TOXIC

Go! New spots offer the thrill of finding new fish and making your brain work which in the long run will make you a better fisherman. Although from a boat, I did the same the last couple of years branching out from the Potomac river where we had a lot of familiar water to the Rappahonock river where we had to start from scratch. It’s been fun and rewarding.

Luckily no broken off spines but I have been horned by a catfish and had a long recovery period. I could have sworn the dang thing had venom in its fins. After long guide trips in the winter and handling a lot of fish, my hands used to swell up to the point I couldn’t make a fist. Not every time but a lot.

It’s only worth something to those that know who he is. FYI he is in the Fishing Hall of Fame.

Your snakeheads in Japan are a different species than the ones we have here on the east coast of America. The Northern Snakehead does slow way down in the winter months when the water temp drops below 10 degrees Celsius. I catch most of mine on plastics fished in the heavy grass and on the edges. Yamamoto DShads and Senko.

For the longest time I was a dropshot addict.caught them in every depth, every season and even bed fished with it. I am pretty proficient on what works best for me in certain situations. For example, on lake St. Clair I really like to drag a dropshot like a tube, especially if we are in some of the more grassy areas. I have posted my setup way too many times so I won’t do it again but as far as weights, I use Quikdrop. Hands down the best dropshot weights I have ever thrown. I threw the same weight for a week on St. Clair in grass, rocks and tulies and never lost it. Priemum dropshot weights don’t hang up nearly as much as the cheaper ones and for sure not as much as the ones put together by using sinkers, bullet or pinch weights. The priemum weights with premium components will also cut waaaaay down on line twist. I’m not as locked in to the dropshot as I used to be but I still have one rigged on every trip.

Wanna know how to make a quick million guiding........start out with 2 million.

Christmas Eve will be clam chowder in a bread bowl, Christmas will be a standing rib, Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes and whatever is left on the bar cart that I didn’t drink the night before.?

The bigger freckles are moving in the Potomac. Schooled up on the first part of an outgoing tide. Caught around 40 with 15 or so jumbos. Small tubes on 1/16th jig heads suspended under a casting float. They were not holding tight to cover but rather in holes and channel swings.

In my time I have probably filleted close to 1,000 crappie and have seen a lot of color variations and also the black marking that some have on their outside bottom lip. Never have figured out why some have it and some don’t. It looks like a little freshwater leech if you have never seen it. This week we got into a good mess of crappie and I caught one with a solid line down it’s back. For the life of me I can’t remember ever catching one with this marking. Has anyone ever seen it?

Here is an accidental catch on a Ned rig with a trout hook and 6lb test mono.? I’ve also caught 4lb smallness on that same rig. Learn to trust it and use good gear.

Ranger is a good choice but any boat in that age will have to stand on its own. I’m sure there are good ones but there will also be some that show their age. Having lived in Florida I have seen what the elements there can do to a glass boat. It’s brutal.

This is a good site. Not overly moderated and pretty open to discussion. Climate is such that members are comfortable enough to offer honest advice and opinions. That makes for good interactions.

As always.....It depends. If we are fishing a draw tournament and I am on the front of the boat, if I wanted to, I could make it very difficult for you to catch anything from the back. As a guide, I operate the boat from the front and am very skilled at putting the back deck in a position to catch fish. It’s my job. Fun fishing, I prefer the rear of the boat. I can concentrate solely on fishing with no distractions. I can watch where you fish (and with what) from the front and hit all the spots you miss.

Let’s not forget that everyone who hires a guide is not either a tournament fisherman or a regular weekend warrior. The majority of my clients were people who didn’t fish regularly, if at all, or they were parents wanting to spend some quality time with their kids all wanting to catch some fish in the process. There’s competition and there’s fun, don’t get the 2 confused. If hiring a guide challenges your fishing manhood, then by all means don’t do it.

As a guide and if you told me upfront that you wanted to learn a body of water for all seasons, then there’s a good chance we wouldn’t be doing much fishing. Instead of a fishing guide, I would switch to a tour guide and happily show you different areas that were good at different times of the year. I would tell you why and give suggestions on lures. I would not mind you marking spots because I would be showing you areas more than specific spots. I never minded if past clients fished spots I took them to because I live by the adage that you’re not gonna catch another man’s fish. I took a lot of tournament anglers out to educate them on current patterns and areas. I was always very happy when I would get a call from them after a tx and they would tell me the areas were spot on.

It’s been unusually tough the last couple of years. The grass was sparse and in different spots. I’ve fished it for over 20 years and it goes through these cycles periodically.

I’ve said it many times. Smallmouth are fisherman’s crack. ?

My fishing partner and I got out Tuesday on the Hot side of lake Anna and he caught his PB from there. We then went yesterday to the Potomac to see if the big crappie have moved in yet. We caught a bunch but no big ones to bring home for dinner. Not going today and I have to take my wife to the airport tomorrow so she can go visit her mother. Because of COVID, I am staying home.

I have carried my rods in the bed literally hundreds of times and including these 2, I have broken a total of 3.?. I am usually very careful of what goes in the bed and it’s why I put the cushioned stall mats in there. Normally nothing slides. I guess the cold weather got everything slick. I’d put them in the cab but with my luck I’d snag the interior that I paid extra $$ for in my High Country Silverado. ?

Great idea but I have a tonneau cover.

Got to the lake today to meet up with my fishing partner. Since we were using his boat, I put my rods and travel tackle bag in the back of my truck. I am normally pretty aware of how I load things in the bed of the truck, especially my rods since they have to go in the bed corner to corner. I have a factory spray in bed liner and I bought 2 extra thick horse stall mats from tractor supply to keep things from sliding on the liner. It’s pretty slick but I cut the stall mats to fit and it works well. Got to the lake and grabbed my rods (I normally take about 6) and noticed right away I had a broken tip. Looked in the bed and there was a heavy tool set in a hard plastic case that had slid into my rods. To top it off, it was my heavily used Quantum Smoke rod that I use for Ned rigs. I guess the stall mats and the tool case being cold allowed it to slide. To make matters even worse, my first cast with my go to dropshot rod, a JLM Signature, the top 3 inches of the rod went with the bait into the lake. I assume it got crunched by the tool case as well. Oh well, we will strip all of the guides off both rods for future repairs and remember to check the bed of the truck for rod killers. I have lots of rods but it still stings to bust them. Friendly reminder.

Depends on the species we are after but not normally a long run from Hopyard. We prefer upriver but lots like to go down river. We have a couple of patterns we like to run and usually one of them will pay off. You just have to know where there’s grass or rocks or flats and what pattern the fish are on. We’ve had 75 fish days. It’s a great river.

My buddies have pulled some beautiful fish out of there this year but the weather has been brutal. I went up the end of May and we had to go to some inland lakes for a couple of days but when we did get out we caught them pretty good.

Hopyard Landing. We are dropping in a 20 foot Ranger and coming from Stafford (my buddies house) so we want to stay on that side of the river. There’s also Little Falls that we can use but it’s a lot more upriver and smaller. On the other side there’s Hicks and City Dock but I have never launched out of either one of those. It’s a great fishery, you have to be careful at low tide for obstructions and flats and after hard rains for a lot of flotsam and jetsam.

I am pretty lucky to have a river fairly close by that offers a lot of biomass and multi species to chase. The Rappahonock River has smallmouth, largemouth, crappie, snakeheads, bluegill, white perch, ring perch, grinnell, striper, and multiple species of catfish to chase. You can even venture closer to the mouth and get into a lot of salt species. we stay up in the headwaters and go after the freshwater fish. I’ve caught all of the above at one time or another. Since the Potomac river has been really tough the las couple of years, we have been on the Rappahonock a lot more. No real monsters of any species (except catfish) but we really enjoy being able to catch largemouth and smallmouth in the same river. Sure you have to know where each species prefer to hang but it’s usually not that far from each other. Had a good day Saturday even though the tide was extremely low and we had to plan our day so that we weren’t trying to load up at low tide. This river has been a lifesaver this year since it has been very tough most everywhere. And yes it was nice to wear a sweatshirt and jeans at the end of November.??