SimonSays

Ooo, that's no good, lol Hopefully that's not the care near the base, definitely want to see if they're any good to eat though!

Nice fish! I hit the pond with the fountain last saturday and only hit a dink on a fluke. I gotta fish there more, it's so close!

Great info Ron - Where exactly is the location that sells permits? Also any tips on lures or tackle to bring?

Crash course in fish keeping! Very basic! You have the tank, you need a good filter look into an eheim filter or a comparable brand CANISTER filter, though you can manage with hang on back filters I prefer the canisters for tanks over 100gal. Buy a Python, for a tank that size, a python really helps with water changes and filling your tank up. It connects to your faucet to fill your tank up (like a hose) but it can also use the running tap water as suction to suck water out of your tank (don't ask me how) As for water, as you know tap water has chlorine, chlorine kills fish so you'll need water conditioner, this gets rid of the chlorine and chloramines and other heavy metals from the water. Buy a Freshwater test kit This tests for PH, Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates Quick overview of the nitrogen cycle... Fish poop releases Ammonia->bacteria breaks ammonia down to Nitrites->Other bacteria breaks down nitrites to nitrates. Nitrates stay in the water til you take it out via water changes Ammonia will kill your fish, Nitrites will kill/stress your fish, Nitrates are ok but you don't want it to get too high. Now that you have your tank filled with conditioned water you need to cycle your tank. Meaning you need to kick start the nitrogen cycle. Without ammonia first you won't ever get the bacteria to break it down to get nitrites etc. Many people buy a few gold fish (.10 ones) and leave them in the tank for a while to jumpstart the cycle. Test your water. It should show 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites before you put any fish you want to survive into the tank.

Buy an Oscar! You won't get so much flak for it on the forums, they have really nice colors and they're predators like LMBs

Buy an Oscar! You won't get so much flak for it on the forums, they have really nice colors and they're predators like LMBs

Heya guys, I've been wanting to snakehead fish for a while now and this weekend, weather permitting, seems like a good time for me and Ron who knows the location of some snakeheads. The plan so far is early this Saturday morning at the Chopawamsik Bay on the Quantico Marine Corp Base or Aquia Harbor. I've never been to either of these places but from what Ron has told me they both have launch fees ($10 for the Base and unknown amount for the Harbor) refer to Ron's post below about fees. These places also have nice bass populations so if you're not interested in snakeheads you can target the bass! More info to come later in the week. If you're interested, chime in! EDIT:Just to keep info up top so you don't have to sift through it... Directions: The location that sells the fishing permits is off of Route 95 (exit 148). You head west once you get to the end of the ramp and follow up until you see the military checkpoint. There will be a road on the left hand side just before this checkpoint and there will be a white building on the left (a hunting weigh-in station), this is the building where you buy the permits. The drive to this building from the highway is only about 5 minutes. The drive from this building to Chopawamsic Bay will take us about 15 minutes. Possible Lures/Tackle: As for baits, I have been catching the snakeheads on worms, toads, shad and spinnerbaits in the shallow water. The toads and shad I use are the Strie King Rage Tail baits. This area has a lot of grass mats and lilly pads that can be interesting to navigate through. On the plus side Jason, my friend and I have also caught large numbers of nice bass here as well. The Cavitron works well here at high tide in the shallow water, it also works well in the channel and further into the bay at low tide.

Cant miss that fall feed! I had so much fun fishing the fall of last year, for the numbers and the size (hit my PB last fall)...Also striper season is around the fall too so there's 2 reasons =D But depending on the severity of the condition or the necessity of surgery to repair it...I'd say do it asap if it might have any chance to degenerate into something worse, you'll have plenty of time to fish after the 2 week recovery as the fall feed won't be over yet anyhow. Or if it's not so bad push it back til December when you're stuck in doors...unless you winter fish like I do ><

Nice fish ron!

Well put Matt, I have been having success with them. I'll be sure to try trutungsten out later the next time i'm at my local tackleshop. Well, _B_u_r_l_e_y_ aside, if anyone else has been looking for affordable Tungsten and has an open mind give the linked ebay page a shot, $6 for 10 vs $6 for 4 is hard to beat if you decide it's a good product.

Why trutungsten? Listen to Burley. Tungsten cuts right through braid. Tru Tungsten uses a very nice coating to protect your line. The plastic inserts in cheaper tungsten weights can fall out, allowing the tungsten weight to cut the braid Inserts=bad I've tried them all over the last year. Tru-Tungsten is the only manufacturer who makes a high quality tungsten weight. I've yet to use a weight with an insert where the insert doesn't slide out after a day of fishing. Braid+insert=FAIL Oh ok so it's the insert, but not the tungsten? Have you tried the weighs I linked from ebay? The only reason I say this is that I use braid exclusively and have NEVER had these inserts come out, which is why I've never experienced the tungsten cutting my braid. Give em a shot if you haven't your wallet will thank you.

Tried it out this weekend, nada =( If possible I'd like to give it one more shot at a friend's pond, if nothing after that then I'll send it off to the next person

I do too. I just find that I don't need to like when I am fishing a worm. I can set it more like a spinner bait. I fish mine texposed as opposed to t-rigged. Ahh I see, I fish them t-rigged...I should try exposed out, never thought to.

I do use tungsten, but I buy them online from an Ebay reseller. Here's a link to his 10-pack 1/8oz for 5.99 with free shipping They come with the plstic inserts to keep from abrasing the line, and they're much much cheaper than in the stores! Why trutungsten?

Personally, when I learned I tried mono, fluoro and braid (not co-poly though) and I liked braid. It didn't jump of the spool like mono or fluoro and if you get a bad backlash it can be taken out easily if you work it GENTLY without damaging the line. Tug at it too hard and it could dig down too far.

Jumped on one fri night, I'll post back on my opinion =D

I've had alot of luck with swim senkos too and I usually reel in with a steady retrieve. Normally I fish them with 1/8oz - 1/4oz bullet weight and when a fish is on, like Micro said, I'll just feel the ss stop dead like it got snagged or pressure, but in my case I still need to set the hook.

Hit this one at accotink on one of those pedalling pontoon boats last summer on a spinnerbait Girlfriend hit one on a senko too but I can't find that pic.

Nice fish! If you ever need a yaking partner in richmond, day or night, I'm here!

I don't think so =/ it's kinda small (more of a big pond than a lake) and surrounded by office buildings. Decent fish in there though =D

if he shipped...i'd buy them all...lol

wow, awesome...i didn't know there were bass at byrd park...which did you get him at? the one with the island?

wow i wish i lived in orlando...amazing prices

Last fall I caught my PB (avatar pic) on a white spinner bait, I was also pounding them with a swim senko

Heya Dan, I got the Genesis outfit from Cabela's (option 2 in the above post), it's my first fly rod/reel so I can't really speak of it's quality. I have held my friend's outfit that he bought from Walmart and compared to that the genesis is noticably heavier. Other than that little tidbit it does come with everything you'll need to get started, later you might want to buy some tippet to add onto the end of the leader. The flies are low quality though as they've come apart on me after a few fish, and the pack that comes with it is basically useless.