Fried Lemons

First bass of the year for me. Caught while jigging the current breaks along the rocks on my local river.

Thanks everyone, I will check them out.

I fish rapids from the very rocky banks of a local river. I like throwing lipless cranks here as I can catch a variety of species depending on the time of year. I found I do best with a slow, steady retrieve just off the bottom. Unfortunately I snag frequently on boulders and commonly lose 1-2 baits per outing. I'm looking for recommendations for lipless cranks that will get me the best bang for my buck. I care mostly about the sound and the hardware quality. I don't really ever yoyo the bait because as soon as it touches the bottom, it's gone.

I don't have the chronarch but I have a metanium and curado I can compare. For casting distance I found the curado to be just as good or better than the metanium. In terms of smoothness, both are smooth but with the metanium you can really feel the micro gears. It's a very smooth connected feel compared to the curado which feels smooth but disconnected in comparison. As far as I know the chronarch doesn't have micro module gearing so this comparison probably applies to the chronarch as well.

Some lures come through rocks and wood better than others. kastmasters are really prone to snagging. I wouldn't consider it a good lure to be crashing into cover. A square billed crankbait or a Texas rigged plastic will come through more easily. As a bank angler your options are limited once you snag up. You may want to consider switching to a superline. Any braid below 30 will be thinner in diameter and strong enough to bend most stock trebles.

I hit the potomac near the chain bridge today. I was looking for smallies and didn't find any but I was surprised to find several schoolie sized striped bass. Largest was this one, just 1/2" short of legal size. Rest were in the 15-18" range.

Got out for a short session on the Potomac at the usual spot. Water was higher and much colder than the last time. I caught this 16" smallie 5 feet from the bank behind a boulder that last time was in about 8" of water.

I'm pretty sure by bfs he means bait finesse. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Haven't been able to get out much lately. Got these 2 fish in the past 2 weeks. LMB on a whopper plopper 130 SMB on a popper

With the canal being low and clear I've been fishing the river when I can. Smallmouth have been somewhat harder to get with the low and clear conditions. I have had some success with whole/chunked sunfish fished on the bottom. Caught my first flathead and a couple decent blues as well. Anyone else catch cats in the stretch above dc? Mainly been trying for big specimens as I don't eat them.

Look for any kind of overhead cover like slop, pads, matted grass or trees. Frogs can work even mid day since bass take refuge underneath when the sun comes up.

The river continues to produce. Caught numerous fish in the 8-12" range with this being one of the better ones. As I was bringing him in I saw another fish following closely. I caught him on the next cast. Canal has been very slow but I managed this long skinny fish slowly dragging a jig.

Had a great time wading the potomac. I hit up a hole that produced for me in the past and it was red hot. I caught this 17.5" fish which I am positive is the same one I released a few weeks ago. Two casts later I topped it with this 19" beast. All in all I must have pulled 10 fish out of that hole and lost one that was either a big smallie or a catfish. Also pulled this out of the canal on the walk back to the car.

Good conditions today. I decided to try and go big with a 10.5" worm and got this on my 2nd cast.

Ah I thought that might have been you. We met yesterday

Recent rains definitely helped my fishing. My usual spots had been down 2ft and the rains brought the water back up into the shoreline vegetation. When the water was dirty I caught a few pitching a jig at my feet. Caught some today on topwater.

Couple fish from last week. Mainly a morning/evening affair.

2-3ft, about as good as it gets around here.

2 fish caught on consecutive casts over a weed bed. Missed a third from the same spot. Not as large as the one from last week but more typical of the fish I normally see swimming around this sector. Pretty sure there were more but they were spooked off.

Very different from Swain's but the widewater area by Old Angler's Inn holds the biggest bass in the C&O. The trouble is finding the fish. During the spawn I caught many 3+ fish holding in a certain spot but they are no longer there. Old Angler's has been low so I am positive that the fish are all confined to the widewater section. They are probably holding deep right now but if you can make it around dusk they can be caught shallow on topwater.

I needed a reprieve from the summer heat so I mixed some wading into my usual routine. I usually try to wade to the edge of the main channel but the water was higher than it was last year at this time. I was able to find fish holding in the deeper pools between the boulders. Any water I deemed too deep to safely wade across was fair game. I caught 6-7 fish in the 12-17.5" range within a 30 minute wade. The largest fish made 4 drag pulling runs in very shallow water.

I target bass at the C&O canal but with the amount of time I spend down there I can't help but notice this year the increase in the snakehead population. The first sightings of the fish in the canal were last year. This year I've been seeing juvenile to small sized snakehead at least once a week. Below is the largest one I have seen or caught out of there. Amazing how fast they grow. 24" and stuffed with eggs

Awesome fish, congrats

Fixed, thanks everyone for the input.

The release bar pops up when I try and reel.