JCrzy4Bass

Simon, just keep me posted dude. It's the same spot you, me, my dad, Andrew and Andy went last year walking the shore looking for bank spots. I know you know how to find it/get there so I'm not worried if you give me a last minute holler. Just keep me updated buddy. Would definately be cool to have you out there though. The 2+lb smallie killas!

Thanks Sam, couldn't remember the numbers!

Haha Rich. Yea man I have heard countless stories from guys on here just like that. Crazy stuff man. I dunno... it's like I know I'm gonna be a little upset about having to cut back so much, but that doesn't even come close to the anxiety and excitement I'm feeling about having my first son man. It's gonna be awesome. If I'm half the dad that my dad was to me, that kid is gonna be one spoiled bundle man. I appreciate the heads up dude. I figure it's better to be safe and make sure I'm around. I'll never be able to live it down if I'm not. My wife can't wait. Fishing sure can. I have a ton of years ahead of me to really get out there, and someday take my son along with me. I'll still get out every now and then on my dad's canoe and bass boat for a couple hours on the weekends, but family is gonna be first. Thanks for the info Vabasser. That was awesome of you. Hopefully someone chimes in about headed out with me. Later fellas.

Hey smallie, sorry I was late on this. Out of town this past weekend. Basspro is the genius at this place but I haven't seen him on in forever. I do have a full report on the day my dad and I went out earlier this summer, but who knows if the fish are in the same kind of patterns as they were then. Although it was a pretty usual summer pattern. We had just found the strongest current and fished the more slack pools behind, not in front of the boulders. Typically anywhere their were large boulders with current passing through were good options. We would stand behind those boulders and away 20 -30 yards casting to the outside of the sweeping current and or near the boulders where the slack water was. Most of our fish were caught like this. Just be ready for anything out there, wear a pfd. The current can get really strong in some areas and the pools can get deep remarkably quick. It's always good to have someone with you. If you follow the link in my profile to my blog, there are quite a few summer report/smallmouth outings. You can probably piece together information from those and apply some of it to other locations. I have pretty much used the same 3 - 4 smallie lures all year and had tremendous success on them. Let me know if you wanna get out sometime. I have a thread about August 4th in the south east section if any of you guys wanna join me on the Rap for some wading.

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you guys know that my fishing is going to be coming to a close shortly in the next couple of weeks except for some days that I work nights. My wife will be delivering our first child mid-september and I'm gonna have to start being around a lot more often at home and kind of be ready to go. So this will be one of my last days off before the arrival date and I decided I wanted to spend it doing what I love, wading on the Rappahannock for smallies. But this time instead of going out of Falls Hill Ave, I'm gonna drive a few extra miles to the put in by Motts Run Rez and get in the water at River Rd. I plan on fishing from about 7am until about 3:30pm and wading about 2 miles or so throughout the day depending on how hard it is to find the nicer pools. I'm looking for some of the die hard waders to head out there and hoping some of my good friends on here or guys I haven't yet been able to get together with are interested. I've had good smallie outings all year and I've got a few other guys on some decent fish. This hole will be new to me but I'm pretty good at figuring things out on this river and like to think I know what to look for here. If anyone is interested in heading out with me, whether it be meeting up in Dumfries at my place and driving down, or meeting in Fredericksburg that would be awesome. Let me know fellas. If you need my contact info pm me and I can give you my cell. My email should be on my profile. Hope to hear from some of you soon.

White spinners = yes To emphasize on Jivey and Nitros posts: Downsize your lures for the given conditions. In clear water generally I would use a 1/8 - 1/4oz spinner. With slightly stained maybe push it up to 3/8oz. As you increase spinner size, you increase blade size (generally... unless you custom config your spinners). The larger the blade, the more vibration. Clear water you want just enough to help em' home in. Stick to chrome colored blades instead of gold. The key presentation you are trying to make in clearer water is more of a baitfish presentation, you want to be relating to any feeding activity. Find pods of bait (shad, minnows, etc) and or surface activity if any. Couple more pointers. You may want to see if you can locate slightly more stained water anywhere on the lake. Sometimes even a slight change like that can make things pick up. Runoff areas are a good choice if there are any, if not try and locate clay banks that form bars, points, or any other type of "structure". As far as cranks I like simple colors in clear water (blue, gray, white, silver or anything natural looking). I prefer shallow running Mann's Minus One series cranks, hard jerk baits like rapala originals or berkley frenzy minnows, and Bandit series 200 cranks for deeper applications. This pretty much covers a lot of the water column.

I hate you dude lol. Your schedule NEVER coincides with mine. Maybe one day next month. Hope you hook up dude. Tight lines.

DON-KEY!!! Hee HAWWW HEE HAWWW! Sorry no donkey icon. ;D Nice fish man!

Thanks for the tip guys. I wish I lived near BPS but it's a 45 minute drive minimum. I may just make the trip and pick up some tackle while I am there though and try and see if they won't fix it. That would be sweet cause I really like this rod and have been using it exclusively for plastics and jigs since last summer. Hopefully I can get it taken care of. I'll let you guys know what happens.

If no one is available on the 30th, I have the day off the following monday (8/4) if anyone is interested in heading out. Let me know. I'm thinking of either using this day to wade the rappahannock at River Rd (near Mott's Run) and or wade the Rapidan. Full day of smallies. Dan, I know you said you wanted to do it before you headed back to school. Let me know if you can't get out this day. Offer stands for everyone else too though.

Hey Sam, just a piece of advice. Some guys like the 5' hook. 3 is definately too small, but 4' is where it is at. You get the best tail action with the 4 because the 5 sits too close to the tail in most instances and hinders the ability a bit. Just in cases that I have seen though. If your getting the action you want, don't change a thing. I can't remember if the guys in the Strike King video on their site use a 4' or a 5'. But I think they also preach 4's. Could be mistaken. Either way I'm sure it's not a HUGE hinderance to the bait's ability. Plus side of the five is it probably gives you a bit more room for error or a slight better hook up ratio. Never used it though... just heard things from guys who have. Post pics when you catch that first hawg!

::packs bags for Radford::, see you guys later lol ;D Seriously though, wow the coloration on that smallie is amazing. The whole time my sister was down there for college I had SOOOOO many opportunities to fish that area. Myself Are you referring to the park down by the soccer fields once you go down the road with all the dorms on it??? It looks real pretty down there. Is that specific area wadeable? Might not be worth the 3 hour + drive, but if I can find somewhere to stay for a night... hmmmm lol. Have to wait til' after the wife delivers though and make it a "family trip" or "quality time" fishing with the family lol.

Hey guys. I use 30lb Spiderwire Braid when I don't have the money for Suffix High Performance. I use it on a medium action IMG Series Bass Pro Shop rod, which is a step under from the tourney specials. I have used it ALL year with no problems. I have caught my fair share of 3+ lbers on this thing and today it finally gave out. I had my rod tip lose a chunk/chip on me and it started to fray my line and you can see where it got wore down and had the bit fall off. It's not broken but the sound is annoying as heck and it CAN't be good for my line. So is there any "quality" type repair I can make for this thing or should I just suck it up and buy a new rod? I need it fixed or my new rod here before next week cause I have a couple outings planned with friends and my dad. I think this happend when I tightened my drag beyond where I knew it should be for the rating of this rod. I have been fishing thick muck and grass and to pull the bass out and up I need it pretty set pretty tight (shore fishing). Any advice? Should I bite the bullet and order a better quality rod that can take more pressure on the rod guides?

Hey guys I know I have a couple of normal readers so I just wanted to let ya'll know I updated with pics and two new entries today regarding my last outings at Occoquan Regional and Lake Mercer. Links in the profile. Caught a nice chunk at Mercer and I learned you CAN fish the extreme low tide at Occoquan and be successful if you find the right spot. If anyone wants to get out my next trip is gonna be on Wednesday of next week. I work nights so I am gonna fish from about 6am until 11:30am or so. No boat so it's bank fishing for me. Thinking of fishing a small pond I know of around the Lorton area and possibly hitting Fort Belvoir depending on the Potomac River tide chart (no permit needed), I know of some good river shore fishing for a nice stretch here if anyone is interested. It's considered "Accotink Bay". Let me know fellas. Could be a good time and we could snag some nice fish.

Paul man, those are some chunks buddy. Good job out there. Next time my dad and I go out to either the Occoquan or Potomac River I want to spend some time working on my deep game because I am pretty horrible at it and I know if you can find those summer haunts on the right structure and so forth you can find the quality size fish. I am definately jealous man. I got a few 3 lb chunks as of late and some 2+ smallies... but nothin' NEAR that big. Keep learning that spot man, soon you're gonna be the go to guy for knowledge at that place (if you aren't already) Great job Paul!

Andrew, I know you normally carry multiple rods. One thing I need to start remembering to do when the topwater bite is like this and you are missing strikes is to have your follow up lure ready. I just read an article out of this months FLW magazine and it said that a lot of the guys on tour have some type of creature bait rigged up with a small tungsten sinker like 1/16 to 1/8oz. The reason is because of the way these things fall through the water. You will still get a nice slow fall but it will be quick enough to manage some reaction strikes. They recommended one of the sweet beaver type baits with a large tail. Also a sinking worm works well. Alot of guys are now switching to that powerbait sinking minnow lure as oppossed to other stick bait type worms. They are expecting the "food" to still be in the area after they hit it the first time. They are essentially trying to kill the bait and or injure it as they consider anything on the topwater like a frog to be a "rodent" (duck, bird, small mammal) type meal. Some of the strikes are so aggressive though that they do try and gulp that thing down in one swoop. Biggest thing is just to always be in contact with the lure. Topwater is definately addicting once you've started catching fish like that big one you got there. Good job out there.

No shade whatsoever... I know, I was kinda surprised too. Actually the glare from the sun on the water was actually worse than midday as the sun was going down. If other things are in place aside from normal summer patterns the fish will be there. This was just one of those cases.

Hey Simon. If you are interested in hitting somewhere up here I can put you at a great spot down on one of the marine bases. Only prob is you need to pick up a year pass first. I can get you all the info if you are interested. My dad have been killing it out there in our canoe this year. Best topwater spot in Nova, period. Topwater ALL day. Frog and Buzzbait heaven. Even if you wanna hit it some other time let me know and I can get you all the info you need.

Got off work a bit early yesterday and fished over at Occoquan for about an hour. The tide was so low I could walk out about 20 feet further than usual. Lowest point of the day. Didn't expect much action until I saw the bass in the shallow 1-2 foot range right beyond the grass mats busting shad and minnows like crazy. I tried a Spro frog over the mats for a good 20 minutes with only one pop, but no takers. Then I tried a buzzbait for another 20 or so and got no hits. Lastly I tied on a jig. That about did the trick. I was using a Boo Yah A-Jig w/ a Large Yum Chunk trailer both in green pumpkin type colors. The first bass was finicky with it and kept tugging at the trailer until the third or fourth time when my line took off with it. I got him right in the corner of the mouth. The second one just picked it up right off the edge of a mat in the deeper area (3-4 feet at this time) where the ground began to taper off. When I saw my line slowly moving I knew he was on and holding the bait, so I set the hook. He was a better chunk at 2lbs even. I don't normally write up on small outings like this but I found it interesting that these bass were up so shallow busting bait. The only reason I can see for it is the location because there is a small drainage creek right beside the bar where minnows bunch up, this combined with the hydrilla around the shoreline edge (first 2 -3 feet really thick) makes for a nice spot. There was one bass boat working the edge of the bar that was out about 50 - 75 yards from shore, but I didn't see him pull anything up while he was there. When I got home I pulled out my new FLW magazine and sure enough it had a great article on this how a lot of guys are afraid to cover water like this because they pound that deeper structure adjacent to current, points, cuts, so forth. While that is productive as it gets, don't forget that if you find the right spot fishing shallow for summer bass can still pay off. Always important though... the right lure and the most accurate presentation will get you the fish. Also you have to be spot on as far as your pitches are concerned in most cases, ESPECIALLY in the clearer water as the fish spook easier in these types of conditions. Cast beyond the feeding and or adjacent, but not INTO the particular hole. Be in the fishes "world" so to speak, but don't cast right on top of them. Bring it in slowly. Just a reminder for all you bank fishermen out there tossing to the middle of your pond or casting like hercules to reach the deep depths at your home lake. I'll have pics of the chunk tommorrow morning.

Rock bass are fun to catch. I've caught them on jigs at the Rappahannock and cranks on the Rap as well. Their just so different than a largemouth and smallmouth. It's always a nice surprise to nab one in between all the other bass you catch. Anyway, at least you and your son got out and had fun. Honestly those sunsets make my day. They just are a nice sight at the end of a long day and make you remember how nice it is just to be on the water and enjoy nature. Cherish those moments as family out there on the water. I know that I remember every time out with Dad as I know we will only have so many trips together now between my wife almost at full term with our first child and our jobs and stuff. As you get out there more and more the fish will follow. Another lure you should pick up for the smallmouth fishing (also available at Walmart.. the one I go to is off route one as you approach Dumfries) is the "Joe's Flies" inline spinner. It's different than the Mepps spinner. It has two different colored hair tails tied on and has an extra single hook above the treble for increased hookup. They range in size too. Some for pannies and other for bass. I use the 1/4oz for bronzebacks. Both fish around the two pound mark came off that last time I was out. Cheap lures too. 2.50 a pop I think.

Dan, I was pretty generic in my blog. I don't think many people can get the spot as I didn't say where the launch was and or what part of the river it was on. I can if you'd like take out the part about the actual name of the river. Let me know through pm. But like I said, I haven't told anybody but the two people I brought (Simon and my buddy Eric from the forum here "skmafia23"). The only other thing is I will hold this spot and bite my tongue... ONLY if you get out and fish it with me dagnabbit!!!! j/k bud! But we do need to get out again soon.

How far we talkin' Robby? Are there any smallmouth here? Is it in the city or outskirts. Off of what road?

Hey Rick, I'm not the type to sneak on. If it says private it's a no go for me. Unfortunately the reunion got moved 20 30 minutes away here in ebensburg. I got some good info from speedbead and will be shore fishing at Lake Ruwane for 3 - 4 hours one morning next weekend. Got some good info on it as well as far as what to throw and where to work. If anyone else has info on Lake Rowena and or has fished it recently please let me know. Plan on bringing some topwater basics like Buzzbaits, rage tail shads, sizmic toads. Also bringing up some senkos, jigs, and a couple key spinnerbaits.

Rick, I always check. Can't find any info online so I may need to drive there and check it out. That sucks about them being private, reminds me of my area in va. Every pond here is privatized by the county. Retarded. Anyway, thanks for the heads up though.

Anyone around here? I found out I will be staying one night a couple roads away from the "City Reservoir" and plan on fishing it on a Sunday morning. Can't find any info about this online. Is there shore fishing? What kind of fish am I looking at? Looks like a huge reservoir. There looks like there is an access road so I'd imagine you can fish some areas from the parking lot. Can't get a close up satellite view so I don't know about it's surroundings. Any help would be appreciated. It's in Cambria County.