Tackling Your Tackle!
Start with restocking hooks and weights. Hook style, shape and size need to be stocked according to use. Weights to cover all techniques are needed too. Some techniques have earned their own boxes.  The great offer on the ORIGINAL Silver Buddy directly from the originator, Buddy Banks has been extended. (CHECK out the full REPORT and JANUARY forecast.) Get a 20% discount on Mustad hooks at https://mustad-fishing.com, code NATIONALBASS20 at checkout. Website nationalbass.com has hundreds of articles, tips and videos!  Share this weekly report with friends. They can sign up too.

• Ike TELETHON with auctions on SUNDAY January 31
• Is LiveScope for real? Read before you buy.
• Holiday Gifts for ANGLERS!
• FOX Sports to air BASS Elite Series
• Weedless Underspin from Gamakatsu!
• The best fishing gear, AFTCO, going IKE!
• Finally a weedless Ned head.
• Massive Potomac River fish structure project being planned.
• Wooden crank baits for fall from Bagley’s
• Tackle storage for any size and shape! New Gamakatsu G-Box
• New Z-Man drop shot bait, close to LIVE!
• Aqua-VU has a new pole to make underwater viewing more precise.
• Filtering through internet gaga!
• Why you should have spinning gear in your bass lineup.
• IKE goes KAYAK check out how he did in his first tournament.
• Filtering through internet gaga!
• Keep a log for better fishing results!
• VA, MD and DC working to manage the POTOMAC…together!
• 3 critical things to consider before buying boat insurance!
• Are Potomac catfish safe to eat?
• Learn how to boat, the right and safe way!
• Robert Montgomery’s latest book, awesome bass fishing tips…KICKIN’ BASS
• Is UV a bright move for soft plastics?

8.4 pounds on a Silver Buddy in 50 degree water.

Thanks to everyone who inquired about our 24th Annual St Jude Children’s Hospital event postponed by COVID.  See you next year 2021, last Friday in July. Contact Russ Shetley bassman891@aol.com

Capt. Steve Chaconas, Potomac River bass fishing guide.
For Potomac River reports: nationalbass.com.
Book trips/purchase gift certificates: 703 380 7119 or  info@NationalBass.com.

INFORMATION & VIDEOS

ARTICLES

• Make your own skirts to customize lures.
• Build custom buzz baits, here’s how.
• Clean reel bearings and increase casting performance.
• The best tool for retrieving lures snagged in fishing line.
• Make your own skirts to customize lures.
• JIKA rigs are great for deeper bass.
• Power Poles are a great tool any time of the year.
• A Tidal Tutorial…TIPS, TECHNIQUES and TACTICS.
• Old school lures for year-round deep water bassing.
• Fishing is no JOKE?
• Crankbait has a broken lip? No problem!
• Learning the geometry of fishing? A simple step by step plan to increase fishing success.
• Modify RED hooks for every more bites!
• Make a great lure retriever.
• Is it safe to eat blue cats from the Potomac?
• Tips for dressing for the cold.
• Tidal fishing tips….PART 2.
• Tidal fishing tips….PART 1.

VIDEOS

• Split shot rigs are great when the bite is tough.
• Good time to Carolina Rig! Here’s how! 
• Basic reel maintenance.
• Bruce Ingram’s BASSMASTER article where he reveals all of my drop shot tips! Here’s how I use drop shot rigs, from tying to tackle and technique! Works year round!
• Check out my NEW instructional casting videos…baitcasting reels and spinning reels!
  Directed by Jack Eyler! Pitching a spinning reel is easy…to learn and to teach.
• Tips for taking care of fish when caught.

SHOWS
Contact us with your shows and flea markets to be promoted here!  info@nationalbass.com

• POSTPONED! The 24th Annual St. Jude Children’s Hospital TEAM Tournament raised $5000 last year will not take place due to the coronavirus closure! Thanks to all…please sign up for future announcements. Register for the JULY, 2021 event by contacting Russ Shetley, bassman891@aol.com

NEWS & INFORMATION

• You asked for it, Little John cranks now rattle!
• Snakeheads are great to eat, but are they good for you to eat?
• Boating Safety Tips
• Using NEW CULLING clips and rules.
• World Record Snakehead
• What happens to bass caught in tournaments?
• Shimano’s Award-winning Curado ‘Digital Control’ Reels
• AFTCO’s New Line of Women’s Fishing Clothing
• Safe and effective kayak PFDs.

ANGLING TIPS

• Recycle soft plastics into ready to use effective lures.
• Make your own rod sleeves.
• Adding weed guards to hooks.
• Building a buzzbait.
• Make factory injection soft plastics.
• Painting with powder.
• Easy to make weedless hooks.
• Lures are expensive, get yours back with a plug knocker you can make.
• Swim jigs are great on the Potomac River…here’s how to fish them.
• Making weedless wacky hooks.
• Getting tackle ready? Tips to get tackle boxes in tip top shape. Save money on old lures.
• JIKA RIG, a beefed up shaky head/dropshot.
• Tips for crankbait fishing.

LICENSING & REGULATIONS

• BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water offers 33 state courses online  – good for proof of a boating safety certificate – at absolutely no cost. BoatUS has a fun look at boating safety in this :60 infomercial to be run on late-night television that urges boaters to take a free BoatUS Foundation state online boating safety course, with pitchman “Crazy Eddie” BoatUS Foundation Assistant Director of Boating Safety, Ted Sensenbrenner. ALL Virginia boaters need a boater safety course! FREE ONLINE state approved boater safety courses for Virginia, DC and Maryland boaters! Check our website for full info on BoatUS. Here is the Virginia requirement.

Robert Montgomery is celebrating 30 years as the premier conservation writer on the planet. And there’s a softer side of this hard journalist!  If you like light and humorous reading that is also thoughtful and provocative, please check out the books of essays and short stories written by my friend, Robert U. Montgomery. The subjects are growing up during a simpler time, lessons learned from nature, and why people go fishing.

1. Under the Bed: Tales From an Innocent Childhood.
2. Fish, Frogs, and Fireflies: Growing Up With Nature.
3. Why We Fish: Reel Wisdom From Real Fishermen.

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as from the publisher, NorLights Press. Electronic versions are about half the price. For more, check out Robert U. Montgomery’s author page at Amazon.

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