VekolBass

Nice! My three best fish this year have been on these same baits, well, lipless cranks in general, not necessarily rattle traps. Got a 4-15 last weekend on a SK red eye shad. We fished the Potomac about a week and a half ago near the entrance of Little Hunting Creek (from the bank), the only fish was caught on a brush hog. I was out for about five hours today, with similar results on Traps. One 3 - 3.5 lb fish was caught on a Rapala jerkbait.

That's a great story. There is no such thing as "too many places to fish."

Wayne, We just had a gentleman make an observation based on something more than what someone else says. I for one would like to know if it has any validity--the only way to do that is to see if I can replicate the experiments. Admittedly, his, and likely mine, will not be truly scientific. But they will be close enough that we should be able to determine if there is significant over-estimation, or under-estimation as you suggest, of stated line strength. I know of no entity such as Consumer Reports for fishing equipment, or outdoor equipment in general for that matter. Correct me if I'm wrong, but IGFA does not fact check manufacturer's claims. Anything you read in a magazine or see on TV is suspect because everyone has sponsors and no one wants to offend a current or potential sponsor. So I guess it is up to us to find out for ourselves. Fortunately, unlike the relative effectiveness of lures, scents, etc. line strength is something pretty easy to test. I've got several spools of fluoro sitting around, as wel as some mono. I'll test them, and post the results. Unfortunatly, I don't have any Triplefish line (never heard of it before, and don't remember seeing it in any stores either) so that aspect of fatboyjoe's ascertions will have to go un-tested. At least by me.

Maybe we're on to something here. Fatboyjoe is to be commended for conducting some tests that at least approach scientific. Perhap's not up to Stanford of MIT, but better than "I caught some fish and it works fine." Perhaps line manufacturers are consistently over-rating the strength of their lines...wouldn't be the first time an industry tried to scam their customers. I think I'll try and replicate Fatboyjoe's experiments to see if I get similar results.

Spawning flats located on the north shore. If you can find a ditch or drain that say is 4-6 ft deep in an area with a general depth of around three I would start where that ditch drops into deeper water and continue working progressively shallower. Concentrate on the lips of the ditch.

At least there weren't whitecaps like the water around here has had on it this past week.

Outstanding--nice fish.

Live in Stafford County, and primarily fish the Potomac out of Aquia Creek. Also fish Anna, Chick, Rappahannock both tidal and free stone, and some of the local lakes/ponds for a change of pace.

I'm sorry I missed you guys on Saturday, I had intended on being there at 1PM. I made it as far south as BPS when I got a call from my son that his National Guard unit was put on alert for the inauguration, and he needed the car I was driving to get back to Norfolk to pick up his gear (he was visiting this weekend from college.) I was there Friday afternoon and saw KVD, Steve Chaconas and Terry Carr. Bought a new Grandt rod to replace my favorite rod which snapped in two on Anna back in November. Bought a bunch of other stuff as well.

By far I caught the most fish on a Terminator 3/8oz spinnerbait in Blue Glimmer. I had the most fun though on white frogs thrown on weed mats.

I love these kind of threads. One guy loves the lure, the next guy hates it. My experience is that the chatterbait is a niche bait. Colder water, dirty water are when you want to use it. When the water is clear or warm you are better off going to a spinnerbait or plastic, at least in shallow water. I became a convert this past spring fishing with my son. I had been with him when he caugh fish with them the previous spring while I was hauling water with every other thing in my tackle box. Finally, I knuckled under last April when he caught two three pounders on back to back casts. I immediately caught several two pounders. It's a big fish bait too.

It has the profile, if not the exact colors, of a bluegill. Rapala's DT baits are kinda weird looking to, but I can attest to the fact that they catch fish. As for the price tag--I think someone is smoking crack. But then I think Lucky Craft is overpriced too.

I fished Aquia creek a couple of weeks ago for a few hours without any success. Really didn't even find fish on my electronics until late in the day out in the larger bays near the main river. By that time the wind was blowing, and it was time to go. If I were to go back I would say slow rolling a spinnerbait through the grass. Some guys I know have had pretty good success on the Occoquan fishing silver buddies, but I can't personally attest.

Great info--Thanks.

Olebiker mentioned that the guy had a box of dead bass--so this is obviously a practice of this individual, not a rare occasion of catching the bass of a lifetime for a mount. I disagree with catch and grease fishing for bass, and never keep any bass that I catch. However, if I caught a double digit bass I would seriously consider keeping it for a mount. Such a fish has aready passed on her genetics over a number of spawn cycles, and probably doesn't have long to live anyhow. Bedman's post is another consideration--although if you immediately release the fish after a quick scale session and a photo the chances of post release mortality are probably greatly reduced.

You can bet that if it was some disease killing off poultry they would have figured out what it was and implimented a plan within a month to solve the problem. Hell, the government is freaked out about bird diseases that haven't even shown up in this country yet--and it's not because they are deeply concerned for the yellow bellied sap-sucker. It is because poultry is a huge industry with a lot of lobbyists paying a lot of money to politicians to make sure it stays that way. Because this disease concerns fish, which belong to the public with no commercial interest in their survival, who cares.

The fact that they only this year isolated the bacteria that "potentially" the cause of the fish kills tells me that they are not trying all that hard. Likely because they already have a pretty idea regarding what is causing it, and they don't want to endanger the economy of the area--or perhaps the problem is going to be expensive to fix if it is a general environmental issue such as run-off from the urban areas of the several town in the watershed.

Beautiful. You'll have some great times in that early Christmas present.

If you really feel like you are getting screwed, then you've got the right idea--quit. It is really the only recourse co-anglers have that carries any weight with boaters. The only reason to have co-anglers is to share expenses and fatten the pot. If co-anglers start disappearing from KY tournaments and the pots dwindle and the boaters have to bear the full cost of operating, they might reconsider. As an aside, that is why it is critical to pay your share of expenses. I generally pay a little more than my fair share. Money talks--and the boater will notice.

Welcome to our world.

Don't have a clue. The few times I have been there in the winter it has been a waste of time. I know that a lot of striper fishing using cut bait is done this time of year though. I was told you need to be on the water before first light. Brrrr.

I use them a lot in the spring time and in stained to muddy water. At least the 3/8 and 1/2 ounce varieties don't work well in clear water. Perhaps the 1/8 ounce would work better in that situation.

I purchased the SOSpenders Auto model after developing some health issues. My wife demanded I wear a PFD at all times. I bought the SOSpenders last year, and wear them constantly--even in the hottest summer weather. They are very comfortable. Fortunately, I can't report on how well they deploy.

Count me in. Excellent speaker list this year.

As you might have gathered, I'm not much of a cold weather fisherman. Most times I've tried it, I've had fairly meager results. I asked some guys who claimed to have done it successfully, and they recommended the Silver Buddy lure. Well, I've heard that jigging spoons were the way to go from other sources as well. As for where, try the Occoquan river. It has some deep water holes where the fish concentrate--and the key to successful spoon fishing is finding large concentrations. Or you can try waiting for a warm spell and fishing shallow cover on the northern banks of a river or lake. I have had some success doing that in the winter. Slow roll spinnerbaits in and around laydowns. Drop shot rigs work well too.