JCrzy4Bass

Sam you got it. I'm at work, but I haven't fished for bass since November 5. However I did go out and practiced my pitching and flipping with a jig-x jig on the WINDY occoquan river two days ago. Felt like my hands would fall off. My buddy and I saw a couple of Striper surface by the end of the boat ramp and retaining wall. Weird to see them so far up river right now. Lakes here are constantly freezing in spots and then unfreezing repeating the process every week or so. You never know what's fishable and what's not here in PW and Fairfax as of the moment. I am fishing "One Fish Anna" with my dad this weekend. Caught three last time out (one almost came to two pounds). Gonna be different this time out. Launching out of Sturgeon Creek working down lake torwards the power plant/ main lake points/ deep water structure and Creek mouths (probably Hackney's and Duke's). My dad has some other spots he wants to hit but we are working out our plan tonight when I go over. Water temps lower lake have been reported low to mid forties from what I read. I plan on throwing jigs (jig-x, rigged with matching jig-x trailers) in brown/orange, blue/black and white on white. Probably will work the drop shot for a while w/ zoom finesse worms, then if nothing else is working slow roll and yo yo a rattle trap. Don't plan on touching any other baits unless conditions dictate otherwise. I think my dad is throwing paddle worms, rattle traps and deep diving cranks from what he was telling me. We got cabin fever last week real bad and spent some money to buy stuff to get our tackel up to date and full again. We decided since the engine might have parts freeze if we take the boat down and bring it back (with low overnight temps) we will just rent a full day jon boat out of Sturgeon Creek fro 55 bucks and see how we fare. No electronics, three days with temps in the low to mid fifties creates stable weather... your guess is as good as mine. Should be an interesting day. I just need to cast that line out there. I'm dying inside. We'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully you can get back out soon down there in Richmond. Let us know when that smallmouth bite picks back up on the James if you happen to get out. Plan on hitting Pony Pasture as soon as I get word that the spring bite is back on.

I hope you do Simon. Go get em' buddy!

Hey Dave what time does this fiasco go on til'? I have errands to run in the morning but my parents is right down the road and our place is less than 10 miles or so away in Dumfries. So I will try and go with my pops for a bit and check out the selection. I could use some shallow running cranks for the upcoming months, only thing I'm short on right now. Any guys specifically we should look for here that are "regulars"? No demonstrations or anything right? If you can email me any other info you might have I'd appreciate it as I'm not on here much til' March or so. jcrzy4smlmth@gmail.com If not, no biggie. Appreciate all you've told thus far. Later man.

Hey Simon, I've been lurking but I'm not really a big fan of the new layout on the site. I was looking into gathering some close friends from town together for some striper fishing to ease the winter blues since it's been 3 months since I've touched a rod now (November 5). I was curious where exactly you are pulling these from. Where is the parking? What bridges are you fishing? How far of a walk is it? Is there anywhere around there that sells live bait like minnows? I was looking into Yorktown State Park but the two people I talked to there basically told me "good luck" with catching Striper right now through February and that Croaker is out of the question til' March. They said there are no tackle places right now selling live bait. SO my question is to you, is bucktails and swim baits and shad raps the only thing catching fish down there right now? Are you fishing the pilings? Deep Water? How are youy rigging, etc? We were gonna leave 5am Saturday morning (Feb 9) and fish all day from either the pier there or the pier at Yorktown Beach. I was just curious as to if you had a better idea. I don't care if they are small as long as they range like 1-3lbs I can keep my friends occuppied all day. I just wanna get on some fish if I'm driving 2-3 hours for em'. Any help you could give me would be awesome. It would help if this area had some catfish and or perch to pull in too. Let me know if you can give me any info. I called you and left a message earlier this morning, so if you can get back to me that would be sweet. Later man.

Nice fish dad. Again... Andy dude it was cool ending my year with you up at Occoquan even though we didn't catch anything. I'm pretty sure it was my last time out. I'm just not enjoying it when its so cold and windy out. I may have an occasional day if it's warm enough where I cast a few but I'm pretty sure I'm done for the year. So that's pretty much while I've been gone for a while now, I'll check in on here now and then during the off season, but right now I'm chillin on another forum my friend created for me and my friends around the woodbridge area. Good luck to all of you guys if you fish through the cold stuff. I'll be back in the Spring a ton once me and my dad get the boat back out again. It's been an awesome year chilling with you guys and learning from all of you. Take care, happy holidays. If anyone needs to reach me and doesn't already have my number hit up my email address jason.defreitas@hotmail.com or jcrzy4smlmth@gmail.com I'll check the first one more in the off season. Later guys.

70 is not a long shot... the way they played last night though... man Feely was torching them. Couple of lucky int's at the right time and the Pats close up the game. But I think they hung with them almost more so than Indy. Looks like they are slowly losing a bit of steam. Undefeated is still possible, but my guess is they lose one because once they lock up homefield advantage the starters are gonna take a seat. Don't know if the Pats can when the last two games with Cassel behind center. We will see though. Depends on how smug they are and whether or not they really want to prove to the league they are perfect.

I have to say my friends Troy, Stephanie and Karen taught me the most (outside of the forum). They all taught me the basics of choosing rods and reels for certain fishing applications and how to set up certain basic rigs. Aside from that my father and I have traded quite a bit of knowledge back and forth and have helped each other become better over the past year. On here I have learned quite a bit from watching some of LBH's videos, talking and listening to some of the vets of the forum (in the Va area) such as Sam, Basspro48, Btlva, etc. These guys know this state, the water ways, how to fish em', and if your nice enough provide some generous tips and info they use regularly. I really appreciate all these guys do for us Northern Virginia anglers. It's nice to come some where were we can talk and share info instead of trying to talk to guys outside of here who a lot of the time are stuck up and/or do not want to give up any info on the waterway or "how to find the fish". Alot of the boaters on the lakes around here are like that. The boaters on the Occoquan are normally pretty cool though (the river).

Who says us Nova bassers can't reel em' in in cold water conditions eh? Even so, looks like most of us are getting action on crankbaits and traps. Fish are still pretty aggressive I guess. Wonder when it's really gonna die down out there. I'm going out one more time tommorrow morning before I go to work. Thinking of hitting a local drainage pond by a shopping center in Woodbridge. The water gets pretty deep in the middle so I'm figuring the bass should be hanging out in a nice large group there. Gonna try the trap and some shad raps, possibly even the mann's depending on if it's warm enough to start warming the top of the water at all. If anyone is free in the morning and wants to go hit up my cell or pm me today. We can work something out. Later folks.

Here's the pic from Saturday. 2lbs 12oz, missed my pb by two ounces but broke out of a nasty slump that lasted for about my last 5-6 outings. Caught on a smokey joe rat-l-trap by casting out into deep water from the clearing.

Thats definately some type of bacteria on that fish. It's not a spotted bass for sure, definately a largemouth. But I'd be concerned about the bacteria spreading especially if it is becoming a problem with the larger fish. Hopefully not many fish are affected cause that could be devasting on Mercer's population. I'd call vdgif or the community and let them know about the fish. That might be alarming enough that they send someone out to do a small electro sampling of the lake and see if they can find any others affected by it. Just my opinion though. Later.

Nice fish Ron. Jay, you are slacking; Where is your post and your picture? Thanksgiving break has been crazy man. I'm spending some time with friends and my sister tonight drinking and partying before she goes back to Tennessee tommorrow. I'll have the hog up tommorrow. Caught him on a medium sized smokey joe rat-l-trap. Finally pulled outta the slump. Talk to you guys soon. Hitting up Fountainhead Tuesday morning if anyone is interested. Found a nice little spot last time there with some deep water access, a nice drop off and a nice flat. Should be good feeding in the early morning hours. Plan on being there between 8:15 and 11:30. Give my cell a ring if you wanna join me. Most of you should have it by now. Hope you all had a good holiday and a great weekend. Enjoy the time off work. Football tommorrow!!! WOOOO!!!

Dan, Bank fishing. We are leaving from my place at 7:15, then I'm picking up my dad and cruising down. I don't plan on us leaving until about 3, so we should have plenty of time to walk the woods and get to the better spots, should be able to cover a lot of the lake. If your interested shoot me a call on my cell. I pmed you my number. Later man. P:s: If you come limit your tackle to one bag and two collapseable rods as my car can't handle a lot of gear if I have four people. Later dude.

Burke is indeed tough as a lot of weekend anglers and average fishermen joe folks walk that whole lake fishing from the bank. On the weekends the boat pressure is pretty crazy too. Your best bet is to buy a decent depth finder and really plot out this lake as far as deep water structure. Especially in these late months, you may be able to pick up a few nice ones if you find some decent fall/winter holding spots. A few folsk on here have done well there, I don't normally catch a lot and when I do they are small (in the 1-2lb range). If you really wanna fish from the bank you should really walk as far as you can from the vdgif launch or the marina (two parking spots), the further you walk the less pressured the spots. The coves are better in the spring but I haven't caught any there since probably July. Points with deep water access and drop offs normally yield good fish. I hear spinners are the bait to go to if you fish those. Carolina rigs, power worms, and senkos have been known to pull some nice fish as well if fished near lay downs or flats (which you normally can't access unless you have a boat). Anyway, best time for me to fish here is spring. The bait fish are in the coves and plentiful so crankbaits (small) worked pretty quickly through feeding frenzies early in the morning are always a safe bet. Another bait here would be a Rat-L-Trap. Can't give you much advice on the fall/winter bite here as I've never fished during that time period. Good luck if you decide to try it. You have to be persistent no matter what spot you fish. The fish don't come easily. Pound those lures and don't give up.

HAHA!!! He better fold that tail down between his legs lol. That's hilarious. Thanks for the laugh, this has been the longest day at work, I needed that.

Good job punkin' us again today dad. You are tearing it up lately. Looks like Lake Mercer is starting to be your home lake there. Tommorrow will be fun at Curtis, can't wait. Goin' to get some more lures and stuff tonight to restock the tackle box after my disaster at Mercer today. All for two little dinks of of Rapala Shad Raps (minnow color). Oh well. I got a good feeling about tommorrow. See you in the morning dad. Maybe I can actually keep up out there tommorrow, we'll see.

That is an f-in' hog. I'm jealous as anything... all you guys getting these 3-4 lbers and I'm stuck with the dinks. I really hope I get something at Mercer tommorrow or Curtis on Wednesday before my fishing pretty much ends this year. The dink I caught today on the trap wasn't really what I was looking for, but hey... I guess a fish is better than nothing. Nice pb.

Good day out there today dad. I was glad to see one of us get on em'. Hopefully tommorrow I'll get back in the game. I wanna hit the other side of the lake tommorrow and hit some of the areas through the woods (less pressured). Anyway, looks like the Rat-L-Trap has been hot lately too. Keep at it. See you in the morning.

I was conteplating the hard jerkbaits I had with me but stuck with my go to. That's what I get I guess, I don't think it would have mattered today, the fish were f-in' hard to find, but who knows. The ground was really leafy. Everywhere I looked in the water was covered with em'. Didn't bring my shakey heads this time out because they are all in my largemouth tackle bag. Next time I'll remember to pack em'.

Hey Andy man you need to get me out there one day next spring buddy. I'll be at Mercer tommorrow morning if any of you want to join me. Me and my dad are going to be there around 7:45... not to hijack the thread, just an invite.

Yea me and my friends are sitting here watching football and stuff and it kinda like stopped everything. We were all glued to the video and what was going to be in the center of the flag. Definately made you look back and think about all the great people we have in this world who would die for us on any given day. Those guys are some of the most heroic and honorable people in the world. USA! USA! USA!

MLB: Boston Red Sox NBA: Boston Celtics NHL: Boston Bruins NFL: Denver Broncos NCAA (Football): Boston College, Clemson Tigers NCAA (Basketball): George Mason Patriots, Umass Minute Men

Sweet job slomoe. I fished for smallies yesterday at the rap and only managed one all day. It's getting tough out there. Go figure as soon as we found all the fish though it was time to leave. Wife had stuff for me to do haha. So how far up 28 from Liberia Ave is that part of Bull Run? I never see smallies at Bull Run down by Davis Ford but hear they are there and can make it that far down. I would love to try up by 28 though. Maybe we can hook up sometime since it's close by your place. Nice fish man, smallies are SO much fun. And they are alot more colorful than largemouth. Come to think of it they fight better too. Put it this way, I'd take smallies over bucketmouths any day.... unless I'm out on the boat haha.

We fished up at Mott's Run (across the street at the put in on the rap on river rd but there is slim pickings for water depth there and we had six people so we really didn't like that place (no one brought waders). We trecked through the woods way up the river but couldn't find many good places for us all to fish. So we fished a lot of Fall Hill Ave almost all the way up to the 17 bridge, then we back tracked and FINALLY found some fish on riverside dr. We fished down going torwards the route one bridge. We ended up catching three in about 30-45 minutes after being skunked all day. I threw mostly pumpkin and watermelon tubes 4" and red/black tubes 5". But I also tossed a pumpkinseed jig x jig with vertical x matching trailer and an arkie orange and brown hair jig with the same trailer. Tried a white 4" senko for a bit and also toseed a mepp's inline spinner for a while. Only bite I got all day was the one fish I caught and the last we all caught all day. It was about 3/4 of a pound. Pretty fish though, and one's always better than the skunk. That was the toughest day on the Rapp I ever had. Normally I almost always come away with about a handful or so. Next year I guess. Thanks to anglernfuego, rondef, ado124, and simonsays, we had a fun time and found some new spots to fish next time down. Hopefully we can do it again sometime. Oh yea, I forgot to mention my dad and Andrew both caught there first smallie ever today. Pretty cool to see two people get their first fish of that species in one day out on the water. Later guys. Heres the one fish I caught today. Decent sized guy, and as usual always a nice looking fish since it's a smallie! Jason

While were at it... since she's recently single and Russ couldn't get it done... here ya go Avid: Now coming in the color "Blonde"!!! Hmmmm... Angelina... or Dorothy?!?!?!

Rapala Pro Fishing is about the best you can get for X-Box. I play it all the time. I like the King Salmon tourneys because of the fights. But I can't turn down those Oke bass or Sam Rayburn bass either. Good times. My favorite lures are the original rapalas and husky jerks in that game.