TOXIC

There’s a 25mph speed limit on that entire lake. Start enforcing the existing rules before you advocate shutting it down. Most of the offenders are locals who feel the rules don’t apply to them. We obeyed all the rules when we were there and also slowed to no wake speeds every time we met someone in the canals.

If it was banned, Samuel L. Jackson wouldn’t have an acting career. ??

Short answer is yes. We always fish from a 20 foot Ranger or my 21 foot Ranger and have actually gone above little falls to City Docks and launched there. I wouldn’t go any further upriver from there. You are getting very close to the fall line. Anywhere south of Hopyard is safe but there’s some very odd channel curves right before and right after the 301 bridge where you have to follow the channel buoys very close and they are hard to find sometimes.

Exactly the reason that my reports show exactly what we caught……or didn’t. Last report on the Rappahonock showed a bunch of dink smallmouth because that’s what I caught along with a catfish, bowfin and a few largemouth bass. A report is exactly that, a report. There’s no shame in my game. Towards the end of the month, I will be up in Michigan dangling my baits for massive smallmouth and if we get skunked, y’all will be the first to know.??

Decided to hit the river in between storms and see what we could put together. Super high water roaring tide to the point the outgoing tide was almost non existent. Decided to go downriver from Hopyard rather than upriver which is where we normally run. Traditional knowledge is that most of the smallmouth are upriver past Little Falls and we usually catch a few here and there but my fishing partner got into a good one down river last year and we thought it was a fluke. Well, Saturday we got into a mess of smallmouth past the 301 bridge. There was a tournament out of Hicks and every boat but 2 that we saw went waaaay downriver. Anyway, we had another good day even though it was cold and windy. Have a friend from Maryland out there today and after the second storm, seems like they are shut down.

Here is a pic of my friend Yusuke Mizayaki’s boat when he fished the elites and kept it at my house while he made a trip back to Japan. Notice the registration numbers. Some of the pros boats, say from Bass Pro were at one time registered in Missouri no matter where the pro lived. Boat deals have changed a lot over the years so current requirements could be different.

If you plan for the worst, you’re never disappointed and more often delighted when it works out for the best.

When I lived in small town Iowa all the neighbors would get together for a festival on my farm where we would have a wild game feed and all of the wives would can fruits and veggies all day. I had an orchard on my property that had asparagus as a ground cover and I had about an acre garden. Everybody would bring everything they wanted “put up” and we would smoke and grill and fry all day. About 2 days ahead of time we would gather as a group at night and go out to all of the ponds on everybody’s properties and gig frogs for the feed. Waders and frog gigs and head lamps were all we needed. There’s a whole new definition to being scared when you’re wading and you spook up a duck from the water or have a snake shoot between your legs. The best year we had 200 saddles of frog legs. Great food. Great memories.

If you are fishing in anything that puts your trolling motor head less that 1 to 2 feet off the bottom, every time spot lock kicks in to either hold or reposition the boat the motor stirs up the bottom. In Florida we were always in aquatic vegetation where using the trolling motor to hold the boat would wrap the prop with weeds. That requires pulling up the troller to clear it or turn it up too high to use the ninja blade on the troller shaft to slice the weeds off. With poles in order to hold a spot you just lower them and when you are ready to move lift them and put the troller on high and move to your next spot. The fishermen who use them to hold at the dock and think that’s their main purpose, are really missing the mark. I’m not knocking spotlock and we use it a lot but here’s a situation where is was less than ideal….We were fishing the Rappahonock River. Wind was blowing 15-20. Strong tide moving opposite the wind. Spotlock had a very hard time adjusting to that situation. We were in 10 feet of water. Boat was spinning like a top. ?

Boat on the left was the “Give Way” vessel per USCG rules. They should have received a citation. Although not a factor in this accident a lot boat collisions happen because operators don’t know the proper avoidance procedures which often times result in them turning into each other, sometimes even after multiple corrections. Guiding on a very busy recreational lake, I was given some advice by an old experienced guide. He told me it doesn’t matter if you are right if you are dead. When approaching another boat always assume they do not know the proper avoidance techniques and make your move to the most open water regardless if it is the proper move but make it in an exaggerated maneuver. Show them the side of your boat and what direction you are going. It has served me well over the years.

First new vehicle I ever bought is a 1992 Jeep Wrangler. I bought it when we lived in Massachusetts and have had it ever since. Basic maintenance and taught my daughter to drive a stick in it. She took it to college and is still driving it Currently 450,000 miles and still running like a top. Body is going to fall off before she will ever get rid of it. Bought my first brand new truck a couple of years after I started the guide service a 2004, 3/4 ton Silverado. Drove it until I bought my current truck a 2016 Silverado High Country. The 2004 had 175,000 miles on it when traded. My current truck just rolled 80,000 and we replaced the brakes/rotors, brake fluid and rear shocks. Other than regular maintenance that’s all I have done. I also have a 2002 Lexus SC430 v8 convertible for a fun car, it has 275,000 miles. I am a firm believer in the saying that if you treat them right, they’ll treat you right.

All I know is that moving pressure gives me a headache and I’ve heard it does the same to the bass so they move in the water column to offset it. Where they move is the big question. As for the cows laying down, it’s something my grandfather told me when I was young. I didn’t figure out until later that most animals feed on a set of factors and it somewhat applies across the board.

That’s too bad. I’m going to give it a try tomorrow on the Rappahonock and will rig with a small nose weight due to the current.

Don’t forget to tell how you rigged it.

There’s a reason there’s no replicas on my wall. My goals remain the same every year…..a double digit largemouth and a smallmouth over 7 both on artificials. I’ve got a lot of citation awards here in Virginia for largemouth but none were a double digit. At the new lake we went to for the first time last year in Florida, my double digit largemouth may just be reachable. I’m heading to St Clair for the 20th year and that 7+ smallie is somewhere in that lake.

Weedless, weightless Senko or if there’s holes in the grass add a nose weight. Yamamoto DShad weightless, weedless. Can work it in the area above grass and let it fall in holes or along weedlines. Heavier than most all other fluke style baits.

I only tried to cook goose once and followed the directions of an avid outdoorsman waterfowl hunter who could tell you the taste profiles for every duck that flys and is hunted. Once is all it took. I’ll pass every time now. ?

Add me to the list of braid to leader haters.?.

I assume they drop the number of baits so that Walmart can look like they are giving you a deal. Kinami did the same thing. Normal packaging for the 5 inch Senko is 10 to a pack. The logo has changed since the company was sold to GSM Outdoors. Same formula as before for the Senko plus they have been adding new products and cancelling those that didn’t sell well.

Since my fishing partner is still working while I am retired, we normally go out on Saturday morning and try to hit the water at sunup. It is a tidal river so the tides are more important than the time of day. We usually can stay out for an entire tide cycle in no specific order…incoming/slack/outgoing and if we get on a good tide bite, we can run the river to stay in the prime tide bite. Upriver = back in time, Downriver = forward in time. We normally load up around 3 in the afternoon.

Since this will be our 20th year going to St Clair at the end of next month, an odd phenomenon has taken place for me. Every year it seems like one bait has excelled beyond the normal baits we throw. Whether it be a dropshot, tube, twin tailed grub, in-line spinner, Ned, Wong rig, jerkbait, DShad, certain color crankbait or Senko, it seems that one bait will exceed all others. Part of the excitement is waiting to see what it will be this year.

The biodiversity in this river is amazing. Not just the number of species but also quantity. Last couple of trips we have caught, Largemouth, Smallmouth, Crappie, Bluegill, Snakehead, Shad, Bowfin, Striper, Catfish, Perch (White and Yellow), and probably a few species I’m forgetting. We’ve been out on the river twice this year so far. We were hoping to migrate back to the Potomac more this year because it can be a great fishery and it looks like the grass is making a strong comeback so hopefully I will be able to report a little more from fishing there.

I will use a dropshot to hone in on the water depth the fish are holding in. When casting at the bank and there is a shallow ledge progressing into deep water or channel, I like the dropshot because it holds bottom and I can pause it at the differing depths to determine a depth pattern. I am not that keyed into electronics because I catch more fish where my graphs don’t show squat for fish and yes, I have them dialed in pretty good. I am not using FFS though.

I have posted many times the advise given to me by a fishing friend who is also and optometrist. Yes, glass lenses have slightly better clarity. There’s a reason there are no glass safety glasses. I will never buy anything other than poly lenses at his insistence. He is also a fisherman. They have come a long way in clarity and scratch resistance. I’m not risking my eyesight.

Two completely different tools for totally different situations. Spot lock is rendered pretty ineffective in shallow water due to the repositioning and blowing out the spot. Power Poles are called shallow water anchors for a reason. There are many reasons for anchoring in shallow water besides bed fishing. In Florida, spot lock was useless and Power Poles invaluable. We have even used Power Poles with the drift paddle attachments when in the past we would have used a drift sock. Spot lock is great for deep water spot holding in wind or current.