fishwizzard

Also guys, spring is here. I swung by my local pond on the way into work today and the pads are busting out of the water and I saw a very nice bass cruising around in the shallows. I saw the beginning of some sunfish beds, so I think any week now it is going to be game-on!

Hi, I am going to be traveling to Miami for work next week and am looking for some spots to beat the bank for a bit. I will be staying by Key Biscayne but will have a rental car and will have a few hours free most evenings, though with traffic I would like to stay as close by as I can. I don't need anything amazing, but would love to find a canal or something I can wet a line in. I see them all over, but don't know the legality/etiquette of just pulling over and fishing. I go back again at the beginning of April and might have time to stay a while and make a real fishing trip out of it, maybe even drive up and visit the Big O and see these blue crawdads for myself.

I like the 1/8oz Rooster Tails, in White, Silver, or Firetiger. I only really throw them in tiny ponds or small streams where I know I am dealing with small bass and large sunfish. I randomly picked up a 1/4oz Joe's Flys spinner the other day and like it a lot so far. It has a large Colorado blade and I can just crawl it along the bottom and the blade still thumps.

Yea, I am not too into it either, not that that stopped me from putting together two rods and a bunch of gear for it. But I am going to try this year a few times, I suspect I may change my opinion of kayak trolling once I hook a 26" rock. I also am going to try trolling at Rocky Gorge this coming year. I wanna start exploring some of the further out coves and might as well troll on the way there and back to launch.

I have done some rockfishing out of my kayak, but have never had much luck at it. I have all the gear for trolling, but never get the motivation. I always quit and go catch white perch whenever I try. I think this spring I need to leave the perch rods behind and make a real go of it. This is my PB striper, just a little 16" guy. Not noteworthy if I was trolling, but on the 5' UL rod I caught him on, he was the highlight of the day.

I have looked at those castable ones, but fussing with google earth will get me most of the way there.

I ran into a walmart today, no sale at mine. Did pick up some Rooster Tails because, come on, I walked all the way to the back of the store, had to buy something.

Man, those are some beautiful lures! If I ever buy a conversion van, I know who I am going to call to airbrush the sides of it, I think heavy-metal album covers are too old fashioned, I want my van to have a dayglow craw pattern.

More or less. There is a small pond maybe 10 min from my house. I have caught maybe 5-8 bass there out of maybe a hundred trips. I will swear it off and avoid it for months, often walking right by it to get to the river I can access from the same property. But then eventually I will throw a lure in the pond, get a bite, and go back to fishing it. This summer I am gonna make myself go there every week until I figure it out. The bass are in there, including at least a handful of good ones, and despite the large amount of fishing pressure, I am determined to make it work.

Hah, nice story, and I got a new spot to try from it; " Bass anglers will fish at any time, in any kind of weather, on any kind of water. One of my better fish last year came in deepest, darkest Washington, D.C., 20 yards from where half a dozen police cars, blue lights turning the night into a weird kind of funhouse, were haphazardly parked during a major drug bust at Hain’s Point." I work in DC all the time and would love to wait out rush hour chasing some bass. The spot is even right off the highway I take to get home.

I rent and my insurance covers my small gun collection without a rider as well as my fishing stuff. When I renewed my policy last year it took a little work to sort out who covered my kayak when it was on top of my car, but since I run everything through the same company it worked out in the end. I do need to get some pictures of all my fishing combos at some point soon, but whenever I have a nice sunny day I seem to decide to go fishing instead.

You would think, but my state (MD) seemed to have been awful about this back in the day. I am a little chummy with a local Park Service guy and he has had zero luck hunting up anything about most of the smaller impoundments around here. If there are records there is no way to search for them without physically digging through old documents, assuming you could even both get permission to do so and even find out where they are stored. For these small bodies of water, I have found that looking at a topo map of the surrounding terrain can give me a pretty good idea what things look like under the water.

Man, I had no idea these things even existed. Of course, until last summer I had never heard of a rockbass and was a little worried then I caught what I thought was a pale smallie with glowing red eyes while wading. I was afraid that there was like a chemical spill I was not aware of or something.

Yep, I bought some Stormyr bibs on clearance this past fall and I was far too hot every time I tried to wear them. Now, I do usually do a fair amount of hiking to get to my spots, but even with just a pair of summer weight pants under them I was roasting even in below freezing weather. I understand they were designed for standing exposed to the elements on the deck of a boat, but man, I bet I could just wear them with just underwear as snow pants and they would be warm enough.

That is close to what I want, wayfarers with like Costa/Smith grade lenses.

Awesome, thanks for the info. Most of my bass fishing is hike-in bank fishing. My favorite spots are both about 2 miles one way from any parking.

I need to get up there some day. The issue is I like to fish weekdays, but live on the other side of the beltway. I need enough daylight to fish through rush hour before I venture out west. How is bank fishing access there? I like to scout places out before I drag my yak along. I think this year I am going to devote at least every other trip to really learning Cash Lake in Bowie. It is close to my house and is on my way home from work. I am super scattershot in my fishing and need to work the fundamentals more in addition to spending more time learning how to break down a spot. It opens April first and closes in October, so I do miss some good parts of the year, but I will make it work.

Ok guys, I am now a believer in the LC Pointers. Anyone have some colors you can recomend that work well locally? Most of our baitfish are pale greenish so I was going to get a few in that colorway and then a few white/bright ones. Also, anyone know of any more bass-oriented fleamarkets/shows around here? I missed the first few this winter but they are always so salt-centric. I am starting to get enough surplus gear that I might get a table next winter to clear out some space, but I don't know how much stuff I can really sell at the shows I know of.

@MDbassin, I have a Native Slayer Propel 10, and while it handles like a bathtub with a rudder, I find it nice and roomy and it's light and pretty easy to handle. No horizontal rod storage, but it fits a crate in the rear well and I can carry four or five rods without feeling too crowded. I am on the western shore by the bridge, let me know if you want to meet up and give it a spin.

Had a bag for years, but have yet to fish them as I never remember to bring them along. They are very thin and soft, was thinking of rigging them wacky to start. I also have a savage gear mayfly, but same story, I never remember to pack it along when I go for smallies.

Lets never talk about that storm anymore. I am going to give spinnerbaits (and chatterbaits) a lot more time this year. I have a bunch of the Sebiert compact 3/8 ones and have already caught a few on a Chart Shad one this year. I was thinking about getting a couple in dark colors and changing the blades out to a single large Colorado blade. It's funny, I fish spinnerbaits all the time for perch/pickerel but never really used them for bass, other than using tiny ones like the Pond Magics when fishing smaller ponds and creeks.

I have got a wide fat head so it is hard to find glasses that fit. I also must have humid eyes as anything remotely wraparound will fog up even in perfect weather. From various internet deal sites I have picked up both a pair of Costas w/ yellow plastic lenses and a pair of Smith w/ pink lenses. I love the lenses in both but for different reasons. The Smiths are super clear and really let me see deep in the water, but are a bit too dark for overcast days or for use as dusk approaches. The Costas don't let me see as far into the water with the clarity of the Smiths, but they let me see movement far far better, even if I can't really tell what's down there. They are also great for over overcast days as they let a ton of light through. Sadly neither pair fits me with a d**n so if anyone can recommend non-wraparound frames to fit a fat head, let me know.

Take a IF and rig it upside down, it thrashes all over the place at most any speed. I do it when I am being cheap and want to keep using a plastic where the tail is still good but the head has ripped out on when rigged on swinghead swimjigs.

Cool, I have not tried any of those, I will pick some up. The action of the RI's is totally different from the Keitechs I normally use, so it will be interesting to see which the bass want more.

I would argue the runt part, but this rig has caught me more fish then about everything else I throw combined.