VABasser

When rigged skirt up do the big ikas slide back into the water like the fat ika?

I was fishing a few miles upstream from Kelly's Ford. We found dark blue/purple jerkbaits to work and had success with football head shakey head jigs with natural colored worms in other recent trips. I don't know how that float trip would be because I've only seen a small part of it but from what I have seen, it would be very nice and provide lots of good fishing. Alright thanks for the info

Wow dude thats a really solid day of fishing here in No Va. Where were you fishing at on the Rapp? In a week or two I plan on taking a float trip from Kellys Ford to Motts Run. If it yields some good fishing I might make it a few times this summer. I've been doing a little wading and fishing of the Rappahannock but nothing too serious. All the smallies have been caught on a hula grub texas rigged. Tight lines

Last summer I went alone more times then with someone else. Like everybody else said, most people aren't into it as much as I am and taking them along is just a liability when I want to fish. Being by yourself can be great, just you and the water and you can do whatever you feel like, leave when you want, fish where you want, etc. Despite all this, I would rather go with someone for the majority of the trips as long as they know what they're doing and can contribute something. This is all in relation to when I take my boat out, which I consider serious fishing. Whenever I'm out shore fishing just killing some time I always try to bring somebody along. More people to share some laughs and good times with.

What Alhuff said, fresh, quality line is a must. I will change out line a few times a year on each outfit. Better safe than sorry. Also when tieing on a lure, first run the last few feet of line through your fingers and feel for any frayed or weakened line. Cut the line up to that point if you do, sure it seems a little wasteful but that could be the difference of breaking off a nice fish or lipping him.

Pend Orielle? I would probably say the same. It's in Idaho for all of you who don't know.

Hmm, meanest bass you ever caught. A meanmouth? Seems like there was a thread going on about those a few weeks ago.

Pend Orielle, what a great lake. I have family that lives up there, Sandpoint, St. Maries and Potlatch. Every summer we visit them and I always hit the lake when I'm in Sandpoint. The smallies there are fantastic. I've never encountered another lake with such a nice population of bass. I'm sure there are others that rival it but nothing I've encountered in Virginia comes close. There are some monsters in there, we've caught a few and I've seen pics of others family members have caught. Well tight lines, you're a lucky man.

Nice fish camo. Yeah you can use shad darts, small grubs on a jighead and spoons (thats what I was using). I don't know when they started running, I just wish I would've been down there sooner. ;D

Nice smallie man, gotta love them for their fight. I didn't do any serious bassing this weekend, too busy catching tons of shad in the Rap (see my post in Other Fish Species). But once the run is over back to trying to stick some nice bass.

Well let me start this by saying I've never been fishing for shad even though the Rappahannock River is a couple minutes from my house. The shad run this river each year and let me tell you, it's on. I went down there with some buddies today. One of my friends dads had the hook up and told us where to go and what to use. He said he talked to somebody last night who caught 30 shad in an hour; that convinced us to give it a try. So we went down there with the 'secret' bait and on my first cast I nailed one. And it never really let up. We stayed for 2-3 hours until it got too dark to see and I would say, honestly no exageration, I caught about 40 of them, as a group easily over 100. I don't really know if they were considered big ones or just average because it was my first time. I would say average sized with some solid ones in there, easily going a couple pounds. There were quite a few others down there fishing and they caught some but nowhere near the number we did. At one point I stuck probably 7 fish on 10 casts, it was just unbelievable. I guess this is probably fairly routine each year when the run is on but for a first time experience, it was sick. I was using a 6 1/2 foot Medium action rod with a Shimano Stradic spooled with 6 pound yo-zuri ultra soft (sound familiar ). Maybe a little heavy for them but it was still a fun fight. We were too busy catching to mess with weight or pics, I'm going out tomorrow maybe I'll take a few then.

Yeah its terrible and crazy. I know a number of people there now and I am going there next year. :-/ Definately going to make a big difference at Tech. It's a shame there's people like that in this world.

A quick question because I am new to jig fishing too. When fishing an Ika or Senko weightless you let them fall on a slack line but when fishing a jig do you let it fall on a tight line?

Did anybody boat a limit? How many boats entered? I fished Motts a lot last year but didn't have too much luck, I know they're in there though, I've seen a ton of big bass when they were shallow for the spawn. Catching them is a whole other story

Yeah I've noticed too that the Ika will fall faster with skirt up. I wasn't sure if that was what it was supposed to be doing or if I had done something wrong. But since you mentioned it then I guess it does fall faster and there was nothing wrong.

Yeah selfish or not I cringed when I saw the Ika in there. Hopefully though people don't pay too much mind to it. But its really no secret anymore. :-/

Needless to say I'm jealous. I can't wait to see a movie or some pics. They must be having a great time. Wish I was there. :'(

Yeah I got one but I never got really big into it like some people. It's kinda interesting and all I guess. mine is my space.com/8amc8 add me as a friend if u want

Wow that is sick. Unbelievable and amazing fish. :o

Lol this has turned into such a fiasco but I appreciate all the help. I always get confused spooling line on a spinning reel no matter how many times I do it. Thats another thing I like about baitcasting. I didn't know the trolling trick so next time I'm out, probably this weekend I will give it a shot. So no weight or lure on the line? RW, for the few cranks then drop the rod technique you don't flip the bail open right? And if the line twists up on your rod tip then you got it on backwards and so flip the spool of line over right? If so then I was doing that and there was no twist but whenever I flipped the bail the line would jump off the spool and be twisted. I tried it both ways and it did the same thing each time thats what had me befuddled. But whatever I can troll it out and then I should be straight.

Alright cool, that satisfies my curiousity.

Yeah I spooled it the same way I did any other line so it must be a bad spool of it. Thats my best guess. :-/

I went ahead and just took pictures of what was happening so I'll post them up. I will just take it back and hopefully they will exchange for new. Here is the first one when the line is tight, everything looks fine to me. Then when I cast this is what happens. The line springs off the spool and its all twisted and is just a general mess. Having to fish with it would suck. Heres another shot of it The pictures don't show it the greatest but it was the best I could get.

Well it does it inside my house as well as outside. The first time it happened it was about 50 and today it was 60 or so outside so I wouldn't consider it real cold.

I'll gladly post one up, I had thought about doing it in the first place but its kind of a bother. I just grabbed the rod and reel to take a picture of what was happening and thought I'd take a quick little pitch to see what happened and it seemed a little bit better. I still don't know if I would want to spend a day fishing with it. I wonder if the line sat on the spool in the box a long time (I bought it at Gander Mountain) and maybe it just needs to gain the memory of sitting on a reel? I will let it sit overnight and if in the morning its still messed up then I will post some pics. Thats my best guess :-?