Junger

I actually got the best deal on the Jackhammers from Dick's when they first came out and were $15 or $16. It was something like Buy 3 get 1, and then 20% off $100. Then I had a rewards credit, so it averaged out to be $10 per lure.

I rolled the dice yesterday and headed out to Mattawoman, luckily the storms went around Indian Head and I didn't see a drop of rain. Got to the lot at 4:45PM and I was the only boat, didn't see any kayaker's either. The plan was to fish the hydrilla edges with a popper on the outgoing tide. I brought my senko rod just in case because it's been tough there recently for me. But I never had to use it and it ended up being a banner day, two snakeheads (4 and 7 lbs) and 4 largies, 2.5lb being the best one, and several fiesty sunfish, including a big redbreast which was making a lot of commotion in the shallows, he fooled me into thinking it was a snakehead at first. Near the end of the evening, I was at the mouth of a feeder creek and the tide was still rushing out, so I casted to a small eddy along the hydrilla edge and it got smashed. It torpedoed out of the water and I knew it was a good SH. It fought hard all the way to the boat and then I thought I had it, but it saw me and I saw him and it went into overdrive and dove under the boat. I had to take my hand off the reel and go for a double grip on the rod like I was deep sea fishing! It pulled the hook and my Rico floated to the top of the water...I think it was a double digit SH, and that was definitely the best fight from one I've ever had, but I couldn't land it. Winds picked up at 7:30PM and I could feel the cold coming in. The bite shut down immediately so I headed in. Beautiful night on the creek, along with a nice Perdomo 12 sungrown.

I bought a MajorCraft Benkei 6'5 UL/F which is rated 1/32-1/4, I have it paired with a Alphas Custom Finesse with a DIY Ray's shallow SV spool with 10lb J-Braidx8. With that spool, the rod handles down to 1/24oz comfortably with distance and accuracy. The rod itself is pretty darn sensitive, and has good backbone. I can lift a 1.5lb bass with it pretty easily.

It's a really nice scenic area, I enjoy hiking it even if I don't catch fish. Yesterday, I went to Swains Lock, and walked up the C&O to Pennyfield. The water was up, but really muddy and flow was really high. I threw a frog, popper and chatterbait and only got nibbles from bluegills on the popper feathered treble. I saw a pair of 6" bass and that's it. I think this stretch was really hurt during the draw down that lasted a couple years. Swains down to the Greatfalls lot is a way better stretch of the canal.

Sorry for your loss. You have a lot of knowledge about bass fishing, and I hope you'll continue to share it here with us.

Yes, that's legal. It was really nice out today, so I decided to smoke a stogie and hike around Widewater after lunch. I got there around 1PM, and it was busy with on the trail. I was determined to uses a jig on my G1 EMTF, with a new Ito 103m that I procured over the winter. I fished the jig all around the towpath from Anglers to the lock with only a nibble from aggressive green sunfish. Once I got to the lock pool area, I saw the schools of shad circling like they did in the winter in the same area. I tied on a zoom super fluke and proceeded to cast it around and ended up getting one inside the lock. My first dangle fish! I casted to the opposite lock wall but it snagged on a vine but I just kept letting the line out and dangled the superfluke into the water. I saw my line go left and I set the hook and got a 2lber. Also, the water is up a couple feet from last time I was here. The rock piles on the towpath wall side are fully submerged. Based on the old water line, it's down about 1.5feet from the max level. I'm not sure if the water is up due to all the rain, or if they finally fixed all the locks down stream, but the water looks good. Here is the point on Berma road, I used to be able to walk from the rock on the left to the huge laydown on the right without issue. The bank walkway is now submerged and there are some really good laydowns there.

I can't catch anything on a jerkbait. Basically if I tie one on, I relegate myself to just losing a $15 lucky craft pointer.

All of the above, and check to see if the magnets are aligned in the sideplate. The notches should be in a straight line when set on max braking on the mag dial.

Or even one of the 2 piece rod that comes with 3 different tips. I have one from Amazong and it is actually decent for the money. Not super sensitive but sensitive enough. Kastking also has the twin tip Perigee rod. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N9HWFDO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Are you bank fishing? There's a good boardwalk area at the Piscataway Park off Bryan Point road. Be prepared for heavy cover this time of year, but that's where they'll be. https://goo.gl/maps/WTZ6DTUy5bAjvp8j6 Any creek off the Upper Pax and lower Potomac should hold snakehead, just check google maps for bank access near you. For ponds, I've seen some pictures of snakeheads being caught out of Lake Artemesia too. Good luck!

6'9 ML/F Lew's Custom Speedstick Plus for poppers, walking baits, small wake baits. It has a 9" handle and a MBR style taper, I really enjoy this rod for poppers. It's rated a ML, but I have hauled 9lb snakeheads wrapped in hydrilla with 12lb mono with this rod, it has backbone when you need it. 7'4 H/F Daiwa Elite AGS for toads. I can chuck a keitech noisy flapper a mile with this thing, it has a soft tip but plenty of back bone. It's also super light so I can throw it all day. 7' H/F GLX 844C for frogs, teckels, etc. I fish pretty heavy cover and this still has the backbone for it. I don't use it for the sensitivity, more so for how light the rod is and how it can work a frog and not hurt my wrist. 7'2 MH/R Daiwa Zillion G2 for ploppers, spro rats, pompadours, etc. Great action on the rod for big trebles. I can't remember the last time I lost a fish on this rod.

You’ll be fishing an incoming tide, hit pad edges and grass edges with paddle tails, senkos. As the water comes in throw into the pads with weedless presentations. Even spinnerbaits come through them pretty good. Frogs and toads in gaps with good water between thick pads and grass.

I'm the opposite, I have a 3600 full of poppers, and maybe 3 walking baits. I've caught maybe 5 fish on the walking baits, and many on the poppers. From what I've seen fishing super clear water with a popper, the bass will examine the popper first before striking. When it's deadsticked, they usually get right behind it and just stare at it. If you don't get the exact right action they want, such as too much of a spit, they will circle off the lure then come back when it's deadsticked again. When you get the action they want, like a slight bloop, or slight spit, they will inhale it. I think that's the key with the popper, it gives them multiple looks to trigger a reaction in their strike zone which is usually close to cover.

Went to Mattawoman 7/11 with @fishwizzard and we were in the water at 5:20AM. Lowtide was at 6:30AM and it was cool and cloudy, so we hit a hydrilla flat with a nice edge first. I pretty much fished a Rico popper the entire time, and boated 11 LMB and a couple dink white perch. Most of the action came right after the tide switch to the incoming. Once the tide was more than half way up, we made our way back to the main creek to a big pad field where Drew got a nice LMB and small snakehead. I think we would have crushed it in the pads too with intermittent cloud cover and a slight breeze, except my trolling motor battery was drained and we got off the water by 11:30AM. I wasn't planning on fishing the rest of the weekend, but my dad calls me Saturday night and says he'd like to go out fishing. So again, we head to Mattawoman to hopefully replicate the action, except the low tide was at 7:30AM, and once the sun came up, it was blue bird skies all morning and got hot real quick. I picked up 6 LMB, but it was not the same furious top water bite. There was also a tourney out of Leesylvania, so there was a lot of boats in the creek, and a few that went up a creek I wanted to fish. We got off the water by 10AM as more boats and kayakers started showing up.

She won't do the grill, or you won't let her touch the grill. It's the latter for me. No one touches my grill but me.

Thanks, going to pour it into an empty 2L soda bottle.

Thanks, I did buy new washers, the fiber type. I compared it to the ones on the screws and they outer diameter on the new one is fine, but the inner is just a tad larger and kind of fits loose. I matched the part to the aftermarket maker. Should I go ahead and use them?

Hi all, I just changed my Lowe unit oil for the first time, my boat was used and last time was 2 years ago by the owner. I had a small puddle under the lower unit and traced it to the lower release screw hole. Does this look normal or is it something I need to investigate further?

I use the Rod Runner, which holds 3. It works well, except the holders are built for either spinning or casting rods so you have to pick which ones you want, or buy an extra. For example the Rod Runner comes with 2 casting, 1 spinning holder, and I bought an extra spinning holder because my kids use spinning rods. The Pro version holds 5, available at BPS. https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/rod-runner-pro-rod-holder?hvarAID=shopping_googleproductextensions&affcode_c=&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3ZX4BRDmARIsAFYh7ZKs8s4jqps1l1gnHWbvYzLqG3yAH4yDqx4_lqN_A-HFBRNXV1QYCn0aAoG9EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

C&O has been pretty good for consistent small 1'lbers between Swains and Great Falls Park, I've seen some 4lbers lurking in there though. Widewater C&O has been good really early and late, there are some monsters in there and I caught my PB there this spring from the bank. I scouted Triadelphia, and then water looks excellent. I think you'll be dealing with the same thing as Black Hills though, lots of recreational kayakers that will line up at the launch. But fishing-wise, I talked to a couple boaters and they said they killed out there. Gotta remember, Triadelphia has been shut down for almost 3 years so that fishery hasn't been pressured until about a month ago.

I couldn't find the 6'5 UL Benkei except for Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Major-Craft-BENKEI-BIC-65UL-BF-Baitcasting-Rod-for-Bass/373002968530?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 That was shipped from Japan, but it came well packaged and took about 5 business days.

I have a MajorCraft Benkei 6'5 UL/F that I'm using for finesse lures, and it is excellent quality. It is a lot more sensitive than I expected, so much so that I'm curious about their heavier rods for bottom contact.

The 7’ Tatula Elite M/MH Ehrler will be right up your alley. The tip is XF, but it’s very soft so it can handle all those presentations. TW July 4th is coming up so that’s probably your best bet for a discount on that rod.

I had planned a belated Father's Day trip for tomorrow, but instead went this morning to take advantage of the conditions and tide. I ended up with 5 good ones, largest was around 3lbs. I site fished a monster LMB, I saw it stalking some fry, and pitched my toad at it and he slurped it. I have no idea how I missed, but when I swung, all I saw was the lure coming at my face. I saw its gill flare and it headed for the pads. It was huge, the head was the size of a K2 football. My dad got 2 good LMB and a snakehead, which he harvested. He was throwing a modified Molix Supernato hollowbody. It has a lip so it works like a crankbait, but he sanded it down so that it had a wide S-waver like action. Honestly, if he could cast to spots better he would have caught more. Most of the time he casts directly behind the boat, over the pads I just went over...and he still catches.

I'm in the DC area, and I started throwing them when waters hit 65, but it has gotten way better with waters in the 75-80 mark. The warm March, followed by a cold April/early May really threw things out of wack and I think they are just getting back to normal. I finally got a toad bite going on the Potomac with water in the creeks at 80 degrees.