TOXIC

I have found that snakeheads can tolerate salt or brackish water the highest concentrations of them are in the fresher tributaries off the Potomac and the Rappahonock rivers for example. Any bass bait will catch them but the brighter and louder the colors are the better they like it.

I always thought that when I retired, I could fish all day every day. Honest result was like AJay said, I’m the only one of my friends that is retired and I found, solo fishing is ok but I like the social side of it better. When I was working a full time job and guiding on the side, fishing was my recharge. I needed to fish. When I lived in Florida and my boat was on a lift in my front yard, it was easy to grab the rods and go for a quick 3 hours after work. I also tournament fished in Florida. When I came back to Virginia it took me a couple of years to get another boat since I sold mine in Florida. So, here I was back in Virginia working and fishing every weekend. Then I retired. It made it easier for me to go with my friend but he is limited to the weekends. We’ve taken a weeklong trip to Michigan every year for the last 20 years and for the last 5 years we take a weeklong trip to Florida. I have found that not living on the water is a big hindrance to my effort level since I now feel I don’t “have” to fish. I’m 64 and still healthy so launching and loading my 21 foot boat is still well within my abilities, my closest bodies of good water are anywhere from 45-65+ miles away. If I choose my most productive of late river, it is heavily tidal and has a bit of a tricky launch which is small. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that launch could pose a problem in certain tides. Likewise, I’m just getting to the point where fueling the truck and boat for a trip will run easily over $100 depending on how much running I do. Bottom line I get much more enjoyment fishing with my buddy now and we always have a good time. If I move to a place on the water, that would change my motivation I’m sure. Oh and by the way, I’m just finishing up with my 3rd oral surgery to fix a genetic bone disease and will be getting full implants. I have the price of a new bass boat invested in my mouth right now.

I did the “nuclear option” on my front yard and had a professional landscaper come in and plan out all the plantings, re-grade the entire front lot and put down sod. When the old grass/weeds were scraped off and it was obvious to me it needed about 4 dump truck loads of topsoil because there was nothing but clay left, he explained the new sod came with enough soil attached that it wouldn’t be necessary. They put the sod down on top of a green plastic mesh because the grading was such that my yard was like a bowl with an exit swale off to the side. It’s what they had to do to keep water runoff away from the foundation of the house. I labored over that yard for 3 years with constant weed control, fertilizing, watering, aireation and proper mowing. I lost. It wasn’t long before the mower was sucking up that green mesh and with every rain I lost more yard to erosion. I also have a huge sugar maple that a second lawn specialist told me sucks up about 150 gallons of water a day and as long as that tree was in my front yard, I would have very little chance of keeping grass alive, let alone vibrant. I have come very close to planting a ground cover of low vines and just let it go. There’s a couple of houses in the area that have done that and it doesn’t look half bad.

If I am filling a full spool of braid I will either use some mono backing or plumbers tape which has no adhesive. I have found that tying directly to the spool will still allow some digging of the line that I don’t see with mono or plumbers tape.

Not a fan. I have done it and had good success but there’s too many negatives for my liking. I regularly did it on our annual trips to Wisconsin but even dipping myself in deet and using a therm-a-cell, the skeeters would eat me alive and with the required anchor light on the bats were constantly running into my line and sometimes getting tangled in it just to name a couple.?

Nothing like the feeling of disassembling a reel, cleaning it, putting it back together and then seeing a small directional washer laying on the towel and you have no idea where it went.

If we are being serious, you have to be smart with sponsorships. Soft plastics for example, whoever you choose, you better be able to satisfy ALL of your soft plastics needs through 1 manufacturer. It’s not good business to pick ZOOM and then fish Senkos. That’s always been my attitude anyway. Same with hard baits. An even smarter move is to get on with a rep company that promotes many manufacturers. Otherwise for sheer numbers of baits, those that picked BassPro or Cabela’s are smart because you can get everything from Rods/Reels to hard baits, plastics, line, terminal tackle and even clothing. Been there, done that and got the T-shirt.?

I’ve had the same thoughts but being able to jump on a potentially huge body of water and be able to find fish,seems like a long shot especially from a yak where you have limited travel distance options.

I fish the Potomac in those conditions and I found that a screw in 1/4oz bullet weight to a 5 inch Senko on a Gamakatsu 4.0 ewg hook, will punch and drag a lot easier than other plastics. My line of choice would be either heavier mono (12lb) or straight braid. Another tip would be to save some money and buy cheap Senko knockoffs since you are going to weight them and the action is not important.

? I’m certainly accepting my share of responsibility for the loss, my point was that it wasn’t all me. The fish was in the net positioned correctly, but he brought a green smallmouth to the net and pulled her head first out of the water. ?. You can’t always lay 100% of it on the net man. I wasn’t stabbing the net or swooping knocking the fish off.

I am in the doghouse with my fishing partner who has caught a 7lb smallmouth in the past. On St Clair this year he hooked a giant on a SPRO Little John crankbait. She made a long distance jump and he started screaming for the net saying it was the biggest smallie he has ever seen. He was on the edge of panic mode. I’ve netted my share of fish so I know what not to do and with smallmouth it’s even more important. If I had to criticize, I would say he brought the fish to the side of the boat a little too quickly. I would have let her play out a little more. He had a lot of upward pressure on the fish when it came boatside trying to keep her from diving down. I positioned the net for her to go in head first but he pulled her up so fast that I didn’t get the net as deep in the water as I would have liked and when she ran head first into the net, one of the trebles caught the net webbing and flipped her facing out and with her next thrust, poof she was gone. ??

I used to throw a lot of hollow body frogs when I was sponsored by SPRO. I throw some Ribbit style solid body frogs made by Yamamoto but my all time favorites are a weightless Senko or a weightless Yamamoto DShad drug across pads/grass. Hookups are much easier and more effective.

There’s 2 types of “coils” you get on your line. 1. Coils from just sitting and aging on your spool which is line memory. 2. Coils from a lure or presentation that twists your line. For line twist, just periodically walk off or unspool a good portion with nothing on the end and reel it back in with pressure between your thumb and first finger. It will untwist as you reel it in. For line memory I would use your favorite line conditioner and walk off line like I said above.

Still recovering from my St. Clair trip last week but that’s fodder for another post, so my fishing partner and I got out on the Rappahonock for a day. We were flirting with some very high and dirty water from recent rains but found it had not made it downriver to our fishing spots yet. Note to those who fish out of Hopyard landing, the ladder to get into your boat after launching is missing a step and for big fat dudes like me it can be an issue at low tide. We usually fish up river from Hopyard and spent most of the day up there. Caught largemouth, smallmouth, yellow perch, crappie, bowfin and my first gar. We fished an incoming tide most of the day and did struggle a bit. We then ran down river past Hopyard and found a productive bank to end the day. Small tournament went out of Hopyard and we knew some of the anglers, our best 5 would have won the tournament.

In my boat, its a 21 foot tackle box but since I often fish with a buddy in his 20 foot Ranger, I have tried to keep my gear to a single bag that fits in the compartment behind the driver. Plano soft side has been my go to bag. Last one was a KVD model and my current one is an orange higher dollar Plano. I just ripped the buckle out of it yesterday. It holds 6 or 7 Plano boxes and a small terminal tackle box on top before the flap is closed. They seem to last about 3 years before I have to buy again. Hard sided would never work because I would have to pull it out every time I needed something.

4 inch Senko on a Ned rig.

I had a Bass Hunter pvc boat for years because of all the electric only lakes around me. I’d venture a guess I caught thousands of fish from that little boat and even took my at the time 5 year old daughter out in kids tournaments. We could go to the local electric only lake and throw 2 crappie rods in rod holders and have a limit in about 3 hours of 25 fish each. I tortured that boat for many, many years even dragging it across ice to get to open water and it held up well. https://basshunter.com/

Big surprise, my favorite is a Yamamoto DShad. Little heavier than a normal fluke and made from the same plastic as a Senko. I won’t repeat it but do a search on this site for the in depth rigging post I did. There are valid reasons why I prefer it.

Great story. ?

After singing the praises of mono on this thread,I got my first bad spool of 8lb BPS Excel. It must of aged out because it has been spooled on more than one occasion and I haven’t had a problem. Respooled my dropshot rig with it before my trip to Michigan and broke off 3 smallmouth before I figured out what the issue was.

One of my buddies in Michigan doesn’t do rust either. He has a stainless hitch ball and bar. Pricey but it won’t rust.

In my week of fishing on St Clair, I filled the cup holder with an assortment of plastics that I used for Ned, dropshotting, Senkos and I only replenished it twice with partial color changes all week.

Just got back from St Clair and although we didn’t get checked for our licenses, we were stopped by the Sheriff Water Patrol. Had a big RIB with dual 300’s. Did a safety check and ran our names. Infraction was getting on plane less than 200 feet from shore. His parting words were “If you’re going to boat on our waters, know our laws”. We did not get ticketed.

We have copperheads and eastern diamondbacks. I’ve heard stories of cottonmouths down in the southern part of the state but have never seen one. Timely this came up, my wife was getting her planters out from under our addition and yelled at me to come look. Sure enough there was a small copperhead sticking his head out from the flower pots. She wanted me to move it as I have done with a lot of them in the past. I looked at her and said that I am leaving in 2 days for my annual boys trip to Lake St Clair and it would be just my luck to get hit by that snake and ruin my trip. ?. I told her the flowers can wait until I get back.?

There are also some things that are not exactly from people being slobs, well at least not directly. If your lake or river is near or through a big metro, the runoff brings with it tons of garbage. Yes, it’s still man made but not directly or purposely thrown in/around the water. When it rains heavy around the Potomac you will see everything from household appliances to semi truck tires still on the rims. This is due to all of the feeder creeks and streams and what they run through bringing it to the river.