CBKA Tournament 2014

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This past weekend I participated in the Chesapeake Bay Kayak Anglers tournament for the 3rd year in a row.  Every year the tournament gets better and better - the captain's meeting the night before with all the evening festivities, the number of participants, the amount of money raised for CCA and Make-A-Wish...  I don't go so much for the competitiveness of the tournament.  I go because it is truly the ultimate kayak fishing meet & greet in the area.  I think the majority of the attendees can probably say the same thing. 

 

 

It was also a pleasure meeting Bryan Rusk this year.  His now 25 year-old son benefited from Make-A-Wish when he was 3 years old, and it was Bryan's idea to organize a tournament to donate to the Make-A-Wish foundation.  I hope he was encouraged by the turnout, and seeing the good that comes out of the tournament first-hand.
 

 Friday Morning Prefishing

This year, my weekend started on Friday morning as I went to Goodhands Creek to fish with several other members from the SnaggedLine forum.  I met up with Jeremy and Dao at Angler's sports shop in Annapolis, and we followed each other over the Bay Bridge to the ramp.  Ryan later joined us at the creek.  We originally wanted to pre-fish the Bay Bridge by launching out of Sandy Point State Park, but the wind forecast did not look promising.  I did not want to tire myself out from all the paddling the day before the tournament, so we agreed to fish out of Goodhands just for fun.  Mustafa was also going to try to do a masgouf demo before the captain's meeting that evening, so the goal was to catch some fish large enough to cook up for the potluck dinner.

 

The Goodhands Creek launch area was clean, secluded, and a peaceful place to launch from.  Jeremy, Dao and I took our time rigging up our boats while talking about our fishing experiences from the year, and finally paddled out to sunny skies and light winds in the creek.  Immediately, I saw some grassy shoreline that I thought would likely hold some perch, so I fished with a whilte/yellow feather jig with a spinner arm along the shoreline.  Not long after I started fishing, I caught the first fish of the day, a spunky little 9 inch perch.  I continued to float down along the shoreline and proceeded to catch several more within just the first 30 minutes of the day.  They were pretty fun to catch on my ultra-light St. Croix rod with my small Pfleuger spinning reel. 

 

 

First striper of the weekend!

 

While a handful of small perch might be tasty for a fish fry, they were not going to cut it for a masgouf demo!  I decided to head up toward the Kent Narrows to see if I could catch some stripers.  I threw out my trusty X-Rap to troll it as I paddled over.  While heading out of the creek, I remembered some tips that others on the SnaggedLine forum have shared, about trolling past some of the grassy points that stick out into the water.  Right outside of the creek, I saw 2 such grassy points that I thought might hold some fish.  So I trolled my X-Rap about 5 to 10 feet out away from the points, and on my second pass I caught a 14" striper.  Cool!  The pattern worked!  18" is the legal minimum size for stripers, so I quickly let him go and proceeded to go toward the Kent Narrows bridge.  The wind was actually a bit stronger out in this open area, and I was getting wet from all the splashing, so I turned around and headed back to the perchy shoreline by the boat ramp, where I continued my ultralight fun with the perch.

 

We will masgouf you!

 

A couple hours later, I noticed that the winds died down a bit, so I decided to head back over toward Kent Narrows again.  I put out my X-Rap once again and paddled up toward the bridge.  Near the area where I had caught the striper before, my rod got knocked down and I had a fish on!  This fish felt much stronger than the striper from earlier, and he gave several nice drag-pulling runs.  When I finally pulled him out of the water, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a bluefish!  It has been a long time since I've caught a bluefish, so this was actually a treat for me.  Mustafa was also hoping someone would provide a bluefish for the masgouf demo, so on the stringer he went!  Mustafa was so happy when he found out that we had a bluefish for dinner.  Haha. 

 

I continued on and made it to the Kent Narrows bridge, but there wasn't much action going on there.  The current was still as strong as I remembered it being from fishing there 2 years ago.  Not wanting to fight the current much, and since it was getting to be near lunch time, I headed back to the launch with the others.  I caught another smaller bluefish on the way back to the launch, which I also kept for the dinner, and made it back to the launch ramp.  The others arrived soon after, and we took our time loading up our kayaks before heading to Camp Wright for registration.

 

Captain's Meeting and Evening Festivities

This was my second year camping at the tournament location, and just like last year it was a blast.  We had a quick captain's meeting, and then our annual potluck.  The highlights of the potluck were probably the steamed crabs, the raw oysters on a half-shell, and the most delicious thing I've ever tasted - bacon wrapped jalapenos filled with cream cheese...smoked right there at the camp.  After tasting that, I have decided I'm going to have to learn to smoke meats.  I really wish I had taken some pictures of those things...

 

During and after the potluck, we all just kind of spread out around the camp - hanging out with other people and talking about fishing trips, tips and techniques.  I climbed into my tent kind of early this year...around 10PM.  I was exhausted from the morning fishing trip, and had to rest up for the next day.

 

Tournament Day

Rigged up and ready to go!

 

Tournament day started at 5:40AM.  My alarm was set at 5:45, but I woke up to the sound of other excited anglers bustling around, getting their kayaks ready for launch.  I went in the camp headquarters to get some coffee and breakfast to try to wake up and load up on some carbs for the paddle ahead.  I quickly downed 2 cups of coffee, scarfed down 2 pastries, and rolled my kayak down to the beach launch area at the far end of the campsite.  Mustafa and Dao joined me, and we launched together a little after 6:30AM.

 

The Skunk Remover.

 

As soon as I paddled out on the water, I noticed that there was some rocky shoreline next to the beach launch.  I wondered if it might hold some perch, so I cast my feather jig in front of the rocks and soon caught the first fish of the day - a 10.5" white perch!  It probably won't win me any prizes, but I caught my first fish in the first 15 minutes!  

 

I stayed close to the launch area for another half hour or so, loading up on some perch to try to live-line at the bay bridge.  I caught 4, and left them in a small pool of water by my feet inside the kayak.  I figured they'd stay alive during the paddle to the bridge, which they did, but they were not lively at all.  I later just freed all of them because they weren't spunky enough to excite any predator fish.  I need to look into making a livewell....

 

Trolling X-Raps always works.

 

My plan for the day was to troll two X-Raps on my way to the bridge, and then to live-line for a bit until I ran out of live bait (which I mentioned didn't work out too well).  After that, I was going to jig the pilings and try one of the rockpiles of the bridge.  One other option I considered was trolling by the sewer pipe just north of the bay bridge, but I really did not want to spend my day paddling aimlessly around the Chesapeake Bay.  It also feels more like fishing when you catch a fish jigging than when you catch it trolling (don't tell Alan I said that).

 

The bay bridge rockpile on the east side.

 

So I made my way to the bridge, catching 1 or 2 small stripers along the way.  And after finding my perch to be nearly dead, I decided to find the rockpiles to see if I can jig up some stripers.  I couldn't really see the rockpile from the east side of the bridge where I started...but I knew that they were somewhere in the middle of the bridge, so I started paddling over.  That bridge seems a lot longer when you're paddling under it than when you're driving over it!  I finally made it to the rockpile with Dao, and we started fishing.  Dao was bottom fishing with bloodworms and hooking up with perch and nasty toadfish.  I was casting my X-Rap by the rocks to see if I could get some stripers.  I actually did end up with 2 or 3 small stripers by doing this.  Nothing big enough to compete in the striper division though...

 

It is pretty neat under the bridge.

 

I have heard many times that when jigging, it's important to find an area with strong current, and the tournament was to be held between the high tide and the low tide of the day.  I figured somewhere between, the current should pick up and I should find the motherload of rockfish by the rockpile.  So, my new plan was to wait patiently at the rockpile for the current to pick up, so that I can jig up my prize-winning striper.  It was 10AM by this time, and I was prepared to stick around for a couple hours for the fish to get hungry. 

 

My smallest catch ever.

 

While I waited for the current, I did try jigging the bottom to see if I could catch anything that might bite.  The rockpile has a really steep slope that goes from 1 foot by the rocks down to  50+ feet deep.  So I got to practice jigging some deeper water than I'm used to.  I wasn't really seriously fishing this whole time, since I didn't think the big fish would bite during slack tide...so I practiced reading my fish finder.  I figured out how to watch for my jig in the water column on the display, and practiced vertical jigging the bottom.  I also figured out that about 1-2 feet of the bottom was covered with some kind of seaweed - that was the reason the bottom was showing kind of spotty on the fish finder. That's good to know for some other time when I'm fishing an unfamiliar area.  At one point during my jigging practice, I hooked a small crab in the middle of its bottom.  Can I claim that I caught a small crab on a BKD?  Haha.  Well, that was pretty much the only excitement I got the rest of the morning and early afternoon.

 

I caught a Chesapeake Slam!  Just not a grand one...

 

I waited and waited and waited patiently for the current to pick up, and by 1PM, the rain was starting to fall, and I had no confidence that the tide would change in time to get back for check-in.  So, I packed up my jigging rods, put my X-Raps back in the water and made the hour-long paddle back to shore.   I did pick up a 10.5" bluefish on the way to complete a slam. but the total length was nowhere close to being competitive.  Ah well. 

 

It was around 2PM by the time I got back to the launch, and I wanted to get some more pullage, so I went back to fishing for perch along the rocky shoreline.  I pulled in a few, and finally called it quits.  I rolled my kayak back to my tent and packed things up to get ready for the awards ceremony.  I didn't do quite as well in the raffle this year as I did last year....but the prizes were really great.  The tournament staff did a great job pulling together sponsors to donate some nice items.  They also improved the duration of the ceremony this year, and we were all wrapped up by 6PM.  Another great tournament held by the CBKA staff!

 

The drive home was about an hour and a half, and it went by quickly.  I had a good time just reminiscing on everything that happened during the weekend.  The fun fishing, the beautiful weather, the fun conversations, the delicious food, and the friends I got to see again.  It was a long-awaited weekend that was enough to recharge my sanity from work and home life.  I love my wife and kids, and I am blessed to have a good job...but I'm lucky to be able to take a break from both to do something else I love - fish in a kayak.  I kept some of the perch I caught on Friday and Saturday to take home for my family, and my boys devoured them after we fried them up on Sunday.  I hope the tournament will still be around by the time they are old enough to join me.

CBKA Tournament 2013

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The 2013 Chesapeake Bay Kayak Anglers tournament was held this weekend.  This is the only tournament that I planned to attend this year, and I didn't register because I'm a great angler and felt confident about being able to land a prize-winning fish - I hadn't even fished the bay bridge or any area near Kent Island at all this year.  I registered because it's a big kayak angling party with other like-minded people who gather to fish, have fun before fishing, share stories, and help two great organizations.
 

The Bay Bridge from Camp Wright

The event began for me Friday afternoon when I arrived at the camp around 4PM.  The captain's meeting wasn't until 7, but I decided to go early to beat traffic and to just hang out with whoever came early.  I arrived to find the CBKA staff busy finishing up preparations for the tournament with registrations and captain's bags.  There is a lot of work involved in coordinating a tournament, and I just got a small glimpse of it - those guys deserve a lot of thanks for the hard work they put into it.  There were also a handful of other familiar faces hanging out and talking about fishing, which I joined in on.  

As more people slowly trickled in, we continued to just lounge around and talk while some anglers set up their tents to stay the night.  I borrowed a 1-man tent from a coworker this year, which was kind of exciting because I haven't slept in a tent in years!
 

Rockfish and Speckled Trout Masgouf!

We finally had the captain's meeting around 7 where we went over the rules, and Shawn Kimbro also made an appearance to wish everyone luck and to share a quick fishing report from his experience.  After the meeting, we all just hung out and shared more stories and some people participated in a potluck dinner this year.  That was a pretty fun time...a bushel of crabs, shrimp skewers, a masgouf demonstration from Mustafa, and a bunch more food.  These guys know how to put together a potluck!  I hear the festivities went on through the night, but I retired around 10 to get some rest for the next morning.

I had been watching the weather forecast for the day of the tournament the entire week before the tournament, and I knew it was going to be pretty windy.  Not as bad as last year's winds, but still enough wind that would make fishing the bay bridge miserable for a paddle yak'er.  So I spent a couple nights studying the charts and decided to try Eastern Bay, figuring Kent Island should block the winds well enough to make it manageable.  So a little after 6AM, I launched out of Shipping Creek to try live-lining on some of the ledges in Eastern Bay.

The sun rising in front of me as I paddle toward Eastern Bay

I paddled out in search of some shallower water to try to fill up my bucket with some live spots.  I soon found them in about 4 feet of water, and quickly picked up about 6 or 7 on fish bites blood worms.  I even caught a tiny croaker in between the spots - it was too bad that there was not a "Smallest Fish" division this year!

I used the GPS on my Mark 4 fish finder to try to paddle out toward some water around 15' in depth that would fall down to 20'+.  While searching out these ledges, I trolled a deep diving Yo-Zuri Crystal minnow to try to pick up some fish between live lining.  I caught a striper and a perch in between fishing holes on the crystal minnow.  Neither fish was large enough to be competitive in the tournament, but I was glad to not be skunked!  Live lining did not prove to be any more productive...I didn't get any hits from any stripers that may have been in Eastern Bay.  The wind was also much stronger in the middle of the bay than it was in the channel, so it was hard staying in position to let the spot swim around freely.  I was even drifting at up to 1.5 mph from the wind.  

Rather than snapping pictures of fish, I was taking pictures of the scenery... look at that sky!

The highlight from live lining was probably when one of my spot got completely ripped apart, which was probably the result of some bluefish, but I didn't hook up with anything.  The 5 or 6 other spot were really lucky, as I let them go after several trips down to the bottom of the bay.  I gave up live-lining after the last spot and trolled some more to see what I could snag up.  I probably paddled about 8 miles in the wind, and finally gave up around 1PM.  I headed back to the launch ramp to weigh-in early and just rest.

Raffle Prizes!

The dinner and banquet started around 4 or 5, which is always a good time of raffling and eating good food.  I actually did well in the raffles this year and snagged a couple of cool items - there were a couple big ticket items, but the most exciting prizes for me were a pair of fish grips (I've always wanted one...) and several of Woody's feather jigs (he's closing shop)!  Some representatives from the two organizations (CCA and Make-a-wish) that the tournament benefits also gave some presentations.  A video was played about a recent make-a-wish grant for a boy who wanted to meet RG III - he got his wish and much more!  That was really cool... the evening went on until around 7:30 or so, after which we all went our separate ways.  I stuck around a little to avoid the madness of the rush out, and to thank the organizers for another great tournament.  This was a great event, and I will be marking the date on my calendar as soon as next year's tournament date is announced!

Jonas Green Perching

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I've been out of commission for the past month.  I hurt my back while picking up my younger son, and have been going to a chiropractor for the past 4 weeks.  The first day after the injury was the worst - I couldn't get out of bed and had to take off work.  The rest of the week, I had to walk hunched over and slowly like a 90 year old man.  One of the biggest worries on my mind after the injury was whether I'd be able to kayak again!  Almost every visit to the chiropractor I asked him when I'd be able to lift a kayak over my head again, and he finally gave the okay last week!  I was eager to get back on the water, especially since the CBKA tournament is only a few weeks away now - I haven't fished any water near the Bay Bridge at all this year, and I also haven't fished in over a month...I wasn't even sure how if I'd be able to paddle around well enough to fish after my injury.  Now that I've got the doctor's permission, I had to make a trip.

 A friend of mine has been fishing from shore and piers a lot this summer, and I offered to take him on one of my kayaks before the summer ended.  Summer's just about over now, so I invited him out to a trip to Jonas Green in Annapolis.  It's not quite as big water as the Bay Bridge, but fishing will probably be pretty similar to what I'll be doing for the CBKA tournament.  I also haven't kayak fished Jonas Green in a really long time.  Kind of like how my Ocean City trip was special, Jonas Green holds a special place in my heart because it is the first saltwater body of water that I've fished in from a kayak.  My first year of kayak fishing, I made several trips to Jonas Green because it was relatively calm, and also close to home.  I think this is my third year now, so I was eager to see how different it might feel....
 

First fish of the day!

 I met up with my friend, Seong, at 7AM  in the Jonas Green parking lot.  The parking lot was especially crowded, I guess because it was a holiday weekend.  I had to park in the upper lot, but that was no problem because I had my kayak cart with me.  I just had to make two trips up and down for both kayaks.  Seong and I hit the water around 7:45 or so, and immediately paddled to some of the piers next to Jonas Green.  We were hoping to get some perch today, but the fish were not really cooperating.  After checking out two sets of piers, I suggested that we cross the river to some rocky shoreline where I had caught some perch before.  Seong was up for the challenge of crossing the river, so we headed over.  The paddle across the river actually felt a lot easier than I remembered.  I remember being exhausted halfway through, and also being afraid of the boat traffic.  Boat traffic was pretty light today, so that wasn't a problem.  I also felt like the paddle across the river was a cinch.  What a big difference 2 years makes!

Seong's first fish in a kayak.

 Once over, Seong and I jigged in front of the rocky shoreline and hooked up with a couple small perch.  The fish were not as active as I had seen them, so that was a little disappointing.  We still avoided a skunk with at least one fish each.  After a little while, my friend wasn't feeling too good, so he had to head in and take a break.  Meanwhile, I decided to explore some areas that I had not fished before while trolling an X-Rap.  I hoped to hook up with some stripers, of which I caught 2 on the X-Rap.  They were both rather small, and I also wanted to practice some jigging with BKDs, so I headed back across the river to try jigging the bridge wrecks in front of the pier, and some hard shell bottoms that I knew about in front of the restaurant by Jonas Green.  Neither place produced any fish, and I was getting hungry, so I headed back to the launch area on the beach, and met up with my friend.  We packed it up and headed home.

He was ambitious!

Must be an older brother...

A croaker on a feather jig??

Well, neither of us got skunked, and my back wasn't in pain at the end of the trip, so I would call it a success!  Though my back didn't hurt, it was very sore by the time I got home and packed everything back up.  I really hope I can strengthen my back enough before the tournament. 

Point Lookout Family Picnic

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 My fondest childhood memories are of days when my family and I would go on long drives to go fishing on the bay.  My dad taught me how to bait hooks, cast top & bottom rigs, unhook fish, and many more.  I remember fishing with my dad, but I don't remember the last time I fished with him - it has to have been over 7 years ago... Well, my parents are in town for a few weeks, and I took the opportunity to share my joy of kayak fishing with my dad.  I took the day off on Monday to take the family to Point Lookout for a picnic, some fishing, and hopefully a fish dinner at the park.  

Caleb looking for bugs, while the adults prepare lunch.

We got to the park around 10:30AM and started out by spending some time on the beach and preparing for lunch.  The picnic/beach area was pretty vacant, so we were lucky to get the picnic table right next to the beach. Dad and I got the grill going while Mom and my wife prepared the table, and the two boys played in the sand.  It was fun watching the boys play in the sand and get their feet wet in the water.  My older son, Caleb, loves bugs...he spent most of his time foraging for crawling things in the sand.  And we learned today that my younger son is a neat-freak - he does not like to get his hands and feet dirty.  

After our steak and salad picnic we packed up and drove over to the bay side of the park.  The water looked a little choppy on the Potomac side, but the bay side was smooth as glass.  That's the nice thing about Point Lookout - if the wind is in a east-west or west-east direction, you can always fish on the side that's blocked by the trees and land.  My dad and I unloaded the kayaks and carried them down to the south-side pet beach for launch.  My oldest son begged to go, so I thought we'd bring him along - grandpa would love to spend more time with him, after all.  Based on my experience with the stability of the Tarpon 100, I thought my dad could handle paddling it with Caleb in front of him.  The plan was just to paddle and fish for a little bit with Caleb and to bring him back for his nap shortly after.

Wake up!  Note that we all had our PFD's on...Safety first!

Well, my dad and Caleb did great!  My dad looked pretty comfortable, and Caleb was definitely comfortable because he fell asleep on the water!  When we got to water about 10 feet deep, we rigged our top & bottom rigs with cooked salad shrimp and started fishing.  I tried to help my dad by rigging for him, and at one point I forgot that I took his tackle box.  Everything was going perfectly until that moment...as my dad reached over for the tackle box, he leaned over a little too far and PLOP!  He and Caleb turtled right in front of my eyes.  It felt like it all happened in slow motion.  The surprised look in my dad's eyes as the boat slowly rolled over will never escape my memory... 

Luckily everyone had their PFDs on, and no one got hurt.  My dad quickly got Caleb into my boat, and I talked him through the process of how to right the kayak and how to get back in.  I have never experienced a turtle myself, so I had to actually go off of what I had heard people share on MKF.  If it wasn't for the experience shared by the great guys on the forum, I don't think I would have known how to help my dad.  The only casualty from that fiasco was a lost rod and reel with an X-rap on it.  That's okay, because the most precious cargo was safe and sitting in front of me.  We then proceeded to get all the floating tackle boxes out of the water, and luckily one of the rods I gave my dad to use was leashed to the holder, so he was still able to fish.  As he reeled the line back in, he actually had a croaker on it - he caught the first fish of the day!

My wet dad with the first fish of the day.

After letting Caleb play with the fish a little, I asked my dad if he was okay, and if he felt comfortable being on the water alone.  He said that he's not afraid of a little water, so I paddled Caleb back to shore for his nap.  He actually fell back asleep on the way in, and woke up just as we pulled up to shore.  My mom and wife had watched the whole turtling scene, but were surprisingly calm about it. Thank goodness!

The norm for the day.

I paddled back to my dad and asked if he had caught anything.  He said he caught 3 small ones that he let go, which was disappointing to hear...but then he pulled the stringer out of the water with 4 or 5 croakers.  He caught enough for dinner before I even caught one!  I quickly dropped my rig down, and started a fun day of pretty consistent croaker action.  The largest one I caught was 13 inches, while the majority of the fish were in the 8 to 10 inch range.  There were a lot of throwbacks.  I've said it before, but I think croaker are pretty strong fighters for their size.  Many atimes I hooked up with a fish, and was hopeful for a 13 to 14 incher, but was greeted on the surface by a puny 8 incher.  

Dad hooked up with a skate. "Woah! I got a huge one!"

Around 5PM the wind picked up on the bay side, and we wanted to grill some fish for dinner at the park before heading home, so we decided to head back in.  We quickly packed up the van, and went to the fish cleaning area by the boat ramp.  I loved the fact that they had a place to clean fish on site!  My dad and I scaled and cut the fish while my mom washed them out with water.  The job went pretty quickly with the three of us working together.  I wanted to try a style of preparing fish that Mustafa from MKF shared, which is to cut a fish in half like a butterfly from the top to the bottom.  It was actually easier than I thought, and resulted in a clean cut fish.

Everyone's excited about the catch!

I want my kitchen to be like this.

We finished cleaning the fish and the fish-cleaning area, and headed to the picnic area where we had an hour left to grill and eat our dinner.  We ate our dinner, the boys played on the playground a bit, and then we packed up to start our trip back home.  Today was a most memorable day that I am sure I will never forget.  A delicious picnic on the beach with my family, a turtle experience with my dad and son, a banner day of catching fish with my dad, and a delicious grilled fish dinner as the sun prepared to set over the beach.  I look forward to having many more days like today in the future.

Susquehanna Flats

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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.

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.