Curved

Double clinch for terminal, and double palomar for in-line is what I use. That said, if I can chose only one knot, its double palomar.

Need to spend more time with hard baits.

Look balance-matched! Now just need to find some salt water

Has anyone seen an empty one on their boat? I'm a good-natured christian 26 year old, married, w/ kids. If anyone can take me fishing on their boat I'd like the opportunity to come! I'm interested in doing tournaments. I live in Winchester VA and I'm available most weekday afternoons and weekends. Ideally would like to find someone who likes to go to a wet spot 1-5 times a week in the good season. Shenandoah River and Lake Frederick are where I usually fish. Tell me if you see that empty seat! -Chase Adams

Great showmanship and great overview for beginners.

I have a great strength. When I walk into a place with fishing stuff available for purchase, I am able to walk out without even buying one single thing. This is very hard for me to do, so I imagine it is something many struggle with.

50 degrees or so

A citation of anything.

I've got an older version of the 5'6" Light in this link, and couldn't ask for anything more out of it: http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Fishing-Response-Series-5-Feet/dp/B005P42W9I/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1354460478&sr=8-2&keywords=Quantum+fishing+response+light I like it so much I've been tempted to upgrade some of my other rods to different sizes of that same line. The winning attributes are that it is very light (4 oz give or take) and highly sensitive. I was trying rods at Gander recently and the only rods I liked better were some of the St. Croixs. Here's the one I use for trout and sunfish: http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Fishing-6-Feet-Ultralite-2-Piece/dp/B0000B13Q0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354460413&sr=8-1&keywords=Quantum+rod Not as fond of it, but ultralight is necessary for lighter weights I use for trout. The 6'6" helps get the tiny weights a bit further.

Lucky son of a bass

FWIW, the Shenandoah was 42 degrees a few days ago, so the Potomac is probably right around the same temp.

Great read

Kind of an old thread, but my smallie setup is a $37 quantum 5'6" light combo. Probably my favorite rod/reel, though I don't have any "top notch" brands/models. Well, other than that monster penn 10' surf rod/reel which is worth more than all my other rods/reels combined. The other stuff tied onto that quantum combo -- line, hook, weight, lure -- on any given day is more valuable than the rod/reel. Besides the rod/reel, I think the one piece of tackle that is now invaluable for shore fishing is nanofil line. I've got 12 lb on that quantum rig. The 12 lb is the same diameter as 6 lb mono so it works well on a light setup, and the extra cast distance -- something like 50%-100% longer range -- has put a lot of extra fish in my basket. It does need a leader though. I just put 3 lb nanofil on my ultralight this week, and I'll be damned if that stuff can't cast 20 yards with a bb splitshot. I've never even been able to cast a bb 5 feet before.

Congrats! Good looking fish.

If it's for spinning gear, I recommend Nanofil. Casts a mile and doesn't tangle when twisted.

It's hard to convince them to bite anything right now. Wherever they are, you have to put what they normally bite right on their nose.

Thanks for all the help guys. Same stream, a little bigger fish. There's a hole I found which has 20 or so trout like this one sitting on the bottom at any given time. Also another hole with 100 fallfish in the 6-10" range. The stream is only 10-15 ft across, so it's neat to discover these small pockets of wildlife so close to home. The white bait is a Berkley Honey Worm. The one above was caught with a 1" gulp minnow. Also caught some with a berkley power floating trout worm. They were biting dough too, but I tend to use the other baits since they last longer and are less messy. I've been using a dropshot on ultralight tackle.

Roboworms will work great from shore since they float.

Sure they do

Try a dropshot. Spartan, Bulldog, or Falcon? I was a Spartan back in the day.

This on a dropshot, except it was a twitchtail instead of a fluke.

Guilty as charged..... -There is at least one fishing pole in the trunk every day of the year (You never know!) -The bucket fishermen think you're taking all the good ones -You nod appreciatively when you hear "Yum dinger" -An umbrella is something you catch fish with -You can tell your son he's not going to catch anything there -Your son fishes there anyway and doesn't catch anything

Just saw this in another thread and reading your post reminded me of it: Don't worry about the books unless you're stumped on a particular situation. Just go out there and put lures in as much real estate of water as you can until you start getting bites. If you don't know where to start, the simplest tackle I know is a #1 dropshot/octopus hook, 8 lb mono, some splitshot, and a bag of green stickbaits like yum dingers. Fish them wacky, dropshot, or splitshot. Try with just a 1" chunk instead of the whole thing. I've caught some fish with all of the above configurations. Just pick one way and keep trying new spots all day until you've found them.

Welcome to the forum! Finding the bass is more difficult than catching them. After you find them, a 4" dropshot worm, 5" sinko, and a jig with a crawfish trailer will catch almost any bass with a mouth. Finding them is difficult because of the changing seasons, differing climates, changing weather, and different types of water. In a deep lake around here, right now the bass will be on the bottom of the lake next to a tree, a rock, or a spring. Without sonar finding bass is more difficult. Especially in cool weather when their ambush range is small. It just takes a lot of patience. Good luck!

The great teacher once said, So I say it is the right thing to let another fisherman borrow some space, and if it is necessary, to find a new place to fish. Quote is from Matthew 5:38.