DanMarino  11/21/2011 - 09:47  Trip Reports  Essays  Potomac    I hit my usual portion of the Potomac in the jet. Air temps were very comfortable and water temps were 46-47 degrees.

I'm trying to learn where the smallies go in the fall and I tried to focus on deeper water.

I found this 14 inch smallie. He hit a beetle spin with a curly tail grub on it. I lost two other fish on a tube and a fish bit the tail of the grub off.

It started raining and getting dark, so I called it a day.

DanMarino  10/06/2011 - 07:15  Trip Reports  Essays  Potomac    I've got a 4 day weekend and the weather is looking splendid for a change!!!!

Is anyone planning to hit the Potomac this weekend (October 7-10)?

The river looks like it's coming down from being up from last weekend's rain.

13

DanMarino  08/20/2011 - 22:18  Trip Tools  Essays  Impoundments    Today I was able to hit a local lake for a 1.5 hours in the afternoon with my daughter. It was a great time. The lake seemed in nice shape. There was weed growth in the shallower areas, but I was glad to see that it wasn't choked with weeds everywhere. We were the only people "on" the water. Some folks were fishing from shore, but didn't see any of them catching anything.

My daughter caught this largemouth bass on a gulp alive minnow.

saca123in  09/19/2010 - 00:17  Clopper  Essays    "Payday loans have turn out to be quite popular among employed Americans who are currently going through short term cashflow difficulties and desperately need money before next pay day. While these short-term payday loans bear a high interest rate with them, they are generally the best choice for consumers who need to pay other responsibilities like credit cards, rent/mortgages, vehicle payments, and bounced checks. All of these bills carry high late payment fees with them that can very easily be more costly than a finance charge on payday loans. Realizing where to find a legitimate payday loan company is very important as there are some lenders on the market who try to get advantages of worried customers.

REB9  01/09/2010 - 18:03  Trip Reports  Essays  Impoundments    I ventured out of the house yesterday and today looking for some hard water to drill some holes in. GREENBRIAR State Park was my first destination. I found the lake to be iced over with 6 inches of solid ice. Right near the State Park boat dock, open water was noted fed from the spring seep.

With my trusty ice flasher in tow, I drilled several holes and commenced to jiggin with maggots and a small tear-drop jig. The lake's bluegills were willing and I iced a dozen or so on Friday. Nothing big, but they were fun to catch. No trout.

Saturday around 1030A, I headed up to Greenbriar to find bluebird skies and 25 degrees. The fish were in a funk and hard to catch. I iced one greenie about 11 inches and a few bluegill. No trout again....

REB9  11/24/2009 - 19:23  Trip Reports  Essays  River    Started Thanksgiving vacation early this year. What to do, what to do? I know, head north to fish for some late fall smallies. I met Dave M. this morning and we headed north around 7:30AM. We were on the water around 9AM. Dreary, drizzle, low clouds, some rain mixed in. We started on the Western shore and Dave caught a nice 3 pound chunk. I plodded along and caught one on a teaser tube. We headed for the middle of the river working seam water in deeper areas. We kept picking up a fish here, a fish there, with no concentration of fish noted. We ended the day around 420PM with thirty nice fat smallies in the boat. Dave's first was the biggest of the day. We caught fish on jerkbaits, crankbaits and tubes.

TightLine  06/14/2009 - 10:47  Basics of Fishing Articles  Essays  Impoundments    As Duane and I were trying to locate the big fish that had apparently dissapeared, it got me thinking about the situation with which we were faced. When the wind and sun cooperated, the big fish were pulling up on the shallow flat just sunning themeselves. Beleive it or not, the fish were pre-spawners. We only saw one bed at the trophy lake, and all of the fish we caught were still full of eggs, and had no evidence of fanning the beds with their tails. These shallow fish were caught on poppers or twitch baits. They were in little pods of three to five fish together.

When conditions weren't quite as good, they seemed to be relating to the first or second drop off. A suspending jerk bait was deadly on these fish. There was emerging grass beginning at the first drop (6 ft) and continuing down to probably 15 ft. One day of our trip saw fish running baitfish (smelt, most likely) up against the first drop, usually a top water or slowly sinking bait (fluke) would do the trick on these actively feeding critters.

muskalungee  03/30/2009 - 15:36  Essays  Rod Building and Repair    I've been tossing ideas back and forth with DR all weekend. After some lengthy discussions, I've decided not to go with the marbling at all and I'm going to go with black thread with silver inlays. This is the exact same pattern I picked out for the thread around the guides. Man, I'm really excited at how this is coming together. DR has been absolutely awesome to work with. Check this out:

Muskalungeeeeee!
-Mike

muskalungee  03/28/2009 - 11:09  Essays  Rod Building and Repair   

Well, I finally pulled the trigger. I ordered my first Custom Rod. I did a lot of research and I decided I wanted to have it built by someone that I knew would do it right. So I chose to go with Duane Richards, otherwise known as "DR".

Now, the next question was what do I want? I figured that if I was going to get a custom rod, I wanted it to be custom right down to the color and design. So I wanted it to be my favorite color...orange. :D Duane helped me locate exactly the blank I was looking for, and we were able to find it in the super bright orange I was looking for. Typically, it has to be custom painted by the rod manufacturer (CTS Rods) and shipped from New Zealand, but DR was able to find a buddy that had one and he worked out a trade. Here's some pics of what we have going so far. The first picture is what I put together to see what it would all look like, the others are the font we're using for the decals and photos DR took of the rod blank.

No doubt, this rod is going to be unique...I can't wait. Now I just need a name for it...and NO IT WILL NOT BE CARROT STICK!
Muskalungeeee!
-Mike

REB9  02/16/2009 - 21:22  Trip Reports  Essays  River    Saturday morning found me wondering how to occupy my time before I needed to spend quality time with the wife for V-Day.... What to do, what to do?? Oh yeah, I have a boat, she was tweaked and itching to hit the river..... Water temp was looking real good at 42 degrees. POR gauge said just north of 3 feet.

I hit a local ramp at 10AM. Couple boats out on the water. River color was a nice greenish brown. Dropped the boat in the water and headed upriver. Glad I had my winter clothes and goggles! Throughout the day, I watched the water temp drop. She ended at 40.9 degrees by 3PM. Ended up catching a couple fish and didn't have any troubles with the equipment... All in all, a great way to start the year on the river! I think I got a nice picture of my first 2009 river fish.... Hopefully, I will be able to see it when I get the camera out of the boat.