John J.

When we were down lake it was 48 degrees. We then decided to head up for warmer water which it was around 50. We tried different spots and went all over. I keep trying to evaluate what we did wrong, but maybe we were retrieving our jigs too fast or something. Needless to say the water was in the 45-50 degree range.

Hey Mike, I don't mean to be a smart @$$ here or anything, but I think you have a spelling error in your post ;D I highlighted it for you.... It should be THAT instead of WHAT. I just figured I'd let you know... Have fun and I can't wait to see what you catch! I hope you get that 10 pounder!

and I hope you learn a lot on this forum, as there are plenty of intelligent fisherman here ready to answer your questions!!! Now get posting!

If I have the story straight, you will grow up to be 'Darth Vader' and kill us all with a "Death Star". LOL Ronnie Sounds good to me ;D

It's me! ;D

Don't worry my friend, a few more anniversaries will go by before she starts complaining about you going out fishing...It always seems like women (no offense to anyone) seem to allow things easily at first but then tighten up when the man goes fishing more and more, and the wife wants him to be with her. But yes congrats on your first anniversary!!!

The same amount of time that you can survive by holding your breath under water (2-3 minutes).

Me and the Coordinator for the Virginia's Casting Kids event (Bert Seymour) took off yesterday to Lake Anna. It was rumored to be a warm (70 degrees) but windy day (15-20 mph winds), so we figured why not go? We hit the lake at about 8:30 or so and fished until 3:00pm with NOTHING! I read on the lake anna report on sturgeoncreekmarina.com and it said to throw suspended jerkbaits, jigs and crankbaits. Me and Bert threw all of those, and even more with nothing. We tried everything from fishing main lake points, docks, coves, creek channels, and any other cover/structure that we could find with no luck. We found bass on the sonar but they wouldn't bite. I keep wondering what we did wrong...The only things that we didn't throw would include a C-rig, Drop Shot rig, topwater, and wacky (which I would have thrown that if I wouldn't have accidently left my finesse bag at home with all my wacky finesse hooks, and weights!) He threw jerkbaits, flukes, crankbaits, jerkbaits, jigs, shakey head, texas rig, and I threw rattle trap, jerkbaits, jigs, jigging spoon. An unsuccessful day on the water, but it beats sitting at home doing nothing. Maybe next time we can have some luck!

pretty much I am Anakin Skywalker...Don't know what that means, but yeah...

LOL You're in New Mexico do you really have a say in this! ;D I ain 't in New Mexico, I 'm farther to the south, 600 miles to the south from the US-Mexico border. It 's 92 degrees right now..... almost purfect, when it hits 100° then it will be purfect. Thanks for rubbing it in Raul!!! I hope you get a bad sunburn! :

Actually believe it or not the crappy spawn earlier than bass. What you may be seeing is fry crappie. They can be white or black crappie. In my area, the crappy spawn in Feburary and March, while the bass spawn in April, May. They may be crappie, after all most pond owners do stock their ponds with crappie. 8-)

Could the mechanic possibly be you Muddy? ;D

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D good ones!

Yep congrats to Alton! I was sort of pulling for John Crews as he was the only contender from Virginia. But he was too far behind to make it. I met John Crews once, he is really a nice guy! I met him at the Sportsman Show that was held at the Fredericksburg Center last year. My club had a booth there and I met him.

I could post all my stash...but I am afraid my camera won't hold over a thousand pictures worth of lures... So for sake of argument, let's just say I have plenty of good lures! ;D

Good going. All I got to say is you guys are more brave than I am lol! My parents were raised in the south, and I was born and raised here in Virginia. If I had a gator following me around, I'd be scared to death lol! More power to you! ;D ;D ;D But way to go!

And what he's throwing!!! That lure has to be at least 10 feet long in order to catch something like that! LOL! ;D

2006: Lost count 2007: I think I stopped at like 80 something... 2008: so far 1... This year I am really going to up my game and go fishing as much as I can! I want a new PB and I got a lot of new tactics that I want to put to some use, as well as learn some more techniques.

Obviously in ultra clear water, the best colors are natural ones, as far as lures, I would throw topwater (rebel pop-r, Rapala Skitter Pops, Zara Spooks). Once the sun gets higher then I would then switch to crankbaits, jerkbaits, and jigs. JMO...

Ditto. It may be fun to watch a bass jump, but it's that moment that your line is slacked and the bass can easily spit the hook! So keep the line tight and to prevent spits, set the hook hard and properly in the first place! Also try to prevent a bass from getting leverage (diving under neath the boat, etc.) it can feel which way the hook is in and it will get leverage by swimming in the opposite direction of the hook insert and be able to spit it also.

It all depends on weather, season, and temperature. I do my best when the water temps are in the mid to upper 60s and 70s, it is sunny and hardly no wind, then I fish wacky plastics and jigs around shoreline cover (downed trees, bushes, docks, etc), in the shade. When it is over-cast and warm, and slightly windy, I enjoy throwing spinner-baits, top water in the morning, and texas-rigged plastics. I go to different patterns through different situations

Good job, way to go!

Lol! Good story, kind of reminds me of my club's tournament at Lake Orange. Some of the members from my club were trying to back their boat down into the water from the ramp. And they backed it down with nobody in the boat to run the trolling motor to drive it back to shore, nor did any of them hold the rope tied to the bow. I was getting all my fishing gear out of the truck and was about to put it into my partner's jon boat when a little kid walked up to me and asked: "Hey, those guys over there in your club, they just launched their boat with nobody controlling it!" All I could do was laugh and shake my head and think "You dumb basses (but without the 'b' ;D)" I looked over in time to see their boat floating away into the launch cove with nobody in it or nobody having any control. So to get the boat back they had to board another jon boat provided by my club and paddel out there to get it lol! It was a moment that I will never forget! ;D

You're not the only one bud I can't pitch or flip on a bait-caster to save my life. When I try the lure only goes at max 5 feet lol! With a spin-cast I am accurate!

I have a few. 1/4 ounce football headed peanut-butter and jelly jig with my homemade Crawtail trailer. I also commonly use wacky rigged YUM Dingers, ZOOM Finesse Worms and my home made Finesse Worms and cigarbaits. I use to throw spinner-baits all the time, but I've stayed away from them. But I will get back to using them once again. For spinner-bait my favorite brand is BOOYAH! and the spinner-bait I like is the 3/8 ounce Glimmer-Shad skirt with hammered willow-leaf silver blades.