Snipe Hunter

Fortunately, I had another rod and the boron sat idle till the storm passed. I'm pretty sure it was an old Skyline Graphite rod which wasn't quite as conductive as the boron.

Somewhere around 1980, I was with my fishing buddy John and we hiked (sneaked) into a private pond in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Ca. It was either spring, winter or fall because it doesn't rain in the summer there. A heavy cloud cover rolled into the area and just sat there. It was dark and misty and getting darker. I had just bought a boron spinning rod and this was the first time using it. Anyway, I had what I thought was a muscle spasm run up my right arm and I heard a beep. It happened a few times. Then I switched the rod to my left hand and it happened to my left arm but no beep. It got even darker when my friend John said he saw what looked like an electrical arc at the tip of the rod. So I watched. Then I saw it too. I don't exactly know what was happening but the cloud was discharging current and using my new boron rod and me as a lightening rod. I had a digital watch on and it would beep when I got shocked. I don't understand it and most folks wouldn't believe it but it was a strange thing that happened while fishing. John always used a glass Fenwick rod and he wasn't getting shocked.

What I learned while fishing ponds generally translates to lakes. The biggest difference for me is that fish have more choices in a lake than a pond so locating quality fish and locating the areas of the lake that consistently holds fish is more challenging than reading a pond. I could read and learn to find fish a pond fairly quickly. It can take a lot longer to do that in a lake. My favorite "confidence" baits are generally the same ones I used in ponds. I fish one lake in western Maryland that had me stumped. I finally realized that I was fishing the wrong end of the lake. It's a deep lake, 60-70 ft but the greater amount of shallow areas were at the other end. The deep water was still over 40ft in the main stem of the other end. I was at the dam end and the fish were at the other end. The shallows held more grass, long underwater points and easier structure to read that all translated into better habitat. Once the obvious dawned on me, I started fishing the other end where the fish were. I also had to learn to fish deeper water and get the "shoreline pounding" out of my system. I fish big spoons now and under-spin jig heads on swim-baits so the fish can see them looking up. I wouldn't use those types of baits in a shallower pond.

Hmmm. The cool thing about smallmouth in rivers is that they're usually where they're supposed to be so getting your bait in front of them is the key. Rivers are all different, fast, slow, deep, shallow, rocky, sandy, grassy etc. I'll throw whatever puts itself in the strike-zone the longest without hanging up too often. I'll throw tubes and creature baits in slower water and lipless crank baits and spinner baits in faster water. I've found that I can throw billed cranks in eddies or calm areas in tailraces with success. Lots of noise and flash in fast water and more realistic baits in slower water.

Another "plug" for the Diving "B". Some of the best day's I've ever had on the Upper Potomac were with the Diving "B". Hot Tiger color. I remember one Easter morning a friend was supposed to go with me and he cancelled at the last minute. I got into a school of big smallies and tore them up. Since then, I've tried to duplicate the lure, color and action with something cheaper and always go back to the Diving "B". Nothing worse than braking off a high dollar crank on a rocky bottom. I always keep a couple on hand.

Ok, I tried it and I'm happy with the first attempt. It's automotive paint and clear-coat. I use big Zara Spooks for stripers so I painted one to look something like a menhaden. I've had fish spit them up in the boat. I really need bench space for this to keep everything steady. I figure if they hit all white, they should hit this. menhaden: Spook

First bass was in Chico Creek Ca on a black Creme worm, 1973. I was eleven... so 44 years.

It will be fun watching your progress. Maybe it will get me motivated too. Short Fish had a real good point up above about using a white base paint under your colors. Particularly under chartreuse and day glow colors. If you are shooting metallic (metal flake)colors, particularly reds and blues, try to shoot a primer close to the same darkness (for lack of the right word) as the main color of the lure. Dark blue =dark primer. Light blue = lighter gray primer. With reds, go hair little lighter. Metallic paints are pretty transparent which allows the metal flake to be visible. Using the right under coat primer color will save you a bunch of paint and effort. We do this in the body shop to speed up the process and save on paint. It isn't cutting corners, it the right way to do it. I've heard them called "spectral gray" primers. You can find these in rattle cans. Probably from the same place you get your paint.

I fished a turney years ago from the back of the boat and finished in the money.... one of the few times. The guy in front was throwing a chrome and black rat-l-trap and I was throwing a chrome and blue at the same piece of structure. I had a limit before he had his first fish. Sometimes it's something that subtle. We did finally both finish with five fish each, both in the money and we never left that little area

I figure that I wouldn't be on that spot unless I thought there were fish there. 90% of the time, I work the spot. I usually have all the basics already tied on. It's a lot easier putting down what didn't work and picking up something else. If I don't get bit on the top, bottom or middle I leave unless there's some overwhelming reason to stay... like a six pound sow sitting in front of the boat.

PM Sent. AS long as he can ties his own knots and take his own fish off the hook and maybe bail a little water once in a while.

I paint cars and do some custom painting also. I would rather do more custom painting if it was more profitable but there's more money in straightening fenders and auto-body repairs. Anyway... If you don't want to dump several hundred into an Iwata or Paasche air-brush, you do have some choices. Google Air Brush Depot and it will take you to TCPGlobal. Their house brand Airbrush is a Chinese knock-off called Master. It's actually pretty decent. I do custom bikes using them. Their Precision Control series will give you the fine control needed on crank baits. Their G44 is a nice little gun and costs less than $40. They also have inexpensive diaphragm compressors if you don't already have a shop compressor. Airguns don't use the same hoses and fittings as air tools or spray guns so the hoses and small compressors made for airbrushes all link up together without having to fins oddball fittings. You can get a compressor and hose from TCPGlobal for under $100. They also have a kit ( ABD KIT-G444-T) which comes with the G44 gun, two needles and spray tips, hose and compressor for $139. Check Amazon, sometimes TCPGlobal sells their stuff there too at a lower price. Someone mentioned Auto Air paints. Those paints are made for airbrush work. Some traditional automotive paints don't pass well through the fine nozzle in an airbrush, particularly whites and thicker colors. Be careful what you buy. even though I stock automotive paints, I still need to buy lower viscosity and "less sticky" paints for airbrush work. There's tons of YouTube videos on airbrush techniques. The techniques are the same for baits as they are for hot-rods and custom bikes, baits are just done on a smaller scale. The hardware stores sell small sheet metal pieces. Pick up one of those and practice on it. You'll see "two hand" techniques on YouTube to help steady your hands. It's hard to learn on a crank bait body. Here's a pic of a Harley tank I've painted over and over, several times to learn new techniques and the white one is a 8"x16" sheet of sheet-metal. All these techniques are all over YouTubs and used on crankbaits. Both of these are done with the G44

OhioGuy, I don't know the Little Miami but I do spend a good bit of time chasing smallies. To me smallies are kind of like bluegill, hungry. You just have to find them and not spook them. You said a couple things in your first post the have me thinking... including the picture. One of the reasons I like to fish for them, particularly in creeks and rivers is that they are usually where they're supposed to be. In holes, downstream of big rocks or structure, tailraces and below rapids etc. I also target them in fast channels near rocky areas. Fish are sitting in those areas to ambush their prey. Concentrate on those areas. You said you can see the fish. That means they can see you too. Back off the fish, make long casts above where the fish should be so when the current takes your lure to the target area it's to the depth of the fish. Tie your lures directly to your line, ditch the swivel. It doesn't look very appetizing and it probably adversely effects the action of your baits. You can tie a palomar knot in less than a minute, 30 seconds with practice. Maybe it's the way the light is reflecting off your line but it looks heavy. Drop down to 6lb mono. I'm old so I still use mono and still catch fish with it. It casts well with spinning gear. Somebody mentioned a Rebel Craw. It's a great smallmouth bait on light line. I don't use them much because I never caught a big SM on one and at this stage of my life, I'm looking for bigger fish and honestly, I'd rather not fish with treble hooks when I can avoid it. But when I'm fishing with a rookie, I'll tie one on his rod. He's going to catch something... The rock bass will eat them too. A bait that gets overlooked a lot for SM are spinner-baits. I throw spinnerbaits probably more than any other lure for fast water smallies. For a coupe reasons. One, they have flash and vibration so the fish can find it. Two, they're easy to use and I can manipulate the depth without too much trouble in moving water and three, I can feel the bottom without hanging up. Big blades for slow water and smaller blades for fast water. Most of the time, it will have a chartreuse skirt. The rest of the time it will be white or a combination of both. I use big ones because I'm looking for bigger fish but I fished smaller ones for years and did well with them. Don't be afraid of painted blades on your spinnerbaits for SM. I also use a cheap, home spun lure which I have been fishing over 30 years which is a safety pin spinner on a jig-head and a white or chartreuse grub. It's just a poor man's variation of the old Beetle Spin. I buy all of these pieces in bulk at bass-pro and keep a lot on hand. There's been many times when I caught fish on those when I would have otherwise been skunked. Again, I can feel the bottom without hanging up with this lure. I'm usually fishing just off the bottom, year round. I've also caught red-eyes (rock bass), crappie, bluegill, LM, Walleye and even channel cats on the Potomac with this lure. Here's a picture of them. They're easy to put together, cover lots of water quickly and they catch a lot of fish and they're cheap so you don't break the bank if you loose a few. What's not to like? And lastly, try a texas rigged or slider head rigged 4" Berkly Power worm. I've done best with "punkinseed". All these tips are high percentage lures and should increase your catch and they all can be fished with 6lb mono on a spinning rod. Once you start catching more fish and getting a better feel for the fish, start up-sizing for bigger fish.

Danny, I feel kind of funny responding to a thread like this being new to the forum but I felt compelled. I have some experience in this topic which I'd rather not go into right now. If you want details, PM me and I'll be happy to share with you. First of all, don't beat yourself up. Do what you can to take care of the people that your son's problems are affecting. They can be helped, whether it be siblings or his mother or friends. You can't possibly understand what is happening with your son but you can understand how this is affecting your family. Alanon is a program for families of alcoholics. It helps them come to grips, understand and cope with what's really happening and what they can do to protect themselves from the drunk. There must be something like that for families of addicts too. A call to Narcotics Anonymous would steer you in the right direction, they would know who to talk to. I personally wouldn't dump any money into professional facilities or programs because the self supporting groups like AA, Narcotics Anonymous CDA etc have a better track record than fee based programs. But again, if you want to help, you need to understand what's going on first. You also need to understand that nobody can cure or fix your son until he is ready and willing to turn himself around. Nobody but him can put his mind into that place. Drunks and addicts typically won't earnestly seek help till they hit bottom. They all have a different bottom. For many, living under a bridge isn't the bottom. Living under a bridge with no way to get dope and food is the bottom. And that might take some time. One way to help a person find their bottom is to change the locks on the doors so they can't steal anything (else) from you, don't give them money, don't let them blame you and shame you into enabling them etc. You can't enable an addict and can't fall for their lies. All you can do is let him know you love him and whenever he's ready, you'll help him find help but until then, you have a family to take care of. I'd also call the state or county and explain to them what's up. Get the numbers of rehabs and inpatient facilities and find out the cost etc. That way you are ready to move forward if and when he's ready. This morning I went to an AA anniversary of a guy who has 20 years clean and sober. Prior to finally cleaning up, he had been through six rehab programs and never cleaned up. He finally cleaned up when he no longer had the ability to get booze and drugs and he was also homeless but homelessness alone didn't do it. It's the norm, not the exception. Odds suck for cleaning up the first attempt. Anyway, I hope you get the gist of this. If you want to send me a PM, please do. I'll be happy to talk with you. Neil

I just moved from My Airy to Pasadena and new to the forum. I'm a huge Piney Run fan, aside from it wearing out my trolling motor. We fish it every spring from opening day till the bite slows. I can't count how many 5+ fish we've caught there. I spend most of my time on the Upper Potomac between Harpers Ferry and Antietam creek. Sorry I can't help you with a bass club, I don't do tournaments anymore but I'd meet you at Piney Run in the spring and put you in the back of the boat. It's usually cold and windy at that time but the fish are big.

K_Mac, Thank you. Great site.

I own two small businesses. One is a bodyshop that specializes in fleet business. Cabs, police cars, car dealer work etc. I have no website for it as "word of mouth" drives sales for that business. The business was built by knocking on doors and now it is on auto-pilot. The other business is a home inspection business and it is what I expect to do on into retirement. I've already unloaded most of the car stuff. I do have a website for the inspection business. It's more to add legitimacy to the business than it is to drive sales. I'm still going door to door to sell it. I received a box load of 2500 professionally printed discount coupons yesterday and today I visited eight real estate agencies and hand delivered them to them. I asked how many agents worked out of the office and I gave them each three coupons. I'll do this every day until the 2500 coupons are gone. 2500 cost me about $250. I need one sale to cover the cost, maybe two to cover gas. I have found that eyeball-to-eyeball sales is the most effective and people are more willing to take and keep a coupon than a business card or brochure. The reason I'm telling you this is that my website alone won't drive sales. I need to drive customers to my website and the most cost effective way that I have found is through direct mail and knocking on doors. Another way to drive people to my website is to pay "bird dogs" to do it for me. I can optimize my site by paying Google for top billing or any of a plethora of other search engine optimizing providers. That's not cheap. I can pay Yelp for top billing and that is more than $600 a month. I use Home Advisor and Thumbtack. H-A is about 275 a year but I have to pay about $18.00 a lead. I still have to close the lead. It's pricey but I can narrow down my marketing area using zip codes. Thumbtack leads cost about $2.00 per lead but the quality isn't very good and I can't pick and choose my marketing areas. I get a lot of leads in areas where I wouldn't go without a police escort. The size of the market for my product is limited to the number of people buying homes. If you are a very well known fisherman in your area, you may or may not have a bigger market than me. But nobody has to pay to view my site, except me. I went through all of that to give you an idea what I have to go through just to be seen and quote an inspection. The Inspection business is less than a year old and I get the most leads from knocking on doors and referrals. I'm competing against 6 other inspectors in my immediate area and in the 300+ other zip-codes where I do business. You are in a little bit of a different situation. You need to drive business to your site and get their money before they can view your content so you have an even bigger uphill climb than most. You're competing against all the free sites like Face Book which is riddled with free "local" fishing sites and Even BassResource.com. I've fished coast to coast and I the only way I would pay for local information is if I was fishing a tournament in a new spot and I needed inside info. How much is that worth? If I were to pay you, you would need some credentials like local tournament wins, a successful guide service, news paper articles etc. You'll need something that you can prove is worth the price of admission. The biggest lake in Maryland is Deep Creek and it's hard to fish but once you know the lake, you can expect good days on it. It took me three solid weeks of fishing everyday just to get an idea where and how to fish it. There is a website called Fishdeepcreek that is free. It was run by guides and started by the biggest guide service in the state. All the local anglers are regulars on the site. The site is going belly-up on Jan 1 and it has about 10 years worth of content in it. The biggest problem was that there weren't enough visitors to sell advertising and nobody was willing to pay to keep it going and not enough population in the area to make it viable. I'm new two BassRescource and what attracted me to it was two things: The great content and the price. I would suggest that if you start a site, make it free. Do a blog and write a lot of topical and constantly updated content. If you can get enough visitors, sell advertising on it. It's about selling again, business is always about selling. Great ideas still need great salesmen. If you do a free Facebook or YouTube site and it's successful, advertisers will pay you for ad space. If it isn't successful, you wouldn't have been able to sell subscriptions anyway so nothing ventured. Ask local guide services, hotels, baitshops, boat rental places etc to support the site and link them. It's pretty easy. Edison invented the light bulb but Tesla made it work, sold it and actually made money off of it. For my website, I use Bluehost as my web-host and Weebly as my provider. Because it's easy for a Luddite like myself. It costs me about $400.00 every two years. I can easily update Weebly and I do a couple times a week. I don't know the first thing about anything computer related and I was able to build a decent enough site with all the links I require. I have the option to take payPal or CC transactions, for a fee on it also. I get no optimization or tracking data at that price. That would easily cost you that much each month. But it's simple. Picture uploading is easy and they have lots of free templates, including Blog templates. Sorry this is so long winded. Neil

I agree with using a larger bait. When I was a kid, I would pound the shoreline with a rooster tail and catch a lot of smaller fish. I was told that I'd always catch small fish if I always fished small lures. In those days Arborgast , Big-O, Heddon (to name a few) etc made the big lures and I started using them. I caught less fish but they were bigger fish. The little fish didn't go away, they just didn't hit the bigger baits. I no longer fish tournaments so it is easier to target bigger fish and not be too unhappy when I get skunked. I throw big baits, even for SM.

1 .Chartreuse skirted spinnerbaits, The blade is less important 2. Creature baits/tubes 3. Senko 4. Torpedo 5. Grubs

I believe my PB SM was just below those rocks. Also got a rainbow there once about 15 years ago there on crank bait. Odd things happen.Funny how you remember the oddball fish. I'll drift from the creek to those rocks. There's a little gravel bar from where the two waters meet and runs the length of that stretch. It's more on the Md side. It's only about 1ft difference but it's a good indicator of where the fish are. I'll head there if I can't find fish. My son got me into throwing big spinnerbaits with small blades in fast water on the river. The small blades allow the bait to sink in the fast current. That's one of my favorite areas for it.

Thanks for responding. 40" is a nice fish. Particularly for a place that didn't have them not too long ago. I've only caught one targeting them and more when I was fishing for SMB. So, I need to fish for SMB more. Same with Walleye.. 99% accidental. I spend most of my time between Shephardstown and Dargan Bend area. The Musky have been just below Antietam creek in the calm shallow water at the rocks. But they're few and far between. The Walleye come in the middle of the river near the Dargan ramp. I spend more time in the fast water below Antietam Creek.

Thanks gentelmen, looking forward to the forum. I'll try to behave. Steveo Where abouts do you fish up there? Any Musky this year?

Rod Father. I fish the upper Potomac and occasionally the Susquehanna. In those two rivers, nothing lasts forever and I keep that in mind when I buy my boats. Consider used because whatever you buy, it will be used after day one. Just get a good look at the underside of the hull before you buy and definitely, ride in it first. I'll be replacing my hull in the next year or so. I prefer a light boat. The higher you float, the longer you'll have your boat. Some guys like the heavier boats and they do hold up better banging into rocksbut they also float lower in the water and hit more rocks unless they have a big footprint. And for me, "big" isn't the ideal boat for the places I fish. Some of these places are like minefields and the boat needs to maneuver easily. Jets don't respond as quickly as prop driven boats and it takes longer to correct mistakes. A smaller, lighter boat helps those issues. I run an old 2 stroke 1989 Suzuki Jet 55hp. The Jet eats about 25% of your HP so the motor is only rated 40hp. So, I only need a boat big enough to handle 40hp. I'm not a fan of 4-stroke jets because of the weight. The lighter 2-strokes are more nimble and float higher than the newer 4 stroke motors. This allows me to use a little narrower boat because I don't need as much buoyancy. And I can get around in a narrower, lighter boat easier. I suspect I'll be buying a Tracker Grizzly 1754 MVX Jon. It's got a 7 deg deadrise which should work nicely with a jet. Ideally you want around 6 degrees but 7 will work fine. Much flatter than 6deg and you'll get air bubbles in the pump and cavitation. You don't want that. 6 to 7 deg will push the bubbles away from the pump. This will be the 4th hull in the 20 years I've had the motor, I'll swap the seats and the motor and the trailer and scrap the boat. And I'll keep doing that until the motor quits. I'll move the console, steering and electronics to the new hull. You don't really need much in the way of electronics, I just want to know where the bottom is and the water temp. Obviously, I don't expect you to run out and buy a 26 year old boat but there are some decent deals on used jets out there because the market segment is pretty small. There are some real nice jet boats on the market but I'm either too cheap or afraid to trash a decent boat so I run beaters. Right now I'm running a 1981 Sylvan hull. It's ugly but it works. I keep the boat sparse and light. You will need a strong trolling motor. Don't skimp there. Good luck, maybe I'll see you on the water.

Hello, I use this name on several other forums so I'll stick with it here too. I've been fishing, primarily for bass since 1973 in Ca. but I'm not above perch jerking and picking off pickeral when things are slow. Fished tournaments off and on from 1979 till the late 80's until I decided it was more work than fun. Moved to Maryland in 1985. The bass aren't as big but they pull a lot harder here. I primarily fish the upper Potomac now from a 17ft jet outboard and on the Chesapeake for light tackle Stripers. I've found that a person looses track of newer technologies when they quit fishing tournaments so I came by here to update my tactics. I decided to finally break away from mono this year and found some good braid discussions here, so I joined. I'm a self employed home inspector and car painter (and whatever else needs painting). Thank's for having me. Neil