro48, those jigs look great. why do you not prefer the living rubber on your shallow jigs as well?

Ha wow, I guess these guys have never heard of KISS?

I love war eagle jigs for flipping around wood and sparse grass. But most of the time I go with a jig that I have hand tied, these are a couple that I made last night And here's one I made with living rubber for deeper water for trailers I usually go with ZOOM super chunks, Paca chunks, or GYCB twintail grubs. But sometimes I'll go with a ZOOM baby brush hog or super hog when I need a bulkier presentation

Pfleuger President spinning reel, the bail spring wore out within 6 months of purchase and it is completely useless now. Pfleuger Supreme baitcasting reel, held one at BPS, thought dam this thing is nice. So I dropped the $170 for it and now it has a permanent spot at the bottom of my rod locker. It squeaks, squeals, and the way it grinds on the retrieve is unbearable. This is why I stick to Shimano.

I usually throw swimbaits anywhere i would normally throw a spinnerbait or maybe even a crankbait. I mostly use the Basstrix and Bass Magic swimbaits rigged on a 5/0 1/8oz Dave's TT swimbait hook. I have had much more success with swimbaits around rock or wood cover than I have grass, I'm not exactly sure why but I rarely get bit around grass or pads on a swimbait. There isn't really a "best" time to throw a swimbait IMO, I usually just pick it up when i get to an area that just looks right for one or I get a feeling that a swimbait would probably do really good. Probably not the answer you were lookin for but thats just what I do.

What part of the James are you fishing? I tear the smallies up around the pony pasture area on a 3.5" tube with an 1/8 or 3/16oz bullet weight crawled along the bottom.

Dude you are the man!!!!

I've never tried the Mission fish but I have had some success throwing Mattlures baby bass and 6" Series swimbaits in depths of 20+ feet along deep grass and standing timber. There might be other swimbaits out there that are more suitable for this application but it's not a technique I use often so I have really only used the Mattlures baits.

Beautiful smallies and a beautiful section of river there. I'm lovin that nice rock ledge in the second pic, looks like a smallie magnet

Yeh I think wut ya got there is a warmouth, aggressive lil things lol

Hmm that looks more like a warmouth to me

Thanks guys, here's a few more decent ones from the other day... Same fish, closer view My dad with a nice one

I know there's a very small pond across the street from the Orange Blossom bakery in Hatteras right near a baseball field I think. I haven't been down there in a while but I know we pulled some nice bass out of there

I use fluoro now for pretty much everything except for topwater and heavy cover flippin, I feel it has greater sensitivity and minimal stretch when compared to mono. Although braid has zero stretch and is also extremely sensitive, I only throw braid when I am flippin heavy cover or throwin a frog. This is because braid is like rope comin through the water and can be seen from a mile away even in stained water, you could add a fluoro leader as was stated above but I just wouldn't feel comfortable throwing braid in that situation.

Depends on the cover I am fishing, if I'm just throwing around laydowns and sparse grass or pads then I'll go with a 6'6" Medium Heavy fast action casting rod. But if I'm around some thick wood cover or matted grass then I'll upgrade to a 7' Medium Heavy Fast action to get a little extra leverage on a hooked fish and get him comin towards the boat and out of the cover quicker.

Its been a long time since I've made a post on here, I've been swamped since school ended with work and traveling all over the place for baseball but I'm back now lol. I have had time to squeeze in a few trips here and there and have been on some pretty good fish, but I'll let the pics do the talking.