SimonSays

I'm a fan of the rapala traps, they're a bit cheaper than the rat-l-traps and also Dick's Sporting Goods frquently has 20% off all rapalas so I usually stock up on those.

I think I'll give these a try, I had very bad luck with the originals always hanging up =/ as for Calvitrons I haven't ever caught a fish on one, it's sad when you're casting a calvitron in black and your friend is casting a cheapo bulk buzz and catching all the fish =(

Bream = Blue Gill You can try Pony Pastures for some smallmouth...around stony point mall there's a small pond you can try. For around short pump all I know about are private lakes for apts/condos. PM me for more detailed info!

weightless senkos for meeeee!

Heya Dan, It happens on my citica too...what's weird for me is that once I started hearing the noise my casting range increased .... so I don't know, lol

I used to own two ugly sticks...my rod history has gone like this... 2x ugly sticks 2x st croix premier Sold premiers due to space issues and... purchased 2x BPS extreme travel rods before the had action ratings. purchased 2x St croix Avid during Reeds sale Upgrade one avid to st croix Legend Elite The first thing I noticed with the upgrade from ugly's to the premiers was the sensitivity and stiffness of the rods (fast action). My ugly's were extremely flimsy and I always had a hard time setting the hook deep enough, not an issue with my premiers. Sensitivity was also an issue, i remember trying a C-rig with the uglys and had no clue what I was feeling, on the other hand you can tell the different feel of the taps when you hit rock vs the bottom, vs a fish. My downgrade from the premiers to the BPS extreme rods was another surprise, the feeling in the extremes were "muted". I could feel the same structure or bottom but the distinctions were more blurred. However I did learn to love these rods and for the price I'd fish with them again. The upgrade to the avids was like a breath of fresh air or putting glasses on for the first time. Once again I could distinctly feel the different structure or substrate I was on. It was great until I broke it =( The upgrade to the Legend elite to me hasn't been a huge step from the avids it's a great rod, very sleek and easy to handle, and just as sensitive but not by much (imho). The only rods I would spend less money on would be my cranking rods. My friend andrew recently lent me a low-mid range quantum crank rod which seems to work just as well as my Avid crank at a fraction of the cost.

Gotta love those small ponds =D I'm curious also, what were ya throwing?

Thanks guys =D I'm gonna try out my Sea eagle at pocahontas park today...hopefully it stays afloat...wish me luck...lol

I hit up Huntsman and Mercer yesterday (5/13) the water at both these lakes are extremmeeelllyyy murky less than 1ft of visibility which is to be expected from all the rain. At Huntsman I tossed a Mann's -1 in the fire tiger color along the dam. I caught one at the right side of the dam near the mini boat launch... this baby weighed in at 2lb 4oz with my scale (accuracy questionable), I then walked along the dam casting the manns and eventually hit one about the same size, maybe a tad larger near the far left side of the dam but the darn thing was barely hooked and it got off near shore. I then traveled over to Mercer to give it a shot, the water is HIGH there. Hit one dink a little less than a lb, didn't get a shot of him because I hooked him deep. As for Richmond fishing, I again need to thank Sam for the pond tip! great fun. The water in this pond in Richmond was stained too, but not nearly as bad as Huntsman and Mercer, but still pretty bad...I'd say about 1-2ft of visibility here. I started off trying buzzbaits as the weather down here is kinda cloudy, tried a Calvitron in chartreuse/white/red and another Calvitron in black/red (never caught a fish on these yet :'( ). I then switched to a blue top, silver body, orange belly rapala rat-l-trap and hit these 3... This one went for 2lb 5oz Though it doesn't look like it at all from the pic, this one was the largest at 2lbs 12oz, fought pretty hard. Has good weight potential once it fattens up a bit. Hit this one as I was leaving, final cast syndrome...and it weighed in at 2lb 9oz. This one fought nicely too!

Alrighty, i'll give that a shot, thanks reelmech!

Hiya Reelmech, I use about 5 turns of 6lb mono backing for all my reels.

In regards to rods, in my opinion a crankbait rod is the only thing I'd go cheap on...I have a st croix Avid crankbait rod and a cheap quantum crankbait rod and they both work just the same. All I feel from both is pressure before I set the hook never any taps or anything else, just pressure.

quick answer... red line = translucent, light passes through, if it's red it reflects all light in the red spectrum and all else will pass through. At the depths where red is filtered out there is no more red light coming through the water to reflect off the line so everything else is passed through leaving the line "invisible" red hooks = solid bodies, all light is absorbed besides red which is reflected. Light will not pass through hooks and such, so at the depths where red is filtered out all other wavelengths of light will be absorbed. So technically at those depths when nothing is reflected back you get black.

I'm not sure if it's just my reel or this is something with all the curados...I have a 101D and even with my drag locked down i seem to be able to pull the line out with my hand, it's difficult but possible. Anyone else see this?

wow...pricey! with two or three of those upgrades I could buy another reel! very sexy looking ...and tempting though...

7 = $70?! I'll keep dreaming ;D

That fishing VA site seems like a really good idea, too bad it looks alittle dead =/

That is one nice smallie, looking at it now in full size I can just image the fight. Thanks for the tube tip Dan!

Heya Rob, It was great to finally meet you, Dan and Paul. Like Rob said Andrew and I had a pretty sad first round, Andrew got 2 buzzbait hits and hook up on his third for about 2lbs. After that we didn't even have a nibble.... For round 2 we took a page out of Dan's book and tried some Fat ikas, and with a tip from Paul earlier we finally started catching some fish. Andrew boated another around 2lbs, a couple of dinks, and a reeaally nice 4-something lber. That was a crazy fight as the fish kept diving and running. Luckily I didn't get skunked and eventually boated 2 dinks and one ~1.5lbs It was great meeting you guys and it was fun to try out "Feel the Burn" =D

I used to have the casting rod and I have 2 spinning that are the travel models, they're great if you're short on space or hiking a ways out to your fishing spot. Great rods for the price, they go on sale all the time so don't feel like you have to jump on it right now to get that price.

I love my curado, I got it during the rebate so the price was perfect. It casts like a dream compared to my citica. My only gripes I have is the smoothness of the handle...I don't know but it just doesn't seem as smooth as my citica, seems there's friction of some sort. I had it looked at by a local reel mech but he wasn't able to fix it even after he lubed the entire thing up. He did however fix my drag, it's very solid now compared to what it was before.

Nice fish! gotta love those buzzbait hits =)

Heya Ron, I can understand how some might want to keep an area secret from others, though I also agree that this forum is a place to help others and share information. In my case, I wouldn't post the area for all to see, or anyone just doing a simple google search like Dan said. However if anyone wanted to know where I was fishing and it was a "private/secret spot" I wouldn't hesistate to answer over a PM! Sam has given me a bunch of tips on where to fish in Richmond and I would feel like a selfish *** if I didn't help others who messaged me also. On that note, if anyone wants to know about the water that I've fished then don't hesistate to ask over a PM, i'll be more than happy to answer!

I'll bite too, what are these called?

I know what you're talking about...I spooled up some berkley transition vanish, bps fluoro, and another brand of fluoro and all had the same problem...If I didn't thumb the spool perfectly the line would kinda loosen up on the spool and backlash itself really really far down into the line. If you're really hell bent on using fluoro then this is a really good way to train your thumb. Another method you could use would be to try and cast as far as you can with a lure (on a perfect cast) then strip about 10-15ft of line off and tape your line down at that point. The tape will keep the line from backlashing any further than the taped point. Good for practice and the headaches of backlashing =)