Dan:

Hopefully we'll see DC's horrendous history of high amounts of gun crimes finally go down now that people can protect themselves.

Rob, how does tomorrow evening or morning look for meeting up? I'll give you a call later today to try to set something up.

I picked up a Cara at the store the other day just to look at and it seemed like a very nice rod.

It's like that all over the place down here. There are eastern Europeans EVERYWHERE. I think there is some sort of summer work program that brings them here.

Simon, PM me if you are interested in a spot near Fredericksburg.

Rob, how long are you staying for? I'm between Duck and Corolla until Saturday. I've found some spots up here but they only have small bass. I only brought my spinning rod, but I think I do have a spare spool with braid on it. I'll give you a call sometime within the next couple of days and see if we can meet up. I've been pretty busy doing family stuff but I need to catch some fish...

Don't go to the Shenandoah, there are better options since the fish kills... NitroMan, PM me if you want an OK spot near Centreville or some good spots near Fredericksburg.

Andrew, I've been a few times this past week, mainly because I don't have to walk to far after a tiring day of work. I haven't done real well but I've found that there are some fish in shade and current and I could only get them to bite with quiet bait entries. I'm sure there are other patterns I haven't figured out and there are fish in other areas, though.

About five years ago my grandpa said the Amish had been fishing it out, keeping all the fish and damaging the fish population. I'm glad to hear it's doing better now, maybe I'll try to make a trip out there the next time I visit my grandparents.

Sounds like I found some new jigs now that I've been practicing my pitching.

Here in Northern Virginia, it is supposed to be over 100 with heat index close to 110!

Jason, how was the water clarity? In my experiences, in really clear water and hot weather, smallmouth often end up in any sort of current or water flow that breaks the surface of the water. I believe this is because the broken water surface makes the smallmouth harder to see, so they take shelter and ambush from there, and the flowing water is cooler than the stagnant water in the pools. Also, don't neglect shoreline shade. A lot of people think that smallmouth don't like to live in shallow, shady areas near the bank, but I can tell you, I have caught plenty of smallies from just such areas, especially if the bottom is rocky along the shady bank or if there is any cover like wood, etc.. this is especially true in smaller rivers

I've been to Hemlock Overlook once and hiked down to the water. That part isn't very far at all, but I didn't go upstream very far. When I was there, the water was too high to fish, but it seemed like a good place. Lots of timber from what I remember, and pretty good shoreline access to the water. There are trail maps at Hemlock Park that you might be able to use to find some trails that are useful. I've wanted to fish up there by that bridge after seeing it on google maps, and you're right, it does look like a good smallie area. Let me know how it goes.

Not since I was about 10....My grandpa used to take me down by the old covered bridge.

I don't buy that at all. I fished it the other day from that access I showed you back upstream all the way to the Riverside Pkwy bridge and down towards the Potomac a little bit. There is more access to the best smallmouth spots from the east side and although the shoreline is better on the west side down by the Potomac, it seems to be part of the golf course property. When I went I caught two smallmouth, saw a largemouth I missed, and lost two other bites.

Is this the Tuscarora Creek in Juniata County? If so, where are you fishing it?

I have a laserjet that uses the big toner cartridges. I can get somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 pages per cartridge at $40 a piece, that's not too bad.

Just a suggestion, football head shaky heads work great in the bedrock areas of the Shenandoah they get hung up much less than regular ball jigheads. The other thing that I have done well on in the Shenandoah is soft jerkbaits, but I do better with shaky heads.

It's called Consumerism. They come out with "new" "better" models every so often and people decide they have to have the new, better version, and end up giving more money to Shimano. It's the same reason car companies redesign their most popular cars every year.

especially if you are holding a fishing rod! I've heard graphite is very receptive to lightning

I've fished North of there on Page Valley Rd before, but not since last year. When I was there, I did well with light weight shaky heads. It seemed like lots of that area is pretty silty, which makes it better for the largemouth than smallmouth. Any place you find rocks, that's where the smallmouth will be. Last summer I saw loads of decent largemouth in fallen trees along the muddy banks.

which Revo do you have andrew?

I've been noticing that a lot of the NoVA members are guys in town for the summer from college. I wanna see just how many college aged dudes we have and where we all go to school, so...If you are a member from NoVA that goes to college, please post here with what school you go to. I go to JMU

Nothing special, I'm going to work at a new job for the summer, fish in the evenings and weekends, and then go back to school in August. oh, and maybe go to the OBX sometime soon.

great pic, very nice color on that fish.