Scott804

Oh he's gonna love that haha

I reckon i'm on the list with the other fellas in this thread. I've been picking up rods like crazy it almost feels like. I don't know if it is just me not used to there being real deals or what but it has been ridiculous. Haven't even had time to put some solid time into a lot of them and I am on the water constantly. My favorite rod changes a lot. If I truly had to say, it is probably my St Croix Legend Glass rod. It is honestly just one of the prettiest rods ever and it is so responsive and enjoyable to fish with. Feeling fish blitz crankbaits and make hard runs on that rod will forever be one of my favorite things. 7'2 medium model. I don't use it for chatterbaits often but every time I have it has done that perfectly too.

For anyone reading this thread looking for a glass option ; Shimano Zodias 7'0 ML Glass has been an awesome rod for mini max. I have a Shimano SLX MGL on mine and it is a joy to fish.

Dobyn's 734 are incredibly versatile and probably what you want. They are rated heavy but they are more like a medium heavy. Veritas PLX are good rods too. I know multiple tournament anglers who use all Dobyn's rods and I know a very successful fella who uses all Veritas PLXs. Either makes a good choice.

Virginia has some truly awesome tackle shops but Dance's is definitely in contention to be the best. Those guys are absolutely in tune with the tackle trends. Awesome megabass selection too, some of which they are asking 22-25$ for limited run color baits which is rad.

Forgot to update. I got my limit real fast and early on a white rico lobina popper, they were smoking it but absolutely no size to them. Pulled out of the creek I was fishing in and headed up lake and pulled off where I suspected to find my size. I found it, with a bunch of finicky spawners. I saw one in the 19-21" range cruising a bank pushed off a few feet and then there was 16-18" class fish on a bed. I fished blind a little pushed off hidden behind some brush with a jig trying to see if I could get the bigger one I spotted to play ball. Ended up with nothing after a good portion of time so I tried a few casts with a wacky rig and dropshot and then opted to roll over to where he could see me (and he continued to cruise as if I was not there) and I began to mess with the spawner. I got a little bit of interaction by putting a senko on the bed but after 2 hours of messing with the fish I just could not get it to bite. On my way back to the ramp I made a cast with the popper on a shallow but not visible fallen tree and caught one a tiny bit bigger and that pushed me into 3rd. Someone in the same creek I got my limit in informed me that I rolled right past an 18" sitting on bed that ate immediately but they broke off. Wish I had seen that fish, but just goes to show you have to take in as much info as you possibly can about your surroundings at all times. 3rd was not bad at all though, just wish I hadn't committed to the bed fishing.

Popper & jig mostly. Still seeing fish on beds. Popper walked around wood, paused every other cast or so in the middle, but 9/10 bites are while walking. Jig in laydowns, most of the fish have came out of the deepest center part of the laydown.

Saw this too. Rapala should stick to the hard baits... they legit copied 1:1 on this one and it is a pretty unique profile...

Don't go Ascend. In my opinion if you want the trolling motor up front, either go Bonafide + Xi3 or just shoot for the stars and go Old Town Autopilot. Autopilot you should really plan to get a trailer though, the boat is darn heavy.

Clothing. The idea of rubbing chemicals into my skin sounds equally cancer-y as burning up over and over does.

2x. Sticking with my bagleys. They all ran good, but they didn’t catch fish for me so it’s a no go

They’re probably saving all the good snaps for when they release the new 25$ mini jackhammer…

Supposedly a vision 110 knockoff to my understanding. Saw the prototype laying on a pro’s deck reposted on social media

I started my girlfriend off with wading a small river. I know this stretch of river incredibly well and so I knew even on the worst days it would be possible to put her on one. Explained why a senko worked, why we were throwing it, & then the mechanics of making a cast and how to tell if there is a fish. She immediately hooked up with a decent little bass, although I realized I forgot to explain how to set the hook! But she did a great job fighting it and didn’t look like a typical beginner holding the rod in one position and slow reeling, she held it to the side and played the fish like she had seen me do before and just “kept the rod bent the whole time” like I had told her. I think this is partially because I said “Just pretend you know what you’re doing, there’s not many things you can do wrong.” and she did just that. She ended up catching a 15” smallmouth (which she really enjoyed the fight of) and later broke off a 5-6lb largemouth while trying to land it which was heartbreaking but I think it really hit her with the bug… she still talks about how she wants to stick another one like that all the time. I think part of why she enjoyed it so much is because in a lot of ways it’s what fishing was to me in the beginning that bit me with the bug, it was an adventure in nature with a cool objective where you get to interact with wildlife directly. I could’ve immediately brought her into a tournament as my co-angler, because that’s what I enjoy nowadays, but that isn’t what made me fall in love with it in the first place and I don’t think it would’ve for her, it felt like a better choice to take a couple steps back to square one. She’s getting to the point where she’s a very competent angler without any help from me, but we still make the time to do trips like that first one and go back to square one and go on adventures and it makes for a great detox from the competitive fishing I enjoy so much and i’m not sure it’s something i’d get around to without her! Next I think we are going to go to the mountains and chase some trout on little mountain streams and i’ll get to teach a thing or two again. I think a lot of it was her willingness to learn so I might’ve had it easy, but you said your wife enjoyed reeling them in so there’s at the very least some interest/enjoyment already there to work with. Hope you can extract something out of my experiences to help & I hope your fishing trip goes well.

Yeah, we limited it at 20 anglers and it filled IMMEDIATELY. It was pretty shocking, we honestly set it at 20 thinking there’s no way we would hit that! It’s definitely gonna be a little crowded.

Largemouth, 10in minimum, reservoir, & they should be fully post spawn, maybe a few late spawners Beaver Creek Reservoir, Central Virginia Kayak Trail event # 2

I have a kayak tournament on a very small reservoir this weekend. I have gone to practice, but I quickly came to a realization that it was going to be pretty difficult. Not in terms of finding fish, but moreso in finding size. Virginia DWR lists the reservoir as "Excellent fishing" with the caveat of large majority of the bass being 10-13 inches. The other issue being there is practically no other cover outside of wood. I graphed off shore, didn't come up with anything. Tried to find something more structure oriented and caught a few off points, but really majority of my fish were from just fishing the wood that littered the entirety of every bank and there felt like little rhyme or reason when catching fish. Currently the gameplan is just to play a numbers game and limit with a wacky rig early and then fish a jig and a whopper plopper for the rest of the day to keep it simple and try to find a slightly bigger bite as those bigger fish will be worth even more than they normally would be. Is there anything more that I could do? How would you approach this?

Because when they break you off it feels like someone just walked up and went snip with scissors on your line. Lose a couple megabass jerkbaits to them and you won't like them so much anymore

In my opinion, in April and May you are foolish to not have a wacky rig rigged up. It is one of the few baits where you can consistently fool a big bass into thinking it is real this time of year because it doesn't really have any true "tells". This is the same reason you hear people call a frog a big bass bait. Without more info it is hard to recommend anything else, but normally I would say a jig, but during the spawn i've always leaned more toward texas rig because I feel like when they pick up a jig it feels different and they most likely will not be prone to hang onto it as long, especially if you are casting to spawners you cannot see and they are doing that thing where they lightly pick it up and swim away and drop it away from the bed. But if you think you are mainly fishing for pre or post spawners then a jig is a very viable option.

I love megabass rods, still am yet to make the P5 jump… the idea of being on the kayak and dropping one… I love my Orochi XXs, they are probably the prettiest rod I own.

I really like the gamakatsu ones or the Berkley Fusion ones that are basically identical. Both have good hooks and I like the double weed guard. I use them with the Missile Baits The 48. I also really like the Jackall one, but it’s a little small. But it fits their flick shake worm well.

This is one of my main finesse techniques. I use a zoom finesse worm, I have a variety of colors but for most of spring it will be grn pumpkin red. It is really more like a brown with red flakes. I use a 1/0 eagle claw worm hook. I couldn't tell you why, it just gives me confidence and looks right on there. The big thing to how I fish it though is the weight. Instead of a tungsten or lead, I use a 1/8 brass weight with a glass bead. Gives it muddy water capability as well as just giving a different type of presentation. ML spinning rod, under docks, around rocks, through wood and wherever else you want to bring it.

Yamamoto Senko Zoom finesse worm Berkley Chigger Craw Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver Hog Farmer Spunk Shad I think I've got my bases covered, for the most part. Maybe swap one for a keitech.

Bagley squarebill.

And if you are into glass then your cranking rig might even be a bladed jig rig too.