JCrzy4Bass

Yo Kev, I had that same exact thing but no pico and with the green chile salsa stuff they have. That will indeed give you the power you need to nail the fish, but you may have to end your trip early too lol Luckily the stomach's barricade held up for me out there lol. Saw them nice fish you were catchin though, I still got a long way before I match you my man. I'll be hittin' my spot again tommorrow possibly with a person or two from here, will post about how it went in this thread.

Nice fish Rush! Slo, not using a trailer or haven't been, never thought of using one with the buzzbait. Next to impossible with the shad. Would have helped with a few of the fish but some of them were just those pops where they don't really take the bait. I may try it with the cavitron next time out. Thanks for the tip dude. I guess if you use one with a spinner, why not with a buzz. The pond is one of the few sacred spots I have left in this area so I bring people to it but don't like giving the location out over a huge forum like this due to lurkers and people that may not be a part of the board that take a lot of large fish from our ponds. If anyone is ever interested in hitting spots up all you gotta do is shoot me a pm and we can work out our schedules. Taking out the new guy David out tommorrow morning for some topwater fishing. Will post our fish when I get to work for night shift.

Hey fishin, I only throw one buzzbait. I used to be loyal to Strike King models but ever since I have tried the Cavitron my strikes have been much more frequent no matter where I throw it. If they want a smaller profile bait that imitates a baitfish better I throw the Rage Tail Shad, if there is vegetation the Rage Tail Toad.

This morning I hit a local creek I love and tried the same. The creek was real low so they were skittish busting the bluegill and shad on top, only one hit the buzzbait though. So I switched to the more subtle Rage Tail Shad and hooked another two. All within an hour. First two went 1lb 14oz (both same weight), the last one I caught was the best of the morning, 2lbs 3oz on the Rage Shad. The last two fish were on back to back casts with the Rage Shad, the next two casts after that I got bit but they were small fish. One spit the hook, the other missed it completely.

So after my buddy and I finished at Mott's we ate at Chipotle and decided to do some pond fishing. I remembered reading an article online not too long ago about how good a buzzbait can work after a good rain. Never tried it before and I can't remember why there is any real logic behind it, but let me tell you, you need to try it. We hit a pond we found on our GPS just north of Fredericksburg and while it was small in size, it had some good fish that wanted a buzzbait. My friend and I each had a Cavitron tied on and were launching it as far across the pond as we could to cover as much water as possible. The key was to have it real just slow enough to be above the surface and to not change your speed of retrieve. I caught 3 and my buddy caught two. We missed 11 others combined, completely wiffing on 8 and then losing 3 during the fights. Man though what a rush. All this took place in about 1 hour and then as quickly as the bite started it died. The first I caught was 2lb 5oz, the second 3lb 2oz, and the last 3lb 9oz. My buddy nailed a 2lb 3oz and a dink. It was his first day fishing and he caught two to my none at Motts and even landed a fish above two on a topwater. He's hooked on bass fishing now! I've been trying to convince him to come out with me for two years and he always said he never had equipment, so for his birthday last night I bought him a tackle box, a bunch of tackle and a Daiwa setup for starters and now he wants to come out every time Here are the fish:

Well, no one showed up and I guess it's a good thing, sorta. Well my friend Jimmy and I got there and stuck around til' about 7:15am and no one showed. The water was down a bit from the storms but was way too muddy to see anything. I waded in chest deep and hadn't even gotten to deepest part yet and couldn't see a foot down in the water as to where I was stepping. I deemed it too dangerous and decided we'd do plan B. Head up to Hunting Run. Well it would have ran about 65 dollars for me and my out of county buddy (Prince William) to rent a boat til' 3 so we decided to try Motts. We fished there from 8:15 to 11:30 and the storms rolled in so we canned it. We had just put together a good pattern and started to figure stuff out, coves, shallow wood cover (inside edge) adjacent to ledges on cranks. My buddy nailed two on a Pro Model SK mid depth crank in sexy shad. One keeper went 1lb 6ozs, the other was just under 12" so not keeper sized. I lost one on a Rapala Shad Rap and he lost one on the same bait he caught the other two on. Pics attached. I am starting a new thread for what happend next The site is soooooo slow and my lunch break is over so the new thread will be up after 6pm under "Nova Topwater is on". Muccchhhh bigger fishies. Here's the pics from motts:

Hoki I will pm you the info now.

Sorry guys, I was trying to block them from certain people and checked the wrong thing. I will fix it, but I have a busy night tonight. Will pm you vabasser and hoki tommorrow am, be on the lookout. Later guys.

Beautiful fish buddy. I like the release pic the most. Now some other angler maybe younger than you can enjoy that fish in the future, or at least chasing it. Great job man!

3.08 this morning as far as water levels on the Rap. That's as of 8am today. Don't know how heavy the rain will be down there today and or how much there will be but I don't think it's gonna dictate the levels for this weekend. We are gonna need a couple of strong storms to push the levels back above the safe mark. Looks like the Rap is still on as of now guys. Two days, let's cross our fingers for some smallie action! I'll post up Friday with the final word so you guys can get what you need ready Friday night. Either way I wanna get as early a start as possible. I wnat to be fishing by 7am Saturday. Later fellas.

Last call if anyone is up for pond hopping in the area or fishing a local lake tommorrow in the am. Let me know and I'll pm you with details of where to find me/how to get there.

Heads up for those interested. I think this is gonna be a last minute call guys. We have a chance of isolated and or scattered storms almost every day this week. It's really gonna depend on how that plays out. Right now water levels at fredericksburg are at 3.46 feet. Very close to safe wading conditions. Safe rec use of the river in this area is 3.2 feet. We have 4 or 5 days to see what happens with it. Either way Saturday will be fun. If you guys just wanna holler so I know who to expect and send info to regarding where to meet up and such that would be cool. Also let me know if your a yes for both situations or just one or another. I know as of last week I had hoki, another siteer, and simon on board. I may have one other as well depending on what I get back through email. Looks like it will be a decent sized group if its a wade and 2 - 3 boats if it's at brittle. Talk to you guys later.

New, I'll have July 3rd off. That work for you? It's a friday before the holiday.

He turns 9 months on the 17th. Ridiculous how fast it goes. Getting his teeth, crawling, standing, roaming around. To think 9 months ago you barely got to see him with his eyes open. Kerazy!!!

Hey guys, anyone free Tuesday morning to do some pond hopping in and around Woodbridge? I work at 12:30 so I'll be out between 7:30 - 11:30 fishing. Hit one or two ponds. Let me know if you're interested and I'll tell you where to meet me through pm.

Some nice fish dude. Are those Mattlures or another brand? When you deadstick it are you just literally allowing it to lay on the bottom like it's dead? Or are you keeping your tip up so it sits right on the bottom upright? Good job man, I don't fish too many hard swimbaits. I have some but they cost so much I'm always afraid of losing them so I fish them primarily in open water and stuff. Keep at it.

I hear you on the schedule thing new. Between my kid, work, the wife and family and such I don't get much time either. I normally have to plan a couple weeks ahead if I wanna get out with someone. Just let me know if you have any free time and when for the next couple or few weeks and we can try to figure something out. Hopefully I'll see ya next weekend.

Gotta love chantilly and all these dam contractor parking lots and commercial ponds... I've been out to almost every one unfortunately you find out pretty qucik whether or not they are legal to fish. It would be nice for folks to post signs so you would know. There are some that have em' but most don't. Most of the time if you are respectful though and go on a weekend hardly anyone ever gives you a hard time (most places). Ps: That area where walney and westfields are Dan was talking about has some good number ponds and there are some nice fish swimming around in em' too. Good times.

Thanks Wayne.

Yea, the rap calms pretty quickly. It was up to some 6+ feet and change on Sunday night, then came down to like 3.6 within a day or two or stable weather. I check the USGS site out of Fredericksburg everyday when planning one of these. We should have a concrete idea probably by next Thursday or so. See you out there Nova, should be a blast dude.

The Rap was down before all this rain early this week. Depending on what happens next week we may get lucky, but we will see. So far looks like Simon, Hoki and Nova are in. If Simon brings his yak then we should be able to work things out renting two boats total. I'll keep you guys posted throughout the week.

Hey New, I'm in Dale City but I travel down to F'burg to fish the rap for smallies frequently at a few different locations. Also I fish Curtis and I would like to give both Abel and Motts a try eventually. We should hook up sometime. I'm boatless as well but we could always head somewhere where we could rent. Does Motts do rentals?

Donkey... HEE HAW! That thing is a monster. Kevin your scale is broke lol. J/k... I would compare it against others though. My berkley was off with my last pb by 3 ounces give or take. We reset my dads Rapala Digi twice and got the same reading both times. Plus it was higher lol. You ALWAYs go with the higher reading lol. Anyway, great job man. Senko magic.

Hey guys just wanted to let you know there is a backup plan in place but it requires a bit of cash for rentals. The idea would be we meet up early at Lake Brittle and fish jon boats out there for bass and walleye. I still think depending on how many of these storms are "scattered" and depending on how long it takes runoff to make it downstream and how BAD these weathermen are at forecasting we may get lucky and be able to wade. Too early to make a call. I'll update more on Monday with the condition of the rap.

Thanks for all the responses and offers guys. However, just found out the wife has planned on taking off this day as well (day after our big vacation to williamsburg) so we can clear up some banking credit card stuff at our local banks and do some work around the house we've been putting off forever so I have to kill this whole day now after I have all of you respond... so yea... However, father's day weekend I am putting together a smallie wade for Saturday the 22 in Fredericksburg hosted by my dad and I. We have a couple interested but only one definate. I typically can have 10 - 20 fish days here and I'm NOT the best smallie fishermen in the world by any means so if anyone is interested I can tell you guys where to meet us and walk you through the wade. I know it well and have done it over 10 times now. There is only one spot they may or may not be navigable pending on water heights but I'll keep all those interested informed as I have a site where I check that daily (usgs). Pm me for details. We will be leaving early am to be at the river around 7 or so. We will wade til' 3 or 4pm. Bring tubes, grubs, inline spinners and whatever you like to fish for smallies with. Weightless senkos are a blast here. Pm me for bait specifics as I have quite a few that produce EVERY outing whether they are hitting or not. Hopefully I get some of you guys on board. It's gonna be a blast. It's designed as a father son type outing to celebrate the weekend but by no means is limited. If your pops is busy or is not interested or doesn't fish bring yourself. Or if you are a pops with no son in tote, fine whatever bring your happy face along lol. Talk to ya'll later. I will get out with ALL of you. It will become one of my goals this year. P:s: If for whatever reason weather brings water levels up around this time and we cannot wade because it is too dangerous my fallout plan is to meet up at a local lake with boat rentals. I was thinking along the lines of Lake Brittle. No one has to feel limited, if you don't like the ideas then you don't have to show. I just wanted a chance for some of the new guys and or folks interested in learning more about smallies in the area to get out and have fun. Let me know fellas.