JCrzy4Bass

Hey guys, my dad and I hit my favorite smallie spot on Sunday and managed some nice smallies. We caught 15 in about 6 or 7 hours. Two went 1lb 10oz, one for 1lb 7oz and my dads new PB at 2lbs exactly on the digi. The pics are attached. If you want to check out the report I posted it on my blog, linked in my profile. There is also a report for Mattawoman Creek (Saturday's trip). Enjoy. 1lb 7oz 1lb 10oz 1lb 10oz Dad's 2lber

Hey guys, this isn't really a farewell notice, but more of a "I won't be around much" for the off season and last few months of this season. As you nova guys know the kid is on the way and due Sept 17. I have taken my last cast for the year aside from a couple of mornings (days I work nights) until the kid is born and the only full day I'll have will be the day of my wife's baby shower since I not need attend. I'll be on the Occoquan River with my dad closing out my year. I just want to say it's been a blast fishing with all the different guys I've hooked up with this year and thanks to everyone for chiming in on my reports, giving me some new spots to check out, and for just being there as a friend. This place is awesome and I'll try and be back next year as much as possible but these first couple of years with the kid are gonna be a new challenge for me and aside from family life I plan on getting back into my electric guitar that has taken a back seat the past two years and concentrate on fantasy football since I'm in multiple leagues this year. I will get out occassionally maybe around my bday on October 23 and a time or two in November during the thanksgiving break but other than that my year is done. If anyone wants to get a hold of me add me as a contact. My email and website are available on my profile. I wish everyone the best of luck for the remainder of the year and future seasons and hope to get back out with some of you if I get the chance next year. Again thanks to all of you guys who have helped make fishing one of my favorite things to do in the world over the last couple of seasons. You guys are awesome! Special thanks to Paul, Simon, Andrew, Kevin, Andy (good luck in Iraq buddy, we are home waiting for you), Dan, Sam, Vekol, and most importantly to my dad for all the fun trips this year. I'll keep you guys in the loop as far as the craziness of my life in the short and upcoming future once the kid comes into this world. Be safe, have fun, and I hope you guys don't forget the days we've had together. I know I won't. Later fellas. I will have blogs up this afternoon of the two trips I made this weekend with some great pics. I'll also have reports up of Occoquan on August 16, the Rappahannock the following Friday (August 23) as I'm off that day, and a couple other mornings I fish the lakes around here. Check my blog for updates through the end of this month. Thanks for the good times, tight lines!

Simonsays has been fly fishing around Nova lately. Shoot him a pm or wait for him to respond and he may be able to toss you some ideas. If you are interested in wading the Rappahannock in Fredericksburg can give you smallies and redear sunfish all day if you trek about 1/2 mile up from Falls Hill Avenue/River Rd. Good fishing here. Plenty of islands to stand on or rocks.

That fight was awesome to witness in person. You definately hooked that beast solid. When he made that last dart back under the water behind you I thought your line was toast. Way to go Dad. I'm glad I got to be there for that.

Hey dad, the monkey already told me that he wanted to hitch a ride with us tonight ;D, he's waiting in my car lol. I got a list of stuff I need to pick up since it's my last trip before the baby is born. I wish we would have got that one at Potomac Mills (Bass Pro), would have been so easy to go across the street and shop there lol. Might have been a tad harsh on the wallet though! Who needs a Costco??? We already have BJ's and Sam's Club both within a 3 mile radius of the Costco!!! Bleh! Sam, control the urge when that opens up lol. Good luck keeping the monkey at bay! Jules, thanks for the kind words buddy. Now I have another person i can come to for advice lol. Love those GYCB. I do need some Fat Ikas for smallies on Monday. If you're free I'm headed down to the Rap in Fredericksburg Monday for wading Jules. Let me know. I will wade from 7am til' 3pm if I can find someone to go with. I've learned the Rap pretty well this year and have put some others on decent fish. Let me know. There is a thread about it in the southeast section here, just let me know.

MONEY!!! Not that I'm gonna have any to spend with a kid on the way. But now that the important relatives know I can expect some pretty nice Birthday and Christmas gifts eh dad?!?!? ;D At least I won't have to put up with the horrible selection of plastics at Boater's World anymore, and or the extreme prices as far as rods and reels. And it sure beats a trip to Walmart!

Dad, That third pic is a short FAT fish lol. Chunkalicious. Good job out there. Just hope that luck carries over to this weekend when we go out.

Kick BASS Vabasser! good job out there. That's a b-e-a-utiful striper you got there. You fishing the bay for those or you on one of the tidal rivers? Looks wide, so I'm assuming bay. I have wanted to go striper fishing FOREVER but I never get the chance to go and don't really have anyone to take me out on a boat for em'. At least anyone with an extent of great knowledge to put me on the fish. Good job again dude. Those bucketmouth are pretty sweet too. Good times!

No. Digi are the most accurate. Your better off just measuring the size by length and girth and using the bass calculator provided on the site if you plan on investing in a dingy spring loaded scale. Just mho. Rapala and Berkley make some good quality digi scales.

Dad, congrats on putting fish together during a tough low tide. Looks like you found out that area is productive in more ways than one though. Glad you at least got the confidence back in those spinnerbaits too. I told you that Terminator bait was money. Just have to be throwing it in the right situations. Anyway, talk to you later. Check your pms in about 5 minutes.

Still trying to find somebody to hit up the Rap with me Monday. If you are off or free, and up for fishing for bronzebacks somebody shoot me a pm or respond here.

Hey Nitro, The way these frogs run I wouldn't worry about the price. I've had the same one for over a year and it's still running strong after a couple of fish and plenty of time out on the water. Not my favorite, but it works good. I need to give it more time though. I rarely fish it because I'm more of a buzzbait and or strike king topwater type guy. But like I said, definately worth the investment. It's almost impossible to lose one of these frogs or get them hung up. Nice fish Simp, looks like a sweet hole you got there. I'll be the first guy to compliment the sunset shot.

Paul, nice seein' you out there buddy. Looks like all of us were in the same boat today (not literally) lol. Yup, tried many different baits today, fished primarily deeper water humps and points. Tried a few different areas with no luck really. Had one solid hookup but had my drag set too lightly and he came off after a very brief fight. Felt like a good fish though. Had a couple of other light pickups when I was working deeper structure but nothing to write home about. Tried out my new glup sinking minnows, some boo yah jigs, zoom curly tailed worms, and that was pretty much it. Sorry to hear about the leader breakin' on that one fish dude. Did you have him tangled up did it just break off during the fight? Thanks for the ideas you threw our way today bud. See you next time out.

He actually has 3 new episodes up on the website from this season if you guys haven't seen em' yet. I've seen em' all over 3 - 4 times and I'll watch em' another 100. It's a great show. Good job Mike D. I'm buying my first video camera next month for when our first child arrives, so maybe I can convince the wife to let me get some material on my dad's bass boat in our favorite topwater spot. I'll see what I can do. And guys... if you help him out here, guess what... that equals more material... that equals more shows lol. Good stuff! Curse of Lunkerville is my favorite recent one. Good smallie action on Lake Erie. Can't beat that.

I second the braid. I normally use 30lb High Performance Suffix or 30lb Spiderwire Braid. Braid floats and has no sink factor so that helps keep the bait up if it is moved at a slower speed. But these things are suppossed to be fished fairly quick, not like a cavitron, jitterbug, etc. I need to try that deeper rig you guys are talkin of. Sounds like it could pick up fish that are suspended in the water column. How slow can you fish this rig without losing action under water?

Hey Tokyo, good call my dad (Rondef) and I have had some good luck doing just that with some Terminator spinnerbaits. Some people wouldn't even attempt it in shallow water with emerging grass and pads, but they work like a charm if thrown correctly and burned across. You'd be surprised how nicely it rips right through hydrilla. I love the Terminators. Dad, nice fish. I may just trust you as far as going back out to that spot this weekend in the canoe. Rage Tail definately has made some nice products lately. I remember sitting on the couch in February and watching the previews for those baits, seeing the guys from Strike King fishing them tearing it up on every other cast. I have to say aside from Cavitron's buzzbaits these are some of the best products as far as topwater available on the market today. Useful for tourney fishermen and weekend warrior alike. Hey Nitro, you should head out with my dad man, I can tell you one thing, you will never wanna leave that spot once you get out there. Even when the fish are in a negative mood and the forecast is lookin' ify you can still manage 20 - 30 bites in a day. It's just a matter of hookin' up. Best topwater spot in Northern Virginia... period!

Hey stunt, couldn't help but notice your from the best state on the east coast for bass ;D... ok maybe that's a bit far fetched, but we got some great water for bass in Va. Whereabouts are you in Virginia anyway?!?!? If you are in central and or northern there are a ton of guys that post frequently in the southeast section of the forum. There are also lots of us always looking for regional fishing buddies, so keep an eye out. If you're ever in the Woodbridge/Dumfries area of Virginia hit me up and maybe we can head out together. I fish the Occoquan and Potomac by boat and typically wade the Rappahannock, James and Rapidan rivers. I also frequent a good many lakes and ponds in the area, so if you're ever looking for info or help as to waters around there hit me up.

I've caught rock bass in non tidal rivers on the same baits I use for smallies. Smaller sized jigs with craw trailers, rapala hard jerkbaits and tubes as well. They are fun to catch. I don't think there really is any stand out lure in your bass tackle that works exclusively for them but they do tend to be more so in slack pools kind of like largemouth. Haven't caught too many in the quicker current areas of faster moving rivers.

Thanks for all the great info Bass Pro. Where are all the pics of the pigs you've been catching this year? Or have you not had time with baseball and all that stuff? I should bring back that thread from last summer where you absolutely punished them up here lol. As always a great producer of information from the richmond area, thank god for this forum and the guys who get on from our region.

Hey Basspro. Thanks for that info dude. Last time up we fished the beginning of that hole because we saw some nice size schoolies swimmin' aound (2lbers easy) and staying along the outline of the rocks where we were. General rule though... we saw them, they probably saw us. They wouldn't hit ANYTHING. If you go across river like you are talking about and head over to the dam area how easy is it to navigate up that way? Can you actually walk across Williams island and fish that area up towards the Z Dam? Just curious.

Dad, let me see what night and or nights I draw next week (the 4th - the 8th). I'll let you know and whatever nights I have free we can try and make this happen on. I will know in a few hours and post here or give you a call. The person who does our schedule gets in at 12 today.

Dad, let me know what nights you were thinking about and I may try and meet you out at Leesylvania since it is right down the road from my place. Would be fun getting some top water action at the mouth of the creeks and in the bay areas. Especially Powells. I have fished from shore back there by the bridge on a low tide and there are some NICE mats and plenty of spadderdock within reach. Not to mention all the submerged pilings and wood we found on the bass boat. Like I said, just let me know and maybe I can get Steph's mom to occupy her for an evening. By "night fishing" what time were you thinking? Because I think Leesylvania locks the gate at sunset. Though we may be able to just put in at Neabsco and fish there too. You don't need a permit to night fish on the Potomac like the Occoquan do you?!?!?

Kevin man, we need to get out dude. You slay them up there with those senkos man. I need to get back into gear, last summer I killed them on those baits, then I turned to trying to learn spinners and other plastics and completely put the senkos on the pine pony for a while. I forgot how productive they could be. Great job out there dude. Hopefully we can hook up before my wife pops lol. I have a thread about Monday up in this section if you can finagle your way out of work. Don't have any dedicated people yet. Lemme know playa.

Haven't tried the toads yet but the legs kick similarly to another toad I use, the Sizmic Toad. Both are like a plastic buzzbait when retrieved slowly. Not as much actions as the shad, but it's more of a subtle movement. And they can be retrieved subsurface as Big-O stated. That is definately something I need to try more often with my topwater plastics, allowing them to twitch softly under the water after an explosion. Sounds like it could be worth trying. I think in our head as fishermen a lot of us have that mindset that when we see the explosion the fish should already have the bait. The hardest thing is it's just like fishing a crankbait or a plastic... you have to "feel the weight" before you swing for the fences. But it's preaching to the choir. We always state this. It's just something about seeing that explosion that gets your adrenaline pumping and makes you wanna react. I can definately state though that as a Strike King fanatic and after having trialed those Rage Tail Shad's time and time again that if fished correctly and in the right areas these can be one of the most productive baits out there. And while they are not "frogs" in a sense they have similarities. I will be trying out the Rage Tail frogs either tommorrow or this weekend with my dad (Rondef) as he has a bunch he's gonna let me check out since he swears by them now. I'll post here after I do with my findings and stuff.

Ours has dropped from 3.99 - 3.83 in the last week. Don't know bout' you guys, but... .16 x 12.5 (gallon tank) = $2.00 in savings per tank. That's almost 10 bucks for me each month. Another couple packs of plastics or a few crankbaits Plus it's still dropping each morning... see how long this trend lasts though. Heat of summer travel, can't see it happening for too long now.