Wayne P.

Try the Texposer hooks in the appropriate sizes to match the Flukes. The straight part of the hook bend makes rigging the bait straight easier.

An easy and effective way for hook removal. I use the Octopus or Mosquito style hooks and highly recommend them for wacky rigging. REMOVE THE BARB. I use Trick and finesse worms wacky style most of the year and catch many hundreds of bass with that presentation. Most are hooked at the base of the throat due to the way the fish takes the bait which is weightless. Without the hook barb, all I have to do is turn the hook 180 degrees and it pops right out. I use curved jaw hemostats to assist with the removal. The lack of a barb does not result in any lost fish either.

The dotted lines mean there is a navigation hazzard like shallow water, stump, rock, etc. Look at the symbol on the key and find the one like it on the lake map.

If you change from forward to reverse or the opposite way without a few seconds pause, that will attribute to the weakening of the pin. Of course avoiding lower unit collisions will help too.

Thanks flippin4it, I was in no way bothered by your message. I really was interested in Fountainhead and it's potential. When I discover a productive body of water like Hunting Run, my intent is to let others know about it so they can have the opportunity to have the same success that I experience. In one's lifetime, the chance to fish a newly created body of water is very low. I have been around long enough to have fished 10 different newly created lakes at the time of opening for fishing.

Thanks Paul, I can see your point of view.

Use a high quality trailer hook.

Thanks for your comments flippin4it. I was wondering about the quality of the fishing at Fountainhead. Thanks for the website- it looks like it is not worth a trip there. I have caught 30# + for 5 bass at Hunting Run. You should try Briery Creek Lake sometime if you like to target big bass. There are schools of bass in the 3#--5# class-lots of fun when they are chasing shad on the surface. The lake record is 16 pounds and 2 ounces.

Wrong, Skip2mybass, you don't keep slot fish, those are the ones that must be released.

slomoe, all those little fish are the result of successful spawns and being undisturbed for 5 years. The lake was stocked in 2003 and 8# bass are being caught now. It probably won't be better in a couple of years with all that fishing pressure.

Thanks SimonSays, that is why I don't fish on weekends any more.

I looks like you added the deck higher than the top of the tank seats. I'd be interested in the boat's stability while fishing when the job is complete.

3/4 oz Hopkins Spoon jigged at the depth of the shallowest fish.

In your case all you would get is extra drag and go slower. About the only thing you can do is reduce drag by maybe raising the motor on the transom as much as you can, reduce the amount of weight you carry and balance the load so the boat is not nose heavy.

Was there a lot of fisherpersons/boats on the lake today? What time did you guys quit. The best times for catching the most and largest bass is from about 11:00 to about 4:00. Can you catch 50 -- 100 bass a day at Fountainhead or a 30# limit? I've never fished there.

Just compare the XL with the XT and you will see a diameter difference in the same pound test and the XT will have a higher true breaking strength.

Another way to look at it, a heavily pressured body of water means fish are being caught. Otherwise, no one would bother.

Thanks, flippin4it, I only need to show the bass what I got for them. Good luck to all you guys. A word of advice- POINTS

My hollow frog choice is the Snagproof Bobby's Perfect Frog-color doesn't make any difference because where I use that type, the bass can't see it. My swimming frog choice is the Zoom Horny Toad, it weighs more than most and I can cast it farther to cover more water per cast-color doesn't make any difference to the fish. White is my perferred color for both so I can see it.

They don't help at all with speed as they add drag. Their purpose is to get the hull on plane faster and allow for slower on-plane travel for heavy stern boats. With porposing prone hulls, they almost eliminate it.

Inside the harbor is NO WAKE, and just after leaving, there is about 1/2 mile of hammer down just before the first 90 degree right turn. Then there is abut 4 miles of NO WAKE until you get to the wide part where the other two marinas are. You will be fine in a canoe, just turn perpendicular to the boat wakes and you won't surf into the pads very far. Paddling is cheaper than gasoline. Another note, I just talked to a guy that has been fishing the Potomac a lot lately. He said the pads are going thru the mid summer dieing stages now, but they will return even healthier soon. I don't remember which creek he said is in that stage now.

You are correct RW, I fish Fork also and it is like the Energizer bunny-it keeps going-going-going-going. There is a smaller lake in Va. that is just like Fork and receives a lot of pressure in the late winter and spring- Briery Creek Lake. Similar slot limits. I fished it yesterday. The standing timber and submerged vegetation at both locations allows for such a great fishery.

The best pads are the ones along the right side of the channel from the marina and on downstream with the two sharp right turns until you get to the houses on the right side. The last two hours of outgoing tide thru the next two hours of incoming tide is the best times to flip Tx rigged 4" worms along the outside edges. Inside the NO WAKE ZONE is safer even though I catch the largest bass upstream of the NO WAKE ZONE. Just gotta be prepared for the large boat wakes.

I caught one of those agressive critters a couple of days ago:

After catching 156 bass this week in two trips, I got a bad case of bass thumb. The tender part below the joint is the most torn up. Actually it feels pretty good