Sam

We really have no magic bait. You have to determine what level the fish are holding and throw baits, accordingly. Topwater - Cavitron's, RICOs, Frogs and Spook-like baits. Mid Range - Crankbaits, spinnerbaits, Chatterbaits and swimming plastics. Bottom - Shaky head, drop shots, Texas rigs, Carolina rigs, MOJO rigs, deep diving crankbaits, slow rolling spinnerbaits. Experiment at each level and keep a log so you will know what works and does not work under what specific conditions. Looks like you will have a fun time finding where they are hiding. Enjoy!

I believe you have to be enrolled and in good standing with the school, meaning good grades. Yikes! Good grades. Who in their right mind would make someone who only wants to fish get good grades to stay in school? What is this world coming to?

Dereck, please watch the wind. It will cause white caps on the Chick and James. You can scoot under the bridge and hang a right and go into Upper Chippoaks but the water conditions may not allow you to do this. Good luck and let us have the details and how you did. Be safe. We need you to pay a lot into FICA!!!!

You have to go up that far and then under the bridge on your next trip. Beautiful pads and lots of wood. Check it out on Google Earth. Hope you are doing well and enjoying a few beautiful days of fantastic weather until the front moves through Friday and messes up the weekend.

Check out the winds. Going to be a rough day on the Chick this Saturday. 7:00 am 47 °F 42 °F 40 °F 78% Clear 7% 0 in 9 mph WNW 8% 29.82in 8:00 am 47 °F 43 °F 39 °F 73% Clear 3% 0 in 10 mph WNW 2% 29.83in 9:00 am 50 °F 45 °F 39 °F 65% Clear 2% 0 in 12 mph WNW 6% 29.82in 10:00 am 52 °F 47 °F 38 °F 59% Clear 1% 0 in 15 mph WNW 12% 29.83in 11:00 am 54 °F 50 °F 37 °F 51% Clear 0% 0 in 16 mph WNW 18% 29.84in 12:00 pm 56 °F 52 °F 36 °F 46% Clear 0% 0 in 17 mph WNW 23% 29.84in 1:00 pm 57 °F 53 °F 35 °F 42% Partly Cloudy 0% 0 in 17 mph WNW 30% 29.83in 2:00 pm 58 °F 55 °F 34 °F 40% Partly Cloudy 0% 0 in 17 mph WNW 36% 29.82in 3:00 pm 59 °F 56 °F 33 °F 38% Partly Cloudy 0% 0 in 16 mph WNW 34% 29.81in 4:00 pm 59 °F 56 °F 33 °F 38% Clear 0% 0 in 15 mph WNW

I'm from the other end of the state and was needing some info on the Chickahominy River. - You need to check the tide charts and plan your day, accordingly. Tides will be outgoing in the mornings of Friday and Saturday. You want an outgoing tide. Check them out, here: http://www.saltwatertides.com/dynamic.dir/virginiasites.html Only problem you will have is the rain on Friday so check the weather for rain and winds. The Chick can be like the Atlantic Ocean if the winds get high. We are putting in at riverfront Friday of this week, and I've got a few ideas about places that look good on the map. - Riverfront Park, aka Route 5 Bridge, is a nice ramp. As stated above, you can stay in Gordon Creek; go across the river into Morris Creek; or fish the grass banks on the outside edges; hit the docks and coves; cypress trees can be good this time of year. Shipyard and Yarmouth Creeks are good; Dick's New Creek may be OK; and fish the other creeks as you see them going up and down the river. A 17' foot boat is fine on the Chick so don't rule anything out. Just check out River Rest for gasoline and fill up to be sure you have enough fuel to have a good time. Word of Caution: If you have a GMCO map of the Chick study it and pay attention to the shallow areas. You can hit a sand bar or mud flat easily on the Chick if you are not careful or know how to get in and out of some of the creeks. We will be fishing out of a 17' boat. - Boat size is Ok for the Chick. You just will take longer to get where you are going. So get an early start first thing Saturday morning and head to the dam before the Osborne Landing, Route 5 and River Rest's tournaments head up that way. And make sure you have a throw cushion on the deck even though you will never see any conservation officers on the Chick. There is a big tournament out of Route 5 on Saturday and Sunday and they will hog the ramp. So get there as early as you can; go out into the creek and watch the guys unload their boats; and at the first glimmer of safe light take off for the dam to beat the Virginia BASS Federation Shoot-Out guys and gals and the boats coming down river from Osborne Landing in Richmond. And I mean early. The tournament guys will be putting in starting around 3:30 to 4 AM, if not sooner. You need to get in line or get there really early to be in the water ASAP on Saturday morning. If you get to the ramp early you can tie off to the dock and then hit the bathrooms which are to the west of the ramp at the end of the parking lot area. The weigh-in on Saturday is at 4, I believe, so wait until after 5 or 6 PM to trailer your boat or do so before 4. You can ask the guys at the ramp Saturday morning what time is their weigh-in. The dock is small and not much room for any boats to tie off. Get on the "inside" side of the dock and tie off to stay out of the tournament guys' way or get into the creek and be ready to blast off ASAP. Or.....you can launch at River Rest in the middle of the river and beat everyone to the dam. Check out a map of the Chick and you will see River's Rest in the middle of the river across from the "Thoroughfare." You can "Google Map Directions" to get to River Rest. With the Saturday tournaments you may do better at River Rest than at Route 5. And the bathrooms are better, too. They are on the first floor of the motel on the north side. How bad did the hurricane hurt the area? - According to reports all is fine and the hurricane did no damage to the Chick. Of course, the hurricane did over $5,000,000 of improvements to Petersburg. Any methods or bait colors or patterns I should definitely give a try? - Yes. Junebug trick worms on shaky heads; Senkos, finesse worms and trick worms in watermelon red; all types of crankbaits; spinnerbaits; Chatterbaits; green pumpkin trick worms on shaky heads; jigs and pigs; and anything else you want to try. Who knows what they will want on Friday and then they change their minds on Saturday. Be sure to skip under docks and flip and pitch all over the place. Topwaters are doing great one day and then nothing the next. So throw your favorite topwaters all over the place fist thing in the morning and then during the day. At the dam fish the grass to the west and float down river. You can also hit the Rock-A-Hoc area and their piers to the east of the dam. Or fish the water coming into the Chick from Chick Lake. Just fish that area as this is were the big ones live. Then go back to your tides and catch up with them from the dam down to the Historic James River. Really hate driving 4-5 hrs and be clueless since I have never fished this particular area before or any tidal waters really. - More of a reason to drive 4 to 5 hours to fish a tidal river to learn about it. Just remember that an outgoing tide is best and there is about an hour of slack tide between the tides moving once again. And slack time is down time as all the fish take a break from eating. The last two hours of an outgoing tide and the first hour of an incoming tide are usually the best but the fish have not read this rule and they will do what they want to do. Check out the four Chick tides at the locations up the river and plan your day by following the falling tides. In other words, check the times for each of the four locations on the Tide Information link above and go from there. But remember, the guys will be running to the dam and you do the same, just bring along a lot of cash or a dozen credit cards so you can refill your gas tank at River Rest on the Chick or on your way to your motel that evening. And speaking of motels, try to find one where you can plug in your battery charger. Don't forget breakfast, lunch and snacks plus lots of water. Have fun; be safe; and let us know how you do and what worked and what did not work, etc. P.S. Just realized your are fishing a 60-boat tournament. Is this the Shoot-Out? Get to the ramp ASAP and be ready to see the bigger boats disappear up river after blast off as they run to the dam. Your best bet may be to fish Gordon Creek way in the back along the grass lines and the wood and dock to your right as you go into the creek and then float out back to the main river hitting the grass lines and the tree on the north side about a quarter of a mile from the ramp. All of the good places at the dam will be taken by the time you get there. In fact, the guys would have fished the dam area and moved on into the creeks by the time you poke along to the dam. Hope you can get a nonboater who knows the Chick and can help you fish the river. Suggestion - Forget the dam and head into Diascund Creek and go to the back under the train bridge and start fishing. Watch your wake as you travel in Diascund Creek as the VG&IF guys will give you a ticket for throwing a wake within 50-feet of a dock or boat house. Only problem is that the guys blasting off in the last half of the blast off will hit Diascund so you do the same and try to beat the crowd.

Joe, there are too many variables to be considered when selecting your rod so you will have to have many rods in your arsenal as you get into bass fishing. The first step is to determine your height. if you are short then a 6'6" rod can be great. If you are tall then you can go 7" and over if you wish. If you are skipping the baits under cover or flipping and pitching a shorter rod is best. If you are humming your bait five-miles than a longer rod will be best. So anything goes as long as you have confidence in your setup. You will have to figure out which rods and their weights are best for you depending on how your fishing situations change. Just remember to "balance" the bait's weight, rod and reel on every rod. Check out the bait and line weight parameters that are stamped on each rod to make sure the rod can handle your line and bait's weight for maximum performance. Now get a rod and a reel and 500-pounds of baits and hit the water!

Drew, no, you are not alone. One of my bass fishing friends and I have been having a running discussion about me using a right handed baitcaster and a left handed spinning reel. My friend says that I should use only the right handed reels to save time and not have to switch hands after a cast. Its all about personal preference and confidence. Use the reels you are most comfortable with and have the most confidence in.

Yes, there are bass clubs up towards the Tri-Cities and Richmond areas. I know Richmond Bassmasters accepts nonboaters. I also know that many, if not all, Tri-Cities bass clubs need you to pair up with another guy as they fish the "team concept." Richmond's dues are $110 and include state and national dues. There is a voluntary $6 annual big fish pot. You have to be a member of BASS. They will be voting to fishing 8 tournaments and skipping the hot months of July and August for 2017. Nice guys with nice boats and you will learn a lot about the waters of central Virginia. if you want to go east towards Tidewater there are a bunch of clubs in that direction but I have no idea if they are accepting nonboaters. For more information on the Richmond club you can PM me. Or go to the drop downs at the top of the Forum page for Links and check out Virginia bass club federations. That will give you an idea of the clubs in the Tri-Cities, Richmond and Tidewater areas.

1. Go to a school that has a college fishing program, be it BASS or FLW. 2. Have a bass boat and a place to store it while in college. 3. Get parents to fund your college fishing including gas, insurance, upkeep, tackle, travel, shirts, dues, food, drinks, and everything else that goes with fishing tournaments. In other words, GET THAT CREDIT CARD! 4. Be patient as there will be guys on the team who may not be as good as you but have "paid their dues" and will fish more tournaments than you may fish. 5. Keep grades up so you stay in school and parents are happy with both school and fishing. 6. Forget girls. Girls are the kiss of death of a college fishing guy. They don't understand bass fishing and they want to do stupid social stuff like go to dinner and a movie or a party or study. Can you imagine that? Dumb girls. 7. Don't do anything dumb to get thrown off the team like smoke, do pot or drugs, get in fights, flunk out, get engaged, get married, get drunk, get a DUI, etc. Now, with all that being understood you can check out which schools wherever you are (you need to add your physical location to your avatar for us) and pick out a few schools to go visit with your parents. Good luck and by all means, get that degree.

Sorry to say, Darren, but most of the Cabela's people are gonners. Even at their home office many will have to leave once the operations are merged together. As for the in-store sales staff, they are more protected until BPS realizes that most of them know nothing of the departments they are working, such as guns, fishing, hunting, etc. Another sad day in America when we lose more jobs after working so long and hard for one company. Gundog, when I saw the S&W .38 special with the laser advertised in a Richmond, Virginia Cabela's flyer that I was interested in purchasing I went to the Cabela's newest store in the West End and not only did the guy behind the counter not know of the gun but he had no idea they had it stock. I had to show it to him in the display case and then he went in the "back" to make sure it was the same weapon. Same with the fishing guys in Richmond's newest Cabela's. They had not heard of GMCO maps of the area's lakes and rivers nor did they have any idea about bass fishing in general. GMCO maps are the "bible" of maps in Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina and everyone who fishes knows about them and keeps them on board as backup incase your electronics go out and at home with waypoints and other data written on them for future reference. On the other hand, other than for one or two turkeys at the Richmond BPS on I-95 everyone in the fishing department fishes bass tournaments and it is fun to shop there to meet other bass guys and gals plus talk about baits, tournaments, people we know, bodies of water, who did what to whom, etc. Hopefully the Cabela's will remain in Richmond and the staff will be improved.

Molay, you have opened the box to a lot of suggestions as there are so many knives out there that you can consider. I will not give you any specific knives to review but will suggest going to a store that sells lots of knives and look at a number of them based on their size and functions. Let us know which one you decide upon.

Sam, very few of us fish Briery Creek on a regular basis, other than for Wayne. As for the water quality and clarity, I have no idea. Briery Creek is very deep, as you know, so I would think fishing conditions would be OK now that the cold front is a few days old. Give it a shot and let us know how you do. Good luck.

Jon, both southern ladies and southern large mouth bass ladies do not shut off at anytime down south. Come on down and see for yourself.

Suggestion: Remove baits from rods before trailering boat and do not put baits on rods until you leave the area. Suggestion: Don't tell everyone what you caught or where. If necessary, lie. Suggestion: There will always be people who have no idea what they are doing when bass fishing and they think that they can just view your baits and go out and catch fish one cast after another. It is part of bass fishing and you have to put up with it. Now, if you really want to blow their minds rig all rods with the Banjo Minnow (or some other worthless bait) or throw some around the boat and tell the guys at the ramp that the bass just ate them up. Then laugh your way home.

That's easy. You wear nothing but purple and gold clothes and a cap and you sit in the marsh all by yourself with your eyes closed and and hum to your self as you think about gumbo, bar-b-q redfish, po boys, Barq's, beignets, Community Coffee, oysters Rockefeller, oyster loafs with lots of oysters and ketchup, alligator and sherry, redfish smothered in crawfish tails bananas Foster, etc., etc., etc. I could go on but I am too hungry now. Once you do this you will have your thoughts in order and with help from us guys on the Forum you will be in the Bassmaster Classic in two years. Keep us posted.

Sorry guys. Teddy Carr just sent me an email telling me that the book is out of print and he does not have any copies. Oh well, we tried.

Glad to have you with us. Be sure to keep us posted on your exploits. Also, have you fished the eddy to the left of Bosher's Dam? You will have to put in at Flatwater by the Huguenot bridge and paddle up river to the dam. Great smallmouth fishing in that area. Be safe and we look forward to your queries and input.

Welcome, Marshfly. Love that Houma area. I have a Cajun friend who I went to LSU with and he lives in Houma. Many years ago I visited him to go redfish fishing as a hurricane was approaching and we thought we could get the trip in before I left for Baton Rouge on Saturday. We went redfish fishing in the marsh on Friday and had a great time although, with a storm approaching, the redfish seemed to have headed out into the Gulf. I left for Baton Rouge to see the Fighting Tigers take on Idaho on the morning of September 26, 1998 and Louie's wife was going crazy about getting the house ready for the approaching storm. I offered to help Louie get the property ready but Louie told me that all he had to do was fill the boat with water to hold it down; board up the windows; and put everything that was in the yard in the shed. When I asked him if he was worried about the canal behind his house flooding he said "Don't worry. We are three feet above sea level." His house did not have any damage. As for me? I stayed for the entire game in Tiger Stadium while the PA announcer was telling the crowd as the game progressed which highways were getting ready to close by the state police. In the 4th quarter the stands were almost empty. I found a pay phone (yes, they had pay phones in Tiger Stadium way back in 1998) and called my wife in Richmond who told me that the airline was calling me to tell me my flight from New Orleans was cancelled that Sunday. So what did I do? I drove the rental car against traffic on Interstate 12 to Hammond and then turned left onto I-55 north and crossed into Mississippi and headed to Atlanta where I turned in the car and flew to Richmond. Still hoping to hit Houma again for some great redfish fishing, but not during hurricane season. For more information on Toledo Bend get with Catt on the Forum. He is the expert! Welcome and post some pics of those beautiful beauties you catch down in Houma.

Great deal. Now "super size" her so you will be cool when towing your bass boat.

I sent an email to Teddy to find out if he has any copies available for sale. Will let you know what he says.

Fred, repost in the geographical area that includes Kentucky for best results. Hope you will continue on the Forum as opposed to being one of the many "one and done." Introduce yourself in the Introductions section so we will know your level of bass fishing. And please add your physical location to your avatar so we can give you more precise input. Welcome to the Forum.

The water is over Kyle's knees which is not good. Glad he and his family's property was not damaged. Keep us posted on what is going on in Wake Forest. And I understand I-95 is closed at Lumberton due to high water.

Wow! I expect we will read more stories like yours. Glad you and the family are OK. Hope you get power back, soon. We lucked out in Virginia other than for the flooding in Tidewater. Keep us posted.

it is 4:36AM on Sunday, October 9th, and it is still raining in Richmond, Virginia plus the area towards Tidewater and up the coast into Maryland and Delaware. Rain should stop around 6 AM. Lucky for us in Richmond that we did not have high winds or we would have lost power and had major damage. My bass club had only five guys fish Lake Gaston and to say the least the tournament was a bust. One guy caught 3; three guys caught 2; and one guy skunked. Glad I stayed home and watched football. Hope everyone is OK, especially our Florida, Georgia and South Carolina members. Let us know how you fared.