Snakehead Whisperer

Caught 7 keeper size smallies, 1 keeper largemouth, and countless dinks/rock bass. Biggest fish was less than 3lbs. Most of the good fish were caught on the outside bends in 14-17fow on a drop shot worked on the bottom. Honestly I cruised right past the pathway and all of the rip-rap there, as everybody I saw at the launch said they had been casting toward the banks and caught nothing. I fished mostly in the area between the large rock bluffs at the end of the new path (Avis Mill, I believe; but might be McMahon's) and the mouth of the Opequon. Good news is that the deeper water I was fishing was probably within a cast of the bank, but that was when the river was still low. Not sure what the current looks like up there during high water like we're having. It was pretty mild when I was there. Those bluegill up there sure are hungry... I've caught them on some pretty big bass lures. Lots of good colors on all of the sunfish in those parts.

Try being more stealthy. Think like a trout angler. If they are holding in a relatively deep spot and there is little surface distortion to the water above them, they can see you from a long ways away. Try being conscious of your shadow and stay low. You also might want to try something with a really small profile like a 3-4" soft plastic, and fish it sloooow. Just an idea.

I fish primarily in a river. I use both. I usually toss things like heavier jigs, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, c-rigs, and most larger plastics, etc. with the casting gear. I do a lot of finesse fishing so I also use a ML or M spinning rod a lot of the time. Usually I am casting something less than 1/4oz on the spinning gear, and usually it's lighter than that. Spinning rods are also good for smaller hard baits like tiny poppers, small floating minnows/jerkbaits, and the like. You probably already know this, but I'll say it anyway. There's no such thing as a body of water with no current. Anything from small farm ponds on to large reservoirs have current. It may not be as obvious as it is in a free flowing river, but it's still moving. Just fished Big Slackwater last week, up in your neck of the woods. Used both the casting and the spinning gear. I'm guessing that the river's totally blown out up there, at the moment.

That knot is a modified San Diego jam knot where it's doubled over and leaves you with 3 tag ends. It's a good knot. I use it too for heavier fc, like anything over 12-15lb test. Just need to be careful when cinching down the last few millimeters. Make sure to really wet the line (like Shaw points out) and cinch it slowly until it's snug. If I don't watch it carefully, that knot is prone to wrap around beneath the eyelet on the hook. A pitzen knot and a San Diego jam knot are essentially the same knot. The only difference is that you run the tag end through the bottom opening on a SD jam knot, in addition to the top loop. Adjusting the drag (tightening) while fighting a fish can be risky business. I still have to fight the urge to do it.

For some reason I insist on using a San Diego jam knot for all of my fluorocarbon too, but truth be told I have one exception. I fish a drop shot, usually on 6lb fluoro, and I always use a palomar knot to tie it. The palomar has never been an issue for that. Fluorocarbon can also be pretty brittle, and little nicks in the line can become very weak. I lost 1 good fish before I started checking the line frequently for nicks/abrasion.

My advice would be to set the drag at 1/3 the breaking strength of the line, at most, when fishing in open water. If you're fishing 60lb braid in the slop, that's another story.

Fixed that for you. And congratulations to lineslinger. Great thread.

Did you ever figure this out?

Pretty much what I was thinking.

Really nice action. Caught some nice fish on those drop shot worms you poured.

Not sure of the brand, but I bought mine for $7 a few years ago. It says "International Breaker" on it, but I don't think that's the brand name. My vote is for a breaker.

For most crank baits I fish them on a 7'6" M-M rod with 12lb mono. The reel speed is less important unless you are fishing deep crank baits at 15-20' or more. I use a 5.8:1 ratio round casting reel that retrieves 24" per turn (which is the important number to look at when determining the speed of a reel, as the ratio is relative to the size of the spool, etc... and can greatly vary between 2 reels of the same ratio.) The reel works well for me, as I can get baits down to depth more quickly than I could with a winch reel, but is still easy to deep crank for long periods of time. I prefer mono over fluorocarbon because of the added stretch and slightly larger diameter. Only real tip that I have is to not look at cranking as a power fishing only technique. There are times when this approach works, however. A majority of my crank bait fishing is slow speed with a lot of pauses. It is more of a finesse technique, in my opinion.

x2 Not just kayakers, but all boaters should wear a PFD.

I'd love to enter these "Guess the Weight" contests, but DC is not on the drop down list for states. It would be great if you guys could add it to the list.

A friend of mine had this exact same problem last week while we were out on the lake. His is an '89 Evinrude. We took the boat back to his place, and checked everything. Pulled the carbs apart, cleaned/rebuilt them, checked the pressure on the fuel pump (ok) and checked all ignition parts and tank/fuel lines. Motor ran good after all of this on the muffs, so we took it back out and it bogged down and died again. We were stumped. Motor would run alright if I squeezed the primer bulb as he drove. Once we got the boat back in the driveway I started looking at everything again. I finally decided to take the fuel hose off of the fuel fitting at the motor, and it's a good thing I did. The hose clamp that was on the fuel hose had pinched the barbed part of the fitting so that it was restricting the fuel. Bought a replacement fitting for $4.99 and all is well. My point is to not overlook the small stuff when diagnosing something like this. I've seen old primer bulbs do this too.

Lawtonka is SW of OKC. State record smallie was caught there at 8lb7oz.

The Illinois River (including Tenkiller) has good smallie water. I like doing a canoe float out of Sparrow Hawk above Tahlequah on the Illinois. There are some walleye in that stretch of river too.

Sounds good. Just keep an eye on it. And thanks for your service.

Looks like a pretty good deal to me. In my experience, however, there is really no way to seal a leaking aluminum hull completely without welding (unless it's leaking at a rivet, then you can just replace it and seal with some 3M 5200.) I wouldn't hesitate to take it on the water though, but I'd be prepared for the worst just in case. Wear a life jacket and wire up a bilge pump. At the very least carry a bucket. I hit a rock at speed with my old jon boat and put a 4" tear down the bottom. Water would become ankle deep in the boat after about an hour and a half on the water. I ended up doing the cheapest possible repair on it, because I was already in the market for a new boat. I used .125" aluminum sheet to seal the hole. I basically drilled several holes in the bottom and riveted it to the boat with aluminum pop rivets (this required a lot of shaping to fit flush with the strakes.) I applied a generous amount of 3M 5200 to each hole and rivet, and sealed the tear with roofing tape before covering it with the aluminum. The boat didn't leak for several months, and I would cruise on plane at 20+mph. Eventually the cross members gave out and the boat felt totally unsafe. I ended up scrapping it.

What trolling motor do you have?

I'd be wary of launching a welded jet boat in the Shenandoah, let alone a bass boat. It's inches deep in many places. If I remember correctly, you can get a boat in by the dams. Be cautious though.

My everyday fishing is in Washington, DC on the Potomac. Far from a peaceful spot (but there are some bruisers.) Just got back from a long weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Nothing like catching 5-10" brook trout on dry flies with no hint of civilization anywhere. The fish are small, but the action is huge. The BNB where my wife and I stayed also had a small farm pond with bass in it... such a peaceful place to fish. Getting back to work tomorrow is going to be tough, but fishing tomorrow evening beneath low flying airplanes and cars stuck in traffic will make up for it.

Skiatook is one of my favorite lakes in OK. Skiatook is a tough nut to crack, but don't overlook deep structure (it has a lot of it.) Seems like a lot of anglers only fish the creek arms there, but my best fish from the lake have come from main lake points and some of the various rock piles/humps. Far less fishing pressure in these areas, and plenty of fish. The Navionics web app has a decent map of it here. If you haven't already, you should check for the old Bassmaster videos on Skiatook. They're still relevant today, despite the fact that the lake is much larger now. Just search for "bassmaster skiatook" on YouTube and they should come up. edit: Found one, but there are several in this series. They're all on YT.

I wish that were the case down here. I love fishing clear water like you describe, but it's very seldom that we see it on the tidal Potomac. Usually I can position directly above fish in 10-15FOW without spooking them. I fish right near a busy airport, train, and large city with a decent amount of boat traffic; fish aren't that spooky here. Even when I move to clear water the visibility is maybe 3'.

Glad you got the new kit. My original thought was that you may have left out the washer, which aren't always included (usually aren't) with the bearing kits. Just an idea.