Bigbarge50

The afternoon to the twilight hours for me as well. While hitting one of the local, small Dam lakes (from like 3 to 8) in NOVA (pm if you want to know) I had two really interesting firsts....... Caught my first bass on a Northstar jig. I can not say how nice these jigs are and bought about 11 of them in one shot at a GREAT price. The picture was this little guy a few ounces shy of 3lbs jumped all over the jig as you can see when it hit the water The second interesting thing was I was late to the party and bought a chartreuse and black square billed crank bait by strike king and sure enough the first cast with the lure I caught a fish...... shockingly KVD must know what he is talking about... HAHA Boat repairs are done so will be back out on the water this weekend (fingers crossed) so back to fountainhead and pohick. I have a re-found respect for the guys casting from the shore.... these last couple weeks being land bound have reminded me how tough it can be.

intheweeds, how was the trip down? How was the fishing?

Good luck with them...... my old lady was in the boat with me going for them..... we literally had nothing but tiny little ones sucking blood worms off for free lunch..... The big ones just stood and stared as it sat inched from their mouth. As we headed in we saw a very young boy catch one literally inches from the shore..... I am talking 6 inches max. They brought it up to the minnow shop..... it was a citation. Absolutely huge. I will chalk it up to one of those days, and makes for a funny story. I wonder if the water clarity is makes it that you need very natural baits and colors or if the pressure causes more exotic lures to be favored. The age old question right? I was surprised the branch of the lake up to the right from the launch.... up at the end two weekend ago now.... it was far cloudier than the crystal clear water more down towards the main body. I will definitely head out again at some point, look very promising.

I just started using a snap and swivel again when I use a fluke..... No more line twists and helps the fall occur a little quicker I think those are two big pluses. Other than that, it is direct tie on, including cranks. I do use one of those lateral perch jigs and did notice quite a bit of line twisting, so maybe will use one with that too.

Took the trip out there last weekend..... read about it being a "hidden" gem and sounded much more like the waters I am far more used to fishing in my younger days. Was rather surprised to find out for myself and read what I did here compared to what I was told and had read about this lake. I did not expect the fishing to be so tough and for the place to be so crowded. It was very impressive to see some gigantic assorted panfish in there.... I mean literally huge. They did not want to bite anything, but they were massive. I am starting to realize I need to stop bouncing all around Northern VA and start focusing on just one body of water.... I literally am hitting a different body of water every week, which is probably a big mistake.

Is the wind always brutal out there? My one time it was just plain nasty and every report seems to say the same. Congrats on the personal best with the smallie.... that is awesome. Everyone in NOVA has been real quiet lately..... either no one is fishing or no one is talking about all the fish they are catching....haha

I do not do a lot of shore fishing since I got my boat, but I did just go last week and one thing that made me very happy was bringing not just three rods, but I also brought a 4th rod with no reel. It was a much shorter "bionic Blade" BPS baitcasting rod. I switched out my carrot stick (which is about 8 feet) when I got to some tree cover. The carrot stick was great for long distance casts, but I really got back to my younger roots and went into some really heavy tree cover of did some short casts and flips to stumps and submerged sticks with the senko. The shorter rod really let me make some casts I could not with the other rod. So if your going to a lake that you really can have room to launch some long cats, a longer pole would seem great, but if you don't mind getting scratched to shreds then might be worth it to bring a much shorter one (6ft and shorter) to find those little openings on a wooded shore to get to the fish. It seemed a little silly to bring an open rod like that, but I think it worked out well for what I wanted to accomplish. Just another thought.

I totally agree with parrot....... situations and conditions change very rapidly here compared to my two previous bass fishing locations of NY and FL. You need a full bag of tricks and a healthy dose of confidence. In my experience it seems spinner baits can be deadly one day, a non producer the next. They are great to throw day in and out, but you certainly notice the difference on certain days. Top water action on most of these lakes is also erratic...... Burke and Huntsman both lack that shallow cover (lilly pads and such) that I love to work top waters around. With that said I had caught at both with a jitterbug, buzzbait, and torpedo. The weather also seems huge on these lakes. Pressure shifts and fronts moving through seem to have a massive effect on the bite. Others can disagree and would love to hear feedback, but it seems that might be the biggest factor in choosing a pattern to go with. Especially this year, the lack of consistent clear days seems to really make it a feast or famine on the lakes. (river is a different story) I also totally agree with the senko idea. I have never been a tube guy, have been trying to be one desperately after talking to denny brauer at the richmond fishing expo..... and have caught nada. Throwing to the same spots a BPS watermelon candy stick bait has produced where a tube has failed. Senkos catch fish around here....period. Probably true anywhere, but here I have really had to lean on them. Slow, fast, carolina rigged, weightless, whatever.... again different techniques for different days. The other thing I have had a ton of success here, and many others will agree with, is jigs. I NEED to have a jig tied on to one of my set ups at all times. Like the senko, if I am fishing and do not have one tied on, well then I usually am not catching fish. Swim jigs, flipping jigs, whatever.... they have caught fish for me. A rage tail trailer on there.... seems to simply do it for me. Now from shore these might not be one you turn to first, but I think it will still do well for you. In my second year of really hitting the water hard here I must say the area is a very interesting a different place then what I am used to. The bait monkey has made my selection literally explode, because I simply feel like I need more variety to produce.

Hit mercer yesterday, sans boat(which has a damaged floor)and caught 5, one over 2lbs. 4 on senkos, 1 on a jig. All caught right up against timber. Glad to finally actually catch some.

So does anyone have a guide or service they would recommend on this lake? I am really looking forward to making a trip down from D.C. to hit the water, but would love to have someone show me around and have a boat to use. Any info would be great if someone could recommend someone.

Thanks Red, Never used a pfleuger, always been a diawa or shimano man. Might need to give it a try.

Nice fish Red, two quick questions..... Mind if I ask where that was? Secondly, what reel is that? Zooming in I could not see what it is and looking for a great new spinning reel.

Will be out tomorrow either on the res (heard thurs and fri are supposed to be really great days) or mercer (new cart to try out) or huntsman. Think the smaller water might be a little warmer temp wise, but today's rains have me concerned about water clarity and fish activity. I did forget to mention i did "catch" a woodpecker one a new silver-ish fluke I was using. He swooped right out of a tree, dove a few inches in, and popped right out with my fluke in his mouth (no idea how he thought he could eat it, was about the same size as him). Luckily it did not snag him or anything and he flew back to his tree, looking mighty disgruntled.

Went out yesterday..... tough going for me and seemingly everyone else. I got skunked, everyone I talked to seemingly said the same or one or two at most. My gf was with me with a bob-er and worms and she could not even come up with a bluegill. Water temps were still low 50's with a lot of variance all over. The conservation officer was out and he seemingly was the only one catching anything.

Should we all run to our boats as you sound the dogwood alarm? Sam, I must say I have now been online studying dogwood trees thanks to your posts. Literally everyone up here in D.C. is cherry blossom crazy and here I am yelling "Forget the cherry trees, what about those dogwoods!!" Will be trying to hit the water twice this weekend, so hopefully the dogwood alarm will bring the bass

So I am thinking about making a weekend run down from the D.C. area to see the action at Briery Creek and think might be way too big for me to hit with my zodiac and no outboard.... Anyone know of a good guide or someone who take people out for a day?

I obviously need to get my butt and boat down there this weekend. Anyone concerned with the weather systems moving through late this week effecting the weekend?

Went out yesterday and played with the contrast all day..... with very mixed results. Think it is worth giving Lowrance an email or call? I am still relatively happy with the unit, it simply is not what it was advertised as so far and I am not too sure if it my lack of experience with it, or simply just not a great product.

Nice work..... I hit huntsman yesterday from about 3 to 7pm..... not a bite, but I did not expect much with the cold front just have moved through and another one right on deck that night. Threw jerkbaits, lipless crank, jig and trailer, and a chatter bait..... all with no luck. Was a nice day. This weather just will not be nice for more than a day. The water temp also varied from 55 in some parts to 61 in others. Might try Sunday, but the weather looks kinda sketchy Friday and Saturday, so might be more tough sledding. Anybody in NOVA having much luck?

Anyone using ear plugs or "floats" to keep their bait up? I committed to using a c rig last year, with little success. Guess that is why we have this year. Not stopping till it produces, in which case I will keep using it because it is producing.

agree strongly but to expand the question....... when do you guys start night fishing? I have always had it been a summer thing (mainly the warm summer nights are great) but what about everyone else? Do you gets stay out after dark during other periods?

Any speed and depth suggestions? I have been attacking still in the 15+ depth range and still in a slow winterish pattern. Spinners and lipless cranks I have been yo yo-ing. Think I am too slow and too deep?

Some people messaged and asked me about it so I figured I would post, but the Fredericksburg Outdoor show was a disappointment. I went on saturday, got down there a little later, and missed the speaker I wanted to see because I was 7 minutes late.... so his demonstration on the bass tank took 7 minutes or less I guess, unless he started early. The turn out was very small and there were almost no fishing vendors. Only two vendors had any sort of lures (one kayak guy had like 20 total lures to pick from, the other had two small bins and was selling custom rods), and even those were very very limited selections. Two kayak vendors, and a Virginia wildlife guy rounded it out fishing wise. The vast majority of the space was the gun show. Everything else was t shirts, hunting stuff, lanscaping and gutters, ...ect. Not anything like the richmond fishing expo. The highlights were getting a bunch of back issues of woods and waters for free (do guys on here subscribe to that magazine?) and getting some of these cheap http://www.***.com/Basstrix_Bait_Fry_Bluegills/descpage-BTB.html The other main highlight was going out to downtown Fredericksburg, which as history buff is great, but it is one lovely town that I knew was there, but did not know how nice and enjoyable it really was.

It certainly does..... thanks. I will test this the next time I am out and give it a try. I have faith in the unit, and like the company, I just have never owned one before and the instructions were so generic. Then again it seems for every unit there is a learning curve that as a fisherman you just need to work through and learn your equipment. Any other suggestions of course are welcome.

R520dvx any suggestions on the contrast (like what a good "normal" setting is) or is it just something I will have to play with?