Sam

Look at your rod or the rods in the fishing section of your favorite store. You will see stamped on each rod the specifics about its length, its strength (heavy, medium heavy, medium, etc.), fast acting tip, line test parameters and bait weights. Your rod should have this data stamped on it, somewhere on the rod. Try to find it. It should be there, somewhere. Then match up the rod's line test with the line test parameters on the reel you will be pairing with the rod. If you take the high and low of the line test (8 to 15) and add together (23) then divide by 2 you will get 11.5 which translates to 10 to 12 pound test is the best line to use for that particular rod. Just don't exceed the maximum line test or you are putting your rod in jeopardy of breaking.

Congrats. Beautiful bass. There is a philosophy in bass fishing called "The Pattern." "The Pattern" is what the bass want at a specific time based on color, vibration, moving fast, moving slow, top-middle-bottom of water column and every other factor you can imagine. Once you find "The Pattern" you will continue fishing the same bait, color and technique until the bite stops. "The Pattern" can be on wood, laydowns, deep, grass lines, in lily pads, under docks, out from docks, on dock steps, in coves, in mouths of creeks, back in the creeks, and the list goes on. So what you penned above notes that "The Pattern" for your water is between 8 to 10 AM with sun. Now if you fish 8 to 10 AM with clouds you may not get a bite. Or you fish after a cold front moves through and the bass get lockjaw. In bass fishing nothing is "normal." "The Pattern you may figure out can last for 15 minutes or all day. The bass may be on the move between 8 to 10 AM and then after eating settle down against a piece of wood or in the grass or lily pads or under a boat or boat house or dock or ramp. Your job is to find "The Pattern" every time you go out. This is why we have so many baits, colors, weights, sizes, shapes, blades, pigs for jigs, line, rods, reels, and the list goes on and on and on. I would stick to the 8 to 10 AM pattern and continue to make notes on what happened, and all the details surrounding all bites and the fish you catch. Go to the top of this page and look at Tools and find the Free Fishing Log. Make copies and start putting them in a three ring binder. After a few months you will see the pattern for the waters you fish based on the baits, colors, weather, wind, rain, sunny, cloudy, lots of boat traffic, lots of other fishermen, and everything you can write down. And read. Read, read, read. Just like the tourist who asked a New Yorker how do you get to Carnegie Hall. "Practice, practice, practice," replied the New Yorker. Now go out there and make us all proud!!!!

I guess it was Glenn and Kevin saw it and used it to win another Classic.

Great having you with us. Here are my suggestions: Water conditions at where I fish are as follows from what I observe. 1. Shallow, no more than 4-6 feet deep most areas and up to around 15 at deepest points.- GO WITH 5 to 6- INCH WACKY SENKOS WITH A #1, 1/0 OR 2/0 WEEDLESS HOOK AND ZOOM TRICK WORMS RIGGED TEXAS STYLE ON A JIG HEAD. USE SPINNING GEAR AND NO MORE THAN 8 POUND TEST FLOUROCARBON OR BRAID LINE. ROD TO BE A MEDIUM HEAVY WITH FAST TIP. SPINNING REEL SIZE 2000 OR 2500. FLIP AND PITCH YOUR SENKOS AND TRICK WORMS ALL OVER THE PLACE. GO WITH A GREEN PUMPKIN WITH BLACK FLAKE; JUNEBUG; OR IF CLEAR, WATERMEALON COLOR. USE A SMALL #1, 1/0 OR 2/0 WEEDLESS HOOK FOR YOUR WACKY SENKOS. AS FOR HARD BAITS, A BANDIT 100 IN BLUE WITH YELLOW BACK OR SEXY SHAD COLORS. USE THE BLUE WITH YELLOW BACK IN SUNNY CONDITIONS. USE THE SEXY SHAD ALL THE TIME IN ALL CONDITIONS. EARLY AM OR LATE PM TRY YOUR BUZZBAIT (WHITE OR BLACK SKIRT) AND A WHOPPER PLOPPER (EXPENSIVE). BUZZBAITS ARE GOOD ALL DAY BUT BEST IN THE EARLY AM. ADD A "TRAILER HOOK" EITHER THE SAME SIZE OR A LITTLE SMALLER THAN THE BUZZBAIT'S HOOK TO THE BUZZBAITS. 2. Greenish water, visibility around 2 feet. If it's after rain, brown water, visibility around 1 foot. - JUNEBUG, GREEN PUMPKIN OR A GREEN PUMPKIN WITH RED FLAKE. ALSO THROW YOUR BUZZBAITS. DON'T SPEND TOO MUCH TIME HERE UNTIL THE WATER TEMPERATURE GETS COOLER. GOOD AREA TO TRY IN THE EVENING OR AT DAY BREAK WHEN WATER TEMPERATURES ARE NOT HIGH. 3. Very little cover, some water plants. - FLIP AND PITCH PLASTICS TO THE WATER PLANTS. FISH THEM FROM DIFFERENT POSITIONS. HIT THE SAME SPOT AT LEAST 10 TIMES BEFORE MOVING ON OR CHANGING LOCATIONS. TRY PASSING YOUR BANDIT 100 NEAR THE PLANTS ALONG WITH YOUR SPINNERBAITS. USE SMALLER SPINNERBAITS UNTIL YOU KNOW THE SIZE OF THE FISH IN THE WATER. OR YOU SEE WHAT THE BASS ARE EATING. Now, with all that said, the guys will think I am crazy to tell you all this as you are just beginning your bass fishing journey. But believe me, you can purchase these baits for under or around $6. The Bandits did go up in price and the Senkos will be expensive. So learn the tricks to rigging your Senkos wacky style so you will catch more than one fish before they tear up the Senko. As for scents, go with any scent you want and swab it or spray it onto your plastics. Scent may or may not be good but it is a confidence builder. Have needle nose pliers with you at all times. Be careful when removing treble hooks. Take a second spinning reel rigged and ready to go just in case you get a bad case of the "line twists." Other than for braid, you will get line twist when fishing with spinning gear. You will learn how to spool your spinning reel to minimize line twist. Check out the articles. If line twists bothers you, go with braid. And when reeling in your line keep it tight via running it over your thumb and under your index finger Always check your drag to make sure it is tight. Nothing like getting a hard hit and swinging for the fences and you drag has not been tightened. (Happens to us all sooner or later) Run the line over your thumbnail to check for kicks or cuts and abrasions. If you feel anything out of the ordinary, cut the line above the damaged area and retie your hook back onto the good line. Learn how to tie a Palomar Knot. There are better knots out there but the Palomar is a simple and strong knot to use. You can then learn other knots in the future. Check knot after catching each fish. If necessary, cut and retie. Look at the line and bait parameters stamped on your rods. Do not exceed them. In fact, add the lowest line test to the highest line test and divide by two. You now have a good idea of the line test you need to use. Make sure you do not exceed the bait's weight. And check out the line spooling numbers on your spinning reels. Do not exceed them. Do not over spool spinning reels. Spool leaving at least an 1/8 inch from the top of the spool. More if you feel more confident leaving a larger space. Remember to throw the spinning reel's bail with your hand. Never use the spinning reel's handle to start the reel. And use your hand to close the bail after casting. Learn how to fish the shaky head and drop shot rigs for plastics. Texas rigged worms are great, too. All the best for a fun day in Central Park. Post pics of your catches. Good luck and welcome to the Forum.

Great having you with us. I fished the North River and it was outstanding! As for your back, so sorry to read about your troubles. Back pain is awful and once the doctors start cutting the levels below the one they fix start to fail and the pain gets worse. Thank you for serving our country. And we are all glad you are back bass fishing. Keep us posted on how you do and your catches. Welcome to the Forum.

You reply, "Geaux Tigers!"

Good point. To expand on it, what about what the pros do to their baits that they keep secret? VanDam changes up his baits all the time.

"Is it an unfair advantage if their sponsored guy has them to use in tournaments when they aren't available to anyone else? Happens all the time. The pros get the new baits and colors before we see them and they use them for tournament fishing. Even if they do not catch anything with "X" bait, they still hawk it on stage or in ads. Listen carefully to the pros when they hawk their equipment. They will not say they "caught that beauty on "X." They will say they used "X" and it was a great help or some other baloney. So is it fair? Nope. Is it done? Yep. Will it change? Nope. What can you do about it? Become a bass pro and join the club.

The geese have not started their migration in the greater Richmond, Virginia area. Leaves still on trees. Squirrels are busy as usual. Still have some baby Osprey in the nests and learning to fly. The bass are going crazy and hitting anything you throw so they know something is afoot. But give it time. Fall will arrive in Virginia by this October or November. Then we get three-inches of snow and everyone drives to the grocery store and then into a ditch.

No way! Drop shotting in Virginia waters now is outstanding. You can drop the rig straight down or cast it out. Go with smaller finesse worms and work up to your trick worms and creature baits. I note you are in Fredericksburg. You have access to some great rivers and One Fish Anna if you have a boat or kayak. I am in Richmond and fish all over the eastern part of the state, sneaking out to SML from time to time and hitting Buggs and Gaston each year. Will be on the Rapp out of Hopyard Landing on September 3rd and then hit Buggs on September 23rd out of Rudd's Creek.

Wacky Senkos Zoom Trick Worms Texas rigged Jig and Pig Zoom finesse worms Always throw spinnerbaits, Chatterbaits, Swimming Senkos, swimming jigs, square billed small crankbaits, 1.5 or Bandit 100 sizes. Frogs. The fish will tell you what they want. Have fun.

I always fished Lake Cherokee in Richmond and caught so many two to four pounders each year that it was a pleasure to fish the lake. Then the HOA put in aerators and the grass grew like weeds. The grass took over the lake making the fishing even better, but bothering the pontoon boaters who had to stop many times on the lake to remove the grass. So in their infonaut wisdom, what do you think they did? They purchased a number of grass eating carp (they swear they put in only 30) and two years ago the grass disappeared. And so did the great bass fishing off the dock in the small cove. If I catch a two pounder I am happy. No more days of reeling in 20 bass in an hour. Nope. You can fish off the dock for hours with different baits and presentations and no takers. Like your lake, where did the bass go? Probably in the middle. Probably near the aerator bubbles. But not along the bank or in the mouth of or in the cove. This makes us have to wait to see if the bass population comes back and if your lily pads and my grass return. I don't fish Lake Cherokee much any more. A waste of time. But I do sincerely hope your lily pads and my grass would return so the bass can once again enjoy the waters and make for some really good fishing.

Check out the live well cable to make sure it is working correctly.

I have a client in Bethesda, Maryland that has a great pond. I leave home around 4:30 AM to beat the I-95/DC traffic and fish from around 6:30 to 8:00 or 9:00 depending on the meeting's time. Fun fishing! Keep up the good work.

R, looks that way. Has been way too hot and humid to be on the water. Going from 6 to Noon is not a bad idea unless you are going to miss work. Keep us posted on Swift Creek.

Congrats. You did a great job. Be patient. You will nail that victory, soon.

EG, the information shared with you above is outstanding. Everyone has their input and everyone is correct...for their waters. So let's keep this simple and by the numbers. 1. You live in the great state of New York. So your water temperatures will be colder and your season shorter than most of the country. 2. Due to the water temperature and shorter season, your bass will feed more and get ready for the winter earlier than the states to your south. And topwater is one of their favorite methods to fatten up. 3. Keep it simple. Go with a 90 size Whooper Plopper and a black or white buzzbait for starters. Nothing fancy. Cavitron's work great. 4. If the Whooper Plopper is too expensive to chance, then change out to a topwater popper bait. 5. Give a shaky head worm a try on top of the water. Like a snake. Do not use a weight. Just use a medium or medium heavy spinning rig with 8-pound fluorocarbon line. Move it erratically on the surface. You can use a finesse worm or a trick worm. Or go with one of the 12-inch models. But I suggest going with the finesse and trick worms for this presentation before adding to your length. 6. Do the same with the Senko of your choice, be it Texas or wacky rigged. No weight. Keep it on the surface. 7. A wake bait may be to your advantage. Consider one. Go to YouTube and look up wake bait. 8. Fish the topwater slow. Start with the buzzbait and then to the smaller Whopper Plopper. The popping bait will be next and then the wake bait. But focus on the buzzbait and Whopper Plopper the most. All day long. 9. As for colors, match the hatch and forage's colors. Enough said. 10. And size. Size matters with your baits. Keep them as small as possible at first. Get used to them. See how they work and how the fish hit them. Keep eyes and ears open all the time. Make notes on each adventure. Use a fishing log at the top of this page under "Tools." start out slow and simple. 11. After mastering the smaller baits you are ready for the larger ones. 12. Use spinning gear. Easier to use than a baitcaster. Can handle light weights and line tests. Good luck and let us know how you do.

You know you have been talking fish too much at work when you refuse to work on Kevin VanDam's birthday. You know you have been talking fish too much at work when you wear your bass fishing jersey to work on Fridays. You know you have been talking fish too much at work when you include your personal best on your employment application.

Academy H2O frogs in any color. White and black work great as does the green with yellow/black spots.

And here I am, thinking the Elites Series will be a Banjo Minnow, only deal. On a serious note, how about this: Have a B.A.S.S. and an FLW tournament trail and the top 20 to 25 finishers in each go to the Bassmaster Classic. Like the NFL, MLB, NHL, SEC, ACC, Big 10, etc. The top fishermen go on to the playoffs and the big game. Now that would be interesting to see the top guys and gals from each tournament trail fish together. And it will open the door for us B.A.S.S. guys to get to know the FLW boys and girls and have interest in their successes. Plus the fact that a B.A.S.S. fishermen could also fish the FLW side without any consequences. Thought? P.S. Us old guys remember the first Super Bowl between the Packers and Chiefs. It took Joe Namath of the old Jets in Super Bowl III to defeat the Baltimore Colts and it opened the door to the merger and started all of the NFL fans to start watching the upcoming new AFL teams. Could this happen in bass fishing????

Medium Heavy.

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No, but thanks for the offer. I was sent our Virginia BASS Region 6 payout chart based on the number of boats and used it as a guide for our tournament. We had 12 boats so I used the 12-boat line and the percentages for the payout. Thank you so much for the offer. I sincerely appreciate it.

The H2O frogs are excellent!

Keep your notes on Milford for future reference and study. I don't think words can express how proud everyone on the Forum is of your accomplishments. You are our shinning star out there on the water. And I remember when my Tracker froze up (that was the problem) on the hot side of Anna at Gene's place where you told me that it was the first time you were in a bass boat. I think you went out with Dave Menard that day and I went home. My, how time flies and things change. Gave Tracker to my son who sold it and I have a Ranger now. I will tell Dave about how good you did and are doing. I know he will really like to hear of your accomplishments. Take care and as stated above, have another great year at WVU. "Never Graduate"!!!!!!