everythingthatswims

That makes a whole lot more sense haha, thanks!

The little black strip in the trick worm that I assume was done with mend-it. I was under the impression you were saying color doesn't matter, meaning it wouldn't be necessary, but I could be wrong.

What's the deal with the wacky-wacky rig then if color doesn't matter???

Do it!!! Lots of guys in the northeast crush them on big baits. From what I have seen, you NEED and MS Slammer

Florida doesn't count as winter, you just have early fall for a few months before spring

Wacky Rigged Bluegill on an S-waver

Watch fishingallday's videos, he catches all kinds of "sweetwater" fish. I have seen mullet in ponds at Myrtle Beach

VA has great variety for bass fishing, while we may not have the biggest or the most, we do have a little bit of everything. We have big rivers with smallies like the James, New, and Shenandoah, countless stocked trout reservoirs/lakes (If super smart trout-eating bass are your thing), many of which are in the mountains, big impoundments like Anna, Gaston, SML, tidal water like the Potomac, James, Chickahominy, tons of smaller reservoirs and lakes, and even Briery Creek with florida strain LMB. I think I would get bored having to fish similar locations all the time, nice to have plenty of options.

My kayak doesn't make much noise

What else am I supposed to do Jan-Feb when the water is hovering just above freezing and the rivers have chunks of ice floating around in them?

Gotta love an s-waver bite! Is that the infamous carp bait?

Comparison when the fish is 6" from the camera ??? I hold fish way out too though, not knocking you for it, holding them out makes for a better photo IMO, not to make them look bigger than they are, it just does a better job displaying their features.

Fallfish

I used to think the berkley eggs were ridiculous, then I tried them, if you can get a natural drift I'm convinced that most trout will eat it. With the trout magnets you just twitch/jig them, drives the fish nuts, the jighead is shaped like a shad dart so they go all over the place instead of just up and down like normal jigheads. 4lb test max for trout magnets, 2 is better though.

Get some wool gloves with the fingertips cut out, this way you can hold the line with your index finger while casting a spinning rod, the only downside to wearing gloves is that you lose some sensitivity. I also wear insulated neoprene chest waders, if my hands get cold I just shove them down in my waders and take a short break for them to warm up. Get some hand warmers as well. Overdress for the temperature, you can always shed layers if you get hot, the wamer your core is, the less likely you are to get cold hands. Buy some berkley power eggs and #12 hooks, drift them along the bottom with as few split shot as possible, this should eliminate the need to change lures the only baits I carry are trout magnets and power eggs.

I have caught a few on beds like that

Is that a zeles on the deck behind you?

I don't fly fish for stocked trout until late spring/early summer when there is a population of fish that has been in the creek long enough to know what real food is! Natural presentations often get ignored because the trout don't know what real food is yet! I do have egg patterns and stupid flashy stocked trout flies that I tie for occasional use but I just assume use light spinning gear until spring/summer. Fly rod is the weapon of choice for native brookies though. Purists like using 100% fly rod but there is nothing pure about catching a fish that was dumped in the creek from a truck no matter how you look at it

Water levels are up in the creeks and the fish got really spread out from the stocking this week. The fishing was excellent, landed over 30 between my little brother and I, most were released but we brought back 11 to continue our pond stocking this winter They were all fat and stubby stocked trout but still a blast!

Crappies are usually pretty docile but when they stick you it is pretty serious! The worst is a mad tom (their toxin is worse than normal cats), followed by 6-10" channels, bullheads, etc.

Blade bait?

Jump while they are hooked?

Yeah he was, but the angle of the photo makes it look a lot worse than it was. I'm not sure why he was skinny, there is plenty of food in the pond.

Trout Magnet

March-April in VA...EVERY YEAR. 70 degrees and sunny one day, 45 degrees the next day, then a flood the day after that, but finally it will stabilize and the fish will start to bite. Then a huge cold front comes crashing in and you start all over again.