fishva

Definitely post a report!

Telling myself not to spend much money when I go to BPS today... This is a doomed mission.

I'm going camping next week (April 10-13), and plan to spend the full three days fishing from the banks (we are a boatless crew). This is what I know: The water temp should be around 50. The reservoir is about a foot over full pool. According to fishing reports from the area, bass are in pre-spawn mode, with some fish building nests in the warmer coves. The weather over the next week looks to be amazingly stable for this time of year in the mid Atlantic. For the next week, we're looking at highs between 65 and 75, and lows between 40-50. There is very little chance of rain, and the current forecast calls for partly cloudy skies. As a bank fisherman who usually fishes very small bodies of water, having a contour map of the spot I'm fishing is a big luxury that I'm not used to having. I'm taking this as an opportunity to learn something. I was hoping you could take a look at it and show me the spots that you might focus on, given the factors above. Obviously, with 3 full days to fish, I'm going to hit every spot pretty thoroughly with everything I've got. I'm mostly just hoping to learn how you guys think when you look at a map like this, or how you would approach the area if on a boat. I drew a red line over the bank that I'll have the best access to.

Yup. Just today I was fishing a local pond that is very clean, but I saw something weird in the water. From a distance, it looked like a smaller fish was eating a larger fish up by the shore. It was bizarre, so I went closer and saw that were a bunch of fish stuck in the remnants of a net someone had discarded. I sighed, took off my shoes, rolled up my pants, waded out to my knees, let them go, and took the scrap with me when I left to go home and change out of my wet pants. I hate seeing things like this.

I doubt they've spawned yet, seeing as the water level was cold until recently. I'd focus on anything that could be considered cover or an ambush point. Whether that's a wind-protected cove, a downed tree, an area in the shadows, etc.

Nobody is thinking about their gear when they pull a fish out of the water.

You probably won't see them hanging out near shore -- but if the bait fish are shallow, the bass will come up to feed and then retreat again. If the bait fish aren't shallow, you probably won't find any bass shallow either. For me, when I'm fishing from the banks (which is almost always), the bait fish are the biggest indicator of where the bass might be.

You sure it was on a banjo minnow? I could have sworn the guy at the tackle shop said it was on a wacky rigged scallop with a bacon trailer. I couldn't hear him that well though over the police sirens headed to break up fights over fishing spots down by the river.

I had about 45 minutes to kill before a meeting today, so I stopped by a local pond to enjoy this warm weather. It was great to be outside, but what a frustrating time I had fishing. First, I had a solid bite along a little dropoff by the reed line, but my reel hand fumbled a bit on the strike and I screwed up the hook set. Then, I had a HUGE bite in the shadows of a dock. I didn't see the fish, but you can just tell when you have a big one. I set the hook good and fought it for maybe 5 seconds, but didn't realize until it was too late that it was charging straight at me. As I scrambled to pick up the slack, the fish got off. Oh well. I'll try again tomorrow. Edit: I was fishing with a 5" Senko, red shad color. Edit 2: this was the first day of the year I've fished that there were visible signs of life. The frogs were croaking, there were lots of bait fish in the shallows, and plenty of turtles swimming around.

Now that's a photo worth keeping.

Sounds like those quail farms where the 'guides' go out ahead of you and release the quail from the traps so you can burn them down. I'm sure it's fun, but it isn't exactly sport at that point.

I've been struggling lately too. For me, I usually have a hard time during these seasonal transition periods. Just keep your head up and try again soon is the best I can say. Only takes one good bite to get your confidence back.

New rod and reel, a few bags of worms, a few bags of hooks, a few jigs, and a new tacklebox. Not much compared to a lot of you guys:)

No, but I remember the first one that got away. It was on a top water lure (a jitterbug, most likely), and the bass just blew up the water to get it. I didn't even set the hook, I froze so hard.

I bought a few of the cranks a year or so ago. They're in my regular rotation.

I'll put up a $25 BPS gift card for the skunk master competition, assuming we can get some good rules in place.

I hereby challenge you to a skunk-off.

I am the master of getting skunked, as I mostly get to fish for only an hour or so at a time and don't get to pick my times or days very often. Best I can say, is embrace the skunking that's being handed to you and find another element of the experience you can enjoy. Work on a casting technique, enjoy the cadence / rhythm of the casts or water, and take time to appreciate not being stuck doing something you hate instead. Edit: sometimes I'll just go for some crappie or bluegills instead.

You're talking about the brake, right? For sidearm or overhead casting, you'll generally want to adjust the brake so the lure just barely falls on its own when your thumb is off the spool. That will help a ton with the backlash. If you're flipping / pitching, you'll want the brake pretty much off.

Thankfully, I've never been hooked too bad while fishing. That said, when I was a kid I accidentally spilled my tacklebox when I wasn't wearing shoes, and my dad had a pretty rough time getting all the treble hooks out of the bottom of my foot...

I fished a local pond for 45 minutes yesterday with a senko. It was really windy. I struggled and didn't catch anything, but that plastic was torn up by the end. They were hitting it, I just didn't detect a single thing and I was watching my line like a hawk.

No kidding! I always refuse to go to yard sales with my wife, because I can't stand the female browsing process (apologies to the female readers out there, but this is one of our differences). But last week I went and didn't regret it for the first time ever.

Awesome! Now that's an easy way to tell, isn't it:) I can use that.

In my area, Gander Mountain has a much bigger variety. But Dick's still has everything I need 99% of the time.

Hey, guys. I feel like an idiot here, but I could use your help with a question. At a yard sale last weekend, I picked up a lightly used Curado 200E7 for $30. The seller didn't know what the gear ratio on the reel was. After giving it a good look over, I don't see any markings on it either (all my other reels have it printed clearly on the body of the reel, but this one doesn't). Is there somewhere else (internal or external) manufacturers commonly print it? I'm going to put a mark on the reel and count & measure the spool rotations, but I'm wondering if there's a 'simpler' way to find out that might serve me well in similar situations if they arise. I didn't want to ask the guy to go grab some tape, a ruler, and a marker when I was already getting a great deal, but I still wasn't sure if I really needed it...