Logan S

You could try some tidal water fishing...It generally stays decent thru the summertime and it's all shallow water and generally "power" fishing which sounds like what you're looking for. If you went to MD you could fish the Upper Chesapeake and the Potomac, or you could do central VA and have the Potomac and the James/Chick rivers as options. If you like fishing heavy grass and other visible cover in shallow water, tidal fishing in the mid-Atlantic is for you . Having said that, if I were you and had a week to take a fishing trip in the summer, I'd be heading north to Erie or Cayuga or St Lawrence, etc...Assuming the COVID restrictions didn't prevent it.

I have a Tatula 100HS that I got back in 2015, which was pretty close to when the platform was first released. It's been flawless. It's lived it's life on my flipping/punching rod and I don't see myself changing it out anytime soon. I am a pretty hardcore Shimano guy too...But I have 2 Tatula's, this one and an HLC model on my frog rod as my only non-Shimano's. They are excellent reels IMO. I could see myself migrating from Shimano to a Tatula lineup one day (not today though ). To me, the Tatula 100 platform is the modern version of what the Curado B-series was for so many years - The solid, affordable workhorse reel that can do it all.

Everything public has been hammered this year because of COVID, but prior to that in general I'd say public waters are sort of the same as they've always been...I don't bank fish much so I can't comment on C&O Canal and other stuff like that, but I only fish public waters and up until COVID everything was the same as it's always been mostly. Little Seneca / Black Hill is one place that's definitely more crowded in the past couple years. More kayaks than anything else. The fishing is down a bit compared to a few years ago when it was off the charts, but it's still fishing pretty good...It had to come back to earth eventually.

I've fished lakes that have been sprayed or treated and the fishing has always been poor for a period of time after. Our DNR has said the herbicides don't effect fish and while that might literally be true (as in it doesn't kill them outright) it definitely has adverse effects on the fish. I generally avoid areas that have been sprayed if I can. The fish I have caught in those areas are frequently skinny and rough looking. Everyone I know has similar observations...I've never heard anything positive about treating SAV with chemicals in regards to fishing quality.

I've caught a lot of fish on spinnerbaits with white painted blades over the years. I started using them after getting my butt kicked in a tournament nearly 20 years ago and they were considered 'old school' then....So I don't think it's a new thing?

Got to fish the Potomac for fathers day...Fished most of the day with this giant accidental catfish as my only catch. Finally got some fish to bite and caught a bunch of bass one after the other for about 30 minutes...Gotta love tidal fishing sometimes ?. Ended up with 15 or so fish up to about 3lbs in the little flurry before it tapered off.

Y'all need to keep quiet on the Met MG's!!!! ? That frame style is hands down my favorite...Core, Met MG, Chronarch D, and the 1st gen Exsence DC. The '13 Metaniums are starting to get affordable too, can find them under $200 most of the time.

For me, the exact duplicates are.... MB XX Diablo Spec-R w/ Core MG7 (x2) MB XX Spinnerbait Special w/ Scorpion DC7 (x2) MB XX Jerkbait Special w/ Scorpion 1000XT (x2) They are versatile rods and I liked them so much I wanted another .

Smallwood State Park and Marshall Hall are in MD...Leesylvania State Park, Pohick Regional Park, Occoquan Regional Park, and Hope Springs Marina are in VA. There's several other ramps in MD and VA also, these are some of the most popular. No need to go on a road trip looking, it's 2020....Get on Google Maps and check em out . Gaston has a few waterfront hotels/lodges plus countless rental houses and plenty of ramps. It's a 4 hour drive there, so it's a place that you'll want to get at least 2 or 3 days on for a trip.

Not sure what kind of boat you have, but the Upper Potomac is really only suited to jet boats unless you go to Dam 4 / Slackwater. Seneca is borderline, people do it with props but not me....But the ramps and areas on the Upper Potomac that are actually worth fishing (IMO) are all in jet boat territory. The tidal Potomac has a ton of ramps, some of the big ones are Smallwood, Leesylvania, Pohick, Occoquan, Marshall Hall and Aquia (Hope Springs)....There are several others in addition to these. National is a good ramp but gets really crowded with sight-seers anytime the weather is nice, it's a great launch for winter fishing. There's probably a dozen ramps to launch a bassboat on the tidal Potomac and most are in parks that have nice facilities.

1) Avoid the FICHT, speaking from personal experience. I had one and it was great motor right up until the point it wasn't and I had to decide whether to spend a lot money rebuilding it OR a lot more money on re-powering (I re-powered)...And that experience has been duplicated by countless people that you can find online or otherwise. In addition, even if it performs flawlessly you may one day want to sell or trade in the boat and it's very hard to sell a boat with a FICHT on it....And this specific one apparently already has some issues. 2) I'd never consider a dual console personally, the space you lose is not worth it unless you have a family member or other co-angler that will ride with you the majority of the time AND the wind bothers them to the point of them being uncomfortable. Plenty of people have that situation obviously and it's good they have that option...But I've seen several guys get a dual console and end up hating it because most of the time they fish alone or with a co-angler that could care less about it (or hates it also, I know several Co's that hate dual-consoles). So obviously my recommendation would be the Basscat. Both Ranger and Basscat are well-made boats - But between these 2 specific ones, the Basscat wins.

Shortening the wires like I did to this one makes it flex a bit less and only having 2 actual jigheads on mine makes it worse (less weight at the ends of wires to pull on them)...But for my application the flex isn't critical for triggering strikes. I throw this specific one when smallies are aggressively chasing baitfish, they either go all the way or they don't. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't really pay attention to the flex on it...But it does flex though. 16lb FC should be fine and should still flex the wires.

I use a Flash Mob Jr and modify it a little for a compact A-Rig....Mine is modified for 2 hooks since my state (MD) has that limitation. I use this compact one for smallmouth in a clear mountain lake and it works well in the right conditions. Cut the wires shorter and use round-bend pliers to put loops back in them. I like the version with blades because I think it does 'hide' the wires a bit by flashing around them. Pic for reference with a S-Crank 1.2 for size comparison....It's really not that big at all. Baits are 3.5" Keitechs and the two heads are 1/4oz. I can throw this on any MH rod and 15 or 17lb FC (sometimes braid, but on this small rig not often).

Welcome from a fellow central MD'er.

Just realized I'm in the lead for the BR group ? Been so long between tournaments I forgot which groups I even entered ?

I'm a long way from retiring...But in my career I've always sought out jobs/companies with maximum PTO and/or flexibility to accommodate maximum fishing time. It's worked out well for me, I've been able to fish more than many I'm sure. Right now I have 2 young kids (4 and almost 2) so fishing time is limited to what it used to be, but I still get out enough...No complaints here. I also get to mix fishing and family time occasionally which is the best of both worlds

They look amazing...Retail is out of my price range but I'll be looking for them on the used market for sure . I like the Oneten Stick still being 6'5"...I love the X4 version. I was bummed when the XX and Destroyer models were made longer.

We've been using Paypal for years, it's worked fine...We also give members the option to mail in a check if they don't want to pay the Paypal fees, but must go for the the convenience of Paypal. For registration a simple email to the Tournament Director is sufficient. He keeps track of the registrations and the treasurer keeps track of the payments from Paypal or check. It's been working for us since before COVID...So we don't need to change any of this to comply with COVID stuff in our state (MD). FWIW our club is about 60 members and in normal, non-COVID years we hold 13 tournaments per season.

Local lake has always been popular, but now it's bordering on insane. The kayak/canoe/paddleboard/inflatable crowd have descended on it like locusts. Not meant to be a slight toward anyone, it's just the truth....Generally they are not fisherman and most probably just picked up their gear and are new to the water, so they are just not informed of the etiquette...I'm generally polite with them and wait it out, but man it's starting to wear on me. Parking lot with 20 trailer spaces is usually completely full of cars without trailers, which is frustrating when trying to park since there is a huge lot of single spaces for cars just above the trailer lot. This picture is from yesterday evening, a Wednesday, not a weekend . I can't wait for the virus situation to be resolved so all these people go back to doing whatever it is they were doing before...

I'd bet the tests would be different if the lines had been in the water when tested Maybe they did and I missed it, but I saw another video they did with the same test equipment and it was all dry lines....If they did test lines in the water, I'd admit to being wrong Nylon/mono absorbs water and it's properties change - less abrasion resistance, lower knot strength, and more stretch. Tackle Tour did a nice article about lines a while back and showed a 50% drop in abrasion resistance for nylon/mono when submerged. Most of the FC lines in their comparison were worse than the nylon/mono when dry too...But when wet the results flipped. TT is known for the methodical testing they do, much like the Salt Strong videos.

On the spawning in 80 degrees water stuff...I've seen some stuff that doesn't go 'by the book'. On the Potomac and Chesapeake there will sometimes be some fish that spawn again in August (mid-80's water), I've actually caught them off beds sight fishing. It's not a ton, but enough that I always check on it around full moons in August. My guess is the nature of tidal water is that sometimes during the normal spawn time the available spawning habitat is lower (less or no grass to break the current)...So some go for another round in summer when there is a lot more ideal habitat for it. There are no absolutes in bass fishing I don't make it a habit to eat bass, but I still think Smallies taste better than LM .

InvisX is a great line, I don't think the answer is upgrading to a more expensive one. AbrasX is great and I'm sure Tatsu is too (I haven't used it)...But this is a big reason why so many newer anglers get turned away from FC - Any thread about it inevitably turns into people saying "spend more on the extra magical line". I'm almost positive @Dirtyeggroll's issue is that his line is getting damaged in some way, not a fault of InvisX as a line.

I don't have a jet, but I've spent enough time on the flats to know they are somewhat rare out there ....I have seen them though. Not sure how much of an issue chopped up or loose grass is for a jet, but it can be an issue all over the Upper Bay, not just on the flats....Especially in the fall. But outside of that, you should be OK with trips down here. There are lanes in the grass on the flats that you can run in and at mid to high tides there are lots of areas where the grass isn't actually ON the surface. I'm sure it'd work out as long as you're smart about it. I have some buddies with jets that fish the Upper Bay just fine - They don't fish the flats much but that's their preference not because they can't get out there.

Sorta depends, every fish is different...Some fish thrash/headshake more than others. Boat flipping will put some extra stress on them too (but I still do it often). If you tie off the r-bend with some braid it will greatly reduce the amount of bending and your spinnerbait wire will last longer. IMO you get a better hookset too since it doesn't open up nearly as much when pressure is applied. With it tied off like this, a lot of times I don't even need a re-tune after catching and boat flipping a fish.

I do I was just going to post here that the timing of this thread back in 2009 was pretty good - With the new world record being caught 1 month later. I know it's officially a tie, but consider Kurita's bass to the "real" WR - We know for a fact it weighed exactly what it did and it was still heavier than Perry's bass which is now nearing 90 years old. I think the fact it was caught on live bait stunted what could have been more publicity - No "World Record Lure" to promote. One thing I remember reading back then was that Kurita said he had seen the bass in a school of other huge bass and had tried for multiple days to catch one. Can you imagine a school of 20+lbers? ?