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.

mmmh, don't know the answers to most of that. The area is very accessible, very clean and well maintained. They have a John Boat rental place about 100 yards or so to the left of the pier, which I plan on renting one day to go fishing in. They also sell a lot of fishing supplies...lures, minnows, night crawlers, etc. I don't know how deep the water is right in front of the pier, but it doesn't appear to be very shallow...i'm guessing you can cast out far enough to probably hit about 10-20 foot depths. There's no brush or anything that's accessable from the pier. Although I'm on a Bass fishing forum, I don't really care what I catch, I just want to catch some good sized fish, something worth keeping. When I go fishing I'll usually bring two rods, one to target bass with and the other one I'll just throw a worm on, maybe some prepared bait for a cat or a minnow for crappie, depending on where I am. The night or early morning is probably better while no one else is around, and I hear bass are more acctive at those times.

Okie dokie...I just got off the phone with Dick's sporting goods to see if they have them and they do, so I'll pick some up and give em a shot.

There's a nice lake in my area that has a fishing pier...it's not quite a traditional pier that extends out and you're surrounded by water, it's set up more where you're basically on shore where the land is behind you and the water out in front, but. It looks real nice, but my first thought is that everyone and their momma has been fishing there and either there won't be any fish there, or the ones that are there have probably been caught and thrown back and will be hard to catch. Is this true, or can you do some good fishing from such a location? If you can, what's the best way to work it. I've read that the lake has bass, flathead catfish and something else I can't remember.

Thanx for the info... So just that? No backup lure if that doesn't work?

I did as suggested and read up on some of the materials on the site and I did get some valuable information, but there's alot to absorb so I'd appreciate some fine tuning advice on doing some shore fishing in a small/medium sized lake. I read the specific articles about fishing on the shore. I've fished here twice already this year and all I got was some tiny fish. I know some of the basics about how to catch bass from reading up on it, but haven't had any luck. One of the problems I've had is that in order to cast in to the type of areas where Bass would be, my hook tends to get caught up in the brush. Not sure what it is, but what it looks like is a bunch things sticking straight up, I guess reeds maybe. I tried going early in the morning and I've used the crank baits and the poppers and also night crawlers just in case something else was out there biting. I just wanted to catch a fish other than something so small that it wasn't worth keeping. So, from what I've read, in the early morning I should shoot for the surface area with the crankbaits and poppers because the bass would be more inclined to come to the surface in the morning. I tried to hit areas around the brush, but like I said, I tend to get my lure caught in it so I've been limited in what I could do. I lost my carolina rig because the hook got caught. I've also tried the rubber worms and an ariticial shad. So...how should I approach this.... I'm going to a small/medium lake on the shore in the morning. I'm in the DC area and the temps are like 40s at night and 60-70 during the day. I've got no idea what water temps are. I've read reports about this lake and it's supposedly well stocked with Bass. At various times I've read reports that said to use different lures in this lake...once the report said go with crankbaits and poppers, the most recent report said to go with 4" worms in red shad or blue fleck colors. There are some shore areas that don't have as much of the brush that I could cast in to more safely, but from what I understand you're not really going to find the bass in the open type areas like that. There are like no real structures in the lake, such as docks or anything else. There's an area where there's some type of drainage unit and I've read that that's a good area to hit...I've tried it from the shore, but no luck. Oh, they also have a couple of fishing areas set up, but I'm assuming those aren't good areas because they're over fished. They're built out of wood, but the base of the structure is really close to the land and it's overgrown with brush, so no area for the fish to hang out underneath it or anything like that. so, how would you recommend I approach this?? Thanx a bunch. I just started fishing and I've been like 5 times now and haven't really caught anything and am getting discouraged. I can live with not catching something everytime I go out, but I would hope to at least be like 50-50 as far as catching something worth keeping. I've been out on a pontoon boat in a larger lake also...same results.