Turtle135

Black & Blue, it is what you want to throw on the Tidal Potomac River and seems to work well in the 15 - 20 depths where Maryland Reservoir Largemouth spend much of their year.

I was replying to his question: "Getting away from Ned's, will 14lb fc be too much for standard 1/8-1/4oz jigs". I think the OP knew by this point of this thread what he was doing was not optimal. Yes he would be limiting casting distance and yes he runs the risk of straightening a light wire hook. I figured I would throw a picture in there of a fairly standard 1/4 ounce swim jig so that we would be on the same page.

does the name of the mfg rhyme with Mowrance? Strumminbird? Starmin?

I throw 1/4 ounce jigs on 14 and 17 pound test Trilene XT monofilament all the time. These are bottom contact football jigs and brush jigs with a craw trailer added that I use when I am looking for a smaller profile than a 1/2 - 3/4 ounce jig. The swim jigs I throw most frequently are 1/4 ounce. Trilene XT is a thick line that way overtests so you should be fine with the 14 pound test flouro.

Upper Potomac? I got out the weekend after the big snow.

Apparently it takes about 25" of snow to keep me off the water. I fished at least once a week all of 2015. The only thing that stopped me this year was the big snow storm we got two weekends back. I watch the weather like a hawk and pick locations accordingly. High winds, fish wind protected waters. Potential for lightning, don't range too far from where I launched. Everything iced up, hit the warm water discharge areas.

I am in the same camp. Big bass around here might push up into the 6 to 7 pound range. I use 14 pound test Trilene XT and bump up to 17 pound test in heavy cover situations.

Regarding "Since, I won't use trailers on the rattle ones". I think you always will want to use a trailer. Drop your jig into a sink full of water and let it sit still. What you should see is the skirt float up and away from the hook shank. You want that trailer to be the target the bass keys on (where the hook is). If that rattle pack is in your way you can hang a chunk style trailer on the hook like in this image.

That might be Violette's Lock. Largemouth in the canal and good wadeable smallmouth fishing in the Potomac River in the section called "Seneca Breaks".

I almost always "thin" weedguards and shorten them if they are excessively long. Since I buy plain jig heads and tie my own skirts my cost per jig is under a buck (I would rather stick a bass than keep a heavy weedguard just to try to avoid a snag). Typically my skirts are about 1/4 to 1/2 inch beyond the end of the hook bend. The only thing I watch for is a long skirt affecting the action of the trailer (too long of a skirt can dampen the flapping of trailer arms - of course in cold, cold water I want to dampen that flapping).

Nothing wrong with rubber skirts. I prefer round rubber over silicon when I tie my jigs. There are a couple of reasons you do not see a lot of "retail" jigs with rubber skirts. First, over a long period of time rubber can rot and disintegrate (retailers can't have that happen to a product sitting on their shelf). Second, silicon skirts come in a wider variety of colors (which IMHO helps catch "fisherman" and not necessarily bass). Are those rattles enclosed in a little plastic case on the underside of the jig hook shank? I have seen those before, they largely block a trailer from being "threaded" onto the hook. When I did not want a rattle I would snap those off.

Welcome Zach! It's a small world, what took you so long to get on this forum? On following up on notifications. They recently changed the format to this forum. I have not figured everything out yet but when I click on my user name (in the upper right hand corner) and scroll down to "profile" I can see all my recent activity (and check any threads I have commented on).

very nice! p.s. - in case if you have never tried this before, put a trailer on them, drop them in a sink full of water and then take a look at them

Netbait Baby Paca Craw

Fishing slow with jigs and suspending jerkbaits is a solid way to start. For me here in Maryland dealing with water temperatures in the high 30's to low 40's those two presentations are staples to winter success. You have to keep plugging away with it but I will assure you, once you get that first bass things will start to fall into place. The hardest one to catch is that first bass in cold water. I throw a lot of smaller jigs in the winter. 1/4 and 3/8th ounce jigs with netbait tiny paca craws. Good luck and keep after them!

I use the AquaVu. I currently have the small handheld one with the color screen and the built in recorder. The cable on this one is 50 feet. You can take a close up look at "cover items" but in my opinion you will not have the depth of view even in really clear water to get a feel for "structural elements". It is something of a time bandit activity on the water. You drop that camera down, start looking around, then you realize you just ate up 30 - 40 minutes of fishing time. These cameras are not a huge help in fishing in my opinion when compared to a fish finder but if you are fascinated by what is going on down there (as I am) they are kind of cool to have.

excellent! appreciate the suggestions, that will give me a good option for a 3.5" and a 4.0" tube (I like that "Dirty Dark Green Pumpkin" color on the Cabin Creek)

If you are going to be there for a few days you could drop a small crayfish trap down. I have done this on my local lakes and discovered that we have several different species with a wild variety of colors. For largemouth I have always felt profile and size trumps color selection (and for color I usually stick with something dark and bland). River smallmouth seem to be more particular about color in my experience but I still feel that does not trump profile.

Do you know roughly what the water temperature is? In my water, for bottom contact presentations, I gravitate away from the worm profile over to a crayfish profile as the water temperature drops under 48 - 50 degrees. True suspending jerkbaits should still be in play (sometimes with a pause of 30 - 45 seconds between taps).

I know Gitzit makes a good thin walled tube, any other brands out there? I am looking for a tube that is soft and collapses very easily for a particular presentation I plan to experiment with. Thanks in advance.

Trilene XT 14 pound test, monofilament line

that one is bigger than I expected, I've never seen one live, is that a typical sized specimen?

round goby?

squarebill crankbaits, my catch rate with them has been poor and I'm pretty sure the problem is that I never actually tie them on, they do look pretty cool when I open up my hardbait plano

we are expected to get 18" - 24" of the white stuff, will probably have to hike to the lake tomorrow and leave the kayak at home, I am thinking suspending jerkbait and a texas rigged tube