A.Do?

I'm fishing from shore and at a pond on a friends property. There's no rocks or any other things to abrade my line. The breaks usually occur when the fish is only a few feet from me, close enough for me to see them in the water.

This is only my second season fishing, whats the best technique for setting the drag? Sorry forgot to mention that I'm using a medium action rod with a spinning reel. The line was spooled up recently and purchased this year. I bought a large spool from cabelas, could the whole spool be bad?! :'( Around my area we rarely see bass over 6 or 8 pounds, Citation size is 8lbs. I caught my PB using 14lb test and didn't enjoy the fight at all! So this year i told my self i'd use a lighter line. Thank you for all your quick responses, i'll look into each of these carefully.

I've been having a lot of trouble keeping my line from snapping this season. Not sure what's going on. I'm using 6# yozuri ultra soft and tying a polymer knot to almost everything I throw, from soft plastics to crank baits. Today was just the las straw for me, as I lost a very nice fish only a few feet from me. Where is my problem? Drag:I feel like my drag is set just right, but maybe it's not. I have it so that if i do a super hook set you'll hear the drag for a quick sec. On normal hook sets you hear no drag. Should i be using weights to find the right drag? Knot: from what i've heard, the polamer is one of the strongest and most reliable. I moisten before I tighten the knot and check the line a few inches to make sure there are no frays in the line. Line: Yozuri Hybrid ultrasoft in 6# test with KVD line treatment, spooled up only a few weeks ago. Reeling in the fish, i keep the rod tip low, with constant tension and i do a semi-fast retrieve, i let the fish tell me how fast i need to retrieve and try not to rip the fish through the water. Should i be pointing the rod tip toward the fish when it's closer to the bank so there's less strain on the line? Should i try and fight the fish longer to wear them out? I lost 3 fish today, all of which were well over 3lbs, to snap lines. I'd really like to figure out what i can do to prevent this from happening. Thanks for any info/tips! Andrew

d**n!! nice fish! I'm gonna give topwater at the lansdowne pond a try on friday. I think i'm hooked!

Wayne, I love your reports. I've been checking daily for the next one. Was happy to see a report this morning as i was thinking of trying to get out there this weekend. Thanks again for spending the time to provide us with those reports!

lol, i have a trolling motor and battery that someone could use. That way i don't have to tow boats around. I don't want my body getting all disproportional with thighs of steel.

whoops made a mistake, wrong picture. here's my biggest of the day. That other one was my friend's catch.

can't argue with that either!

I really can't argue with that! ;D

I just bought this scale based on some of the great reviews i've read about them but I had a few questions. While i was using the scale, there would be random messages on the display that popped up. I can't think of the exact message that pops up but does anyone have aniy idea what these messages mean or where i can find information on the different messages that available to this unit? Thanks! Andrew

I didn't have as much luck as other people this weekend when i went out to fish on this lake in manassas. It was raining when i left the house and continued to drizzle and rain off and on while i was on the water. One of the worst fishing conditions i've experienced with it being cold, the water looking like chocolate milk and the rain just comin down on us. I went out with the college buddies that introduced me to bass fishing last year so i had fun regardless of the small number of fish we caught. Ended up catching 4 fish total from the yak, 3 keepers and 1 dink mostly off of a chartruese/black or chartruese/white spinner bait. This was the biggest at around 2.5lbs or so. My other friends did alot better but they were targeting catfish and carp. On a positive note, i got to tow their jon boat back to our launch area when their small trolling motor couldn't fight the current too well. Man was that a workout! How long does it usually take for a large body of water to clear up after the raining stops? Is this something that varies with the size, and composition of the body of water? Any suggestions on how to fish murky water or is it something i should avoid?

Rob, I actually went the other way, we figured it'd be nicer to go up stream and slowly drift back down and head out when we got back to the dock. Of course, we had a lot of "bad passes" that we thought we should redo. I was just thinking i must have looked like an idiot to anyone that was watching me when i caught the 4lb'er. I was screamin (like shaw grigsby when he keeps saying "holy smokes") and moving all over the boat. HAHA, i'm such an amateur.

Don't be sad, I've never caught a fish at burke in my life Everyone tells me i should try and get out there at night and that fishing during the day is just too tough. You'll get on them soon, no worries. I was skunked on my first 6 outtings of this year

Nice! thanks for the report. I wanted to head out to fountain head and fish the Rez soon but was afraid of the fish not feeding yet cuz of all the dead shad people were talking about a few weeks ago. Good to see the fish are biting!

Nice catches Kevin! I didn't have too much luck Saturday, the water was chocolate milk.

I had a blast and it was a pleasure to fish with Rob and Dan again, to "feel the burn" with Simon, and it was very nice to finally meet Paul Naj! It was a very memorable trip as it was my first time getting top water hits! Got 3 strikes total on the buzz bait but due to my newbieness (drag wasn't set properly) i was only able to land one. After Rob and Dan left we got some info from Dan on what he was throwing because we knew he got 2 really nice bass. We didn't have any tubes but decided to use some fat ikas in a dark green and man did that pay off. Simon and I must have boated 5 in the next hour or so. This is only my second season fishing so I'm not sure if this a post spawn thing or not but man these fish fought hard! I forgot how much all my fish weighed cuz this 4lb 5ozer had me going the rest of the day. It had me swinging all around my kayak. Another pic And here are the others of the day less the smaller ones and my buzzbait catch (i thought i took a picture but i guess not) Needless to say, we had a lot of fun. The only bad things were the rain (which we didn't mind) and the hispanic guys we ran into at the floating dock that just caught and decided to keep a 1.5-2lb LMB > Can't wait to go out again! ;D

Im definitely in, I can bring my kayak if anyone is brave enough to go out other in the dark with me. I'm going to rig some kind of lighting onto it soon. So thats me, my kayak, and room for one.

When? I'm game.

I'm wondering the same thing. Beeen meaning to try my buzzbaits out so let me know how you do.

LOL! Barely saw you in the back there trev.

There are certain spots that I do not want to share. Plan and simple, which is why i doctored my photo last week. Everyone has that one spot, if they've found it, that they don't want others to know about whether they'll admit it or not. I learned my lesson because I told a friend about a certain spot and he told ALL his coworkers and got us kicked off that property. Needless to say thats never going to happen again. Now when it comes to public waters, out of respect to people who i fish with and to others that hold those bodies of water precious, I am now refraining from posting the name but am more than willing to PM the location to board members. A fellow board member pointed something out to me that i never thought of, "Not just board members read our post". An example would be Mercer, my friend lives off the water and of the 5+ years he's lived there has been able to count the number of anglers he's seen on the water. The other day he told me that he was amazed at how many people are now on this lake. This post is pointless and that fact that it was even made disappoints me, but whatever. That's my 2 cents.

Nice catch Kevin! I had a feeling there'd be some decent sized fish in there. When are we going to fish the "other" spot? Mepps #3 vs. Megabass Griffon Haha, just kidding. Let me know when you're in for a bike ride.

Which ones are you talking about exactly? I fish for catfish out of Ladybird, i think, park area all the time.

white caps on the water.. > It was a pretty interesting experience to say the least. Alot of things on my end went pretty sour but i'm glad the overall trip was enjoyable. those winds were killer and battling that current in that yak has left my body sore as heck. Slomoe and I caught 1 each. Mine was a keeper at about 1.5lbs while his was right around 3 pounds. They both fought hard as hell and gave quite a show. I definitely want to hit that body of water again as there is alot of potential there. I learned alot on this "maiden" voyage and next time, i'll be much better prepared. Hope to do this again!