sleemie

That diagram helped a lot. It looks like cutting through the ribs might be an easier way to go...other than the wear and tear on the knife. I found that trying to cut around the ribs was very difficult, and I think where I really messed up was on the upper part of the fish towards like the backbone. I did most of my cutting like right next to the ribs, and it looked like there was a good amount of meat left on the upper area.

Caught it with a jig...don't ask me what kind, just know that it was blue and I got it from the Marina because that's what was recommended. It was around 12:00 or so. It was fun.

Not sure how all of what's been said differs from a lake to a river. Where I was fishing I first thought it was a lake because of the size and appearance of it, but it's actually part of a river, just this portion of it looks like a lake...is that a tributary??? Anyways, I follow the laws of my state (Virginia), which for Bass is you have to release them if they're between 12-15." You can keep them above and below that size. On the pan fish...I assume you don't even bother with filleting something that small...do you just scale it, gut it and cook it? On filleting the Bass..wouldn't it make more sense to pull the skin off first because the meat is then still anchored to the fish? By me cutting it off first and then trying to pull the skin made it very difficult to get the skin off because the meat was so flimsy.

What's the price range of one of those gadgets? Also, I would think with one of those your success rate when you go out would be pretty high. Isn't knowing where the fish are like 80-90% of the battle...assuming anyone with a finder would know how to use the different lures once they get find them.

Whether you're in a boat or on shore, how far out beyond the shore should you cast? I was on little john boat yesterday and pretty much casted no further than like 10 yards off shore. I'm sure the time of season and time of day matters, but let's say Fall morning and middle of day.

I tried to fillet a bass and I don't see how there's enough meat on them to get it done. The one I had was 2.5 lbs and like 16-17" long, and that seemed like a decent size, so I would think most of them caught aren't going to be much bigger. I was told to first cut the meat off the bone on one side and then cut the skin off the meat, but the amount of meat was so thin (like 1/8" inch) that you when you try to cut the skin off you couldn't keep the meat together. I was thinking it would have made much more sense to scale it and then just bake it whole.

Hey PM...I went out to Ashburn. I guess maybe I misunderstood when you mentioned it....I guess I was expecting there to be some Bass there. It's just as you said, the fish are small and I'm sure I could have gotten some action there because you could like right in the water and see the fish, but I didn't think that would be very sporting, and I really didn't want to catch any small fish, especially ones that I couldn't keep. So, I left there and went to fountainhead and rented a johnboat with the electric motor and caught my first ever "real" fish...a 2.5 lb about 16-18" bass.

I'm gonna have to give ashburn a shot. I mentioned it to my girlfriend and she told me one of her co-workers lives in ashburn village. Is that in Frederick, Md? how far away? So, what are your best fishing spots? How late in the season do you plan on fishing?

Are fishing videos helpful at all? If so, is there a particular one that's recommended...on DVD, of course. I looked on Amazon and there were VERY few they carried, and one of them happened to be with Chuck Woolery of all people. The ones I did find didn't have any or very few customer reviews....do people not buy bass fishing DVDS??

Do you know anything about Fountainhead? I've read some good reports about it. Any other suggested places?

Just found this report about the lake I'm talking about..... Largemouth Bass The largemouth bass population of Burke Lake is in excellent condition with bass averaging around 3 pounds and 6 pound bass common. In the spring 2003 electrofishing sample, fisheries biologists collected 96 largemouth bass in 67 minutes of sampling. The bass looked to be in great shape with the size structure of the population evenly distributed from 12 to 22 inches. The data revealed the CPE-P to be 42. CPE-P is the index used in analyzing sample catch rates. It stands for the "catch per effort of preferred fish." The CPE-P for LMB is the number of bass 15 inches or larger that are collected in one hour of electrofishing. Based on CPE-P, Burke Lake is the top ranked bass fishery out of 19 popular northern Virginia impoundments sampled by VDGIF biologists during the years 1998-2003. Due to the combination of fishing pressure and abundant forage, the largemouth bass are difficult to catch. Burke Lake bass feed heavily upon schools of gizzard shad. Anglers should concentrate their efforts along the willow weed beds that line the banks of the cove across from the park boat ramp. Anglers are encouraged to try different techniques not normally used by average fishermen. The use of a different lure or retrieve may turn out to be what the bass are looking for. A good fish finder will allow you to find schools of shad and the bass feeding on them. Anglers should try a variety of shad/bait fish imitating lures such as crank baits (lip-less and diving) and soft plastic jerk baits as well.

Thanx for the info. I just googled it to see how to get there. What does heavily pressured mean? I've been hearing that term a lot. Does that mean a lot of people are fishing that spot?

Hey Moravek...I'm in Northern VA also. The lake I'm talking about is Burke Lake. What part of VA are you in? I was hoping to hit up the lake saturday morning aned would have been able to give you a report, but it's going to be raining so I'll have to until the following weekend. I've been under the assumption that I should be shooting for early mornings, what about after work in the early evening this time of year? Well, that might not work because I wouldn't be able to get there until like 7:00 and it's sunset by that time and the park where the lake is closes and I don't think you're supposed to be out there. Will the spinner baits be okay as far as not getting caught up in the brush? The only way for me to really hit those spots I have to reel my lure back in through it. I don't know exactly what it is, but it's like there are a whole bunch of reed like things sticking straight up, and the hooks tend to get caught in them.

I found a picture of the lake I'm trying to fish, but I can't see where I can post it here. I click on the "image" icon where I created this post but all that does is put an HTML tag in the body of this message. I don't see an Insert or Attach option. It didn't allow a cut and paste. thanx.

Would you say the same for going out on a john boat on the lake? I ask because I may be doing that in a couple of weeks if it doesn't get too cold.