TOXIC

I am starting to get concerned about our Annual trip to St Clair this year. May 22nd probably will still be pretty cold water temps. Break out the deep diving jerkbaits!!

I saw that. Thus the reason for my reference above. Now for this weekend there's going to be a lot and I mean a LOT of flotsam and jetsam both man made and natural flowing down the river and to top it off there are some pretty big tournaments heading out. Hopefully they will stay up North (launching from Smallwood and Leesylvania) since there are some big bags coming from up there. I'm sure some will make the run to the beach and I'll bet good $$ there's some damaged props and Lower Units if they do. I'll be out there Saturday but will launch from Hope Springs and stay in the creek out to the beach. I'm sure the water color will be really, really bad but I've committed this year to being on the river a lot more and staying on fish all season.

Be careful out there in any of the rivers or streams. The recent rain has them all flowing really, really high and there's a LOT of debris flowing. Some big TX's on the Potomac this weekend and I'll be right back out there in the chocolate milk.

Arm motion isn't the hard part. Learning to effectively load the rod and how to release are the toughies.

You get what you pay for in a cover. You can save some cost by not getting a trailerable cover. Call Aurora Canvass or Dean's Canvass. They make covers for most all manufacturers. I have a cover for my Ranger but I do not trailer with it. I will put it on in the Hotel parking lot.

Bad situation for sure. If it were me I would film the boats and show up at the weigh in with other homeowners/business owners and show the Tournament Director the vid and give them 1 chance to make it stop. The next time, I would go to DNR/Game Wardens and show them the vid. Try to zoom in on boat registration numbers.

2 fishermen drowned on the Potomac yesterday. Swamped and capsized a 15 foot glass bassboat. Sad news.

They are moving in on the Potomac. This was Saturday.

If they are violating a no wake area, turn them in. There's a big difference between rude and breaking the law.

Here's an update. First the sad news, we lost 2 lives on the Potomac Sunday. 15 foot glass bassboat capsized. Prayers to the families. Pretty eerie how we were just talking about how bad it gets on the river. This happened at the mouth of Mattawoman Creek. I was out Saturday and working on my boat Sunday. It was pretty windy Saturday as well so we stayed in Aquia Creek and ventured out to the beach. Fish are starting to move up and we caught our fish on a 1/4 oz rattletrap in green/orange. I also caught a few on a Senko, Goby color.

Well, this thread just proved the point. Many different opinions. I fish the Potomac River where rude and bad behavior is the norm. As a rule, I choose not to escalate when it happens. The first thing I consider is "intent" did they know what they were doing was wrong? When I was guiding, I've had boats follow me all over the lake just to GPS spots I take clients to. I will say something to those guys if they get close enough or if I see them at the ramp.

I chalk it up to the difference between "Sturcture" and "Cover". Structure is below the waterline and may look like a "do-nothing" bank above the waterline but it could have a channel swing, hump, drop or some other feature you can't see. Could be as simple as where the bank is located in the big picture.

Depends on the application. Yes, Tungsten does transmit more feedback and to me, it's not always a good thing. If used dropshotting for example, I feel too much and it's easier to confuse a rock tap with a bite. When I shakeyhead, I use the Spotsticker style and the reduced size of a tungsten head in that style would not allow the bait to stand up as well. Also, if in a bunch of rocks, smaller head size can get hung up more easily. All reasons why I prefer lead 75% of the time.

We will be leaving to head home from our annual (15 years straight) trip to St Clair and I can tell you the odds are very good they will be in prespawn up North. I'll let the local guys give you specifics but here is what I throw on St Clair every year and "something" is always "the" bait of the trip, you just never know what it is going to be. 1/4oz Gamakatsu football head jig.....Senko with exposed hook or Yamamoto Twin Tailed Hula Grub. Jerkbaits....Cover the whole water column. Shallow/floating, suspending and deep divers Crankbaits.....Little John by SPRO. Cell mate, Shad colors Fluke Style.......Yamamoto DShad in Pink/pearl white/Ice blue. Weightless. Can work the shallows or drag deep like a tube. 4.0 Gamakatsu EWG Hook. Rattletraps....SPRO Aruku Shad size 75 Tube of the day color of the week. Have fun!!

Don't forget to check the livewell pumps (if so equipped) and bilge pump. Check for spongy or soft flooring which could indicate a leak somewhere under the waterline. I know it's tin but make sure the transom is solid. Check for missing rivets or broken welds especially below the waterline. Look at the bottom of the boat for any deep gouges or damage. There's no way to verify if the gauges work without a motor and a water test so that's a crap shoot. For pricing assume they don't.

Do you plan on putting a motor on it? Are the fuel lines ethanol resistant newer lines? Is there any residual fuel in tank? Does it have motor controls (will limit the brand of motor)? Steering cables in good shape? Don't forget the trailer......tires/bearings/lights.

36 and snow earlier in the week and supposed to be 82 Friday and Saturday here in Ol' Virginney. Mother nature can't make up her mind.......and neither can the bass!!

I use a counter for Crappie because we can only keep 25 per person. Keeping a count up to 25 is tough without a counter. Normally I will only keep around 10-12 because that's a nice meal for my family without having to freeze a bunch of fillets.

One of the first lessons we were taught by our local friends on Lake St Clair was to NEVER set your rod down with a bait in the water. Tube, Senko, Fluke or any other bait that a smallmouth could grab and run with. ALWAYS reel in if you were going to help net or land a fish for someone else. I have heeded that advice for 15 years and not lost a setup. Now in the rain, I have thrown a buzzbait and rod out into 30ft of water when my reel unexpectedly engaged at about 1/2 cast. Never did find it and I drug the spot for 2 hours.

Depends on whether you smacked something with it or it was a manufacturers defect. If you think it was a defect then send it back and ask for a replacement. If you fish around rocks and cover like downed wood, you are going to bust up any billed bait and that includes busting the bill, cracking the bait or ripping out the line tie. At one time, my favorite cranks (SPRO) were known for breaking bills and they are not cheap. SPRO addressed the problem and they have gotten much better. I also fish a lot of vegetation and have for the most part stopped "slapping" the bait on the water to clear it from hooked weeds. Although slower, I now pick the grass off and my cranks love me for it. So does my wallet.

You won't get the full effect of the pause unless you are in slackwater. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Once you said "tournament" it changes everything. If the tournament rules allow and your boater doesn't mind, you can suggest away and it's up to him whether or not he takes your advice. I would chalk it up to the trials and tribulations of being a co-angler. When you take the leap and put your own boat on the water and do your own pre-fishing, you can go where you want, when you want. That's why I like team tournaments vs draw tournaments.

The difference in wacky vs T-rigged Senko's is the weight of the hook besides the obvious exposed hook in the wacky style. I will admit, I throw a T-rigged senko 99.9% of the time. It's just the technique I personally have learned to master the best. You can argue there is a different movement in the bait wacky vs T-rigged but I have never found it to be enough of a difference to make a difference and that's fishing side by side. I will upsize my hook anywhere from a 3.0 to a 5.0 (EWG) depending on weather/wind and to make the fall rate different. I will use a screw in weight in the nose to overcome wind/current as well. Confidence is the biggest difference because as I always have said, there is no "wrong" way to rig a Senko.

The warm weather will not have had time to affect the water temp yet so I would go to my second best choice and that would be pre-frontal on Friday. But in all honesty, I go whenever I get the chance weather be damned!!

To me the name says it all "Jerk" bait. It's made to be jerked. That's not to say other techniques won't work but I jerk the crap out of them for smallmouth. They key to me has always been the cadence or how long to let it pause, that's where you have to experiment. Sometimes it's a constant and sometimes you have to let it sit. Won't take long to figure it out.