Black Friday Fishing

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Black Friday shopping is overrated...I'd rather be fishing.  My wife was kind enough to let me go out fishing the day after Thanksgiving this year.  My in-laws were in town once again, so I tried to keep the tradition going of catching dinner for the family.  Some places I had in mind this time included: the hot ditch on the Elizabeth River for some speckled trout, the Occoquan River for some crappie (and also for some recon fishing in preparation for the Maryland Kayak Fishing Meet & Greet I'm hosting in a couple weeks), the Wilson Bridge for some blue catfish, or the South River for some striped bass.  I would have liked to fish the Occoquan because I don't think I'll have time to fish it between now and the Meet & Greet, but with all the rain and winds that we had this week I knew the water would be muddy and low....not good for crappie fishing.  Well, my wife and kids liked blue catfish the last time I brought some home, so I figured the Wilson Bridge would probably be best since it's also the closest to home.

I met Ryan at Jones Point Park at 7:30AM and we quickly rigged our kayaks to launch on the free kayak launch that is there.  I took my camera out to take a picture of the launch area and was greeted with a "no battery charge" message on my screen.  Doh!  If you have no charge, how are you showing me that message???  Well, because of my dead camera, this post will not have any pictures.  Anyway, as soon as I started paddling around on the water, I could see tons of big marks on my fish finder.  The catfish must be everywhere around that bridge!

Well, I tucked behind the first wall from shore to hide from the current and got set up to do some bottom fishing with shrimp, spot and squid.  I have read that raw chicken breast works really well for blue catfish at the Wilson Bridge, but I wanted to get rid of some of these other baits that I had in the freezer from previous trips.  I assumed anything with a strong odor should work, as I always see Jeremy Wade on River Monsters using the smelliest, raunchiest baits for catfish.  Ryan had some more interesting offerings for the fish with chicken breast, and some other secret baits that were equally weird.

I started out by using some cooked shrimp that had worked for croaker in the summer, but as I waited for a nibble, Ryan managed to pull up 2 healthy blue catfish on his baits.  I had hope I could keep my hands and boat clean by using the shrimp, but it was apparent that I needed to get my hands dirty and switch tactics.  I pulled out my frozen spot and cut it up for bait.  Within the first few minutes I landed the first fish of the day - a healthy 22 incher!  Into the cooler he went, and I continued to fish for some more of his brothers and sisters.  The catching wasn't hot and steady, but I did manage to catch about 5 to take home for dinner, and a couple throwbacks that were too big for my liking.

At one point I tried checking out the other side of the bridge, because that was the side that the current was hitting.  Maybe the bite might be hotter there due to the stuff the current would carry toward the fish.  The wind and current were pretty strong, which made it hard to stay still and fish.  The next time I fish the Wilson Bridge, I'll have to remember to take something that I can use to attach to the holes in the walls to stay put.

Around noon Ryan and I decided to check out a warm water discharge in front of the DC water treatment plant to see if any striped bass were around.  We paddled against the wind toward the plant, and wandered around looking for the warm water discharge.  Having never fished there before (or any other warm water discharge) I had no idea what to look for.  However, during my paddle over, I saw what looked to be a fishing boat in the distance.  I just made a B-line to where they were and fought hard to ignore the bad stench in the air.  I eventually got there and found a pretty interesting site.  I could see the water churning a little differently from the rest of the river, and the water was crystal clear around the discharge area.  At one point I saw several schools of fish swimming under my boat - unfortunately the only ones I could make out were orange and goldfish-looking.  Not what we were looking for.

I called Ryan over, and he jigged around to see if he could catch anything, but nothing was biting.  Also, I didn't see any fish arches on my depth finder.  I don't know if it was because of the churning water or something, but my fish finder was acting up where it wasn't giving me accurate depth readings, and the temperature reading also went berserk.  I just paddled around looking for any signs of fish, but didn't see any after the school of goldfish that swam by.  I remember admiring how clear the water was around the warm water discharge, and could see the areas where the murky river water met the warmer water.  Perhaps next time we'll try jigging some lures starting in the muddy water and into the clear water to mimic baitfish being swept in from the river.

We eventually decided to head back to the launch area, which was difficult again because the wind blew us toward the ramp while the current pushed us back up river.  I was pooped (pun intended) by the end of the day!  By 2:30PM Ryan and I were packed up and went our separate ways.  As soon as I got home I cleaned the 5 catfish I kept and we had a fish fry for dinner.  I kind of messed up the fish because I added way too much salt (oops).  My mother-in-law made a separate batch of fish for my older son, who has a wheat and egg allergy....and that tasted pretty good.  However, I think I still prefer saltier water inhabitants for the dinner table.  I need to head back to Virginia Beach this winter...

Mattawoman Meet & Greet

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On June 8th, I attended the June Meet & Greet for the MKF group.  This time I took my friend JC along to give him some relaxing time on the water after some major changes he went through, including a move with his wife.  The weather for the scheduled M&G did not look promising, but we went anyway - after all, weather forecasters don't have a good track record for predicting the weather correctly. 

JC by the launch area.  
This creek is one of my favorite places, for its scenery.

We arrived at Slavin's ramp early in the morning and saw plenty of other kayakers from the group unloading.  We quickly unloaded and hit the water, eager to get into some nice snakeheads.  Well, the excitement kind of wore off after the first several hours of not catching anything.  I did catch a feisty 13 inch largemouth bass while trolling a white chatterbait, but that was it for most of the morning.

My only bass of the day.

The water was pretty high from the rain a couple days earlier, so there were a lot of submerged areas in the lily pads that I could explore.  I even got so bored I thought I'd try fishing while standing up in my kayak.  I was pleasantly surprised by the stability of my 10 foot Wilderness Systems Tarpon 100.  I did spend a good bit of energy and mental power trying to keep my balance instead of fishing, so it wasn't too effective...but it was nice to get off of the seat for a while.  I am liking my Tarpon 100 more and more each time I go out with it - it's light, it's easy to maneuver, has decent speed, and now I can add its stability to the list of advantages.  Now if I can just figure out how to keep it still in current and wind while fishing it'll be perfect.

It was neat to see drops of water on top of the lily pads.  
They looked like sparkling gems from a distance.

Lunch was schedule for noon at Grinder's Seafood, so I stopped my snakehead hunt around 10AM, and anchored up to do some catfishing.  I got to meet a new MKF'er, Jeremy, as I fished next to him.  He was actually the only one to catch a snakehead in the group that I fished with that morning.  I soaked some cooked shrimp in the water while we chatted some, and pulled in several catfish of various species - channel, blue, and some other catfish with an abnormally large head.  A little while later, I met up with JC and we raced back in to beat the rain that started.  We lost.  The forecasted rain finally came, and we were drenched by the time we got back in.

JC and I didn't catch our targeted fish, but we still caught fish.  I caught a largemouth bass and several catfish, while JC ended the day with a channel catfish and a largemouth bass.  We quickly packed up and went to Grinder's for some good food and fun storytelling with the group. It's always a fun time hanging out with the fishing buddies at MKF.

Catfishin' in the Mattawoman

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I guess it's officially a tradition now for me to catch some fresh fish whenever my mother-in-law visits.  I wanted to go fishing for keeps, and I was hoping for some blue catfish, since that is one of my wife's preferred fish to eat.  I thought about trying for them in the Occoquan, but the past 2 skunky trips I've had there didn't give me any confidence that I would be able to catch anything for the dinner table.  I knew people were catching blue catfish in the Mattawoman through the winter, so I settled on going there.

The day started with calm water

I arrived at the Slavin's ramp and was on the water by 7:30AM.  At this point in the day the wind was non-existent and the water was calm as glass.  The wind was forecasted to be 10-15 mph, so I was relieved by the conditions.  I headed upstream straight to a deep hole that I knew existed from the last time I went to the Mattawoman creek in the summer.  We had done well with blue catfish there.  Before anchoring up to soak my bottom rigs with nightcrawlers, I fished around some of the nearby structure to see if I could bring up some crappie.  I wasn't getting a single hit, and ended up losing a rig, so I gave up on that real soon.  The water clarity was pretty poor too, so I was doubtful that I would catch them anyway.

To give you an idea of the water clarity...

I then proceeded to paddle around the area, carefully watching my fish finder, to see if there might be any slimy creatures around.  As I approached the hole, I could see lots of marks starting from the edge of the channel on into the deeper part - they were in 8 to 13 feet of water.  I went on to the other side of the channel and let down my anchor to hold my position.  I had heard that catfish are real lazy, and don't like to chase around their food, so I made sure to bring an anchor with me today.

I put out two lines with nightcrawlers and immediately hooked up with a small white perch, which I kept around to use as cut bait (didn't do any good, as I didn't get any hits on it).  Soon after, I caught two 23" blue catfish back-to-back.  "This is going to be a great day!" I thought, as I started planning who I might give extra fillets to with the mess of fish I was going to catch.  Unfortunately, that was all the action that I got for the next 3 hours.  The forecasted 10-15 mph winds showed up around the time I got the last catfish, and it was COLD!  I guess that's the thing about soaking baits...you aren't moving around much, and if you've got wet hands, they're going to get cold.

I eventually tried another spot further upstream where I knew there was another deep hole, but I didn't even get a nibble for about an hour that I was there.  At least I was protected a bit from the wind at this location... Even though things were not looking good, I kept telling myself that I need to catch just one more fish before heading in.  However, the wind and cold got the better of me, and I headed in around 11:30 AM.  The paddle in was tough with the wind to my face and my fingers feeling like they were going to fall off.  I had some water proof, insulated gloves - but I had left them in the car when I saw the calm conditions in the morning.  I should have just taken them anyway...

The creek looks like a totally different place without all the summer-time foliage.

Well, even though it was a slow day, I achieved my goal of bringing home fresh fish, and we fried up the catfish for dinner.  I brought them home in my cooler without any ice, and they were still alive after the 1.5 hour drive home.  These are some hardy fish!

After I got home from fishing, we took my boys and mother-in-law to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum.  That was a neat place to visit.

Mattawoman Creek

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We moved a couple weeks earlier, and it had been a stressful couple of weeks trying to get everything transported to the new place and unpacking.  It had also been over a month since I've seen the water, so I was eager to attend July's MKF Meet and Greet.  It was at the Mattawoman creek in Indian Head, Maryland.

Spatterdock, and hydrilla right in front.

The plan from several of the members was to hit the water before sunrise to try for some topwater bass, and then to target some snakehead or blue cats later in the morning.  So off I was at 4:30 in the morning to get to the ramp before sunrise.  I was on the water a little after 6:30AM and was surprised at the scenery.  The Mattawoman has acres and acres of spatterdock along the edges of the creek, and then in front of those, there are thick growths of hydrilla. It looked fishy to me.  It was going to be a good fishing day.

There really isn't much of an exciting story to tell this time.  It was 7 hours of pretty much nothing.  I was casting plastic worms, a jitterbug, chatterbait, small grubs, a firetiger rapala crankbait, an electric chicken bass assassin shad, and cut bunker for catfish.  I did have some hits on the cut bunker from what I think were probably smaller catfish, but I never did hook up with them.  I did spent the last hour on the water targeting blue catfish with some nightcrawlers that one of the other members graciously gave to me.  I had a little bit of success with 2 blue catfish and a channel catfish.

Someone else's snakehead.  26 inches!

Luckily most of the other members at the Meet and Greet did better than I did.  Several people caught some really good sized snakeheads, and others caught several lunker bass, yellow perch, white perch, and sunfish. After seeing those snakeheads, though, I have caught the fever...I need to catch a snakehead sometime in my life.

The fish that saved me from a skunk.  Yes, there's a fish in my hand.

I brought home the 2 blue catfish that I caught, along with another one that another member gave to me.  This was my first time trying blue catfish, and I had heard that they were tasty, so I came home not entirely defeated.  I filleted them that night and fried them with some corn meal mixed with old bay and they were really good.  My wife even asked me to bring some more of those home.

The Mattawoman.

Occoquan River

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My sister-in-law is in town from St. Louis this week, and I thought it would be nice to have a fish fry this weekend.  I had plans to fish the lower potomac for some catfish and possibly some croakers, which people have been reporting.  When I found out that Ryan from the MKF forum was fishing for catfish this weekend too, I asked him if he wanted to meet up and fish together.  He had to be in Virginia today, so he was going to check out the Occoquan river.  Since I have not fished the Occoquan before, I was open to trying it out with him.

The area by the shore launch.

I got to the Occoquan Regional Park at 6:00AM, paid my $5 non-resident fee for launching, and started rigging up my kayak.  Ryan arrived shortly after, and we were in the water around 7.  We shared our plans for the day, and we were going to jig for some crappie by the docks of the marinas south of the 95 bridge, and then soak some bait to try for some catfish.

After passing the 95 bridge, we started casting along the shorelines on our way to the marina to see if we could hook up with a bass.  That was unfruitful for both of us, so we went to the docks and started jigging.  Within the first several minutes, I was getting nibbles on my shad dart rigged with a 2" gulp minnow.  I thought maybe the minnow might be too big, so I swapped it out with a 2" tube.  2 casts later, and I caught the first fish of the day.  A 15" largemouth bass.  I tried jigging some more in that row of docks, but I didn't get any more hits, so I moved on.

First fish of the day.

In the second row of docks, I went back to my gulp minnow and tried vertical jigging with it.  After several tries, I get a hit...and it turns out to be a big old channel catfish.  I was trying to catch crappie, not catfish!  Well, the catfish was a pretty good size, so I put it on my fish stringer and tried again.  Several minutes later, I get another hit...and it turns to be an even bigger channel catfish.  I never got to measure it, but I would say it was pushing 20 to 22 inches.  Again, it was not a crappie, but I did want to catch catfish today...on the stringer he went.  I was starting to think that my jigging technique was somehow only attractive to catfish and not crappie.  A few minutes later, and I hook up with another catfish!  Unbelievable!  Oh, and all this time, these fish were being caught on my ultralight rod with 5 lb test braid.  It was actually kind of fun catching these large fish on light tackle.  I really wanted to catch some crappie, so I decided to move on and try the next marina.

On the way to the next marina, I trolled a small rattletrap crankbait to see if anything would hit it.  I was doubtful that it would work because of my failure to catch anything on a crankbait at the flats earlier this week.  However, halfway to the marina, I had a fish on my crankbait.  It turned out to be a small striper.  I forgot to snap a pic, but it was small...like 15 inches.

Ryan and I got to the next marina, and we tried jigging again for crappie.  Ryan was actually pretty successful - he was catching a lot of crappie on his small gulp minnows.  I asked about his technique, and it sounded like he was doing exactly what I was doing back at the previous marina where I was catching the catfish.  I thought maybe it was the location that turned me into a catfish magnet, so I tried the vertical jigging again....and...I caught another catfish.  Several catfish, actually.  I was getting a little frustrated at this point, because I wanted to catch crappie!  At one point, I hooked up with a BIG fish.  It wouldn't surface, and it actually dragged me out of the bay I was fishing in and into the next one before showing itself.  It was a huge blue catfish.  I was excited about catching such a large fish, so I went to stick my lip gripper in its mouth, and I guess his small teeth rubbed the line the wrong way, because the line broke.

I originally had a 6lb test mono leader on my 5lb braid main line.  I had snapped it somehow while landing one of the earlier catfish, and lazily just tied my jig head directly onto the braid.  I am pretty sure that abrasion from the rough surface on the blue catfish's mouth was what caused my line to fail.  Never again will I make that mistake.  He was huge...

Since it was time to retie, I thought of something else to try.  Last year, when I was perch fishing, I had some success using soft plastic grubs on a spinner arm.  I tried adding the spinner arm to the gulp minnow, and voila!  I was starting to catch me some crappie.  I went through several more of these docks to try to catch some crappie worth eating.  There were a couple white perch in the mix of fish that I caught too, which was a pleasant surprise.  Eventually (inevitably) I hooked into another catfish, and that was when I decided I was done fishing here.  Catfish are fun to catch on ultralight tackle, but it's also frustrating when you're not targeting them.

Ryan and I moved around, casting our lures to the shoreline to see if we could catch some more bass.  We both ended up catching a couple bass, but none that were impressive in size.  I caught mine on the gulp minnow, and on the rattle trap crankbait.  The gulp minnow is so versatile...it'll catch anything!

At this point, we slowly started making our way back to the launch and stopped by the 95 bridge to see if we could catch any catfish.  I didn't have any success there, so after a little while I parted with Ryan and I went back to the launch.  I was packed up and on my way home by 1.

My kayak and gear at the end of the day.

Fishing the Occoquan was interesting - it was a lot more fun that I thought it might be.  I also caught 6 species of fish today, which is pretty cool when you consider that they were all caught in the same body of water.  I brought home a few of the catfish, crappie, and white perch and cleaned them for tomorrow's fish fry!

Tomorrow's Dinner.

Fletcher's Cove

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Today I fished the Potomac River by Washington, DC with several others from the Maryland Kayak Fishing forum.  We launched out of the free launching area at Fletcher’s Boat House.  I was hesitant to make the trip.  I like to keep the fish I catch for dinner, but the target species (shad) are illegal to keep, and the catfish out of these waters have a consumption advisory against them.  However, I figured that if I don’t go now with the forum members, I probably will never fish on the Potomac for shad.

Well, the day was perfect.  Low winds for most of the morning, a bit chilly at first, but went up to 70 or so degrees.  The water was around 58 degrees.  Sunny with very few clouds.

I got to the parking lot for Fletcher’s by 7:00AM.  I should have taken a picture of the entrance to the park, because it was so obscure and so dangerous.  I was able to catch it the first time I passed it, but the angle at which I had to turn was so sharp that I didn’t think I’d make it easily without upsetting the driver behind me.  I ended up taking a U-turn ahead and making a slight left into the parking lot.  Upon my arrival, I checked out the boathouse shop to get some shad darts and nightcrawlers.  I had read some reports that pink and green shad darts from the boat house were hot, so I picked up a pack of each, plus a pack of chartreuse darts.

With my ammo for the day, I unloaded my kayak from my car and started rigging it up.  During this time, Ictalurus, Chexone and BigFluke45 arrived.  We all launched together at the free launching area.  It was a shore launch area, at the far corner of the park.  While preparing for launch, I met a guy in a canoe from West Virginia who shared about his experience fishing for shad.  He mentioned that the pattern is to look for an area with current.  He suggested going upstream where the river is narrower and the water flows quicker. 

The launch was interesting.  There were Fletcher’s row boats everywhere.  The area right by the launch area was filled with fishermen anchored in their row boats.  When I went to pick up my bait at 7:00AM, I overheard the worker say that there were no more available rental boats.  No kidding!  Well, we paddled (and peddled) upstream past the crowd, to an area where you could see the Chain bridge.  A few of us stopped once on the way to try to see if we could pull up a shad, but Ictalurus kept going...and since Ictalurus had been shad fishing once before, I didn’t stick around long and followed Ictalurus. 

Paddling to our destination

When we got to the area we were fishing, I hadn’t really paid much attention to the depth until someone from shore asked me for the depth.  35 feet.  Which went up to 15 feet a little further up.  “So you’re telling me there’s a deep hole there” said the shore fisherman.  I guess that was one part of the puzzle in catching shad...because these shore fishermen were absolutely slaying the shad.  Every time I looked over, they were pulling in a shad (sometimes two at once).  After 10 or 15 minutes of trying out a tandem-rigged shad darts and not catching anything, I swallowed my pride and paddled over to the shore fishermen and asked them for some tips.

1. The green and pink colors I had were good.
2. Cast into the river and let the darts sink to the bottom.  They said this was key.  They also expressed concern that the shad darts I had were too small/light to reach the bottom of the 35-foot hole.
3. Reel in the darts steadily and jerk it periodically.

The area we fished at.  Those are the shore fishermen who kicked my butt.

Sounds simple enough!  Well, for the next several hours, I could only catch 6 shad.  And this was while the shore fishermen next to me were catching one every other cast.  I think it had to do with where I was casting my shad darts, and the fact that I probably wasn’t able to reach the bottom with my shad darts.  I was fishing upstream from the shore fishermen (beyond the deep hole) so that I wouldn’t cross their lines.  All of the shad I caught were from the deep hole that the shore fishermen were fishing in.  I cast into it while they were re-rigging.  They really must have been fishing the bottom because they lost several rigs throughout the morning.  Conversely, I must not have been on the bottom, because I didn’t lose a single shad dart rig.

First shad of the day

The first shad I caught was exciting.  Mainly because it was my first one ever. It was kind of caught by accident, because I had casted my lure out and was drifting into other people’s lines.  As I was paddling away, I saw my rod tip shake – fish on!  The shad seem to always jump when they get caught.  The first fish I caught jumped 2 or 3 feet in the air right next to me and Chexone.  I can see why people enjoy fishing for them.  They are so energetic when you catch them!

Another Shad

At one point, I wanted to see if I really wasn’t getting down to the fish, so I rigged up a half-ounce jig head with a 2” curly tail grub.  I didn’t rig it tandem – just a single curly tail.  I think I got more frequent hits with this rig than with the shad darts.  I missed a few, and caught 2 shad with the grub in about 30 minutes.  Compare that to my 4 shad in the earlier 2 or 3 hours.  I wished I had thought of this earlier in the morning!

Chexone's first catfish that got away.

During all this time that I was fishing for shad, I saw that Chexone and Shadyfisher85 had pulled up some nice-sized catfish.  Having never caught a catfish on my kayak before, I decided to put a line out with the nightcrawlers I had.  It was a top-bottom rig with a 1oz sinker.  Since I knew where the deeper water was in this section of the river, I tried to cast into that area. 

21" Blue Cat

~18" Channel Cat

24" Blue Cat

The nightcrawlers were a hit with the catfish.  I caught 2 blue cats (21” and 24”) and a channel cat (around 18” – I didn’t measure him because he wasn’t that impressive).  The larger blue cat was a blast!  He had his way for the first 30 seconds or so...ripping out drag and bending my rod.  That was a good fight, and got some congrats from the shore fishermen who were kicking my butt in the shad count.

My anchor

I had read that Fletcher’s uses large flat rocks as anchors in their row boats, because of all the boulders on the bottom of the river to snag on.  I didn’t want to risk losing my anchor to the bottom of the river, so I found a good rock that was kind of in the river, and tied off to it.  It worked very well.  I stayed in one position the entire time.  If my rig got snagged, I was able to untie quickly and unsnag my line and return to my rock. 

Around noon, the wind started picking up, so I went around and said bye to the guys before starting my paddle back to the launch area.  Looked like everyone caught fish today.  That was fun!