Bigbarge50

Seems the insane heat in NOVA might be moving into just serious heat...... maybe the action will improve

Soft Plastic: Zoom, Rage Hard Baits: Bomber, Heddon Jigs: Northstar Spinners: Northstar has overtaken strike king for me this year. Frogs: I want to say live target, but snagproof has produced the best. Line: BPS Floro Rod: TBD- Use BPS, Diawa, Carrot Stick but am looking to maybe become a Powell Man Reels: Shimano Hook- Gamakatsu

Prop- Heddon Torpedo Popper- Storm Chug Bug Buzzbait- Boohya Pip Squeak and a classic jitterbug- Black- white and red-jointed...... love em all.

Those glory days might be a little too glorious....... 7 and 8 would seem hard to come by on just about any body of water. There are some deeper water and ledges when you can get out in a boat that I am sure would hold bigger fish. I got my downscan out there once and was seeing some ledges and such down to 15ft...... which with this heat is where almost all the big one would lurk. The spring was hot, the summer has been insanely hot...... I can not imagine bigger fish really hanging in the stumps unless it is out more towards the middle and closer to deeper water. Now you get a cool off and some cloud cover and the water drops to below bath water temps..... could see some action.

Capt Bob...... that picture is crazy.... shoulder to shoulder...... I have never seen that many guys.... looks like a heck of a time. If the original poster is looking to up the distance, some KVD line conditioner I have found to help up the distance.... sometimes very dramatically. 100 yards seems absurd...I can not imagine someone casting from goaline to goaline in giants stadium.

Great thread fellas..... My lady has been fishing with me a bunch in the last year and just two nights ago she was tossing a shakey head and lifted it out of the water and a "better" fish jumped at it. She cast right back out and a few hops later the line ran sideways for a few feet. She waited, felt the weight, set the hook, was reeling it in and poof..... got off. She was none too happy and could not understand how this could possibly happen (we all know all too well it happens all too often). I told her this made her much more of a real fisherman than the ones she has caught...... she finally now has a "one that got away" story. We all remember those all too well..... keep em coming.

Aj, just type the name of the body of water in the search function and you will literally get years of posts with tips. Love to hear how it went.

I am king of the 3lbers. Third summer fishing in NOVA and while I rarely get skunked anymore (knock wood) and can do ok with numbers, I cannot crack 4lbs. Far from complaining though, 3lb-ers are great fish to me.... will hapiily catch em all day.

Pics would be nice.... was this shore or boat action? Either way those are HUGE fish

Wayne you ever get skunked? You seem to always produce some serious numbers.

Sam always has great advice...... and this is another gem FInd the theromcline, find the fish

Man sounds like South Africa is where it is at bass fishing...... that is some serious action..... welcome to the board.

bps catapiller grubs...... loved that series and still have a few bags of the worms, craws, and such left. Wish they did not stop making them, really held salt well and the bass seemed to really lock down on them, like a ring worm, only with a better ability to hold sent and salt.

Visiting my mom who lives on Lake Yale starting saturday and staying for a week. Any tips on where to hit up on the Harris chain and advice on guides to take me out? When my father was alive and had a boat we pulled an 8.2 lber out of Yale..... but I would like to hit the other ones too and think staying close would be better than lugging down to Toho. Thanks in advance.

JSPOONE if you were pulling 3lbers consistently before then be happy you were pulling that high level of fish. FIsh that size in this heat are going to be locked down unless some O2 moves through due to current or heavy winds or in the thermocline like Quan mentioned. The river might be good because of the moving water and the heavy vegatation will be pumping out some O2.

huddleston swimbait....... never had one and would love to try one out

awesome

You think mercer is over pressured? I am not sure I have ever had more than one other person fishing when I have been fishing there and I have never seen more than one boat on there. I think the long walk makes a lot of people steer clear and it does not seem like a lot of people in the apartment complex up at the dam do a lot of fishing. I think these smaller bodies are more affected by the weather and pressure changes, hence the difficulty sometimes fishing them.

My two most sucessful trailers by far are a rage chunk and a yum money craw...... both have dominated over zoom chucks or anything else I have tried.

That is some good advice Shimmy.... 3rd summer here and I am still hoping from body of water to body of water...... NOVA is easily the toughest area I have run into to learn in terms of consistency. I do enjoy bouncing from spot to spot, but forcing yourself to work on just one body of water is probably the quickest path to sucess here. This heat is going to force us all to work on out summer patterns and deep water structure fishing

Frederick is notorious for skunking people

I have that reel and use it still......I think it is a quality reel..... casts very well for me. It is heavy..... but 1)- I think weight is not that big of as issue 2)- It is named "iron" of course it is heavy. I think if it had an updated brake system, it would be near equal with similar style reels...... the issue is everyone is obsessed with making a reel defy gravity it is so light..... so would be completely going against the market if it was out there now. The Med Heavy might be the problem. MH is not all built equal to say the least..... some seem like fishing with a telephone pole to me.......others have great tips I like. I am often using a medium when throwing a 3/8 jig..... which is too light for many, but again think it depends on the brand of pole and the make of it. Might be worth trying it on another pole.

Senkos..... no mater how many I have, if there is a sale, I must buy them. This also seems to apply to bass pro shops stick-o's Zoom trick worm..... somehow I always need that other bad with the different color flakes too My new obsession- Northstar jigs..... keep buying em and that is a good thing.

Like SK lures, never had an issue (other than everyone else catches bass on red eye shads and I do not) and it is good to know there is someone to go to if an issue arises.

People were taking 3lb bass out of lake Royal? It would be a real shame, catch and release, especially on a lake that small.