Snakehead Whisperer

A copy of your fishing license. Some ds weights, hooks and worms. A few jigs. Maybe a topwater lure or frog. Pliers, clippers, band-aids.. polarized glasses.

PM sent.

x2. Chatterbait/swim jig through those pads should draw some strikes.

Just got this in the mail. Had to have one.

First off, welcome to the site. Catch and release fishing is illegal in Germany (and Switzerland too if I'm not mistaken.) There are many people that fish for sustenance in contemporary times. The Inuit for example. True fisherpeople are stewards of the environment and treat it with respect (including the fish.) I never intentionally harm fish. With that said, I think those who've made claims that they've only killed x amount of fish can't truly be sure of the mortality rates of fish they've released. There are numerous studies on this, and fish do get killed in the process. Still there is no consensus. I read a lot of information on fishing and spend a lot of time talking to lay folk (those who don't fish or don't know much about these things,) and in the process it seems that I make an impact on peoples opinions about fishing and the environment in general. Most people don't even realize that litter dropped on the street ends up in the rivers/oceans. I try to raise awareness about these types of things, and that helps the fish as a whole. It's a balance of good and bad. I try to contribute more than I take away from the fishery. But still if I'm catching and releasing fish, there's a chance that some don't survive.

Wonder bread soaked in Italian dressing.

Didn't think you were going to... just warning that the beaver will probably step up if you challenge it They have killed people before, seriously. I'm sure if you don't bother it the beaver will let you fish in peace. I tend to think of myself as a visitor in the beavers house when I'm out fishing, and treat it with respect as I would want a visitor in my house to. The tail slap is a warning to other nearby beavers that they should take cover for whatever reason, as far as we humans understand.

Looks great. I wish I had a bladed swim jig with this skirt on it, as it would be killer this week where I fish.

x2. If it's a natural pond, then the beaver probably built it. Beavers don't eat fish, just trees. They are very important to the ecosystem, as the ponds they build create key habitat for other animals. I also wouldn't mess with the beaver. They are very protective of their young and their lodge, and not particularly afraid of people in my experience. There is a beaver at a pond I frequent that is probably over 90lbs. I wouldn't mess with him, but he lets me fish in peace.

I would highly recommend a gravity fed type airbrush for painting lures. The one you posted is a siphon feed, and not ideal for the small amounts of paint used for painting lures. Check this thread out, it has a lot of great info on airbrushing. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/116276-intro-to-airbrushing/ Post some pics if you paint some lures. I'm probably not the only person who would love to see them.

Yes, buzzbaits excel in open water. I like to fish them across heavy current for river smallies as well. Really versatile bait.

What about bass that follow schools of shad? They school (sort of, see WRB's post where he mentions that they group together when it helps them to feed) and they migrate with the schools of shad. Though it's hard to consider any movement within a single body of water (like a lake) a migration, IMHO. Most of my bass fishing is done on a tidal river where the bass populate a stretch of over 40 miles below the fall line (so I assume that they can inhabit/migrate to any water in that stretch of river,) and from my experience the fish don't move very far at all. I'm basing this hypothesis on the fact that I have caught the same fish twice in the same place several times. The spawning areas are always the same places year after year, and my guess would be that the home range of the average bass is less than 1/2 mile (I think I've read that from a DNR study in MD.) Probably smaller than that. There have got to be exceptions on this river, and perhaps completely different and maybe even migratory behavior elsewhere. The fish had to migrate at some point in history, as they are everywhere. I do realize that waterfowl probably played a role in bass proliferation to new water, but so did migration I guess.

The trebles and split rings add extra flashiness Proven fish attractors.

Of course they can. I've caught 6lb.+ bass on 1/32oz. jigheads with 1"grubs while crappie fishing. Here on the tidal Potomac some folks are catching 25lb. striped bass on shad darts during the shad run. The other way around is a different story, although just last week my friend caught a 7-8" yellow perch on a bass jig. The downside to fishing smaller jigs is that you will also catch lots of panfish on them. In winter they can be killer though.

I regularly trim my tag ends down to less than a millimeter with good results using a palomar knot. If you're using mono or copoly, do not pull the slack onto your main line when tying a palomar. What I mean is that you should pull the slack out into the tag end and cut it off, sacrificing the 3-7" of line used tying the knot. The heat and pressure exerted onto the line when pulling it taught can be enough to cause stresses and weaken it, even if the line is wet. The line will look like a spring if you do this. This isn't as much of an issue with braid, but due to slippage you should tie a double palomar when using braided line. If you're using flourocarbon, I would not tie with a palomar anyway. There are so many better knots for flouro out there. A double San Diego jam knot is the way to go with flouro (like Hanover_Yakker suggested.) Once you learn this knot it's as fast as a palomar to tie, and you don't have to bring the lure back through a loop which is great for any lures with trebles on them. Here's a good video of the knot.

Muskie guys slay them all the time with bucktail/hair spinners. I'm sure that will work great. To really make that thing perform I'd move that small colorado blade up onto the shaft and add a larger willow leaf blade to the end.

At this time of year I like to swim them through spatterdock/pads. In another month or so the hydrilla and milfoil will grow in making this presentation nearly impossible.

x2 on the Rebel lures. The most fun is the bumble bee topwater crankbait, hands down.

I get it from experience. For lethargic fish who strike softly, tungsten weights have made a huge difference. They are also really useful for identifying bottom structure like you mentioned.

This pretty much sums it up. I carry at least a dozen colors of dropshot worms, and that is not including flukes or other soft plastics that I will occasionally fish on a ds rig. What you say about the subtle differences in color is spot on. I can't count how many times I've run into this situation.

I've found that color selection is more important while ds'ing than most other presentations. There are exceptions of course. Some days they will slam any color, but other days bass can be very picky. Just last weekend I fished Burke Lake down in your neck of the woods and the patterns were nothing like the Potomac only 2 miles away, despite similar water color and temp (fish were also deeper and oriented more to depth/structure than cover.) I had to upsize the offering and go to a darker color. Fish started to nail it then. The distance between the bait and weight can also be a factor, though not as important. Are you 100% sure there are fish in the area you're fishing? I should also mention that if you're not using a tungsten ds weight you might be missing more fish than you know. Lead weights are so soft that a strike often feels the same as when the weight is hitting the bottom. A tungsten weight will allow you to feel the difference between when the weight is hitting a rock/log and when a fish is inhaling the bait.

This one was caught on the MD side in Piscataway Creek. They will try to eat anything.

Yes, and also the position of the line tie on the bait (e.g. the further forward the line tie is placed on the bill, the deeper it will usually go.)

Mostly because it keeps me out of trouble.

I agree with what everyone else has said. A bass frogging rod/reel will do well for musky fishing. Use a steel or heavy flourocarbon leader on 30-50lb. braid if you're really worried about breaking off a fish. Hope you nab one.