Smallie on the Rappahanock

Coming Soon...

God Bless America- Froggin' on the 4th

It has been brought to my attention that I am not the best at this blogging thing.  So please forgive me that I do not update my blog after every time I go fishing.  I realize that this take a lot more time and energy that I was aware.  That being said I have been fishing a few times over the past few weeks with some pretty good outings.  I have fished a bunch of different ponds and had some decent success, but the best day I have had to date this summer came on the 4th of July.  I had the day off and talked to my fishing buddy Brandon and we decided to get up early and hit the water.  It has been a while since I had an early morning outing  most of my recent trips have been afternoon for a few hours because of schedule, so I was looking forward to some early morning top water action.  We headed to a location behind a friends house that for the time I am going to keep a "secret" so that I can get a few more times before the word gets out.  The day went well from the start. I was rigged up to fish lily pads with a top water frog and a 1 oz tungsten weight texas rigged sweet beaver.  We got on the water slightly before 6 am and went straight to the pads to work the frog.  It didn't take long to the get first bite and first bass in the boat. The first fish weighed in at 3.4 lbs and after the first 30 mins we had three bass in the boat.  The bite continued to be strong til about 8:30 am when Brandon caught a monster 7.86 lbs on top water.  Unfortunately, I had turn the camera off to save some battery and missed the bite and fight, but I can assure you that neither one of us will ever forget that fish.  As I stated, the bite slowed and we decided to work the shoreline and edge of the pads with soft plastics, chatter and spinner baits.  To our surprised not even a tap on anything.  We decided to head back to the lilies and see if we could get anything flipping into the heavy stuff, but nothing that way either.  So we both picked up the frog to see if we could get anything else and that is when I got my biggest of the year.  6.84 lbs on a topwater frog.  It was quite the rush to catch something that big on top water.  It is a little shy of my biggest bass but it was definitely the more memorable one.  For all of you that bass fish you know there is nothing like catching one on top water.  I finished the day with 5 bass and Brandon added 2.  As you will see in the video that we could have had a much better day but it is hard to get those bass out of that thick stuff.  It is a must to have the proper equipment when fishing heavy cover. However, the shear size of the two that we got in made it a more than awesome way to celebrate our independence.

As I stated earlier I did get some quality film from the trip but I didn't get all of it.  I am also new to editing and putting together videos so please bare with me as I learn this new skill.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBBlSB4wmW4

Playing Catch UP

I want to begin by apologizing to all of you out there that have taken the time to check my blog and been disappointed to find no new information.  I believe that I last left you prior to heading south for a bass trip in sunny Florida.  So I am going to try to catch you all up on the last month or so of what has been going on in my fishing exploits.

FLORIDA -
As stated before I took a trip with a couple of good buddies to South Florida to do some bass fishing.  The plan was to fish Okeechobee on Friday, a Private Peacock Bass pit on Saturday and the Everglades on Sunday.  It was to be an full weekend of nothing but fun fishing.  Unfortunately as is the case with any outdoor activity mother nature has to play her part.  She did not look down kindly upon us.  Friday was a wash.  A massive frontal system moved through early early Friday morning and severe thunderstorms and heavy rain canceled our trip.  I was bummed, as I was really looking forward to fishing the Big-O.  We did get to head out to fish for peacock bass and large mouth on Saturday.  The weather from the day before again played a role in our success.  Peacock bass like warm water.  One of the reasons that the only place in the USA you will find them is South Florida.  They are aggressive reaction strike fish, that prefer water temperatures north of 75 degrees.  When we launched the boat the water temp was 70.  Just the weekend before the guide told us the water temp was near 79-80.  This drastic change in the water temperature made the fishing slower than we had hoped.  However we did catch fish.  I landed 2 peacocks and 3 largemouth in about 9 hours of fishing.  As a group we ended up with 8 peacocks and about 10 largemouth.  I fished primarily top water, a zara spook. But also threw a jerk bait, spinner bait and poppar.

 Sunday we headed out to the never ending Everglade water ways.  The channel we fished may have been 100 yards wide and went on as far as your eye could see.  We switched up from mostly fast reaction strike fishing to slower soft plastics, jigs, flipping and pitching.  The occasionally spinner and chatter baits and a frog in the morning.  We caught a lot of fish.  Too many to count.  Most of them were small but it was still a blast.  This was a lot my first real attempt at flipping lilies and grass, which too some time to learn but was great in the end.

At the end of the trip my shoulder, wrist, and hand were sore from fishing for 18+ hours over the course of two days.  But it left me hungry for more fishing and wanting to go back down when mother nature could cooperate with us.  We came to find out that was the first rain they had in the area for 40+ days.  Just our luck.  Our guides were great.  They put us on fish and made sure that we had an enjoyable time.  We booked through Bassonline.com for anyone that was thinking about the trip.  It was affordable and fun. I highly recommend it.

LATE APRIL EARLY MAY -
This is a really busy time of year for me with work.  I came back from Florida and hit the ground running with work.  I work in landscaping and since spring wanted to delay its arrival for as long as possible, when it showed up it seems everything grew over night.  That being said I have not had the opportunity to do as much fishing as I would have liked.  I have only been able to take the boat out once.  All my other trips have been an hour here or there bank fishing on some local ponds.  I have had luck on soft plastics texas rigged.  I have also had some luck catching a few spawning bass.  My buddy and I had a really good day out on the boat the one time we took it out.  He landed 9 I landed 6 all but 3 of them were over 2 lbs.  I am not sure if it was the pond we fished, the moon phases, or just one of those days but I hope to have many more like it.  I posted some pictures below of some of the fish I have caught over the last few weeks.  Since I am trying to play catch up I am not going to go into too many details.  I do plan on being better with my post.  I apologize for my little break.

Thanks for taking the time to read.  Until next time....

Whatever it takes

This weekend was my last real chance to get some fishing in before headed to South Florida on Thursday for  my long awaited trip. The plan was to hit it hard on Saturday and pray the rain held out on Sunday to get some more fishing done.  Saturday was a struggle.  I bounced around to multiple different ponds trying to find some bass.  The conditions seemed right.  The air temperature was in low 60's, the sun was out, the wind was reasonable.  I tried quite a few places that I have had success in the past.  After about 4 hours of fishing with out a bite, I did something that I rarely ever do.  I resorted to fishing shiners   Even after about an hour of fishing with live bait and still not a bite to show for it, I packed up to try one last spot.  Finally a little success.  Even though I call it cheating, it was nice to land a few fish.  One nice pickerel broke the ice, next was a 4.2lb large-mouth, and one more dink to call it a day. Sunday did not look to promising.  Walking out of Easter Sunday service the rain was coming down and I thought the day would be wash.  Around 2pm the weather cleared up and I decided to give it a shot.  I loaded up the boat with my dad and head down to Beggars Bridge Creek.  The water was up, muddy and visibility was maybe 8 inches. The water temperature stayed 55 degrees pretty much throw out the creek.  Sunday turned in a big skunk for me and my dad.  We threw everything we could think of in varying colors: beetle spins, jerk bait, jigs, etc. All in all this will most likely be my last trip before boarding a plane and heading south.  My next post should be full of excitement as I hope to have a great 3 days fishing. One day on Okeechobee, one day in the Everglades, and one day fishing for Peacock bass.  I did take the GoPro out on Saturday and am still learning what angles to shoot.  After watching the footage I need some work, but hope to have a small video up from Saturday before I leave.

Until next time....

It was a GOOD Friday

I have been itching all week to get out and do a little fishing.  With less than one week before my first bass fishing vacation, all I can do is think about fishing. I got off work a little early on Friday and decided to see what I could find.  I grabbed my rod and  headed out.  The weather yesterday seem favorable, the sun was shining, the air temperature was mid 50's and the wind was calming as the day went on.  At days end I landed 3 bass, missed one more when he let it go before I could set the hook. The bass weighed in at 1.9, 1.8, and 2.5.  Not a bad afternoon. All the activity happened in a 45 minute stretch between 345 and 430.  The bait of the day ended up being a black with blue fleck Verticle X.  This has been the go to bait so far this spring for me.  I am leaving out as soon as I finish writing this and hope to have more fishin' stories to tell.

Let the Season Begin

After two full months of weekend trips fishing here there and every where, with out so much as a bite, I finally landed a few nice bass. The day did not turn out at all like I would have planned, however at the end of the day you will here no complaints from me. The plan was to do some pond fishing in the morning before heading out to coach soccer. The weather all week sounded promising high if 65 with chance of afternoon showers. Boy did they get it wrong. The showers came about 915. Just as we arrived at our destination. This sent me back home with only frustration for never getting a fair shot at it. Just as the rain died off my dad asked if I wanted to wet a line in the retention pond at the front of the neighborhood. What could it hurt? 25 minutes and 4.8 lbs later I was a happy camper. As much as I love fishing, catching fish is so much more fun. The day didn't stop there. After coaching two games and perfect afternoon weather I decided to head back to the pond from this morning to give it a shot. An hour and 2 bass later I called it a day. It was good to finally set the hook into something other than a tree limb. It also was my first bass on my new rod and reel. I recently became the proud owner of a Quantum Smoke bait caster place on a Dobyns Savvy 7' medium heavy rod. All my fishing today was with a creature x green with red fleck.

Below you will find a few photos of today's adventure.
Soon I hope to adding video from my newly purchased gopro camera.

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

Richmond Fishing Expo 

January 25, 2013 I rose early, battled the icy roads to pick up my dad and head to Richmond to take a trip down memory lane.  Years ago when I was just a boy, my dad used to take me to a little event know as the Bass-o-Rama.  I remember it as a giant event filled with millions of goodies: boats to climb in and on, jerky to eat, fishing tackle to look at, and everything you could want as a young boy and soon to be fishing enthusiast.  I was young and just like any other boy wanted to be out of the house in January.  Now as an adult ventured to a similar event with I think even great excitement.  We set out for Doswell, VA to the Farm Bureau State Fair Grounds.  The just under two hour ride up was filled with old stories, memories, great conversations and plenty of anticipation for what the next 5+ hours would hold.  While the event was not the same as the one I attended in my youth, it was still a good opportunity to see a lot fishing resources under one roof.  I think this is an event that I would like to see expanded in size and vendors, there was a good amount of knowledge to be had.  It took us about 45 minutes to just walk through the local and browse the vendor stations.  Of course I had to see it all first before diving into what had found my eye.  I picked up a few new lures that I am very excited to get out in the water and test.  I will be posting more on them as I use them and see what kind of return they yield.  The insightful part for me was sitting in on a few of the seminars (which I never did as a kid).   We sat through a great hour long discussions of fishing soft plastics.  It was a great setting.  About 8 people including my dad and I sat in close quarters and really had a discussion with the pro, as opposed to a lecture. He had some great tips on selecting the right plastic based on water color, clarity, temperature and time of year.  Over all I had another memorable trip.  It was a great day reversing the roles and taking my dad somewhere he took me as a kid, a huge grateful thank you to the man who has taught me about more than just fishing.  Thanks to the weather in our great city it has been a few weeks since I have been out, and that itch is getting greater with every day that passes.  Spring can’t come soon enough.

Until next time….