Snakehead Whisperer

This is a staple in my freshwater arsenal, especially in the colder months. Good dropshot bait. To Choporoz... I'd follow the advice in this thread, especially swimbaits/bucktails/grubs, and don't overlook the blood worms.

Don't really ever target cats unless I'm camping on the river. Night time catfishing is always a blast though. This year I've caught at least 50 blues on the tidal potomac on jigs, dropshots and crankbaits, with some going well over 20lbs. They always put up a good fight. I'm probably going to get into more as it gets colder and I start shifting my focus to walleye. I've caught some nice flatheads in deeper water while walleye fishing in the winter months. Those fish are built like a tank (both the blues and the flatheads, but especially the latter.)

Haven't really found anything worth mentioning this year, although I've seen some really strange stuff pulled out of the water in the past. My friend Edwin once fought and boated a Puegeot 10-speed bicycle in 10FOW because he snagged a Roman Made on it. Several weeks ago I caught a mint condition Lucky Craft Fat CB by 1 treble hook while cranking through some brush. Even the hooks were fresh.

Love those redfin perch. I recently tied some tiny 1/32oz. hair jigs specifically for yellow perch. Results were pretty good, with a few decent sized ones. This is the largest so far this year. And the hair jig that I caught them on.

Nice looking little walleye there.

The ones caught in Lake Merced and Lake Berryessa in CA were news to me. I grew up fishing both of those lakes.

Apparently there are records of these fish turning up in Florida, although not many. According to USGS there aren't any self sustaining populations. http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?speciesID=799

They've always looked like a striped bass with big teeth and orange fins to me.

Now that you've caught your arowana you need to step it up to the arapaima

Amazing catch. Arowana is on my bucket list.

All good suggestions in this thread. You can also try dock shooting like in this video by Fishound.

I can't really advise on the kayak, aside from recommending safety gear and an anchor. With that said I would rather fish from an inner tube with my Lowrance, than to fish from my boat without it.

There are so many that I can't even begin to list them all. My favorite fishing of the year is when the topwater bite is on for stripers in the fall. Nothing like catching a good striper on a popper with light/medium tackle in heavy current.

Are you talking about Burke Lake? If so, you should check out Charlie Taylor's report... it usually has a blurb about muskies on Burke. I've had a few follows there on bucktails and crankbaits, but never hooked up. Seen some nice ones come out of that lake though, and the follows that I had were decent sized fish. A few years ago I saw a guy catch what was probably a 10-12lb muskie at Burke on a Zebco spincast reel and a light action fiberglass rod, while fishing with his son. He was fishing nightcrawlers and probably a size 4-6 hook, and the fight was epic Guy actually managed to boat, photo and release the fish. This was on the west side of Vesper Island, right where it drops into deeper water. If you can get up that way, the Potomac upstream of Harper's Ferry is a good muskie fishery. The most densely populated area being between Williamsport and Hancock, although muskies have been caught all the way down to Great Falls. I saw one caught at the mouth of Seneca Creek a few months ago. There are both tiger muskie and true strain muskie in the Potomac, although the origin of the true strain muskies is a bit of a mystery. An interesting side not is that there are also confirmed catches of northern pike, although this has not happened in many years to my understanding. Plummer's Island near Cabin John, MD is one area where I've heard of pike being caught on the Potomac.

I believe there's an old saying about discovering fishing patterns. "First fish you catch is the dumbest fish in the lake. Second fish you catch is the second dumbest fish in the lake. Third fish, it's a pattern!"

Now all you need is to throw a La-Z-Boy on that rig. Don't forget the ottoman, although the tackle box will work in a pinch. Seriously though, nice setup.

This. You can go out an buy some pre-made supports ($$$,) but I use an old set of re-purposed tent frame poles and it works fine. I've also seen some nice ones built out of PVC pipe. Don't know if you have it on a trailer or if those type of boats have a plug, but I usually extend my trailer jack up so that the stern is lower than the bow. With the plug out, water will mostly drain as it falls into the hull.

x2. Extra slow spybaiting is also a decent option, as well as counting down then slow rolling a spinnerbait. A float and fly is also something I might try under those conditions.

I'm definitely in.

I do this mostly for topwaters and jerkbaits, but typically I will use plume feathers and fly tying flash of some sort. I do use bucktail for jigs, however. A fly tying vice makes short work of this, but you can easily build your own too.

Not for the superstitious angler, that's for sure.

Could be panfish pecking at your jig, or a finicky bass that won't commit to eating it. Smallmouth will do this more than largemouth in my experience, but they'll pick a bait up and spit it out in one quick motion. Setting the hook is nearly impossible when they're doing this. It's hard to say what happened to you today, but it could be just about anything. Using a bait with treble hooks will improve your hook-up ratio if it is bass. You could also use a treble trailer/stinger hook on your jig like they use for walleye fishing, but this will pretty much kill your chances of fishing timber. You can also try a pork trailer instead of a soft plastic craw. The fish might hold on longer. You might also try tossing a panfish sized jig and see if you start hooking up with panfish in the area. Here's a photo of the stinger hook. It's customary to use a very small treble hook for this. Something like a size 6, 8, or 10.

Not a bass, but my dream fishing trip is to target taimen in Mongolia. I'd also love to fish in Thailand for some toman (giant snakehead.)

Well said.

Caught one of my largest east coast bass on a 1/32oz. jig tipped with a 1" zoom grub while crappie fishing. The smallest I'll use while actually targeting bass is usually 1/8, but I'll use 1/16 when conditions are right for it. I'll also float and fly a 1/32 hair jig for smallies if fishing relatively shallow.