Snakehead Whisperer

Slab crappies put up a good fight, and pound for pound are better fighters than largemouth IMHO. They're just a fish and if they're out-competing the LMB for forage then maybe the bass need to step their game up and stop letting the CRAPpie push them around. Good luck eradicating a pond of crappie, btw.

I'd be willing to bet that there are 5-6lb. fish in your area, so don't be so sure you won't catch one bigger than that. Few things compare to the fight of a big smallmouth on light tackle.

Birds can also transport fish eggs from one body of water to another on their feet. My guess is that they were stocked though.

I agree with most everything said here. There are times though when I've found that I like to look at the water without the sunglasses on. One example is fishing larger rivers for smallies/walleye when the water is a bit turbid. I find that I am better able to read the boils and water sometimes when I can see the glare of the sun on the surface of the water. It adds a bit of depth and definition so that I can more easily deduce the size of the rock/obstruction that's creating an eddy and also approximately how far upstream it is. Even on days like this I wear the polarized glasses a majority of the time, however.

This is very true. I've found that I can get a bit more life out of them if I first hook them through the bait with the point of the hook in the plastic, then switch to a standard nose hooking after a fish or 2. I don't think I've ever caught more than 2-3 fish before the bait was destroyed. The fat baby finesse are a larger profile and seem to be more durable while still providing the delicate action of the dream shot. These are my go to ds worms when fishing in current/tidal water or dead sticking.

Yes, they are great. The SK KVD finesse, and fat baby finesse also work well.

I think moguy1973 and Felix77 both have great suggestions. I have a small bracket for the transducer that I built out of wood. It holds the fish finder, battery and has the transducer on a hinge that you can flip up in case of rocks, etc. It also functions as a small table which is nice to have. Built it with scrap 1x2" and 1x4" and spent maybe $5 on the hardware. This is the best pic I have of it, sorry. You can see the fish finder on top, a small battery box beneath, and the transducer arm on the right. As far as the through hull idea, it works really well if you have a fiberglass/plastic/RamX and possibly an aluminum type canoe (won't work through wood hulls.) The only downside is that it will not give you an accurate surface temp reading. This is definitely the way to go in a kayak, but with canoes I find that the bracket works best (I also use a few different canoes and this mount moves easily from one to another.) Felix77's suggestion will be the fastest/easiest. If you build a bracket you can use any brand/type of electronics, including a GPS/chartplotter/down imaging. @Goose52... nice rig.

I use a sharp razor knife to do the cutting. I like Olfa knives with the black "ABB" grade breakaway blades. As far as stencil material goes I use anything from scrap paper to transparency film depending on how many times I'm planning to use it.

Welcome to the site Marco. You should check out the Southeast and Northeast fishing boards on this site. Maryland and Virginia have threads there. If I lived in Reston and was shore bound I'd head to the upper Potomac for smallmouth, or hit some local ponds. Riverbend Park is a good spot to shore fish/wade for smallies. Check out the book "Wade and Shoreline Fishing the Potomac River for Smallmouth Bass: Chain Bridge to Harpers Ferry" by Steve Moore. His book details this entire stretch of river and gives locations. It's available online in PDF for just a few bucks.

Pick up a coping saw and use that to shape the bait, then use your knife to do the more detailed shaping. You should be able to get one used for $5 or less, or a new one for around $10-20. As far as hand tools go you should arm yourself with a good assortment of sand paper (50-80grit to remove material, and 150-220 for smoothing.) A rasp is also a handy tool to have, as is a bench vise to hold things in place. A good round burr and a drill will help to make the popper mouths. Unfortunately burrs aren't cheap, but a good one will last a very, very long time. Realistically you'll be able to make baits with just the knife, but it'll take longer and be harder on your hands.

Do not use balsa if you are going to attach the hooks with screw eyes. Balsa lures will need a through wire, as the wood isn't dense enough for screw eyes to bite into it. Balsa is also a poor choice for poppers. I would use something like basswood or pine and attach the hooks with screw eyes (unless you're confident in your wire bending and woodworking to do a through wire.) And like BobP said in his post, use epoxy on them. The size of screw eyes will require some experimentation, as they will add a significant amount of weight to the bait. Working with limited resources will force you to be innovative. You may surprise yourself with what you'll come up with. Hope you catch some fish on your home made lures.

Throw some used coffee grounds, sliced apples and wheat flour in there to plump those worms up.

Pretty much, then slide the tube off and save it for later. The stop will last through several re-ties.

I use the cheap string type and cut them really close. Usually I'll get some tubing and tie my own, but they're the same as any tackle shop sells. Here's the knot.

Caught a bass with a swimbait hook in its cheek a few weeks ago, and several times before. I've also caught bass that were missing an eye. Never caught one with a hook in it's eye though. On a side note... last summer I was fishing an area that I frequent for snakeheads. I was fishing a horny toad and a snakehead bit the foot off. A few weeks later I was fishing the same area and caught a nice snakehead. When I took the fish home and fileted it I also checked what the stomach contents were, and found the missing foot from my horny toad.

I'm with you on this. I will occasionally use a bobber stop and bead to control the amount of line that the sinker can slide on, but otherwise use no peg unless I'm punching (and even then I usually opt for the bobber stop over a non moving peg, as it seems more versatile to me.) If I'm fishing with a stationary weight I'll usually tie on a Slider Spider.

Use the Devcon 2 Ton (not the 5 minute one,) or Solarez #71502. The Solarez is nice because it is UV cure, so you can do 2-3 coats in a matter of minutes and be fishing your lures within 30. It also levels a bit better since it doesn't have time to sag like the epoxy does. Devcon gives a great finish, but you'll have to do something to turn the lures as they dry (rod drying or rotisserie motor work well for this.) They are both relatively chip resistant to rocks, etc.

What video player are you using? First thing I'd recommend is trying to view them in VLC player if you haven't already. There is a chance that you just don't have the correct codecs installed on the computer you're trying to watch the videos on, and VLC will most likely play them if that's the case. Second, back up the suspected corrupt files to a different disk before doing anything to try recovering them. Try using photorec to recover the raw files. There is a good chance that you're SOL if the files are corrupt, however (for instance the camera was powered off unexpectedly when filming, etc.) Hope you can recover your vids. These apps are available for Win/Mac/Linux and are trusted industry standards. Photorec can be used to recover any files deleted from SD cards and even hard drives.

If you have a healthy liver and kidneys it's probably not going to hurt you. I wouldn't eat more than 2 or 3 servings a month however, just in case. A serving is about the size of a deck of cards.

Fair enough. I use my Premier and Triumph rods for throwing really light jigs for river smallies/walleye, and I wouldn't want to use anything else. Usually the heaviest thing I'll throw with them is around 3/16-1/4oz. though. The Mojo is a fine rod, I would just buy the Premier instead personally. One of my fishing partners swears by the Mojo Bass, and he does really well.

Just my opinion, but if I were going to get a St.Croix in that price range it would be the Premier/$110 or the Triumph/$90. I've never liked the Mojo Bass spinning rods, but that's just me (like the casting ones fine though.) @TRsenko28... If it were my money to spend I'd go for a St. Croix Premier, hands down. I also agree that you should return the casting rod unless you need it for something else.

I use the smallest weight possible unless punching through weeds, or if the wind is strong. I fish weightless t-rigs whenever conditions permit. When fishing with a weighted t-rig I like to put a bobber stop on the line above the weight.

x2. I usually cast freespool (no spool tension at all) if I'm throwing a buzzbait on a baitcaster, as it allows me to really get it out there and cover more water. @shootermcbob Like deaknh03 and ChrisAW mentioned, it's all about the casting style and thumb control when casting a buzzbait. As of late I have been throwing tiny 3/16-1/4oz. buzzbaits for river smallies on spinning gear, and it is some of the greatest fishing there is when smallies blow up on a buzzbait in heavy current.

x4 If this happened to me and I was sure that it wasn't an issue of timing I'd probably switch over to a jig and grub in similar color pattern. In the weeds I'd TX rig the grub on a slider or a spot remover.

You guys already have milfoil slop? The grasses have been really slow to grow in this year down in these parts. @CDMeyer... since you're the co-angler I would focus on finesse presentations and try to get the fish that the boater misses But seriously I'm not familiar with the area that you're fishing, so I don't know about patterns. Nor do I know the fishing style of your boater. I'd seriously focus on slower moving smaller baits if it were me though.