Freak78

What color were they? Were they clear and in a giant mass?

That shouldn't read like that, but that is how I typed it lol. I mean the smallies are making a comeback. All of the other species are doing fine.

We have a healthy Pike population in the river near my house. They don't show up on the VDGIF site so I'm not sure if they migrated, got washed in during a flood or if someone put them. I always enjoyed catching them, and always relaesed them. These last few weeks or so I have seen them flotaing in the river or rotting on shore. I ran in to a couple of guys on my way to the car who asked what if anything I caught. The topic of Pike came up and they admitted to killing everyone they catch claiming that they aren't supposed to be here and how it's ruining the bass population. They were d**n proud of it too. This river many of you would call a creek. Crystal clear, max depth of 6 feet or so in spots and maybe 50 yards wide at the widest point. It has suffered from 2 major fish kills in the last 15 years, that all but wiped out the adult smallies and redbreast sunfish. The other populations of fish are doing well despite what they say. Pike, Musky, LMB, carp and even the SMB are making a comeback. My question is, since vdgif doesn't recognize these as native would they even care if I called them? These same people even admitted to releasing the a few pike in the towns Koi ponds which the town was NOT fond of lol

I've never brought a reel or tackle to bed, but I will look shop for tackle, read reviews and watch fishing videos in bed.

My favorite pond to fish is full of carp. It seems everytime I go they are making a commotion and I still catch fish. Everything from dinks to 5 pounders. I often catch them just off the same cattails the carp are splashing in.

Only thing edible around here is stocked trout. There are cosumption warnings at every body of water I fish.

What part of nova do you live? I was born and raised in nova and did most of my fishing in the potomac. Although most of my time was spent on a boat, I still managed to have very successful trips beating the banks. Granted it's been nearly 15 years since I fished there so things probably changed for better or worse, but I will still add what I can remember. Anything public around the gunston and pohick areas. (There were some insanely good creeks in gunston if you had a boat). The banks of the GW parkway were money as well. There is a cove that meets a creek... yup lol. The marina on the parkway was also very good. Further south around the quantico and aquia areas are very good as well and is a great spot for snakeheads before the grass takes over. Under the rt.1 bridge in woodbridge for the Occoquan. Side didn't matter too much, plus it was home to monster carp, catfish, and stripers. Even up in the town was good on either side and that includes the park on the prison side. Like I said these were very productive when I was fishing them and it has been a great number of years since I have fished there. As far as lures, all I had was cranks, crawfish imitators and manns electric grape jelly worms lol. Those were absolutely killer back then. As were the flying lures. There I said it!

Same here! I have only been hitting Shenandoah lake and the river right now. With the bite the way it's been no reason to try anywhere else for the time being. My time is limited until the days get longer. Thank god for daylight savings time lol!

I would too but it's pretty much all I have for a quick trip. Gander is an hour away and bps and cabelas are both 2.5 hours away.

Lol that's about how my muck goes. Especially with Gander mountain. They advertise a really good sale but have none of the items in stock. For some dumb reason my store has the baitball and sunfish seperate. With the frogs on a seperate end cap.

My local Dick's had signs up for *** and livetarget frogs, buy one get one free. I grabbed 8 and went off to the register and they didn't ring up on sale. I showed them the sign and they honored it. We back the next day to get some for my wife and nephew and again they rang up as not being on sale and honored it again, only this time they took the sign down. They also had buy one get one %50 percent off on all GY and Keitech lures, and 5 jawbone frogs for 10 dollars. Sale is supposed to run until Saturday for those who don't know. Maybe the *** and livetarget target issue is resolved.

Bridgewater, just outside of harrisonburg.

The bite has REALLY picked up here in the Shenandoah valley. Hitting everything from cranks, chatterbaits,soft plastics and even managed a few on topwater. I'm limited to the shore since I don't have my kayak ready yet so all of my catches have been between the shallows and around 5 feet deep.

Thanks Wayne. I have been to Smith and Douthat before and had some luck. I will definitely add the others to the list. I haven't heard of carvin before. The New river was just suggested to me today and came highly recommended. Definitely looking forward to checking it out. Thanks for the advice! I usually read the booklet or browse vdgif but alot of those places are pretty bad and or not for me. That concrete pond comes up alot in discussions but I haven't made it there yet. Fall ball is taking my precious fishing time.