Fairtax4me

Anybody have color suggestions for stained/murky water vs clear water?

20" long and 20" wide! Nice fatty there!

Gotta catch 'em while we can! Once the fish whisperer gets back they don't eat anymore... Nice walleye btw.

Two casts! Two fish! This was the second. Bass were going airborne in 40° weather crashing on shad, but They were picky and wouldn't bite a lure for nothing. Finally got a few on jerkbaits, then two in a row on an underspin. This one was big of the day.

That's a big girl there! Nice catch!

I got the addiction for smallmouth last year. The Rivanna River borders the property where I work and I had a blast wading down the river catching these feisty little suckers after work last summer, but all of them came on top water baits. Ive had the opportunity to fish Monacan a few times and caught some good fish there, and landed a 4.7lb smallmouth on a shaky head worm while fishing for LMB. But that I consider to be kind of a lucky catch. I don't usually catch smallmouth there even when fishing various lures that I've read/heard should be great for smallies. So I'm looking for some tips especially if any of you guys fish there. I figure that opportunity for smallmouth should be better upriver in the shallower water. But I know I've seen smallies go airborne chasing bait in the deeper lake section above the dam, and that's the area I'm more interested in. Seem like if you get anywhere within casting distance of these fish, they disappear like a fart in the wind. But then you see them jumping out of the water behind you where you just came from. Any ideas, tips, pointers, Very Much appreciated!

Nothing wrong with catching dinks. They're fish too! I fish a couple small private ponds pretty often during the warm months after work. They're over populated so the average bass is about 8-10". Yum dinger worms (the 3" ones) rigged weightless with an offset worm hook catches them by the dozens. Catches some of the big bluegill too.

Thanks a bunch! I try not to do much with photos except if they're too dark or too washed out I'll adjust the brightness some, but usually I let the colors speak for themselves. Yep, blade bait is all they would touch that day. I did manage a 2lber on a spro lipless crank, but I was hopping it on bottom just like the blade baits. Between me and my buddy we put 10 fish in the boat, 9 on the blade and one on lipless. We were throwing around brush piles anywhere from 3-20 feet deep. All our bass came from the 10-15 feet range. I had a pickerel chase the blade up to the boat and nail it within sight. It actually looked at the boat and hesitated a split second then turned and snatched the blade and tried to run. Three feet from the boat, No fight, so it had a ton of energy, it was all over the place and rolled about 20 times in the net. (Fun to untangle that mess) Thanks for the comments everyone!

Thanks! Should also mention my fishing buddy also landed a 6lber about two hours later. Also citation length! We did get a handful of other 2-3lb bass, but the bite died in the afternoon when the wind calmed down. Water temps were around 48°.

Cold this morning and a little windy, but we found a calm pocket behind a long point. She grabbed a blade bait on bottom about 15 feet deep. 23.5" long and 6.3lbs. Another couple weeks and she would have been alot heavier. Still, She's my new longest LMB! Shes my second citation largemouth of the year. PB by weight is still 6.5lbs (23") from a couple years ago.

Takes an hour easy. I try to lube the bearings every couple weeks at the least (I use my reels multiple times a week and every weekend spring thru fall). I also pop the side plates off and lube the gears and release mechanism and clean and oil the anti-reverse bearing about every 2-3 months or every other time I reline. I tend to go through a lot of line for some reason.

Just bought a spool of this in 17lb to try out for the spring. Have fished it a couple times and so far I think the only downside is that is abrades more easily when fishing around rocks, as compared to Seguar AbrazX. Other than that I do like it, as that isn't really a huge deal since I tend to re-tie my knots fairly often when fishing around rocks anyway. Knot it strength is very good, (bent out the hook and bent the blade pulling on a stuck chatterbait), cast-ability is very good, sensitivity is very good. I tend to fish cover and murky/stained water more than clear/open water so line visibility isn't as big a problem for me as it may be for other people, but I will say even the thick 17lb line is not easy to see in the water. Ive also bought some P-Line XTCB in 65lb green flavor, and will be giving that a try for frogging and punching vegetation.

That's why we call him the fish whisperer... Nice chunker dude!

Nice chubby fish there! Great looking lake too!

Nice fish man! Biggin for sure around here!

That's what Ive heard but haven't been up that way to check it out yet. Couple spots near Anna got over 3" and we still have some rain in the forecast. If it did fill up, it'll be a solid mud puddle for a few weeks like everything else.

Getting all the water we need this weekend and next! Probably wont be enough to fill Anna back up but it'll make a dent for sure. Got flood warnings for rivers and most of the smaller lakes have come up to full pool in the last few rainy days. Kinda ruins my weekend, but we certainly need it.

Not bad at all for a huge tournament like that! Keep at it man!

The fish whisperer strikes again... for the hundredth time! Nice fish dude! How'd you do in the tourney on the bend? I know you're wondering... I fish with Dylan.

I've fished Briery fairly often for the last two years. It's 800 acres of standing trees. I guess I should say it's 750 acres of trees and the other 75 or so are grass fields. There is certainly no shortage of places for a bass to hide in Briery Creek lake. The water level in Briery was drawn down a few years ago to help kill off the over-abundance of grass that was growing on the banks. Since then there is less vegetation, but still plenty in spring and summer, despite the enormous carp that patrol the shallows. I've seen a handful of 50+ pound monsters swimming feet from the boat, and have seen plenty of other carp floating dead on the surface as well. Prior to that I don't have much knowledge of vegetation growth there except for a seeing few pictures of piles of hydrilla so thick you could stand on them near the boat ramp at the south end of the lake. Every bass I've caught there in the last two years has been very healthy and well fed.

Chickahominy Lake might still have some vegetation, but that's just a guess. I haven't fished it in a few months and last picture I saw of it a few weeks ago it was totally frozen over with snow on top. We have had a lot of lakes melt with this last warm snap though. Mid summer that place is weed heaven. Could call Ed Allens and ask them if there's any grass/weeds still in there. It's the only boat ramp for that area.