Sam

You know, growing up in the 50s, 60s and 70s we did not have all of the TV reporting and news shows nor the web nor XM and Sirius Radio, etc. to give us all the news and crime shows. So we grew up not knowing about a lot of stuff that was happening in our neighborhoods. Now we can watch OJ's vehicle leave the jail or listed to Bill O'Riley blast some criminal or dumb politician and hear and see all the crime and auto accidents you want 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The same goes with this forum. Before this forum we had no one to complain to or tell our stories. Now we do, and our members tell us the good and bad news. It just seems that there are a lot of broken rods and reels out there, but there were a lot of broken rods and reels before this forum but we did not hear about them. We also did not hear everyone's opinion on rods, reels and baits. Now we hear from people all over the world on the site about their experiences with their rods, reels, boats, places to fish, baits, etc. I skip over a lot of posts that do not interest me. I suggest you all do the same and just go along, like me, enjoying fishing and using the equipment and tackle we feel confident using and reading those posts that you are interested.

Wacky is a lot of fun and you will get a lot of hits. Texas style is used a lot, if not almost always, and it will produce some good fish. I threw my wacky rigged Senko after the bass missed my buzzbait yesterday evening and caught a nice pond size one pound bass. I throw my Senkos 80% of the time wacky rigged and 20% Texas rigged. I just like the way the wacky Senko falls as I think it will attract more bites. I use the weedless striaght shank 2/0 and 3/0 hooks which prevents a lot of snags.

Shooter, There are two schools of thought on trailer hook set-ups. The first is to place the rubber tubing over the trailer hook's eye and then run it over the lure's hook. The second is to place the trailer hook on the bait's hook and then run the rubber tubing over the bait's hook. In the first option the hook stands straight out. The major advantage is that it makes for a better hook-set on short strikes. The major disadvantage is that it can act as a rudder and make your lure run incorrectly. In the second option the hook can move up and down. The major advantage is that the moving hook can snag the fish after it hits the lure. The major disadvantage is that a moving hook can be missed by the fish striking the lure or it will miss the fish all together if the fish actually takes the bait in its mouth. Either way is acceptable. Just what ever you like to do. But use a trailer hook on your buzzbaits and spinnerbaits. Also helps a Chatterbait as Chatterbait hook points are not as sharp as you would want them to be.

Welcome aboard. Glad you joined us. Be sure to share your information and knowledge with us and we will do the same for you. If you find a post that you want to keep, just "save" it in your fishing folder. I do this and go back and read the posts again to refresh my memory. Don't be bashful about asking a question. Chances are the question has already be asked or someone out there is wondering about the same thing. East Tennessee - Around Memphis?

Dan, No one has ever said anything about any "white bass" in this area of the James River. However, with that being said, no one can tell the fish where to go and they may just migrate through the rocks and rapids from Ancarrow to this part of the James. I doubt they could swim over either the Williams or Z-Dams so I think that this is the farthest up river they could migrate. Or, someone could have placed them in this part of the river and they are starting to live in the area. My friend, Mike Ostrander of the James River Fishing School, would be a good source to ask. You can go to his web site and ask Mike if he knows of any stripers in this section of the river.

I heard the last part of an interview with Skeet on XM Radio last night and I had no idea what tournament they were discussing as the questions and answers were not making sense. I think it was an interview after he assured himself of the Angler of the Year Award. Makes more sense now that I know what the interview was about. Glad to see him win it.

Blue/black.

Suggetion. More white space by using one sentence paragraphs. All on one page. Take to your English teacher for help with grammer. And since you have a child I would think you would put off your fishing avocation and take care of the kid. You did not mention your wife. Being 18 and saddle with a child is a tremendous responsibility that has to come before your fishing career. If I was a sponsor I would like to have my name on your vehicles, boats and ads but I would think hard about an 18 year old with a baby and suggest taking care of the kid before you go fishing. Good luck.

Thanks guys. I will give them all a try.

Go to the grocery store and buy a loaf of white bread. Go to the pond and tear up the bread and throw it out into the water. Any bream that are in the pond will attack the bread. Then you know there are bait fish in the pond. Next, go to Wal-Mart and purchase some Nightcrawlers. Use them for bait in small chunks on gold number 4 or number 6 hooks. You can also boil a pound of long grain rice and fan it out into the water using a big kitchen spoon around the shoreline and in the grass in the water. If there are minnows or small bream in the pond they will eat the rice. And so will the turtles. Come back the next day to see if the rice has been eaten. If there are baitfish then the bass can survive and maybe you need to transfer some bass into the pond from other local fishing waters. Your first goal is to find out if there are any baitfish in the pond. Your second goal is to find out if there are any bass in the pond. Your third goal is to catch and release the bass. ;D

I broke my rod trying to get a lure out of a tree. Had another one snap when it was stepped on by a jogger while fishing a pond. Never broke a rod on a fish. I am too careful about setting the drag. A little on the loose side.

LBH, Man, would I love to do that. Beautiful fishing spot. And I was also thinking, which is always dangerous, about dragging a six inch finesse worm over the pads using a 1/8 pegged bullet sinker. Be sure you have the line strength to pull them out of the pads. As you know, drag the worm over the pads, let sit; drag some more; let sit; drop into holes; jiggle; continue to drag back over pads; let sit; etc. Watch for the pads to move or just get ready for an unexpected strike. Fishing pads can be fun but you will need patience. I think LBH nailed it about the roadways and other deep spots in the lake. I bet the fish are running up and down the drop offs and then they travel into the shallows in the evenings and at daylight to feed. This lake may be your early AM and late PM paradise!

Beautiful lake. You are blessed to have such a beautiful setting to fish. Sometimes the fish do not want to bite due to the barometric pressure or the temperature. However, with so many places to fish in your lake may I suggest you continue to throw some topwaters as you are doing but down-size them in the daytime. Have you thrown a Senko? Texas or wacky rigged? What about a 10 inch unweighted pink trick worm? Wiggle it in the pads and grass and along the edge of the pads and see if you get any takers. Use a 2/0 hook, either straight shank or EWG. A weedless hook can work, too. What about throwing a finesse worm rigged with the weedless hooks or Texas rigged and a 3/16 ounce pegged bullet weight into the pads? You can also use a Brush Hog or Creature bait. Something small and then something with a lot of bulk to see what they want at that time. Any place you can try your luck with a jig and pig? And what about plastics colors? Have you tried watermealon or watermealon with red flake? Pumpkinseed? June Bug? Mocassin Blue? Thrown any Gulp! worms? Also, don't forget the Swimming Senko. I caught only one on it as I have thrown it only once because I love my buzzbaits too much to throw the Swimming Senko but give it a try. There may also be a hidden "hole" where the fish go for the cooler water and higher oxygen levels in the daytime and then they get active when the sun goes down. They may also be way into the pads and grass. You may have to throw a Senko out into the lake to try to find where they are staging during the day. Part of fishing is trying to figure out what the fish want and when. Keep a diary and soon you may see the pattern that the fish are telling you. Yesterday, on my way from Fork Union to Stafford, I stopped at the Monticello Pond (Thomas Jefferson's Home) on Route 53 and caught only baby bass. No big ones. I was limited to the shoreline and I did not fish a lot in fear of being thrown off the property so I did not have the time to walk around the pond. So many times the bass just do not want to feed during the day. They will be content just to sit there and watch the world go by. Let us know what you find out and consider the other suggestions you will be receiving on this post. Have fun experimenting.

Bass Hunter, If it wasn't for those two phantom pass interference calls by the refs Bama would have lost. It seems to me that the Bama guys just ran out of gas in the second half and were lucky to win the game. But when Satan was at LSU the Fighting Tigers won games in the final minutes so this is just like Satan to have his team pull out a victory. This is going to be another wild and crazy SEC football season. Hey, even Kentucky can play football, which is a miracle in itself. ;D

Basketball? We just started football. And UK may win a few games this year. Basketball? Can you wait until December?

When you purchase your trailer hooks you will find the small rubber or plastic tubing in the package. Use it. Then you can go to your favorite hardware store and purchase some tubing like it for future use. But the tubing you get in the trailer hook packages will be OK.

You can take the kid out of the city but you can't take the city out of the kid. Once a thug always a thug.

Burley, Are you talking about the Florida Gators and the Tennessee Volunteers when you give those definitions? Opps. I mean are you talking about those Florida Gators? One game, good or bad, does not make a season, unless it is the Alabama-Auburn matchup. With the better games ahead we will see who are the contenders and who are the pretenders.

Once it is Reelmech to the rescue. Great article. I saved it the last time you mentioned it to us. I have eliminated about 95% of my backlashes and can really swing that bait out there. Thanks again.

Makes sense. I have modified my Tracker so much that it is a very nice boat that I can get into really shallow places. And is that an Auburn golf tee shirt? Did you see the game against State this Saturday night? Auburn really let me down.

Never heard of a stripped bass that far up the James River. Good show!

I was very surprised at the scores of the Nebraska-USC; Auburn-State; and the Tennessee-Florida games. I was more upset at the two "phantom pass interferrence" calls on the last drive in Tuscaloosa that gave the Tide and Satan the win. I was not surprised that Tulane lost another game. ;D LSU played its second string QB and other second and third string players and shut down a very offensively powerful Middle Tennesee State team which also surprised me. I agree with you guys that USC could lose at least one, if not two games. So could LSU as their schedule is brutal. Isn't college football a lot of fun.

Hey guys, I do the same thing. I use the gallon freezer bags and write on them what types of plastics are inside. I have bags of Senkos; wacky rigged Senkos ready to go; finesse worms; by colors; and by styles (creature, lizzards, tubes, etc.) I put the bags of the lures I think I will use the most separate from my boxes of hard baits and the other bags of plastics while in the boat. I take a bag of the plastics for my tackle box when pond fishing. So how do I separate them? It just depends. If I know the water clarity and the vegitation I will put a bunch of differenct baits in the "watermealon" bag. If it is in the spring I put the different lizzards and brush hogs in one bag, without regard to color. I have all of my Gulp! together in one bag. I put the Senkos in the 4-inch, 5-inch and 6-inch bags without regard for color. I have all of my Mocassion Blue plastics together. Just do it anyway you want. It saves a lot of time when rigging and changing baits.

Look in the hook section of your favorite tackle store for trailer hooks. They come in all sizes from 1/0 and up. The trailer hook can be one size smaller than the bait's hook. Make sure the trailer hook is in the same position as the bait's hook. There are two schools of thought on rigging a trailer hook. The first says to put the eye of the trailer hook inside the plastic or rubber tubing and then run it through the bait's barb and hook. By doing this, the trailer hook sits straight out and cannot move. The second reasoning is to put the trailer hook on the bait's hook and then run the rubber or plastic tubing onto the bait's hook, allowing the trailer hook to move up and down and all around. I have done both and have caught more with the trailer hook moving up and down and all around then by having it stick straight out. But that's only my experience. When you see the rubber tubing it will look useless. You have to keep the holes of the tubing to the side and run the tubing over the hook's tip and barb. The tubing holes will be to the right and left of the bait's hook. Check out this site for more on trailer hooks or Google trailer hooks and see if you can find any photos of how to rig one. And they work. Especially on buzzbaits. Good on spinnerbaits and Chatterbaits, too.

For longer casts use a longer rod. When casting make sure you have at least 6 inches of line out from the end of the rod tip. Have your baitcaster set with a little looser reel speed than having it perfectly balanced and back off on your drag. Watch out for a backlash. Throw your bait from over your head at 12 Noon and let her rip. The heavier the lure the longer the cast and the more probable you will get a backlash unless you use your thumb and stop the line as the lure hits the water or right before it hits the water or lands high in a tree. Make sure you have the correct line for your lure and technique as you may not get a good hookset when throwing a long cast. This can produce nightmares about the one that got away. Practice at home before going to the water. Balance the reel as best possible and practice, practice, practice. Remember, the longer the cast the less control you will have.