everythingthatswims

The only time I ever keep bass is when one swallows the hook or if I'm camping at the river near my house, but when I do cook them, I dip the filets in egg and roll them in cornmeal seasoned with natures seasoning. I also do catfish, crappies, bluegill, and some trout that way. We recently discovered that smoked trout with cream cheese on crackers is the way to go!

Start him off with bluegill, plenty of action to keep him entertained

You catch crappies on worms?

The zara puppies absolutely rock! I bought about 10 when they had the sale last year, but had been fishing them long before that. Smallmouth will crush them too. I got some of the others as experimental baits, and turns out, the rebel teeny wee-r and the smaller version of the rebel floater are great summertime crappie cranks, and in the winter/early spring they are great for largemouth! I caught a 24" largemouth on the 2.5" rebel floater in early march this year.

Got a few fish to eat a zara puppy in a pond this evening, probably 6 or 7 strikes, 3 dinks landed. Had a lot of fun catching my first topwater fish here in central VA this year. Also saw a small male that was definitely guarding a bed, he was the only one though, lots of others sitting in shallow water but not on beds.

I sleep a lot better knowing that the fish didn't win

I have found that most of the time people who are fishing too close just don't know any better, and they usually will give me some room if I ask. But my favorite way to avoid crowds is to find some water that is just too hard to access for most people. Stocked trout streams on the other hand are a nightmare!

It would be impossible for the fish to get through the drain pipes from the creek into the pond, otherwise that would have been my conclusion.

Haha I have absolutely nothing to do with the population, we just use the river as a way to get rid of any stunted fish from the pond. But the largemouth that are naturally there have been increasing in numbers over the past few years, mainly due to decreased competition from smallies since the river has become very silted in. Unless a 2lb largemouth can successfully survive on nymphs smaller than a dime from late november-late march, I think he left this winter. My little brother said the fish was in superb condition when he caught it

I'm wondering when the big girls are gonna quit ignoring the senko as it falls 6" in front of their face and actually start feeding

Today my little brother caught a 2lb largemouth in the small river/stream near our house, signaling the beginning of the "spawning run" that they make up the river each spring. What really caught my attention was the fact that this fish was one that we put in the river last summer when we were taking some fish out of a pond that is located a couple hundred yards from the river, my brother knows this because he clipped the tail slightly so that we could tell it apart from the others in the river. I was just stunned to see this fish returning to the same area we put her in nearly a year later, and was wondering if the fish somehow has an instinct to come back? My best guess would be that the fish could recognize the smell of the pond, since the creek that feeds out of the pond meets the river about 50-60 yards upstream from where he caught this fish. And I know for a fact that the fish didn't winter over in the river, because I fish a lot in this river in the winter and the only fish that stay are fallfish (a type of creek chub), everything else heads at least 10-12 miles down river to where this fork meets the main river which is much larger. The max depth of this river is about 5 feet in the summer, right now probably 6 or 7 feet, and in terms of water flow, it looks like more of a home for the smallmouth we catch, (lots of fast moving water), but we have seen a steady increase in largemouth populations over the last couple of years. Does anyone have an answer as to why this fish came back? And does anyone else experience similar fish migrations in the spring?

You get a piece of paper (from the department of game and inland fisheries) I think, at least that's what I got for my north carolina citation cobia (have to be 40lbs, weighed 51lbs) and sea mullet (have to be 1.5lbs, weighed 2lbs). I don't get them in Virginia because it's 5 bucks to get that silly little piece of paper and I can buy a bag of plastics with that money

I have always heard anything smaller than 30lb braid digs in on baitcasters, and since braid is usually 15$/spool minimum, I don't plan on trying it out. At this point I'm sticking with fluoro and mono because I don't fish much heavy cover. Although if I could go as light as 15 or 20 on a baitcaster, I might try it and use fluoro leaders

Last year I caught 446 largemouth and 116 smallmouth, and I focused more on trout and crappies last year. I bet I caught 50 bass today, the dinks moved up into shallow water but the big girls were still pretty sluggish, we saw quite a few 5+lb fish and they wouldn't even look at a bait. However, everything under 14" was ready to EAT. Saw a few males chasing the females around in open water trying to get them to spawn, but I haven't see any bass on beds yet

Pretty work! My first citation this year was a recapture of the big girl in my avatar, 24" long, and even though I spend many days fishing that pond each year (only 3 acres), I very rarely catch her. Only once last year

Try lake anna in the summer, get out in the big open areas and you're the only one there, but as soon as the banks get closer together, you are surrounded by water skiers, tubers, and pleasure boaters. Doesn't make a bit of sense. And I fish from a kayak so I always go during the week. One of my pet peeves is when a boat enters a no wake zone right next to me and comes about 1/2 off plane and ends up making a much bigger wake then he/she would have made by staying on plane, slowing down for 50 yards can't be that much of a burden can it?

I had an experience 2 weeks ago that will keep me from tying directly to braid ever again. I was fishing a senko in a pond with sparse lily pads and pretty much catching a fish every other cast, it was incredible. I had a fish run me into a clump of pads and break my 12lb fluoro leader, so I cut it off hoping that the braid would cut through the pads a little better even though it was only 10lb test. All of a sudden it was like someone turned the bite off, I fished for 30 minutes without a bite before tying a leader back on, and as soon as I did, I was back to slamming them again. Keep in mind this wasn't a particularly clear pond, and the 10lb moss green power pro was keeping these fish from biting at all. I was shocked, I didn't think it could make that much of a difference. Although I know I can catch fish on straight braid, how many are looking at my bait and not even biting when I do that?

Only one way to find out if the bass are there!

Trust me they definitely aren't on beds yet, these fish were still in schools, and they don't swim 10 yards with a bait in their mouth to get it away from a bed. The spawn should be close though, and I'm gonna fish for all of them except the "big girl"...a 24"er that gets a free pass when they are on beds. I want those genetics to get passed on

I feel like I would miss out on clues that would help me catch fish if I listened to music...We do sometimes have the radio on when we are fishing on our boat, it's not a bass fishing boat though haha, we fish the ocean and the bay (chesapeake) with it, half the time we are trolling so it's loud anyways

The bass in my neighbor's pond are finally eating plastics (that aren't drop shots). I caught 8 in about 2 hours this evening on a texas rigged u-tale worm, should have caught more but the fish aren't eating the bait very well, I missed few fish even after 30 seconds of "letting them eat". All of my fish were in 3 feet of water or less, either on brush piles or within 3 feet of the bank. I saw a few bass chasing and eating bluegill up against the bank, but not like they were yesterday (going to this pond is usually a part of my after school routine).

I agree with you completely, while we may not have any world renowned fisheries (except for chesapeake stripers), there are a TON of options when you look at species to target and the bodies of water to target them in

If I lived in Utah I would scoff at bass and become a fly fishing purist haha

If it starts raining and it's warm out, I immediately head to my neighbor's pond, the creek flowing in pushes out a lot of current and the fish just stack up right there. If there is any electricity accompanying the rain, I stay indoors. It's not worth it...

1. Break the 25" mark with a largemouth 2. Catch a bass on a trout swimbait in VA stocked trout pond/lake 3. Catch a citation (20") smallmouth 4. Have an "Aaron Martens Day" with my friend on his 10acre pond/lake and only fish drop shots haha