Turtle135

monster! love the color on that bass

nice smallmouth! love the belly on that fat girl

We had a tournament on the tidal potomac river yesterday (kayaks only, 3 bass with the "catch - photo - release" format). Last weekend the water temperatures spiked up to 74 degrees. Yesterday the water was 54 - 56 degrees. The bass did not approve. Tough day of fishing out there and I only put one on the board. As always a few anglers figured them out and put up good numbers on an unusually cold late April morning. Still beats a day in the office by a long measure! on the trusty 1/2 ounce football jig:

Nice! that is a pig of a smallie, congrats!

The first thing I figured out about tournaments is that I have a lot less time to operate than I am used to. The typical fishing trip for me usually involves getting on the water at sunrise and fishing until sunset. In a tournament you just do not have that kind of time. If you have been able to prefish and found a pattern/presentation that is working get to it right off the bat. Give it more than a fair chance to produce. Have two or three backup plans prepared in case option A does not pan out. From my personal experience that is likely all you will need (and have time for). If you have not been able to prefish go with your "strength & confidence" presentations. A tournament is not the time to experiment with something new, save that for another day. There will be a tendency, if the bites are not coming, to start fishing "faster". Fight that tendency. In fact that is when you likely need to be more deliberate in your presentations. Hope you do well but if not, don't sweat it, there will be more tournaments down the road (and you learn from each one you enter). Good luck!

Personally, I just do not trust flourocarbon. Every season I watch guys I am fishing with break off average fish with fluorocarbon leaders or main line. Just not for me. I think the advantages that flouro offers does not come into play for 95% of the fishing I do.

1. Humminbird 346c DI Fish Finder 2. Yakattack ParkNPole 6' Stakeout Pole (this actually helped me win a tournament last year as most of my competitors were getting blown all over the place by strong wind) 3. Milk crate with lid (for all my tackle) with 5 rod holders 4. 5 pound anchor, anchor line on a float, with a quick release

nice! can't wait to see the progress

you are on fire! congrats on the new PB! that is a great looking bass

The behind the gill technique that Steveo-1969 linked to works great, particularly if you go barbless on your soft plastic hooks. I do not have a deep hooking problem with hard baits or jigs but plastic worms seem to get swallowed quickly so I use barbless hooks for that type of presentation.

I'm not sure if this was the thread (but it is ned rig related) http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/155198-have-you-fished-the-ned-rig/

excellent! a PB to kick off the 2015 season, congrats!

I'm pretty sure this whole thread is Gulf's doing!

I too had heard of them before but had never fished them until last season. A friend convinced me to give them a shot on the river for smallmouth bass. His option for rigging them weedless is to use the Owner Ultra Finesse Ballhead (1/16th ounce, size 1 hook) with the Z-Man Finesse TRD. Ned Rig Smallies

very nice largemouth! that has got to be an extremely good bass for Michigan, congrats!

I also use a 5 pound plate from a weight lifting set. Sometimes, if the wind is really howling, I bump up to a 10 pounder. I frequently anchor to combat the wind. If you are using your anchor to combat current be very careful. Some of my most harrowing moments on the water involved an anchor, a kayak and current. I keep my anchor line on one of these dog retriever dummies. I can quick disconnect and leave the anchor line attached to the float.

congrats on the PB!

Gander Mountain has a sale on the Daiwa Lexa Casting Rods. The LEXA701MHXB (7'0" medium heavy, used to sell for $ 99.00) is on sale for $ 49.99 right now. Add something small to your order to get over $ 50.00 and you get free shipping.

I was fishing a bridge piling this past February in 30 feet of water. On one rod, I have bait on a circle hook on the bottom intended for a blue catfish. With the other rod I am vertically jigging a lipless crankbait. I feel a fish pop the crankbait and as I am fighting that fish up off the bottom I noticed the bait rod is dancing about. Sweet! I'm thinking double! I get the crankbait fish up to the surface. It's a 6 pound blue catfish, who also has the circle hooked bait in his mouth. Greedy cat!

Potomac River on a Netbait Mini B-Bug. I have caught a few in this size range, this is one that I have a decent picture of. Always amazed at how long of a tail a river smallie has.

I use monofilament on my baitcasters (specifically Trilene XT 14 pound test that actually breaks closer to 20 pound test). Spinnerbaits, crankbaits, jigs, etc. I fish from a kayak so you will usually find me with only 2 or 3 rods on board so I need setups that can handle all presentations.

I would pickup braid when it is on sale and feel fine holding onto it for several seasons. On monofilament I only keep enough around for the next couple of months for the reasons Penguino mentioned.

way to play the wind! nice set of largemouth

Congrats on the bass! Almost doubling your PB happens but a few times in a fishing career so the great thing is you got the weight and the length.

I had a big smallmouth break my line on the Potomac River about 8 years ago. I knew my line (6 pound test XT) was slightly frayed by the rocks so I turned to wade back to my kayak to retie. I fired a cast in front of me and that is when she hit. Oh the humanity! Since then I have been somewhat maniacal about line abrasion.