Early-Spring Fishing in NoVA

It has been a rough start to the year.  I think I've already suffered through a cold, 2 sinus infections, and am currently getting over the flu.  I really have not been able to get out fishing as much as I would have liked, but have still been able to take advantage of a couple early-spring fishing traditions.

Reston Kids' Trout Fishing Day
My friend Mustafa let me know about an annual free fishing event in Reston for kids.  They stock several pools in a stream with trout, and have kids fish for them.  I've heard mixed reviews about the event, the main criticism about it is that it's usually packed with hundreds of kids lining up on the shoreline making a ruckus and just being kids.  Still, I thought it would be fun to take my two boys to meet Mustafa and his boys, and also to catch some trout.  We used waxworms as our bait, and we did pretty well!  My boys ended up with 4 fish on our stringer.  The largest was caught by my oldest son, Caleb, entirely on his own.  I had turned around to help my younger son to re-bait his hook, when I heard Caleb yell that he caught a fish.  Everyone kind of gawked at him jealously, because it was one of the bigger ones in the pool.  Caleb just said he dropped the worm in front of the fish's face, and it ate it.  Needless to say, I was super proud of my boy!  We'll try to make this an annual tradition to go to this event.

Shad Fishing the Occoquan
At work, the Friday before Easter is always a company holiday, so a few coworkers and I made plans to fish the Occoquan to try for some shad.  I felt like it was still a bit early for the shad to be there, but if it was, at least we could fish for some bass or crappie.  We gave it a shot anyway, and while the shad were there, the catching was not really that hot.  We tried everything we had, from shad darts, to spoons, to small curly tail worms, to spinners... It seemed like the shad were very picky, and also very isolated in select areas.  We saw very few shore anglers doing pretty well, and also one father-son duo on a boat really killing them with gold spoons.  Eventually, we figured out that we could catch them in a deep hole just above the walking bridge, and were able to get the skunk off with some shad.

There is a saying that when the dogwoods bloom, is when the shad are running and you should go fishing for them.  Well, by Good Friday, the dogwood tree by my house had not bloomed yet.  So maybe the shad were starting to come in, but just not there in large numbers yet.


I went back to the Occoquan the Saturday after Easter, and by this time the dogwood tree was in full bloom.  I wanted to take my dad to experience shad fishing, because he can't understand how one could enjoy fishing when you can't even keep it!  It's also been a while since I've fished with him, so my wife graciously gave us the Saturday afternoon off to go fish together.  We took my 15'4" Gheenoe to Occoquan Regional Park, and slowly motored up toward the walking bridge.  We slowly made our way to the deep hole above the walking bridge, as we casted and reeled in our gold spoons.  I was the first to hook up with a shad, and my dad soon got the hang of it and was reeling in shad too.  I was using my ultralight rod, while my dad was using a medium heavy rod that I normally use for jigging for larger fish.  At one point I offered to trade rods with my dad, because I felt like the fight was much more fun on the ultralight.  Yup, shad fishing is so much more fun on ultralight tackle.  It was still fun catching them on the heavier rod, but it just didn't feel as exciting.  Anyway, it was a real joy to watch my dad's expression every time he hooked up with a fish.  Even though I got my love for fishing from him, he has always fished using live or cut bait, and never used lures before.  The way you connect with a fish from the rod and reel in your hands as you're reeling in a lure is so much more satisfying than setting the hook on a rod that was resting on a pier.  I think he understands the feeling now.

Susquehanna Flats

View Larger Map

After I had my successful trip to the Susquehanna Flats last year, I told my friend Trey that he had to come and join me this year to catch some Chesapeake Bay Rockfish.  He's more of a freshwater angler, typically hooking up with Largemouth Bass in the local lakes by his home in western Virginia.  He has never fished for Striped Bass before, and I wanted to share the fun and excitement of reeling one in with him.

The calm Susky Flats

So for a whole year, we waited in eager anticipation for catch and release season to open on the Flats.  We  had a couple schedule conflicts in the beginning of the season, but finally settled on a date when both of us were free to make a trip to Havre de Grace to fish.  The year-long wait was finally over. Unfortunately, the weeks leading up to the trip only yielded poor reports of Rockfish in the Susquehanna Flats, and I was losing confidence that we would actually hook up with any Rockfish.  I let my friend know about the reports, and suggested some other alternatives like fishing for Catfish, or maybe even joining the Mid-Atlantic Kayak Bass Fishing tournament.  He was okay with the odds of not catching anything, so we stuck with our plan and made preparations to launch from Millard Tydings Memorial Park at sunrise on Saturday April 27th.


We got to the ramp at exactly 6:00AM, and met fellow MKF forum members DaveFX35 and Yak Fish.  They have had a couple trips under their belt already this year, so we chatted a little to talk about our plans for the day and to discuss what techniques we would try.  It seemed the name of the game for kayak fishing the Susquehanna Flats was trolling jerkbaits.  The Flats is a huge body of water, and the fish are typically schooled up in small areas, so trolling is just the easiest way to cover all that water to find them.

Trey's all set and ready to go.

Trey and I were lucky to get a parking spot immediately next to the ramp, so we just carried our kayaks and gear down to the floating dock and rigged up there.  Within the next hour we were on the water and ready to paddle into the big expanse of water known as the Susquehanna Flats.  We stuck with Yak Fish at first, and he suggested that we spread out to cover more water, and we could call each other up if we hooked up with any fish.  That sounded good, so Yak Fish went further north, and Trey and I headed straight east from the marina.

White Perch on a crankbait.

I trolled a Rapala XR-10 in black and white on one rod, and a silver Rattle Trap on a second rod.  Trey trolled 2 shallow-diving crankbaits that he uses for Largemouth Bass fishing.  We started zig-zagging across the water, while heading South when I saw a group of boats gathered together on the East side of the Flats.  I suggested to Trey that we check it out, so we started paddling over.  At one point we hit some water about 4 feet in depth, and Trey said he hooked up with a Shad on one of his crankbaits.  I don't think I've ever heard of Shad hitting crankbaits, so that was interesting.  Trey got the skunk off him early, and apparently the fish was pretty decent in size (I didn't get to see it) so he was happy to have caught a fish at all today.  He wanted to see if he could catch any more, so he started casting his crankbait and working it in that area, and he started hooking up with some small white perch!  I couldn't believe it...it hasn't even been an hour yet and he's out-fishing me 3-to-0! 

28 inch beauty.

After snapping some pictures of his micro-catches, we continued on toward the group of boats when....I heard my rod bouncing up and down!  A fish on my rod with the X-Rap!  I took hold of the fishing rod, and fought for a good couple minutes to get the fish in.  When I caught sight of it, I knew it was an active, decent sized Rockfish with 2 treble hooks on its lips.  I've watched videos showing how to extract hooks from your flesh, but I didn't want to ever have to try it out on myself or anyone I know...so I was in no hurry to get the fish on board.  After a couple good drag-pulling runs, the fish was calm enough to get on the boat.  A nice, fat, 28 inch Rockfish.  My biggest fish ever!  From shore, pier and boat.  I took a couple pictures of the beauty, and Trey also took a couple pics of me and her together, then back to the water she went.  Luckily the fight didn't wear her out too much - she swam right off as soon as she got wet.

17" Bass on an XR-10

Look at all those holes on its lips.  This guy does not learn....

 Excited about the catch, I called Yak Fish and DaveFX35 to let them know about the conditions of the catch.  4 feet of water, paddling east, on an XR-10.  Hopefully with those facts, they can catch some fish too.  Unfortunately, for the next 5 hours we trolled all over the flats from 4 feet to 10 feet and not another Rockfish was caught by anyone in our group.  However, it still was not a bust.  Trey and I actually hooked up with a combined 5 Largemouth Bass in the middle of the flats!  Each time I hooked up with one I was hopeful that it was a Striped Bass because of how hard the initial hits were.  Susquehanna Bass are very stocky and can give up a good fight.  What was interesting was that all 5 of them were 17 inches long.  No shorter, no longer.  With the non-existent Rockfish, the Largemouth Bass were welcome by-catches of the day.

Trey's 17" Bass on a shallow-diving Crankbait.

We called it quits around noon, and spent about 30 minutes paddling back to the launch ramp.  We loaded up the gear and went to the outdoor grill that they have next to the park and marina.  The food was pretty good, and the atmosphere of being in the sun by the water with lots of people enjoying the day was great.  Though I wouldn't say the trip was a success in terms of catching loads of Rockfish, it was still a successful day in that neither of us got skunked, neither of us turtled, I got my personal best fish ever, and Trey is now a fan of Kayak Fishing.

I love pit beef, and I love hush puppies.

Fletcher's Cove

View Larger Map

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!