everythingthatswims

Do you have a kayak? That's how I fish the warm side

All the tiny bluegill come up against the bank on warm days in late winter/early spring. That's probably what you were seeing.

You won't think it's cheating when a bass shakes his head and sticks a treble hook in your thumb.

I don't know about dorey park, but all stocking waters and daily stocking information is on the VDGIF website. Was the pond you fished Greer's Pond? I have family in Abingdon and we used to fish greers when we were little.

I hit one two weeks ago at 5am heading to a tournament. I got a good nights sleep, woke up on time, had all my stuff ready to go, and didn't forget a single thing, so something was bound to happen.

I was amazed at how a 12" trout just about knocked the rod out of my hands, they must have the turbos on when they hit it.

Yes they do

If you are going to fish live bait, fish live bait. I focus intently on whatever technique I am using at the time, because fishing two techniques at once results in sloppy presentation most of the time because you will be worried about the other rod, or it will get hung up, etc. If I was going to fish live bait, I would have quite a few rods out covering different depths, like striper fishing. Also, live bait doesn't listen as well as an artificial when you tell it to do something.

I am loving the mattlures hardgill but it was $75....I like the manns baby 1 minus in terms of a "normal" wakebait.

This guy doesn't understand that he's only supposed to eat perfectly presented flies on light tippet.

Wow those are huge! They look skinny for lake run fish though?

Depending on distance from the reactor there are always spawning temps somewhere. Often higher than spawning temp close to the reactor.

1/4oz Redeye shad

I fish lots of stocked water (don't want to say too much) and I usually bring my limit back live to put in my neighbors pond. Fun to fish for in the colder months, and they develop a natural diet so by the time we catch them in the spring to eat (so they don't all die out in the summer) they have lost the hatchery flavor. If you want to trout fish, just find some stocked water and start experimenting. I like fishing creeks that hold fish for a while after stocking, some get fished out within a few days and are no fun to fish, others will have good populations that last into the early summer and make for great fishing. If you are willing to make a drive, the Rapidan is great for wild brook trout.

So silly...

There are spawning temps in the hot side all winter, I think the fish are more concerned with length of day and moon phase when they are determining when to spawn. The fish there are weird, one day in December we went from jigging blades and lipless crankbaits in 30-40 FOW to sight casting with wacky rigs along dike 2.

Did you catch any?

Definitely not. Fish were cruising and sitting near the bank, I would cast a wacky finesse worm way past them and work it up to them, they would just stare at it! Bass from 10"-5lbs all behaving the same way. Hopefully they won't be in a funk like this for much longer.

Let them do their thing and outsmart them once they leave their beds

Getting bitten by bugs is another signal that spring and better fishing are on the way! I actually get excited when I start seeing Mosquitos and such

I filleted them all, and will be giving them away. Plenty of work, but half of the filets go to a landowner that lets us hunt and fish on his land, the other half goes towards getting permission to fish some rock quarries

I still don't know why spinnerbaits work. I throw them a good bit and catch plenty of fish on them, but they are seriously the dumbest looking baits out there.

Got into some crappies today fishing some neighborhood lakes. Lots of fish in the 10-11" range, and one giant 13.5"er! Also caught plenty of bluegill and little largemouth, I spent a decent amount of time throwing a redeye shad and a drop shot to no avail, I guess the bass's metabolisms still are pretty slow and they aren't ready to eat anything bigger than a crappie jig.

Red eyes and smooth?

Rebel floater