Snakehead Whisperer

Is it the angle of the photo, or is that thing missing a leg? Nice work, btw.

I prefer rivers to both

I often fish from a 1548 jon boat, and I would never consider building a casting deck on it due to instability. I can't imagine what it would be like on a 10 footer. Be careful if you do build the casting deck. Falling in the water when it's warm is one thing, but if the water is cold or you hit a rock/log/someting hard, the situation can get ugly really quick. Remember to wear your life jacket and always let somebody know where you're going and when you'll be back (float plan.) In my opinion less is more with a jon boat. I have everything rigged so that I can remove it from the boat with ease (batteries, electronics, etc..) It's nice to be able to hose off the boat when I want to clean it, or fill it with water when checking for leaks. A casting deck would be one more thing to maintain on a relatively maintenance free hull.

The smiles on your father and your son are priceless. Thanks for sharing the great pics.

Snap, yes. Swivel, no. There are so many snaps on the market and it's such a simple design, just get whatever works. I make my own, it's cheap and they work. I copied the design of the KVD snaps, they're simple, strong and easy to change out crankbaits. If you fish crankbaits on snaps, you may want to remove the split ring from the front of the bait. Sometimes the snap hurts the action, other times it doesn't really matter. Depends on the lure. I don't really use them for anything else. This is the style I like. It's called the Mustad KVD Fastach Clip.

The wall of fame and the bass clubs sound like great ideas. Perhaps you could convince DSG to sponsor some youth fishing derbies, or the like. I'd just be content if they had everything in stock at my local DSG. It's the only brick and mortar store with tackle within 30 minutes of home, and sometimes I go there and wish I'd made the hour drive to BPS because they're sold out of what I'm looking for. For what it's worth the fishing guys at my local Dick's are good people and avid anglers... they just don't have much say in the management of the department, from what I can tell. If I'm not mistaken the fishing department is under new management. It was recently re-organized and expanded. Maybe things will change for the better. I still go there in a pinch.

Fished the Potomac in DC today for smallies. Crankbait bite was slow. We got pummeled with rain the day before yesterday and it's post-frontal today. Water temp 64-67 air temp about 65-70. Water is turbid following the rain with maybe 12-15" visibility. Found fish tight to the bank in slack water pockets (not eddies, current is roaring through there right now.) Caught fish mostly dragging 1/8" round jig jeads with Zoom! 4" grubs in white, silver, and chartreuse. Also got some nice stripers on this rig, as well as drifting a popper in the current. Best fish went 2.5lbs at most. Still had a blast.

Depends on whether you buy the real Yamamoto Senkos, or not. $$$

I was pretty much ready to write exactly what Lund Explorer did. Much of the time when this happens it is due to using the reel to close the bail instead of your hand. A few other things that cause line twist would be... -overfilling the spool (leave 1/8" when spooling) -reeling against the drag (don't reel while a fish is running and taking out drag. Well, not too much at least.) -reeling in lures that have debris stuck on them can do this too if the debris causes them to spin. I do a lot of light line fishing on spinning gear, and line twist is a fact of life. You can do a lot to mitigate it, but you can't really eliminate it completely. A good line conditioner like Ardent Line Butter or Tangle Free like WRB said will help out too, especially with the braid.

Learn one technique at a time, and slow down. No... slower than that. Not when it comes down to rod sensitivity and line/knot strength. But I hear what you're saying. For the record, expensive does not necessarily mean better. There is lots of "better" gear at affordable prices.

Best deal I can think of. Usually they go on sale after the holidays. There are better ones out there, but these are reliable and inexpensive to re-arm. As an added bonus it doesn't say "MUSTANG" in 5" letters across the front http://www.cabelas.com/product/Boating/Life-Jackets-Vests/Inflatable-Life-Jackets%7C/pc/104794380/c/104741280/sc/104399280/Cabelas-Tournament-3500-Auto-PFD/1806463.uts?destination=%2Fcategory%2FInflatable-Life-Jackets%2F104399280.uts&WTz_l=DirectLoad%3Bcat104399280 The Mustang PFD's are great quality and the industry standard, but if you buy one don't bank on re-arm kits being available too far off into the future due to planned obsolescence.

That jerkbait looks great. Keep it up.

Shift + Insert

You can probably catch all 3 with an A-Rig.

The tubs are the way to go. Much better deal. Be careful though if you fly with Gulp tubs in your checked baggage. I had 3 large tubs in my baggage this year and the lids weren't sealed all the way when I picked up my bag. The smell was terrible at the baggage claim. I mean, people were really staring. There was one of those little tags stating that my luggage had been selected at random for inspection attached to my bag. The bag still smells like Gulp when it gets wet.

I'm 36 and would rather be hanging with the old timers at the bait shop, but they're all at home browsing Bass Resource

I use the 2lb. P-Line CX on an ultralight setup that I throw spinnerbaits, casting spoons and tiny crankbaits with. I've caught many fish over 5lbs and the line is a workhorse. I wouldn't throw a jig or any finesse baits with this line, however... it's got a lot of stretch, but then again so do the hybrid lines. They're all good for crankbaits and the like. Spray the line up with some line conditioner and it'll cast smoother and reduce the memory noticeably. I recommend this for all fishing line, though.

A drop shot rig (which I'll fish anywhere from inches of water to 80+FOW.) Spybaiting and heavy spinnerbaits for suspended fish is another technique that I overlooked for a long time. Most of these "new" techniques have been around for quite some time, they just weren't well known back in the day. Some techniques have been around forever and are still underutilized by bass anglers, structure spoons for instance. x2. I still use the Uncle Josh pork trailers, and pretty much exclusively during the cold water months.

Rick Clunn used to fish out of an aluminum boat pretty often. Many other Elite anglers have fished from aluminum rigs in tournaments, often times with jet drives. I'm sure a lot of them go wading, canoeing and even fishing from belly boats on their personal time. Shoot, some even fly cast for stream trout.

There was a time when my PB was about 1.5lbs (only bass I'd ever caught,) and like J Francho said it will always be my 2nd PB. This doesn't take away from any future fish I might catch. The snakehead in my avatar is my PB at 17lb2oz, but the fight was lackluster. Some fish just pull harder than others. Those are the ones that I like to catch. Some of the best fish I've ever caught were released without a weight or measurement because the fish looked stressed and I didn't want to harm it. I'm sure many more will be released in the same fashion. Thanks to smart phones, at least I can get photographs of these fish now, but I'll never be sure if they are bigger than any others. edit: The snakehead didn't thrash much, which is abnormal. It did, however, tangle itself up in some brush which made for an interesting fight. I had to wait 10 minutes for the fish to move out of the brush in order to get it in. The weight of the fish alone made it worthwhile, but some 5-8lb snakeheads I've caught have given me a more suspenseful fight.

I have a few older pics of handmade baits in my gallery. This bait is handmade from pine.

This is how I fish it. Good presentation for suspended crappie too.

Similar concept to a float and fly for smallies. Killer technique. We used to do this in California when I was a kid too. The technique only really works in swift moving water that gives the spoon some flutter. You lose less gear too, those spoons aren't cheap.

Get an inline water seperator and a pressure regulator and you'll be good to go. I'd recommend against using the regulator on the compressor unless it is high precision. My compressor is loud and not in the house where I do my painting, so I purchased an 11 gallon tank (you can get them cheap at Harbor Freight and they're decent quality.) I just fill the tank with air from the compressor during the day and bring the tank into my house, this way I'm not keeping my old lady up with the sound of the compressor. It's completely silent other than the hiss of air from the spray gun. I can paint several crankbaits with 1 tank of air.

The further I progress in angling the more I look for a challenge. Today I find myself targeting fish that I would have thought impossible to catch 5 years ago. I don't think it's possible to learn all there is to know about angling. My strongest techniques in angling nowadays used to be my weakest. It was due to failure that I worked (and continue to work) to master them.