everythingthatswims

Still waiting on the big girls to show themselves but the dinks are starting to feed and cooperate for us. Lots of fish are sunning and un-catchable , but I have found a few willing to eat. Redeye shad has been the bait of choice, a few on texas rigged finesse worms as well. Forecast is looking good for this week, shouldn't be long before the smaller waters develop a good bite. GET READY! Anybody else doing much in VA?

lipless crank

Shoal bass is a black bass, this should be in fishing reports or general! Very cool, the black bass subspecies have always fascinated me, I would love to target them one day.

Gotcha. Well I got mine from a trout tank at an expo that my high school bass club hosted. We auction the fish off at the end of the expo, and I was generously given about 20 (two of which were palaminos) of them to bring home live to put in my neighbors pond to fish for while its cold (we do this with trout from stocked creeks around here too, yes its legal in VA). So my palaminos get no extra pressure ...........VA Department of game and fish doesn't stock palaminos.

Trout magnet... 1" split tail grub on a 1/64oz jighead, I pinch off part of the bait to make it about 2/3" long when I fish them "float-n-fly" style like the one in the photo. In creeks and rivers I use the full trout magnet because it has a slower ROF.

Yeah flyfisher was saying that the true golden trout are the ones in the Sierras. My reasoning for titling the post "Unicorn Trout" is because of the almost superstitious beliefs people have about them (They are smarter than ANY trout, they only hit certain baits, fish of a lifetime get it mounted, etc.). Reality is that everyone else has also seen this yellow fish in the creek, therefore he has seen many more baits than a normal trout would, and they are conditioned. Gorgeous golden by the way, and I appreciate that he was caught on spinning gear, nothing wrong with it!

Nice smallie, football for sure! What's up with the circle hook hanging next to it?

My little cousin has one and I keep it at my house (he only fishes with me). I make sure to have it with me when I go to a certain trout creek with very low bridges crossing it, really nice to not have to slam the rod on the bottom of the bridge if you miss a trout.

Just make sure not to get the "elite series" baby 1 minus cranks, they have heavier paint so they don't wake well. The normal ones work very well though. You should try a redeye shad, I have a feeling it would be killer in your area right now.

Your PB weight says otherwise!

I can't believe you have fish hitting topwater in BC right now! Must be that Pacific Northwest weather. Good job

I caught one yesterday at a pond on a tiny crankbait that I use whenever we get a warm spell in winter...Most of the fish in the pond (including the bass) were sunning on a shallow flat and wouldn't eat. They would spook from my 6lb line dragging on the water when I would cast a weightless finesse worm way past them and tried to reel it up to them. Sunning fish in cold water are usually impossible to catch unless they are crappies. By this weekend I would think fishing will be do-able, still probably a winter pattern but there may be some fish up shallow.

I would try a big wakebait in the summer in the early morning, late evening, and at night.

My little brother and I trolled jerkbaits for seatrout last summer, two rods out and when you hooked one fish, your other bait would suspend (or float depending om the bait) in the school resulting in several double hookups. I would assume this could apply to bass too

I have fished a pond like this, the owners don't know a thing about fish, they had a brand new pond and stocked bass, catfish, and HYBRID (sterile!) bluegill. So there is no forage, I don't know how regular bluegill or sunfish haven't made it in but they haven't. The pond is a blast to fish though, tons of 10-14" bass and they will bite anything! Also, the hybrid bluegill are big enough that we have caught some on weightless super flukes on a 3/0 EWG hook. The bass are so hungry that sometimes when you release them, if you cast to the again, they will bite.

Tell that to the Herman Brothers (Giant Goose Ranch). They have a 32 acre lake managed specifically for hybrids, and they stock them for lots of pond owners. I do think hybrids will eat pellets though which works okay for a pond.

If I had to push products in order to get paid to fish on TV, I probably would-----Can't blame them.

Cornmeal mixed with "Natures Seasons" as a breading, dip the filets in egg, then in the breading, and fry them up. I look for fish in the 12-14" range. I catch plenty of dinks so a handful of bass that size aren't hard to come by. I don't keep bass often, if I want to eat fish you will find me skipping little grubs up under a dock to get a mess of crappies.

The bass like returning roboworms to you

23" smallie, lean fish, didn't even break the 5lb mark. PB largemouth is the one in my profile photo (24", no weight), but this photo was one of three times I have captured her in 2 years. Nice to have a PB living within walking distance of your house.

Everything is frozen, right now the ice is slushy and too thin to fish on, but still preventing me from fishing. I tried to catch a fallfish in a river this week with ice chunks floating around to no avail. Big plans for Saturday and Sunday so I should have something to report. I had been picking away at the cold water fish up until the winter went from mild to harsh in February, so when this ice checks out I should be able to get after them again.

The fish where I live never know what to do in spring either. We usually get a huge flood right when I want to be pre spawn fishing.

1) Senko, in green pumkin or something similar. 3) A medium creature bait to texas rig with in green pumkin. 2) A couple squarebills, sexy shad color will work in any situation. 3) White Spinnerbait 3/8oz 4) Jig in green pumkin or something similar 5) Spook style topwater

Here is the "wrong" kind of double barrel