March 19, 2012
Spring has sprung! No surprise there I know, it feels like it sprang all winter long. The last two or three weeks we have seen steady record high temperatures. It’s one thing to just see a quick Indian summer roll in and out but this weather pattern has decided to stick around. So what does that do to the environment, and more importantly what does it do to the fish? Jim Cummins of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin stated that “I like spring, but wish for a slowly evolving one. Rapidly rising river temperatures can cause a lot of spawning problems - truncated fertilization time, stressed egg and larval development, etc. “Or in other words, the fish could blow their load too quickly and too early. Some may never show up and miss the mass spawn, get confused and of course there is always the threat that some hint of winter could still resurface. Drastically dropping water temperature has its own host of problems too, especially with newly developing eggs of the futures bounty floating around. But the rapidly rising water temperatures could pose all types of threats and that is the direction we are heading. Water flows are low for this time of year, actually dangerously low. If this trend continues into summer, we will be in emergency drought conditions by mid May! But most models are on course and most months this year show normal rainfall conditions. It’s just not all that obvious to us right now. I just wish spring, or maybe summer, would slow her roll so to speak. Calm down, chill out… it’s my favorite time of year, no need to rush into things.
This is it, this the ultimate time of year if you are a fishermen or outdoors enthusiast in the mid Atlantic Region, or more specifically within the Chesapeake watershed. My favorite place to be this time of year is within the lower Potomac River Gorge. There’s just nothing quite like it. To be in the nation’s capital amidst the commuters and all the craziness with a fishing rod while watching all those clueless, helpless souls stuck in traffic on GW or Chain Bridge… I often think… if only they knew. But I’m glad they don’t or else everyone would leave their cars stranded on the highway and flock to the river like so many anadromous fish species do this time of year. Everyone is showing up to the orgy of biblical proportions, where are you? As George Washington once said, “The River runs silver”, and it still does. With shoals upon shoals of silver alosnids (Shad species like Alewife herring, blue back herring, hickory and American shad) swimming information on the Potomac, every so often their mirror like sides catch the sunlight and it literally looks like the river turns silver. If you sleep in this year, you might miss it. The way things are going this year, by the time Fletchers boat house finally gets their boats in the water, the cows will have come home and left to their summer homes in New England. Cows, did I say cows? They are just one of the spring fish that show up to Congress. They are the last remaining fish that were born during the striped bass Moratorium that ended in the early 90’s. These are the prehistoric, dinosaur proportionate fish that show up in the head waters of the tidal Potomac for what appears like blink of the eye the last few years. AS more and more of these fish are either harvested or even just die of old age, the run of giants gets shorter and shorter. But it still happens, they are still there and they will come. If they haven’t arrived already. AS I write this a large school of slobs could have parked themselves in the eddies of the Potomac a stone’s throw from Georgetown gobbling up the hordes of shad and herring. Usually they show a few weeks before they spawn to feast on the prey species of shad. But if the water temperatures are past the prime spawning temperatures and egg development levels, the fish won’t stick around to feed. There’s just something that most of the migratory stock doesn’t like about the Potomac or the entire Chesapeake Water Shed for that matter. There’s a reason these fish migrate up the Atlantic every year and not stick around in the anoxic conditions of the Chesapeake Bay. However, some larger fish do stick around, actually probably more than some. Most of those larger fish are males that just never saw the urge to leave with the rest of the crew. Lazy perhaps? But it’s not completely uncommon to pull a 40 inch fish off a live spot or even a top water popper in the summer. It’s just very rare. Nothing compared to how common it is now but not for long. By opening day, usually the third Saturday in April, most of the fish will have spawned and be well on their way to the Ocean. I may have missed my mid bay Gannet brigade. Sucks not having your own boat.
Here’s a few quick reports since I started writing this update:
I've been pond fishing with Ryan a couple times. With this heat wave it's about as hot as it gets and every fish is awake and putting on a massive feeding binge before spawning.
March 9th: Devon Lee With a nice largemouth. I had him hold it to make it look even larger, this is Ryan's best friend from Next door.
See Ryan below, with a couple less teeth, holding one of the many bluegill that cooperate on this early March afternoon. I've been pond fishing with Ryan a couple times. With this heat wave it's about as hot as it gets and every fish is awake and putting on a massive feeding binge before spawning.
March 9th: Devon Lee With a nice largemouth. I had him hold it to make it look even larger, this is Ryan's best friend from Next door.
March 14th the National Capital Chapter of Trout Unlimited reported decent shad fishing in Washington DC. The first time any numbers of fish have shown up before the spring equinox. Even Americans have shown up?!!
March 16h- Diego and I took the canoe to fletchers. Actually he got there before me on a nice warm afternoon and got into several large hickory shad well up river from fletchers. Then fished fresh cut bait for stripers and catfish but only managed catfish. In an hour we probably caught over 200 pounds worth of fish. The blue cats must literally blanket the bottom. Diego was having far better success than me fishing with 17 pound mono and 1oz egg sinkers compared to my thick braided line and a 2oz sinker.
Reports from the weekend were not all that great for the potomac, head the shad action was very slow for the most part.
March 19th: I fished a local pond we used to fish as kids, Fallsmead. The bass were on the prowl and were attacking almost anything that landed near the edge of the pond. A 3 inch rapala x rap jerk bait produced incredible action in an hour’s time on my way home from one of our listings.
March 20th: I took a skunk at Clopper one morning on my way back from Costco while the car was filled with fresh groceries like chicken and milk. The sun that day was rather high with near record breaking temperatures again. The thought was that I might stick a few crappie under the Long Draught Bridge but nothing wanted to cooperate in a 15 minute window while my car sat on the side of a busy road with no parking signs posted all over the place.
March 21: Fished the entire outgoing out at fletchers with the boat. Caught hickories, not many and plenty of catfish. Actually too many. Later moved down to Kennedy center near low tide. Ryan, a regular I see every year who knows the river as well as anyone was there and reported a couple big stripers up river already. He was fishing one of my favorite spots there with the large hump and said he even caught a herring and instantly had a fish on it. He said he was supposed to be home by 4 and that “every minute I stay out here now is another punch in the face.” I was in the same situation except I had till 5. I later fished near the mouth of Columbia Island Marina hoping for crappie. There was good incoming current into the entrance of the marina and with it were the largemouth who eagerly attacked rapala xrap deep diving crank baits. Even caught yellow perch there too on jigs. That day I caught hickory shad, yellow perch, crappie (who were all over the boat dock back at the ramp), largemouth bass, blue catfish and bluegill.
March 22, 2012- Ryan and I hit Clopper Lake near the boat house for 30 minutes on the way back home from his school. It’s tough for me to pass up any opportunity this time of year. He was getting restless again but we did manage to catch one crappie near the beaver dam to the left of the boat docks and missed quite a few more hits near the far dock corner right about the time when we were forced to leave by ranger danger.
March 23, 2012
John C. and I drove all the way to the Susquehanna River near Port Deposit because we were certain the giant slobs had made an appearance. We left around 7pm after all day in doing yard work and got there near 8:30pm. We fished for 4 hours straight while standing on uneven rip rap and boulders then the water dropped to nothing at midnight. Game over, we went home wet and tired. Didn’t see my bed till almost 4am. This one spot is probably one of the better spots to catch a giant striped bass on artificial lures or flies there is on the planet. It just only lasts a few weeks a year. Come to think of it I think I fished that spot 3 times for near 20 hours last year and didn’t touch a fish, even when we camped river side and fished all night?!! John caught a nice one last year near 30 pounds and it has produced my person best as well. But the whole entire Susquehanna flats catch and release fishery has suffered tremendously over the last few to more years. Last year was because of all the rain but many of the bait guys did well even in near zero visibility muddy water. Then this year people saw record numbers of fish near the CBBT and ocean. So hopefully they show in the rivers in the same numbers but many people are not as optimistic. David G____, a local to the Potomac who’s spent every waking second in April fishing for these fish near the nation’s capital is completely disgusted with the fishery. Even someone as knowledgeable as him was completely skunked last year on the Potomac but did well on the mid bay area. He thinks the last few remaining fish in the Potomac are what is left form the moratorium and that the schoolie resident fish have almost been completely wiped out by the commercial fishery. There’s next to nothing for the future. The next few years look dismal at best. Even a sighting of one of these fish over the next few years will be like winning the lottery on that river. Except, there is always exceptions and perks; The few sightings you do get this time of year, the fish is likely to be enormous, like world record enormous. That’s enough to keep me going back.
March 24, 2012- I slept in some and Courtney took Ryan to see her girl friends and some shopping. I thought I only and a few minutes to an hour to fish before spending time with the family. Gabe was at a boy scout trip and it was raining all day. First I tried for crappie and muskie near Seneca Creek. Nothing. Then found out I had till 4pm so I raced down to fletchers in the Rain and rented a boat. Par said he was already there but I didn’t see him. People were catching shad pretty well, mostly only in front of the boat house on the most distinct current seam near the Va side. Water temps were in the mid 60’s and the height was 3.8 feet and slightly rising. I caught a few shad, even a few herring, Never have I seen herring bite artificial in March! Only catfish cooperated. Heard from Ryan and David that there were a few stripers around, Ryan has done well recently supposedly. But things can and do change in a week. I caught more catfish but everything was slow. Left at 3:45 to be back home by 4:10.
March 25th: Ryan and I fished a pond near Travilla Road for an hour. We caught good numbers of small largemouth. Ryan couldn’t hook them though. Only small fish in this one pond for some reason, some ponds are just like that. The only way to fix the problem is to harvest some of the smaller fish but I just can’t bring myself to do that Let it be I guess. Very cold too. Even found a dead deer with antlers still. Freshly killed.
Monday: march 26, 2012: Insane crappie action at the mouth of a creek on the Potomac. Fished for about 30 minutes from 7:45 to 8:30ish while Gabe was at boyscouts, nonstop monster size crappie on 1/16oz jig heads, 2 inch Yum red and chartreuse tubes set 3.5 feet below a float. Probably my best crappie bite ever and it just so happened during the amount of time I sometimes sit on the toilet.
March 27th: Went back after Crappie with Ryan from 5:30-7:30 and only caught one bluegill. Where did they go? I thought I had them figured out.
March 28th: The day is still young but I need a job badly. Even though I was at the office with C all day yesterday and moved furniture from staging houses all day on Monday, I don’t get paid or get health insurance from fishing all the time. Why not? I just want to show the world that even a half hour trip to a local pond is worthwhile. Ryan is home sick today because he has some rash. I hope I didn’t expose him to something he’s allergic to while walking around in the woods yesterday. But I have a strong feeling Ryan and I are going to go fishing for something today. But I have to make sure I keep him interested. He doesn’t like getting bored and if he gets bored he’ll lose interest and may not want to fish with me anymore. He’s my best friend, my life… I need him to want to continue fishing with his Dad. Maybe one day we’ll go into business together. Now wouldn’t that be something.
Ryan and I did get out, walked all the way to the big eddie above Chain Bridge, even with Ryan's "broken Knee." He was fine but mostly I carried him on my shoulders anyway. Some people go to the gym, I go fishing. Check out this Crappie we caught. I actually caught it but had Ryan hold it. I wanted to at least have him real it in but he was busy rock climbing and rock hopping. Something his mother would NEVER let him do. He's quite good at getting around on those rocks. I just make sure he doesn't do it directly over the river.
The crappie bite is about as good as it gets all over the Potomac now. I may have to go try the spoils one time before it's all over. Once they spawn they practially vanish, like so many other fish do.
Ryan and I did get out, walked all the way to the big eddie above Chain Bridge, even with Ryan's "broken Knee." He was fine but mostly I carried him on my shoulders anyway. Some people go to the gym, I go fishing. Check out this Crappie we caught. I actually caught it but had Ryan hold it. I wanted to at least have him real it in but he was busy rock climbing and rock hopping. Something his mother would NEVER let him do. He's quite good at getting around on those rocks. I just make sure he doesn't do it directly over the river.
The crappie bite is about as good as it gets all over the Potomac now. I may have to go try the spoils one time before it's all over. Once they spawn they practially vanish, like so many other fish do.
