JHoss

Frog Buzzbait Frog

1A) bladed jig 1B) Spinnerbait 2) Buzzbait

I voted for Magdraft as that's my most confident bait right now, but the Daingerous loaded swim bait has been tied on my rod the most lately and feels likely to surpass the Magdraft before long. I'm not a big fan of the Cullshad- it's too light and harder to get the weight right IMO.

IME your water in NC is similarly colored to ours in SE VA (and the NE NC waters I fish), and a drop shot is highly effective here. Finesse worms seem to be the ticket most of the time.

Maybe spawing? Not super familiar with golden shiners, but other species ball up like that to spawn.

I fish two trails regularly. The Jon Boat trail has a 9.9 HP limit (ends up being 20) and has been averaging 20 boats this year. We do shotgun starts and haven't had any issues. The Wednesday night league has everything from Jon boats with 6HPs to glitter boats pushing 100. We do takeoffs in order of sign ups with a boat going off every 5-10 seconds.

All of the BASS Opens this year being shortened due to weather seems a lot less silly today.

Do you think the lighter action played a role in losing the fish? Perhaps not driving the hook home as well as a MH would've. Ok, the formula does need some tweaks. I do usually try to net or grab the ones over 5.

Ahhh the age old dilemma, to boat flip or not to boat flip. I seem to find myself losing more fish when I start looking for a net then when I just swing em over the side. That's largely due to having 10+ rods on the deck of my 1448 most of the time. I lost the two fish that would've filled out my limit in my derby last weekend by monkeying with the net. First one was trying to look and see if the guy nearby would be able to see me grab the net- took my attention off the fish and she jumped and threw the bait. Second one I lost I was in the process of netting. I think I spent so much time playing it while I got the net, that the hook must've worked loose. I tend to find myself following the logic that if the fish is less than half the weight the line is rated for and hooked well, I'm flipping it. If it exceeds the 50% threshold, I want a net.

Hate to say it, but in today's age, that's probably the first thing a lot of folks think about.

That's a black drum. @bulldog1935 posted a picture of a red drum/redfish/puppy drum.

I've always heard spots are the best, but haven't tried them myself. Like @casts_by_fly said, they all taste about the same if they're from the same body of water. My understanding is that spotted bass tend to have a high natural mortality each year, so that would be my choice if I were you. River smallies are notoriously slow growing, so I would avoid them.

@Wedge63 I moved from VB to Chesapeake last year so I have a few spots I don't mind sharing. I'll send you a PM

Ok, so maybe I hurt 3 out of 145,953,000,000,000,000,000,000 bass this weekend, but I did save 1 of 1 box turtles from the burn pile yesterday so I'm net 145,952,999,999,999,999,999,997 right?

I understand the concern. On this lake, like 95% of lakes with bass in the US, there are more than enough fish to maintain a healthy population. There's been plenty of studies done that show just a few mating pairs can restock a lake every year. So, while a few fish and genetic lines may have been disturbed, there was no impact done to the population as a whole.

This sure seemed like it would be fun if I could figure it out. Watched 4 of 19 boats bring in 20+ lb bags and report catching 20+ fish.

@wasabi_VA if you want to target sheepshead, be aware our Virginia sheepshead are nothing like the ones guys in Lower Atlantic and Gulf States are catching (and talking about). The sheepshead in Virginia are BIG compared to other places and the bulk are caught around pilings of the bridges that are covered in mussels and oysters- a recipe for losing a lot of fish if you don't have the right gear. I'd say a MH to H rod and 150+ size bait caster with a 30 lb braid is the minimum starting point if you want to use bass gear. From there, add a 30-50 lb fluorocarbon leader with a dropper rig or bottom sweeper style jig. Tip either with a live fiddler crab and drop it as close to pilings as you can. Shoot me a DM if you want any specific info on targeting them in SE Virginia.

Ned Rigs. They work, I just hate fishing that slow. I always have some in the boat, but only get desperate enough to throw them once or twice a year.

Anyone able to share some juice on bed scoping with perspective mode? I just got my butt whooped in a local derby this weekend fishing the same areas and same techniques as the top boats. It was my first time out with perspective mode and that's what made the biggest difference. I usually run my gain between 68-75 in forward mode, but I dropped it to 60-65 for perspective. This was letting anything that stuck up off the ground show up. One of the guys who spanked me said he ran it at like 75-80 in perspective and everything "was on fire" up except the beds. I saw one bed in the area we shared while he caught no less than a dozen fish in a creek half the size of a football field. What settings do you use in perspective (gain, interference, etc)? Do your settings vary when bed scoping vs regular perspective? Are their tricks to being more accurate with your casts/knowing where things are that you're seeing on scope?

Now can be a great time to flip too. Lot's of fish starting to move up to spawn.

Time on the water has always been the #1 factor in what makes someone a good angler. Some guys have dedicated their time on the water to learning FFS and some have not. They all have the same number of hours in a day and can only blame themselves if they don't spend them correctly. I've had Livescope for a year, but I haven't had the time to learn it. I can catch a few fish with it, but I get dominated by anyone who's dedicated a decent amount of time to it. That's why I haven't "gone scoping" in either derby I've fished this year. That's what irks me about people complaining about FFS. It's not like the OG's don't have the same opportunity to learn it. Heck, we saw Hackney do well with it on St John's. If anything, they likely had access to the tech as sponsored pros before any of these 20 somethings people like to complain about.

@Lottabass yeah it sounds like they were just slapping or nipping at it this time around. I can't imagine circle hooks would be effective in that situation.

Wasn't trying to make it a scopers vs non-scopers debate. At this point, everyone on the elites but John Cox is a scoper to some extent. I tuned in around 9:30 and watched a few hours worth. I saw him catch 4 fish in that time and cast at a few others. Everything I saw was on scope. I guess they must've had some sun early when you were watching, because it was too cloudy to sight fish in that colored water by the time I turned it on.

Black and blue Bronco Bug w/ 1/4 ounce pegged weight. He's finding spawners in 4-6 ft with scope and flipping to em. Sight fishing with his scope from everything I've seen.

Aint no way he'd put up these numbers without scope. That water is too stained to see these fish without scope and there's too much cover to effectively fish every stump you mark on sidescan. I've yet to see him make a cast that wasn't at a fish he saw on live. Fothergill is doing the same thing in an entirely different area. Don't get me wrong, I love Welcher, but it's not fair to criticize the 20 somethings winning with scope and then applaud the 31 year old doing the same thing.