IgotWood

Here in VA, the bass population rely on snakeheads as prey. The snakeheads spawn right after the bass. So as the bass are coming off the spawn and looking to fatten up, the snakehead fry are beginning to show up. Those juvenile snakehead offer a stable food source for the bass right up into the winter. I wasn’t here when the snakeheads began to take hold, but I’ve heard that the bass populations were a little unstable for a few years, but they have since leveled off, and are flourishing now. Snakeheads are a blast! There is nothing like them! I wish wouldn’t be upset if they made there way into every other body of water throughout the country.

On one of my local lakes, I see more pressure on one side of the lake than the other. I hate fishing near other anglers. I choose to fish the other side, and I catch just as many fish as the rest. I also caught my PB on this less pressured side. Get intimate with your water. Learn to fish where others don’t. Look for likely spots away from where the crowds fish. Once summer rolls around, I tend to catch more fish, and bigger fish, just before daybreak. Once the sun is up, it seems the bigger fish disappear and the smaller school fish move in. If the water is warm on your lake, try getting there an hour before sunrise. It should still be dark enough so that you can’t really see where you’re casting. Try something big and slow. I like a big 10” ribbontail on a very lightly weighted Texas rig.

My most frequent lake is pretty easy. There are cypress trees everywhere. Basically, bounce a senko off the trees until you figure out what depth they’re at and which side of the trees they’re on (sun side/shade side). Fish the trees at the appropriate depth, and catch fish. There are other patterns that develop here, but this one is pretty typical year round.

You’ve got good taste in kayaks. I am getting ready to sell my Hobie so I can buy a Radar. I demo’d one last year. I’m 210 lbs and it is very comfortable to stand on. It paddles great, and the pedal drive works great too. What’s nice is that the pedal drive folds in place to keep out of the way of your fishing. However, if you plan on fishing larger lakes, you should strongly consider the longer boats. Longer boats equal more speed and efficiency. The Radar 135 is the boat for me. Also if I were looking at a Bonafide, I’d be looking that the 127 for sure. Good of luck and let us know what you decide on!

Rage rig a craw! Use a hook with very little weight. You may even want to go completely weightless. Also, try a 6mm glass bead on your line in front of your hook. It makes it even more weedless. Don’t ask why, but it works...

I feel like some frogs are a little hard. For example, Spro. The body seems hard to collapse and expose the hooks. I despise Livetarget products, but their frog has been doing very well for me this year. I’ve been hooking up on almost every bite.

Great Outdoor Provision Co in VA Beach is having a demo day on Tuesday May 7th. Check out their website for details. I am planning to be there.

Mostly senkos for me. During the dog days when the water gets really warm, the ribbontail seems to do better.

DEET! 100% DEET! If it isn’t too warm, you can wear an outer layer and take it off when you’re finished. Throw it in a garbage bag and put it right in the washer when you get home. Some duct tape around you ankles and wrists also works, but it’s a little uncomfortable.

Not sure how weedguards are glued in. Is it possible to maybe heat the head with a blow dryer to soften the glue? If that doesn't work, you can try to cut them as short as possible and use a drill bit to clean out the hole with, and then glue a new weedguard in once you've tied them.

Yeah, I grew up in CT. Spring fishing is always a craps shoot between rain, temperatures, and snowmelt. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to the river for that hatch to find it high and muddy. Or it's 60 degrees all day, and when I get there late in the pm, it drops into the upper 40's and the hatch just doesn't happen. When it does happen, it's unreal! But if you weren't on the water for that 3 hour window, you'd never know it occurred. Use the conditions to your advantage though. Last year our spawn was crap. High, muddy water for weeks. The spawn still happened on time, you just couldn't sight fish for them. I fished the areas where I KNOW the beds are. If you can't see the fish, the fish are likely not to see you. We caught plenty of spawners dragging t-rigs and glidebaits through the bedding flats.

How are you rigging them? If you rig them on a jighead, there is a hack that will make them last a lot longer.

^^This^^ The only time of year I actually use a spinnerbait is during the winter and early spring. As always, temperature is relative you every body of water. On my lake, if the water gets below 44, IT'S COLD! But I still throw the spinnerbait. In fact, it's one of the only cold water baits that produce for me. I use smaller profile spinnerbaits. The Evilution Vortext is my favorite. It's the perfect size, and has willow and Colorado blades. The colder it is, the slower my retrieve. I mainly stick with 1/4oz and 3/8oz. Back in February, I found fish on a ledge. Couldn't buy a bite! Water temp was cold, in the mid 40's. I cast my spinnerbait and began my retrieve. I stopped for a moment to wipe my runny nose on my glove. As soon as I turned the handle again, I got bit. So I changed me retrieve. Let it settle on bottom, pause, make 4-5 turns of the handle, let it settle, pause, repeat. It turned out to be a fun day, and one of my better days of the season.

Everything in nature has an "internal clock". Of course weather conditions can extend or delay certain activities. But overall, things like spawn, migrations, and other annual occurrences will usually happen on time. We may not be able to notice because the weather may keep us off the water. Or sometimes these occurrences happen in fast-forward. You may notice a year or two down the road if a species had a bad spawn. Like Tom mentioned, you may miss a whole year-class of fish. I've been fly fishing for trout my whole life. And when I lived up north, the Hendrickson hatch was the first prolific mayfly hatch of the year. We looked forward to it at the end of each April. But up there, April and May weather patterns are very unpredictable. An April with consistent seasonal temperatures would allow the hatch to happen right on time during the last week or so of the month, and the fishing would be epic! But more often, the weather would go hot and cold, which you are certainly familiar with. The hatch would still happen, but we wouldn't really observe it. The bugs would hatch and get blown away in the cold wind. Maybe on a fair and warm afternoon, they would hatch and drop their eggs on the water in the same day and then they'd disappear. The spawns will still occur on time, or close to it. If conditions are not ideal, they may spawn, drop their eggs, and have to abandon their beds soon after. But have you ever noticed some fish on beds weeks after the spawn ended?? It seems there are always a wave of fish who spawn a little later in the season. This may be nature's way of ensuring the survival of the species. Deer do the same thing. The rut happens on time every year, whether it's cold or warm. And then 3-4 weeks later, you see a buck with his nose in a doe's back end. Your spawn will probably still happen on time. If the water isn't clean, or the wind keeps you off the lake, you won't ever know if it happened.

Typically, bluegill and other panfish and baitfish spawn right after the bass finish their spawn. I've noticed on my local lake that the bass stick around in the shallow water throughout these other spawns. It seems like the bass begin to look for cooler water after the other spawns are complete. Here in southern VA, once the temps get into the mid-upper 80's is when I notice less bass in the shallows. That usually occurs around mid to late May. However, I still catch most of my summertime bass (and BIG ONES TOO) on or near the banks. Just need to slow down your presentations, and focus on things that provide shade, ie; wood, grass, mats, etc.

I would think there will probably he some special deals. I haven’t been to the demo day yet, so I can’t say for sure. But will be attending this year!

I use the Yakattack transducer arm on my NuCanoe Flint. Works well! My buddy uses the Ram transducer arm and he hates it. He says he constantly has to readjust it every time it bumps something or when heavy weeds get caught on it.

I’ll be living in Exeter and working in Newport.

My family and I are moving to Rhode Island this year. I got heavily into bass fishing three years ago when I moved to VA. I grew up in CT, and spent many year striped bass fishing in RI, and I plan to do plenty of of it. However, I cannot give up my beloved bass fishing habit. Just putting a feeler out to see what kind of bass fishing I might be getting into.

As said previously, get out in the boat a few times. Get comfortable in it. It will only take a few outings before you know what accessories you’d like to have, and where to put them. You can very quickly rack up a pricey bill on accessories, and turn your kayak into Swiss cheese drilling holes. Holes are never exactly watertight after you remove something, no matter what you do to seal them. Spend a little bit of time in it before spending more money and putting in the effort.

Same. In 2016 we caught the remnants of a hurricane here in VA. I fished a couple days after and the water was still up about 2’. I fished the bushes and trees in the parking lot which are usually nowhere near the water, and caught a bunch of fish.

I believe you were reimbursed for your troubles on the way to the lake. Im moving from VA to RI this fall. My lakes don’t freeze, ever. I fish year round. I don’t think I’m gonna make it up north?

Yup! I usually target the flooded banks. It amazes me how far back up the banks the fish will go. And as said previously, if you find running water, fish will hold on the seams of the current or in eddies. Usually the water is pretty dirty so I stick with blacks and junebug colors and baits that vibrate are make a lot of noise.

For bass fishing I think the eye is pretty important. Bass typically attack larger prey at the head. The eyes are good for them to key in on when deciding to attack.

If you can save a couple hundred bucks and get yourself into an inexpensive used kayak, you will have tons of access to some fantastic bass fishing all over Hampton Roads. Stumpy Lake is fun and holds some bruisers. The Suffolk lakes allegedly hold lots of big fish, and all the tidal creeks down there fish well too. Unfortunately shore access is very limited around here.