animuseternal

Nine seems really long to me too, but it's the only MH available in two-pieces, so it came into consideration. I prefer 1-piece, but they can be difficult to get around cause I have a small car. There's a 7-ft MH and 7-ft H 1-piece.. I take it the MH is all that's necessary? I might be overestimating the strength of these fish, cause the Ugly Stik is a hard gauge (being as flexible as it is). But at least ONE of the bass that leapt into the air was the size of my torso (I'm a 5'6" Asian man, 155lbs, former competitive powerlifter, so I have some 'bulk' to me, but my waist--as in around my stomach beneath my ribcage, not my hips--is only 28" around). So, as far as torso length and width goes, I'm probably a lot smaller than most of you. haha. My guess is that it was 9-10lbs and probably only half or 60% the size of your average white male's torso ('average' being the arbitrarily set metrics of 5'9" in height and 185lbs). Most of the other fish I saw taking topwater weren't quite as big as that one, but larger than I've ever seen a smallmouth get. My guess is that they were 6-7lbs. Thanks a lot for the advice. And letting me know it's okay to use an anchor. I don't know why it wouldn't be, but wondered if the boat didn't have one because of like.. ecological damage or something.

I went out on Saturday morning and rented a boat. I have some questions... First, do any of these boats have anchors? Should I bring my own and tie it to the boat? I found it really frustrating to find a good spot, but constantly need to row or steer back with the trolling motor cause I kept drifting away. I don't know if it was just the boat I rented, if we're expected to have our own anchors (I didn't see anywhere to tie one either), or if... anchors aren't allowed for some reason...? If the latter is the case, how do y'all deal with drifting away from your spots? Second, I'm clearly not used to fishing LMB. They are ******* MASSIVE in the rez. I kept seeing bass the size of my torso taking bugs off the top of the water. I had two rods with me: a medium-heavy 6'6" rod that I had set up with 20lb braid, a 30lb wire leader, and was using for frogs (eventually got a wind knot I couldn't fix so I had to set it aside); and then just a 5' UglyStik with 10lb mono that I was Texas-rigging senkos on. The bass were taking actual food from the topwater, but I need to really work on my frog presentation, cause I wasn't getting anything anyway. After the wind knot, I was fishing with the UglyStik exclusively and got a few bites. Then this giant thing took the bait; it was so strong it was just leading the boat around and must've dove into some cover, cause I reeled myself in directly on top of it. The rod was bending insanely and I wasn't strong enough to make much progress in the fight. The moment I started to actually get it up a little, my knot came undone. So clearly I need to work on my knot tying skills, but I also think an uglyStik is just too flimsy to be of any good in the res, unless I go for crappies with it. That's all well and fine, but what sort of gear are you guys using for bass? I think I'm going to get a new rod so I have something stronger to use for T-rigged senkos, and keep the other rod devoted to topwater. I'm leaning toward one of these combos: http://www.amazon.com/Penn-Fierce-Reel-Combo-Heavy/dp/B011LVBZZ0?ie=UTF8&keywords=heavy%20spinning%20rod%20combo&qid=1463507145&ref_=sr_1_8&sr=8-8 Either the 7' Heavy single-piece or the 9' Medium-Heavy 2-piece. Which do you think would be more effective? Or any other suggestions? Also, if I want to just keep mono on the new rod, what do you recommend? 15lb? 20lb? Thanks a lot!

I just wanted to introduce myself. I grew up in the area but just moved into Fairfax at the beginning of the month. I went to Fountainhead yesterday--really excited to be so near to it!--with no luck, though the water is very murky and I think it was too soon following rain for it. But this thread (I read most of it) has been an invaluable source of information already. I'm mostly targeting bass, but I really want to catch a snakehead this year, so will be focusing on learning topwater frog techniques in grass. I'm pretty new to fishing in general (outside of Boy Scouts as a kid, I just started again last year and caught some small bass here and there.. Lake Anna, Burke Lake, a bunch of small mouth deep into the New River on a cabin trip over the summer).. Hopefully, I learn quite a bit from y'all. Tight lines, guys. I'll be around.