BrianinMD

Oh man sorry to hear, hopefully you heal quickly!!

I hope that is drinking water.....alcohol is not allowed anywhere in the park.

Rooster, "necessary" is debatable on anything fishing. But yes it is possible, I have been doing it since someone showed me an easy snell knot. Not the best test in the world but it does seem like my hookup percentage is better, it certainly has not hurt it.

I have a Curado 50E on a Falcon Bucco 7ft MH/F, absolutely love that setup

I started using the snell knot on all my plastics, have had no issues. You do have to be a little careful when tying it on a hook with a bait keeper on it.

The rod should be okay, just don't get to comfortable and try to actually cast. In regards to the baits you list, I wouldn't go with the Anacondas or anything which have a lot of appendages as they tend to wrap around the vegetation and not go to the bottom. As for location, try holes in the weeds, where other structure maybe, in general any place that has some type of change to it. Whether its type of weeds, bottom structure, cover, any differences attract bass.

1. If you have a store around you, go get a righty and lefty and see how each feels. Everyone is different on what they like. No way to answer that question for you. 2. I was all spinning until 4 years ago, now I use both. Learning curve is not to bad, see answer 3 for an explanation. 3. Worse thing you can do if find a cheap combo to learn on. No reason to spend big money but a lot of people have become frustrated trying to use a cheapo reel. With a baitcaster you do need something decent. I learned on a Revo S and Shimano Citica both quality reels at a decent price, a lot of used the BPS PQ reels but I don't have any personal experience with them.

Great looking fish there old man.... That is something you don't hear to often in the same sentence, frogs and Black Hills. Went down to Aquia yesterday with a friend from the club, not to bad of a day. I ended up with 7 nothing big, maybe 2.5 to 3 was the biggest for me. He had one about 4.5.

Never a second hookset for me, it will introduce slack into the line which is the last thing I want.

Only thing I will use swivels for are drop shot and c-rigs. Closing the bail by hand, and make sure there is no loop in the line works very well.

Hopefully it goes better than the one in Maryland last weekend, they ended up having to cancel the 2nd day. Traffic and other logistics did not work out well. I am way to out of shape with bad knees/ankles to give it a try.

My choice has been 8lb invisx fluro, has proven plenty strong enough, not hard to manage, and the characteristics of fluro make it perfect for what you plan to use it for.

What rod/reel setup are using and what baits will you use?

Yozuri Hybrid works great.

Only monday thru friday's

I fish year round, but have a heated water area close to me and portions of the Lower Potomac River which fish better in the winter months.

I would guess they were panfish.

Welcome to the boards Joe, unfortunately I don't know your area but with the weeds like that I would start throwing frogs across it. Especially along the weedline, any wood in the grass, or any other irregular feature in the grass.

What works best.....whatever is comfortable to the user

There have been multiple threads about this one....rather entertaining ones. Some people use all bc, some use all spinning. Personally I switch to spinning for the light stuff, no sense to me fighting backlashes when spinning will do it with out issues, especially if there is any wind at all. For some people I swear it like a ego/manhood thing to say they only use BC...

Here is a recent thread with 3 pages of thoughts some good thoughts and different opinions.

If in clear water, yes. Otherwise it is not necessary

Been using Invisx 8lb on my spinning rods, had no issues with line management or breakage. I do treat with KVD L&L when I spool and the night before going out.

Welcome!! There are a few of us in the area, i am about 10 minutes away from black hills. There is a lot of local info in the Marylands Who's Who thread in the Northeast section.

Does anyone have info they are willing to share about the Northeast River in Maryland? I have a tourney there in early September and I know nothing about it.