Surface lure- pretty good!

[Michael Stockelman]

My go-to spot these days is Four Mile Run in Northern Virginia. On the days we've had warm weather, I've been there to see what I can do. The last couple times I saw a lot of fish breaking the surface, so I tried a Hula Popper last time. I saw lots of fish take a swipe at it, but none of them hooked up.

Then I saw this little foam spider at the store- very lightweight, and fairly realistic. I finally got over there again to try it, and boom. I rigged it up in a float-and-fly type configuration, tipped with red worm. The float I have lets you add water to it to adjust buoyancy. I had used the float-and-fly with the popper, and got as many passes at the bobber as the bait, so this time I put in enough water to almost sink the bobber.

The hits at the spider were pretty good. The first two catches, which I've posted, hooked up very cleanly. The next two gulped it down and I needed forceps to get it back. The difference seemed to be that the ones who took the bait as soon as it landed swallowed, but for the ones that took it on the retrieve, I was able to get a good hook set.

I also had live bait on the bottom, with heavy weight, angling for catfish. Small guys kept ringing my bells and stealing my bait. When I closed shop and reeled in the last time, there was a bluegill on the bottom rig that had probably been there an hour waiting for me to notice him.