Intrepid

Yes go buy a spro frog! Then put some briad on a reel and catch some of the biggest fish of your life! Finding a grassy pond is what got me back to fishing several years ago. braid not needed

rebel crickhoppers

i suspect theres just an extremely high population of split tail so the striper have decided to make that their food of choice, once they eat the population of split tail down some, other things may start to work

basically, he can tell it just moved if he catches a light colored bass in shallow water, or a dark colored bass in deeper water

i want to learn to fish with jigs and cranks. i bought several new cranks on sale over the winter, and bought my first jigs with baby rage craws to use for trailers. this will be the first time ive tried rage tale products as well, ive read many good things about them. id also like to improve the amount of bites i get on top water, i can hook them i just cant draw the bite as often as id like. is also like to fish more, of course(wouldnt everyone?).

"this wouldnt have happened with an...abu garcia" ;D :-X :

mono all the way, 12lb trilene xl

i never had any problem out of my penn spinning reel, neither has my uncle who has several. i was going to recommend penn as well

its probably fine, i would go with it, why waste a bunch of line? at most i might strip off the first couple feet. if you store line on a spool year round you can store it on the reel year round and it be fine. some people replace line every trip, i think its a bit excessive unless the reel is just low on line. i never replace line unless its low or it was bad when i bought it, it normally doesnt just go bad for me unless its a reel i havent used in years...

already done over here, in fact im taking my first trip of the year to a lake this weekend, cant wait to get there, im already to go fishing gear wise...

Berkley Big Game, never had a fish break off with it. i use the 25# as a leader when trolling for stripers. its also the main line on many of my reels

i have had no luck on plastics since my pond thawed out. but suspending jerkbaits and shallow diving cranks rolled slow have worked well for me...

im guessing it might affect a couple trips where i left on friday afternoon/evening and returned on sunday. might be a less of those as i go to Smith Mountain Lake as much as i can each year, but its a 5 hour drive. i love that place, not just for the fishing, its just beautiful there. im so relaxed there and my mind clear. My aunt and uncle have a vacation house there on the lake, but live down the road from me. Whenever possible i ride with them, but sometimes i cant always get off work to go when they leave or i have to be back home before they plan to return, so i drive my own vehicle, which is good on gas. $30 to fill up roughly right now, thats from around a 1/4 tank, i usually never let my needle get below a 1/4 tank. it takes just over half a tank to get there

if youre asking what end to try first its probably a small enough body of water to try both ends, so there is your answer there. i would try flukes and 4-6 inch swimbaits

nightcrawlers almost always catch fish, but you may want to consider minnows as well. the catfish guy may want to consider minnows and chicken livers as well

a friend in NC told me there were some on the bed already in his pond, and this was in late february

whats the thumb trick?

like others have said, i would definately thin out the population of bass and crappie as well. crappie will take over a pond too. adding mature bluegill may be a good idea as well as they spawn there will be more baitfish for the bass and crappie. but thinning out the smallest bass and definately take a bunch of crappie out would be my first option. also id clean up many of those cattails altogether

pro series: coleslaw premeir series: carolina craw

Rods: Shakespeare, yes i love em Reels: Abu Garcia, Penn Hard Bait: Rebel Crickhopper, i came up on this lure as a kid, had many a good times catching with it, from bass to bream. Soft Bait: Berkley Red Shad 7in Shakey Worm Line: Trilene XL Tackle Storage: BPS XPS Bag

thats a beautiful fish. the dock fishing will really turn on more so in middle-spring and summer from my experiences, especially as the fish look for shade and spots to hide and ambush blue gill and other bait fish. last summer i was down on my uncles dock and theres a 2lb LM just chillin next to a dock post and practically blended in next to the green colored dock post. there were nightcrawlers and a fishing pole with a hook and sinker on it down there, i lowered the night crawler in real slow right in front of the basses mouth and he slammed it lol. but this early in the year i havent seen many fish around the docks

i never caught a cold water bass until this year, plastics have been no good for me. the few ive caught have been on a rapala husky jerk or a floating/shallow diving rebel crank that resembles a yellow perch...both fished kinda slow, but not mind-numbingly slow. but yeah, im in Northern VA too, and i went from fishing saturday to snow last night, crazy, im just ready for consistently warmer weather...

i hear ya, im bout to hit up a small pond today in another hour or so before the rain comes in this evening. but the water is still pretty cold and the fish in there not that active, i just got to get out though. ill just take a few beers and a few baits i think might work and make the most of it...

BOOO HOOO HOOO!!! So some people kept a few nice fish, its not going to hurt such a large fishery. It is evident that place is loaded with bass, plenty for fun and plenty for food. I seriously dont know why someone taught a lot of you that keeping a bass is just flat out wrong. I can see if its a small pond and you'd like to conserve the fishing there, but many of you will complain about someone keeping a few bass from large bodies of water that are loaded with more bass than you can count. And many are probably complaining about a body of water they will never even fish. I catch and release, dont even eat fish, but i also believe no one should be criticized by pleasure/sport anglers(includes me) for legally keeping fish.

definately do not ignore the docks on SML. they will produce fish under and around them. underwater stumps can be productive as well(and im not saying that cause of the classic) but from times i have fished SML. It can be a brutally tough lake at times and is heavily pressured from fishing to pleasure boats and jet skis. But it shouldnt be too much traffic to deal with in March. You probably wont see too many bedding fish in March, mid-April/early-May is probably your best bet for that. pearl colored Zoom Super Flukes have worked well for me on SML, and dont be afraid to throw 7in worms on the edges of laid down timber and work them slowly or just use a shakey-head. and i will give you a cove to try if you come across it. Ive had good success in there, if you come across a black and white lighthouse look around for a no-wake cove nearby that has a ton of sailboats and fish in there. dont be afraid to try the shallow back corner of that either, ive seen bass schooled up in there and cruising around together looking for a meal to corral.