Tuckahoe Creek

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My buddy Charles has been studying all during his Spring break, and he wanted to do some fishing today.  He hasn't been kayak fishing before, so I wanted to go somewhere that was a nice easy paddle with a high chance of catching fish.  I settled on going back to Tuckahoe Creek in Hillsboro for some yellow perch, crappie, or catfish.

First time taking both boats out at once!

Today was supposed to start out cold and warm up in the afternoon, so we weren't really in a hurry to get to the creek today.  We arrived at the boat ramp around 11:30AM and took our time getting ready.  We probably got on the water around noon to some light winds and decently warm temperatures.

A nice, quiet place.

We made our way upstream to where I had some success last year, but I was disappointed to see that the shoreline had changed a bit since then.  There were more downed trees, and the water seemed shallower than what I remembered.  Anyway, we sent down some live minnows on circle hooks for a while without so much as a nibble.  We spent pretty much the next 3 hours just paddling around and trying different spots without much success.  I was the only one to hook up today, with a 9.5" yellow perch that came home for dinner - it was barely enough for everyone in the family to taste it.  We also saw 2 other boats out there (1 jon boat and 1 canoe).  Neither of them were getting many bites today, so it seems the fish just weren't too active today.  My guess is that the water was still too cold...maybe in a couple more weeks the fishing should pick up here.

This was the clearest water I have paddled in this year.

Still, it was a good time of catching up with Charles during the 1 hour trip to and from Hillsboro, and he enjoyed his first kayak fishing  trip (though he almost turtled).

Charles doing some shore fishing after.