VAHunter

I have never caught any of those bass. This happens quite often in my area just before the fish go on the beds. The fish may be suspending from the bank all the way to the end of laydowns. I've thrown the box at that from every distance I can imagine - no luck for me.

I've never been much about sandbagging. I tell people what I have and what I caught them on. In my experience, other guys don't believe me anyway (like using jerkbaits in 39 degree water or silver buddy in 50 degree water), so the truth works to the same benefit. I've also been known to bed-fish with 4 lb. line. The only guy at weigh in who believed me was the one who saw me catching fish on that little spinning outfit.

Here in SE VA the fish have been biting about everything, even some on topwater already. However, the larger fish have been on moving baits like spinnerbait, crankbait and until very recently, jerkbait. Worms and jigs have been catching plenty as well, just not the larger fish. With the temps this week, the fish will be flooding the shallows here and making beds. My friend caught one of the bed last Friday when the water was in the mid-50s.

As a kid growing up in Indiana my friend and I found the smallest pond we had ever seen. It was only 25 ft. by 10-12 ft., but it had about 6 ft. of water. It was completely surrounded by cattails, but we cleared an area big enough to stand at the water's edge. We caught many bass up to six pounds out of that hole. Well, I guess it could have been the exact same bass each time. We always released them. It also held very nice crappie. We may have been known to keep a few of those. While not really a strange place, my buddy and I found an interesting way to fish a creek in Adak, AK back in 90' when we were stationed there. The creek emptied into a saltwater lagoon from under the road. However, you could not see it at all on the other side. We decided to check for it one day. My buddy was the first to find it when he fell through the tundra. We ended up finding a half dozen places where we could pull back the tundra to access the creek. We would drop lures and live bait through the hole and let them drift down the creek. We caught a bunch of nice dolly varden with that method. We would "recover" the creek after each time we fished it.

From shore I fish as long as the water is not frozen. However, myself and two friends have been known to launch the boat in ice and slow motor to our area. Once there, we make a straight, slow run to break the ice, then turn the boat and go back through the same area, only this time with the bow riding high so we throw as big a wake as possible. We do this a few times, then give things about 10 minutes to settle down and commence fishing. It surprises people how many fish we have caught with this method. Of course, it really only works well with ice less than 1".

Yes, it was five fish. I knew we didn't have a chance based on our weight, but I didn't figure to lose by 14 lbs.! That's one thing about bass fishing, it will humble a guy in a hurry.

Western Branch

Yes, maybe. My buddy and I were fishing a river and not having much luck. We rounded a corner of an island just in time to see a small water snake get eaten by a fish. I can't say for certain it was a bass, it may have been a bowfin, but we saw the fish's back and it looked like a bass. I've cleaned bass before that had snakes in their stomach. I've also found rats, mice, birds and turtles in a bass' stomach.

Fished the Sunday tournament in Suffolk, VA yesterday. The winning weight came in at 31.90 lbs. Second place had 24+ with third at just under 20. There were three fish almost 8 lbs. weighed in and the lunker award went to an 8.54 lb. fish. My partner and I could only manage 17.24 for fourth. That is the heaviest sack I've seen weighed in in Suffolk. All the fish looked like they were ready to bust.

Sunrises and anticipation.

Chesapeake, VA for me. Hey WdyCrankbait, I fish Suffolk just about every weekend. I was on Prince Sunday and Burnt Mills last Thursday. Those are some great lakes. I also fish the local rivers in SE VA and NE NC.