fishva

Man, that's awesome. That's a moment you'll never forget, I'm sure.

Check out this page. He gives weekly fishing reports for Buggs Island. You won't find a ton of specifics, but it's still very helpful IMO. http://www.kerrlakeguide.com/charlie-taylors-kerr-lake-fishing-report

Anyone in the Richmond area want to fish sometime? I don't have any friends who fish, and wouldn't mind some good company on the banks.

I get what you're saying, but I see lures as functional art. I appreciate a nice design, even if it doesn't catch me any fish.

Really sorry to hear that. All the best to Mark & his family -- I can't imagine.

In fairness, I asked for help picking a color that I can have a good amount of confidence in while I learn how to work the jig. That way, I only have my presentation to blame, and won't keep going for the tacklebox to switch things up (aka: blaming the bait). I hear what you're saying though, and will pick up at least a couple more colors based on the recommendations here once I get the hang of things.

While we're on the subject of bags, have any of you guys found something good to carry extra rods in? I've seen rod holders built into the bigger fishing backpacks, but I don't want to carry anything that big around.

I like the Zoom lizards and brush hogs. I haven't tried a ton of their other products yet, but I really do like those two a lot. Also, most of the BPS plastics I've tried have been good, they're just a little inconsistent sometimes. I'm assuming it's a quality control thing. One pack of worms will be noticeably stiffer than another pack, for example. I don't know how much of a difference it makes in the end, it's just something I've noticed. Or maybe I got a bad batch. Edit: I forgot to mention the rage craws.

Where are you? And what is your water temperature / air temperature this time of year?

In situations like these, I really think that it's mostly about presentation. It's so easy to spook the fish, especially when it's pretty likely that they can see you. In ponds where fish are shallow and I know they can see me, I've had some good success using alternate presentations -- like casting onto the bank beyond the fish and dragging my lure into the water before slowly working it toward the target. That said, sometimes there's nothing you can do. Ever watch one of those exhibition / sales videos where an angler is fishing in a clear tank the size of a tractor trailer to try and sell a lure or demonstrate a technique? There are usually a few interested fish, while the rest just absolutely could not care less. So that's a factor too. Some fish just want to watch the world burn...

This is probably a lot smaller than what you're looking for, but it's what I use (I like to travel really light). It has one big pocket that can hold plastics and a few (small) Plano cases, and one small pocket that fits my clippers / scissors / pliers. http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/atom-sling-pack?p=48259-0 Again, not something you want to use if you like to carry a lot of stuff around, but I like it because it's light and I don't have to take it off to access what's inside.

First thing I would do is read through all the seasonal fishing articles on the site (not just the season you're in, but all seasons). I know for me, they gave me a basic understanding of how bass behave in certain weather, and that was hugely helpful. Then, pick a basic all purpose lure that you want to start with. I picked the Senko, since you can pretty much fish it anywhere anytime (you just have to change your approach depending on the conditions, which you'll learn about when you read those seasonal articles). Then, invest in a decent rod (doesn't have to be expensive) that's either all purpose or designed for the lure that you've chosen to start fishing with. Then, hit the banks and start fishing. Try all the types of deliveries and retrieves you can think of. Take notes. Write down the water temp, the air temp, what you fished with, where you fished it, etc. Over time, this will become a valuable resource for you to look back on. Once you feel like you have a good handle on the first lure and you're catching fish regularly, then introduce one more type of lure and get comfortable with it. Then just keep adding new lures and learning when and where to use them. Anyway, that's what I did. I used to fish real casually (a couple times a year), but have started to take it more seriously in the last year. Having a focused and methodical approach to learning has really helped me a lot.

I'm really interested in this as well. I'm not in the tournaments, but I'll be camping on Kerr that weekend. Right now, it looks like the water is warming up (it's ~45 now, compared to ~42 a couple weeks ago), and the water level is high. Hopefully both trends continue.

I did it once as a teenager. My friend had jet ski and we had the genius idea to go fishing from it... So he drove and I hung on for dear life with one hand while holding the poles with the other. Then we stop, and it turns out we WAY overestimated the amount of space we would have to cast. It was a disaster. We tried for maybe 20 minutes before we were ready to admit to each other that we were complete idiots for ever thinking that 2 people fishing from 1 jet ski would have any chance of working out well.

1 from the bank, 2-3 when I'm lucky enough to go out on someone's boat. I like to keep things simple and remove the possibility of overthinking things.

Square bill: I have this Yamamoto crank I picked up a couple years ago that I just love. It's weird, because I've bought others that *should* be exactly the same, and they don't produce. But this one does. I'd go swimming to get it back if it got hung up. Lipless: Red eye shad Top water: Not my specialty, but I usually start by throwing the good old jitterbug. Maybe because it was one of the only hardbaits I had as a kid, and using it makes me relaxed & brings back good memories.

Man, I cannot thank you guys enough. Thanks so much for keeping things simple for me. I decided to stick with one color and one size to start out. This will help keep me confident in the bait and remove the 'tackle doubt' from creeping up in my mind while I learn how to work with it. Once I start having some success, I'll introduce another color (or possibly another weight) to the mix. I just ordered some black and blue 3/8 jigs with black and blue trailers from Sieberts. Thanks again, I can't tell you how helpful this was.

Thanks for the recommendation. Based on what I've learned from reading so far and the conditions I fish in (not heavy cover, not much rock on the bottoms), I think that the football head would be the best choice. Would you agree with that?

Haha. Stick with a black or blue trailer as well?

I've never really fished a jig much before, but I'd like to put some time into it this spring. I've read a bunch of articles and watched a bunch of videos and understand how to fish it (or at least, as much as you can understand something without getting out there and doing it) -- but I'm still not sure where to start with tackle selection. I'm hoping that you guys can help me pick out a few good skirted jig / trailer combinations that I can have confidence in. I prefer to keep my tackle experimentation to a minimum until I get a feel of how to fish the thing (minimizing the variables, as they say). To give you an idea of where I fish: I don't have a boat, so I fish from the banks in 1-15 feet of water. I don't have much access to clear water. Most of the time, I'm fishing in stained to muddy water. I generally fish light to medium cover (it's usually hard to get into the real heavy stuff from the bank in the spots I hit). Since I'm new at this, I'd like to start out with maybe 3 different skirt / trailer color combinations to keep things as simple as possible. What would you recommend?

I only fish from the banks as well. I had a hard time learning how to fish cranks deep from the bank for a long time. I'm finally starting to have some success with it. Basically, I take a sinking crank and kind of fish it like a weightless plastic. What I mean is, I let the bait sink (while reeling in the slack and giving it some little twitches) through the water column. Then I raise my rod tip to bring the lure back up near the surface, reel in the slack while it sinks, and repeat. Often, they'll bite on the fall (like a jig or soft plastic), or on the initial rise. Also, because you're only reeling in the slack, that kind of helps you manage the speed of your retrieval. For me, I know I was burning them in way too fast for a long time. And that was a big part of my problem.

From what I can tell, those portable depth readers have been discontinued -- which worries me, because it seems the replacement batteries aren't available either. Please someone tell me I'm wrong...

I went out bank fishing yesterday. I hit up a pond I hadn't been to before, and saw that the bass were on the grassy stuff in one particularly shallow area. My regular casts were spooking them, so I tied up a weedless rig and started casting onto the far bank and slowly pulling it into the water. Some guy happened to walk by and saw me casting into the grass. He yelled out 'looks like you need some practice,' apparently thinking I was missing the water on accident. Gave me a good laugh, thinking about what it must have looked like.

I spent more time than I'd like to admit learning how to pitch this winter. In the backyard. My neighbors think I'm insane, I'm sure of it.

When I was in high school, I was fishing a pond in the woods behind my house with a friend of mine when I saw something...very strange. But before I go any further with this story, you need to know that I lived just outside Richmond, VA, and not the African desert. So I'm fishing with my friend, and he says, in a very serious tone, 'is that a zebra?!' I just laughed at him, thinking he was screwing around. Then he said it again. To be honest, my first thought was that he'd taken acid without telling me (which wouldn't have been the first time). Then I looked up across the pond, and I couldn't believe it. I saw a zebra standing there, looking in my direction. It just didn't register. Then it walked off into the woods and I still wasn't sure if I'd really seen it or not. My eyes told me I did, but my brain told me there's no way in hell. I didn't tell my parents or anybody else that day, because I wasn't sure if I believed it myself. But later that night, I was watching the news with my mom and dad and there was a story about a local man who lived a few miles from our house. Apparently, he maintained a private zoo, and a handful of animals had escaped that day -- including a zebra. So there you have it. A 'wild' zebra sighting while fishing in Virginia.