Where to fish and when?

How crazy are you about fishing?  Do you target just one species mostly or several?   I can't help myself and if there's fishing to be had, I'm keen to figure it out.  Maybe it's from traveling so much that I had no idea what I was going to get into until I was there, or maybe it's from my past boyscout days and always being prepared.  I rarely leave home without some sort of a fishing rod.  Hey, it's better than going to the track, the bar or having girlfriend's on the side. 


Here's a quick write up on a typical year or dream year, which ever way you want to spin it.

Where would you fish and When

I was asked that question by Don so here it goes. Short version but who knows, I might have a book version one day.

January-power plant fishing in the bay, Potomac and Baltimore Harbor and ofcourse Gannet Hunting out in the Ocean and the CBBT. 

February-Power plant fishing in the bay, Potomac and the harbor (especially the full moon in early February. At night, frozen deck, slippage, almost falling in turbulent water, big cows screaming drag.) Both fly and light tackle or heavy jigging gear.
However, this year was warm, the power plants sucked and I just figured out an awesome musky bite on the Potomac, James, New and Shenandoah River. It was rather epic this year but I was late to the party. Only trying three times, scoring once, and scoring well this winter.

Notice the full moon creeping up above the smoke stacks.

And the fish that lurk underneath.  John with another big fish in my blog.  Not cool.

Had to throw one of me in there from a night time trip to a power plant on a full moon in December.  Usually it's too warm in December to draw the fish but in 2010 temeratures plumeted in December thus calling the fish to their outfalls.

My one favorite placed to fish in February that used to fish incredible for fresh water fly fishing was Dickerson Power plant on warm days in February. The large stone flies would hatch by the thousands and the fish would come up for the nymphs on the surface but ignore the adults. Had some good days on huge bluegill, crappie, smallmouth and even catfish. But then the warm water release got screwed up the last few years and the hatch still occurs but nothing comes up for them.

March-Early trout on the Pax, crappie, big crappie on the Lower Potomac and of course the gannet brigade on the mid Bay from the mouth of the Rappahannock to just north of the Choptank can be awesome. So can a few power plants fish incredibly well for striped bass in March, usually mid march. Then with a warm year like this year, the smallmouth bite on the Potomac from say DC upstream to Hanco.k or beyond can be incredible.

A mid bay power plant fish from March 2011.  I think this was my last trip on my 22' center console.  I miss that boat. 

April-God I love April, where should I start? Where should you not go is a better response. The lower Potomac river gorge in Washington DC is tough to beat. There's just nothing quite like it to be able to catch such a mixed bag and such a large catch of fish in a short time and to top it off you're in the nation's capital. Night time, day time, first light, last light... my best striper day this year was mid day on a Saturday. Go figure.

This is a nice White, aka American Shad caught in early April on a 5wt fly rod.  Or how about

Then of course the Susquehanna Flats in mid to late April. LIKE NOW! Almost any boat, from a 14' john, to a canoe, to a kayak to a belly boat could put you on the action. This past little north-easter just really got things booming. I was fishing an intermediate line last week and doing well on small schoolies but I think if I had a floater I would have done better. Many of the fish were inches under the surface as we could see them all when they'd drift past our bow light when we did so well at night. Or when we were up on the skinnies in less than a foot of water there were giant slobs constantly swimming past us in the high sun but they had lock jaw. So we left fish to find fish. DOUGH! Never, ever, ever do that. I would have figured those giants out eventually.

Here's a big susky flats night time fish. 

May--- May can still be fantastic for striped bass on top water around a few rips along the shore of the bay. The susky flats closes on May 3rd every year but it's hot and heavy up till closing time. The Potomac river gorge still produces good schoolie striper action, snakheads, largemouth, crappie, and tasty white perch. Then there's usually a good showing of American shad but they really take some doing to find and stay on. I usually have a hard time pin pointing that bite but there can be a good one. IN ten years I might have lucked into two good white shad bites in May, up to mid May in downtown DC. From fletchers to chain bridge to even Georgetown.
Conowingo can often have incredible numbers of whites, aka american shad too around early May.

Okay, change gears and tactics a little, in May the surf fishing heats up along the eastern sea board in the Delmarva area. For a few years I was pretty psycho about it and did the whole Assatuegue island thing with my new at the time 4x4. I practically killed the truck, chunked more bait than I'd like to admit and basically got skunked. Then I'd see reports of giants and state records. So I'd walk on near the in-laws house to the featureless beach of Ocean city and catch three large stripers in a couple hours on Memorial Day. Go figure. Last year Indian River inlet received a blitz of large migratory stripers for three solid weeks in May. It was shoulder to shoulder on the shore and bumper to bumper on the water with boats. But many people did well.

I'm still in May.... Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel- gotta get down there near a full or new moon in May for giant red drum. check out

www.kayakkevin.com, he's fishing the same area an old timer showed me long before Kevin got into it. But Kevin has it down patent. In a kayak no less. The last of the migratory stripers set up on the shoals there and sight fishing can be insane. But the bulls is the draw, the big bull red drum. I haven't hit a good bite there in a few years but when you hit it good, it literally made me give up. My arms were noodles, useless after 4 fish in a row averaging 30 pounds with a couple bottoming out a 50 pound scale. Bait, lures, flies, it would all work when a big school comes by. But often times it's covered up with nothing but giant sting rays and huge boat eating rollers. Can be very dangerous but the rewards, oh the sweet rewards.

June-Cape Cod Massachusetts to visit a friend and beat the stripers to death or wade the sand flats of Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard. My in-laws used to be very successful and owned a place on the island. I made more than a few trips and even without a boat the night time/ pre dawn hours with a fly rod were nothing short of spectacular. Then someone showed me how to fish a few rips from a boat and a live scup and the average size fish quadrupled. But that's bait fishing isn't it?

Back to reality and closer to home... the Musky post spawn blitz in June. Last year was a good one. This year will be too. Just might be a little sooner and might not last as long.

Trout fishing on the North branch in June with the march Browns or up on Pa's little Jay for the sulphurs. Or hit that little private water I have access to on Fishing Creek in Pa for brown trout out of a 20 foot wide spring/free stone creek that look like they came out of Lake Ontario or southern Argentina.

July... July sucks. But you said I could go anywhere. So, I'd fly up to cape cod on Southwest "bing" fares ($50 a trip) or visit my parents cabin on Lake Ontario for smallmouth as wide as your face. In early July they are still guarding fry and get mighty ticked off when anything approaches them in the shallow channels people cut into the bed rock to get a boat to shore.

Or back to the Potomac for some night time walleye. Or in early July hit the white fly hatch near Pennyfield and chase them up river as the month progresses. See a theme here? There's no reason to ever leave the Potomac.

August-night time top water for smallmouth close to home. Snakehead fishing the grass matts around Mattawoman Creek and Piscataway.

If I could go anywhere, I'd fly up to the Pere Marquette, the Little manastee and go to "battle in the woods" with giant king salmon in a stream no wider than a pick up truck and lose 50 fish for everyone I land. Why, I don't know, but it's fun. Or Alaska for silvers but I've never done that.

September-Still way too hot but the mid Chesapeake Bay fishes very well with breaking fish and Spanish mackerel. You could chase breaking fish all day long and put up triple digits of fish from stripers, to blues to Spanish mackerel. Many of the schools are small fish but some will have all large 20 something inch fish and a 20 something inch bluefish on a fly rod or light tackle in the open bay will pull some drag for sure. Rather acrobatic too.

Mid September- The massive coho salmon run that usually ascend the lower salmon river. I only say the lower river because once they make it above I81 they vanish and by the next day most of the fish are sitting in the man made concrete hatchery raceways. They literally blow the entire river in a day but if you can somehow hit them when they first enter the river sometime between Sept 5th and the 16th, well, you'll see more fish than rocks and they spend more time in the air than the water. Crazy suicidal psychotic fish they are. Love me some hos. Just next to impossible for a married man with kids to hit that run just right. You would have to take off ten days in September and fish the lower river every day. 9 days of ten you might only see one or two early king salmon moving up river but on that one day you just might encounter thousands upon thousands of 8 to 15 pound pissed off coho salmon all running up river at once. Try to find them the next day and they will be gone.

October-Steelhead, the most insane pissed off fish that swims in fresh water is an October and November steelhead. IN October there are tons of king salmon around and many of them are ripe as can be dropping eggs all over the place on the Salmon River. But the smaller, torpdeo shaped and minded steel are about as crazy and they come. I like to fish fast runs or slow riffles this time of year and swing, not bottom bounce, egg patterns. They will hit them just like a spey fly intended for atlantics and instantly go air born.

The above steelhead was one of my first Salmon River steelhead.  It was a day on the DSR in mid October during the peak of the Salmon Run, overcast/rainny conditions all day and hungry angry steelhead chewing up drag all day long.  This first fish was also one of my largest.  I guess that's where the addiction and facination came from. 

Plan a late October early November trip to the Erie tribs immediately after a rain and you'll fall on your face tripping over steelhead.

December the steelhead fishing continues. Or the muskie action heats up back home,s o does the striper bite in the Ocean. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel can offer some legendary nights sight fishing under the light line to cow striped bass mixed in with thousands of 20 inch "dinks". The friendly gannets could pave the way in the ocean to a blitz or the pilings of the bridge can hold watermelon size fish nearly every drift.

It's January again, stay in the ocean, stay in the bay, stay steelhead fishing because the crowds will be gone but the snow is measured in meters. Or hit the Potomac in search of musky because a good day musky fishing is just seeing one follow your fly or lure. But why do I do it? Why do I fish and not concentrate on a career or... okay, I'm changing subjects. My wife called me a "Degenerate fisherman" the other day. Hey, it's April, hands down the best month of the year for every fish that swims. Get out there. 

Susquehanna Flats 4-18 and 4-19 2012

Ed and Jon’s striper Adventure 

April 19, 2012

The Susquehanna Flats is the place to be in mid to late April if you’re a diehard fisherman, or any fishermen for that matter.  Every year millions of stripers ascend the Chesapeake Bay to spawn and many of them move to the top of the bay to feed on the bounty of herring moving towards the Susquehanna River.  It’s an orgy of biblical proportions.  The “experts” say that typically fish do not spawn on the “Flats” or the area of the mouth of the Susquehanna River that is like an enormous sediment trap collecting all the deposition of silt flowing downstream from Pa and NY.  But this just so happens to be a prime area for fish to congregate every year and because it is so popular with recreational fishermen, it is one area that the DNR permits catch and release fishing where spawning occurs.  All the other rivers, except the Potomac, are closed to fishing this time of year to allow the fish to do their thing.  Except this one.  I’ve been fishing it for close to ten years.  In that time I’ve seen some epic fishing with giant fish attacking top water lures for hours in less than three feet of water. 

Well, Ed decided to meet myself and John Chucoski up at the flats on Thursday morning.  Originally John and I had planned to fish together but then he had another friend who wanted to go with a well equipped trighton jet boat.  I used to fish this area with a 22’ deep v center console with a trolling motor on the bow so just about any boat will work.  I’ve also circled the entire 25 mile area with a 14’ john boat so if you pick your days, you’re okay.  I made the phone call to Ed and he was all about it, especially since I sent him a few links of recent fish reports to drool over.  But John’s friend canceled so John C and I spent most of the day on Wednesday piecing together a tiny 16’ beat up lowe John boat.... in the rain I might add.  So it’s 4pm in Mt. Airy and we finally have it working properly.  Now we just have about 3 hours of traffic to fight. But we got there just before sunset and John caught a fish on top water literally on his first cast.  Prick. 

I struggled at first but threw spoons and caught a few too.  These were small fish in the 18 inch category. Then dark soon rolled around but we stuck it out.  Once ten o’clock rolled around and neither of us have ever been able to stick a fish in the true dark hours on the flats (river yes, not the flats), we started finding the fish.  Just when I was ready to throw in the towel to move up river or well down the flats John hooks up with a fish of a life time.  We had the fish at boat side what seemed like a half dozen times but every time I’d go for the leader to tail or gill the fish, it’s surge back down under the boat. Well, one of those times it rubbed the line under the boat and broke us off.  We estimated that fish in the high 40” category and with spring time fat striped bass, that also equates to pounds.  A 50 inch rockfish (striper) is almost always right at or near that 50 pound number.  We stuck quite a few 30 inch class fish in that same area but for some reason left fish to find fish on a popular rip down south, in the middle of the night on a new moon with cloud cover.  We were basically traveling 8 miles in the open bay with no GPS chart plotter.  We get to a spot that has produced epic days for us in the past and blanked out.  It was near 1:30am when we finally gave up.

We were getting our vehicles ready to spend the night in under the train tracks around 2am.  Then here comes a train!  IN the middle of the night!  Okay, move over to the other ramp and manage to catch two hours shut eye until Ed texts me an hour early.  Ed is a real die hard. Making the trip alone in the dark for an early departure and he’s 30 minutes early.  I ran to get some coffee and he’s already at the ramp wondering where I was.  I slept there, I swear.

So we hit the spots where we had fish a few hours earlier at prime time before sunrise and came up empty.  I couldn’t believe it. So we later joined the masses of boats up north and caught quite a few “dink” rockfish in the 16 to 22 inch size.  They wanted a jig (1/2 or ¾ oz jig head with long skinny chartreuse plastic called a bass assassin) here ripped hard off the soft bottom in about 8 feet of water.  We couldn’t find the larger fish so in Ed’s Jet boat we circled the flats and searched and searched.  Most people run the perimeter of the shallow flats in the marked channels.  But with a jet boat, a rock proof jet boat capable of skimming on sand we ran straight up the gut in a foot or so of water. Ed was completely comfortable running on plane too.  All was good until we’d spot pod after pod of striped bass swirl to get away from our boat.  We must have stopped a dozen times to cast at the swirls in clear shallow water.  Then we finally made a positive ID. These fish were the legendary giants we were after, all up on the flat impenetrable to all the other ocean and lower bay going deep v vessels playing with dinks up north.  The masses of fish were in the skinny water and we had them all to ourselves.  We each saw fish that were well over trophy potential as they lazily swam past and even under our boat in about a foot of water. But they just wouldn’t hit a thing we were throwing.  I did get a few dinks on spoons but we knew there were monsters out there, they just had too much sex on the brain and were not feeding.  But seeing those fish and being so far up in the shallow stuff and having them all to ourselves was something I will never forget.  Now we just need to figure them out.  I know it can be done as I’ve done it many times before.  I just wished like heck I could put the musky guru himself on a good top water bite of spring Chesapeake Bay slobs.  He’d forget real quick about musky for a while.  But it wasn’t meant to be.  We burned an entire tank of fuel chasing only small fish.  Towards the end of the day the tides must have been perfect and the wind was blowing our almost empty fuel tank and boat back to the ramp but the fish were finally active.  The tiny ones anyway.  Ed put it together too and was schooling me hard catching a fish every single cast with multiple strikes per cast too on the good old lucky craft.  He probably caught 10 fish in ten casts and we wondered what was wrong when a cast didn’t get hit, all while drifting west in a 10mph east wind for probably an hour.  There literally must be over a million fish up there.  All tiny males, spewing milt even though they were so young.  Most fish were 16 inches or so with a few near 20 maybe. 

We called it a day with me practically passing out on the rear deck.  I knew I was in no shape to drive home yet, just before sunset too.  Just at the perfect hour. I said my good byes and had to refuel with some food and 4 mountain dews prior to driving home.  But that itch caught me one more time and I just had to go throw a surface popper on a rip up river well accessible from shore.  The tides and water level was perfect.  The sun was setting just right, the cows should invade any second now.  Nada.  I had just fished for 30 hours straight with maybe three hours break in-between.  I was cooked.  But made it home safely by midnight.  Earning to return.  All it takes is that one tide change, a maybe a little rain, some variable to turn the dinks into giants and numbers can equal incomprehensible catches on those flats.  They can potentially fish better than anywhere else in the world with respect to size and numbers in a given time but it only lasts for maybe three weeks a year and only on years without heavy rains.  So, now’s the time.  Maybe ten more days left before they close the flats to fishing for striped bass and when the season up there returns on June 1, the big girls will have long since left for their summer homes in Cape Cod.  So when are we going back?

Here’s some fish porn.

This area was well up on the skinny stuff and no body but us and the fish dare made the journey.  There was just something eerie and special about that cross on that one lone stump.  Glad John and I didn't tbone that thing the night before.  But wow were there some giants up near there.  With lock jaw. :angry:

Ed putting on a field day hooking up almost every cast towards the end of the day. 

Except they were mostly this size. But they sure could still put a bend in a rod.  I just wish he could have felt a biggun.  Oh well.  Next time.

Here's a 30 something inch fish that John C caught on Wednesday night. Our first success fishing the flats at night.  His modified crystal minnow was hammering the fish.  I think this fish hit while he was making that good night sweet phone call to his wife.  I can't believe he didn't drop the phone in the water. 

The spawn is on and the fish have arrived...

Today was a good day on the flats. I only know this because I'm currently an Internet expert fishermen.  Or in other words I can't personally confirm it unfortunately. But ever since late last week the fish have arrived.  Capt Pete Dahlberg or www.walleyepete.com put his clients on some huge fish today.  Two 50# fish in one day on artificial, while casting, is about as good as it gets. I'm still looking for my first 50.  Musky or striper, I don't care. Maybe this will be the year? For both?  Here are the two Capt Pete put his clients on today while fishing the Susquehanna Flats near Havre De Grace, MD today.  The larger fish was caught on the morning trip while jigging 6 inch chartreuse BKD's and the second fish was caught in the middle of the afternoon sun on a #17 tony Accetta Spoon.  They are about as simple a lure to use as they get.  Just cast and reel in, just not too fast as to make them come out of the water. If you stop reeling to drink your beer or scratch yourself, no worries.  The pulsating flutter drives them nuts.  That one lure has been around since before I was born and it still keeps on tallying up the big fish.  The perfect herring look a like over those shallow grassy silt laden flats. 


First the 50

 Then the tiny 49 inch

I will say again, these were on lures, not boring bait or trolling.  They were caught and released. Water temperature was low 60's but air temps soared into the high 80's and there were several reports of fish spawning on the Susky flats.   I also heard of excellent catches on fly gear with most guys even getting away with floating and intermediate lines with top water poppers and deceivers working well.  THE TIME IS NOW.  Quit your jobs, get sick, whatever it takes. 

Here's a link to real-time water quality data.
http://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/newmontech/contmon/eotb_results_graphs.cfm?station=havredegrace


Below is a little info of what the river is doing right now.  I'm sure that spot John C and I like in the river is producing crazy numbers right now.  But you have to fish the river flows.  See below for tomorrows release schedule and fish those high water times. 

April 17, 2012

This has been pretty consistent the last few days, fro the Conowingo Hotline: 1888-457-4076

1200-0600: two small units at 10,000cfs

0600-0800-four small 3 large units at 50,000cfs

08-1000 -4 small one large unit at 32,000 cfs

1000-1800-2 small at 11k

1800-2200:  4 small and two large 41,000 cfs

2200-2400   2 small at 11,000cfs

479 American shad caught today all east lift

4300 were caught this season

On Saturday, April 14,2012 I made a quick trip to visit the Hanna's on Kent Island. I brought quite a few heavy trolling outfits and managed to rig Pete's sea pro up like a porcupine.  We trolled 6 lines with parachutes and one umbrella and brought a few light jigging rods in case we ever saw some gannets diving.  I don't think I saw the first gannet.  First we went out with the kids and tooled around without a bite.  But the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and I got some practice dragging a few baits while I manned the helm and ran the rods. 

Then Pete and I went out for a little over an hour on our own and found at least one fish out there.  It hit the 7 year old crusty, rusted chartreuse alien head parachute set about 200 feet back.  Pete man handled the rod, struggled some at first but got it done.  I think one of his quotes was, " I could get use to this."  He was shocked at the size of the fish.  But it wasn't really that big.  Kind of average, around 40 inch and full of eggs.  She fought well for a trolled fish and at the last second dove under the boat and almost wrapped in the two close in rods.  The fish was released unharmed. 

Counting back to Thursday...  April 12, 2012

I met legendary Dan Hodkinson on Route 70 to show him the Susquehanna flats.  Dan was the only Musky guide on the Potomac for a while so he's legendary in my eyes.  Then he decided to hang it up because of the added pressure and the time involved in planning for the perfect trip.  We met at 9am but made the call to fish the Potomac because of the wind and that I got a bad report from a guide just moments before I showed up.  Then later I read another reliable report that the flats did fish quite well that day and the day after.  Oh well.  Potomac is was after we wasted two hours running back to Dan's house to grab some other gear.  He was more than well stocked for the flats but not so much the Potomac.  His garage destroys mine with respect to fishing equipment.  Plus he was running an 18' G3, 2009 or so, with a 65/90HP jet, 4 stroke that had plenty of power. An upper river fishing machine. We worked the usual spots at fletchers, missing insane numbers of strikes and only landing small stripers.  I'm sure we hooked and lost some good ones though.  Even the catfish were kind of small.  Here's Dan with a decent 10 pounder just as the sun was setting and the tide was about slack.  It would have been nice to hit that spot with a little more tide. I have a feeling the fish are there.  Probably won't last another week though.  But this is the time for those crazy numbers. 

 

So, I've not only been busy fishing as you can see, although in the last week not as much as week's past, I've also been busy on the computer studying aerials, charts and river meanders preparing for the musky post spawn bite which last year we referred to as the musky blitz. I've done a lot of home work and figured out where those 50 inch musky were coming from in Virginia this past winter from the guys of New Angle Fishing Company. They reported, "From a river in Virginia." Well, I made a call to a popular shop, asked the where and got it down between two rivers. Then spent a great deal of time on google earth and maps. Me's thinks I's got it. AHAHAHAH



Okay, back to the stripers. Big winds and rains coming for this weekend. Could but a huge dent in the fishing from the Chesapeake opener this weekend to especially the rivers. Plus any major rise in water could wash away all those freshly spawned eggs from the walleye and the musky but it should help the striped bass to a degree. One day I'll go into the science behind water levels and fish recruitment, or larvae survival. Basically, the more water and sediment in Chesapeake Bay's tidal spawning areas the better the survival rate is for the striped bass young. However, move up river to non tidal areas where flash flooding is common and strong flows scour river bottoms and species that have spawned earlier this spring like Walleye, and Musky, the high water is detrimental to the young fish's survival. Same with bass too. We receive excellent recruitment years where there is low water like there is currently and terrible spawns up river when the rivers flood for much of the spring. The opposite occurs for the striped bass. The annual striped bass spawn survey results are usually better after high water springs and far worse during low water drought conditions like we are currently experiencing. But, like always, conditions can and do change.



So, if you own a fishing rod and enjoy world class fishing, the next few days might be the best of the season. Heck it might be the best the Chesapeake Bay has seen in years and in my opinion is some of the best in the world right now. I know the Susquehanna Flats catch and release fishery is fishing far better than it has in the last several years. So is the Potomac. So, like Kayak Kevin would say, "Get On'Em!"

Prime time

April 8, 2012

Easter Sunday

It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to fish anywhere other than my beloved Potomac River.  If my river were high and off color, I'd probably make the trip to Stonewall Jackson Lake in good old West by God Virginia to fish for mammoth size muskies that take refuge in the shallow back bays this time of year.   But a lot of fisheries peak in April where I have connections and know how, like the legendary 100 pound tarpon in the Keys where one of my best friends from College works for the Planning department down there to another friend who is a charter captain to non-stop steelhead up north but why would I leave the Potomac in April? I always tell people, even if I lived in famous fishing places like the Keys or even Guam, I'd always come back to DC in April. My favorite month.

So the Susquehanna flats just hasn't started yet. On Thursday John C. found a school of fish but they were mostly small. When I talked to him in the morning it sure sounded like it was going to be an awesome trip. We’ve had it in the books for a year probably. It’s an unwritten rule between John C and I that we know we are fishing somewhere on the full moon, especially when the big cows are around. Then I get a report about the Potomac that was good, then I see that the wind is going to blow at the flats. Not good. Figured we'd fish the river mostly for the larger fish, this is what we planned so we are sticking to it. Well, we set up camp, fish for shad and stripers and there just isn't the amount of water needed for good fishing. We can't win. Most years this time of year there's too much water and too muddy. This year hardly any water and the power company is not sticking to the schedule they posted about that very same day. The water releases are much shorter and much less than their hotline reports. Thursday was a bust. We ended up retiring to a camp fire and more than a few beers early. But since we did that too late, it was tough waking up for the first early morning bite. And we were sleeping river side. I should be shot. Oh well. There wasn't a bite to speak of anyway. Slowest fishing I've ever seen there. When you can’t even catch a shad in the Susquehanna River at the start of the second week of April with almost 60 degree water temps, than something is very wrong.

So John goes home and I hit the flats, or might as well be the open Chesapeake Bay with 25mph gusts in a 14' V john boat. Not the smartest but figured since the wind was from the north I could hide in the northern portion of the flats. I know the area very well as I used to fish it in my 22'cc for several years and know every square inch but this was going to be different for sure. I managed to avoid the worst of the wind and waves except no one told the fish. Most of them were down south from what I've heard. Not a thing and I worked my tail off. I took a beating, got soaked, wind burn, sun burn for not a single strike.

Headed home early on Friday a few hours before prime sunset with my tail between my legs and made it home in time to take the wife out to dinner. Courtney and I plan to do a bike ride in the morning since the kids are at their grandparents. Then I get a call from my best man, he wants to fish the next day. I tell him I can't, but then hear from another friend that the Potomac was hot. Okay, what do I do? I lower my head, ask, beg the wife. She's okay with it, just be home by noon. No problem.

Hit the river pre dawn. Fish on right away, big fish. Wraps me into a rock ledge. Gone. Then one 5 pound striper, a baby, then the sun comes up above the trees. The bite stops dead in its tracks. We make a move around 11am and found the mother lode. I really mean it too. Non-stop hook ups on sassy shads, cut bait and live perch. Crazy crazy. Lost I don't want to know how many. But guess what, I'm supposed to be working on the yard and the house at noon. Guess I'm going to miss it. My best man is also my lawyer and I told him I might need him but I'm not missing this bite. I stuck it out till 2, hands cut to pieces, tired, frightened about going home. I made it home in ample time, fixed the toilet and got the house ready before the in-laws showed up. Even thought about heading back down there once everyone else went to sleep but since I was on the couch last night, I slept through the full moon. Oh well, hanging with the family today. The kids already did their Easter egg hunt. We have some brunch planned for later over here. Then who knows, maybe I can come up with an excuse to take Ryan to the river. I don’t know how much longer it can last. The little fish have shown up with the larger fish. That means one thing, the spawn is near if it hasn't happened already and they could bug out of here in days or even seconds.

God I love April.

Downtown DC Late March

March 31, 2012

The hickory shad fishing which average around 17 inches is absolutely insane right now in Washington DC.  You could rack up double, even triple digits if you stuck it out long enough. Great fun on ultra light tackle or 5 and 6 wt fly rods with full sinking line.  On Thursday I fished with my son Ryan who's 5 in our John boat and did well.  He stripped in the fly rod when I hooked them.  Many fish were coming in two at a time with two flies as a dropper rig.  They are hitting shad darts and spoons too.  Chartreuse and pink seem to be hot, and orange.

Then we set up for some catfish on Thursday with Ryan and Friday night with another friend.  On Thursday I caught countless blue catfish that averaged around 20 pounds.  Went to take a picture of John Chucoski's fish, it was enormous, 50 pound category, maybe more.  I have a picture of it on my camera that's in the boat I think.  I was using my new muskie mojo rod with my son Ryan. The clicker went off and he dove for the rod.  He grabs it, the butt section gets stuck under the bench seat, snap.  Darn it!  I wanted the 8.5 footer anyway.  Just out of a good heavy rod for a while. 

Friday night, more of the same.  First we got there around 6pm, doubles common, hickory shad left and right, some close to 20 inches even.  Then got some gizzard shad and went for catfish.  NONSTOP giant blue cats.  It used to be nonstop giant striped bass but their numbers have dropped off big time.  There's only a few huge fish around this time of year where 5 or 6 years ago we'd land a half a dozen in a single tide that averaged 30 pounds.  Oh well, catfish it is for now.  Another fish near 50 pounds and countless 20 something pound kitties.  Turd rollers is another term to describe the big, invasive blue catfish that usually spin on the line in the strong current but when you get one over 40 pounds you have a tug of war on your hands for sure. 

Get out there! 

Here's my friend Diego with a giant. 

Here's me with more of an average fish. They literally must blanket the bottom too.  No stopping them now. 

All three pictures above are of John C. with a very impressive catfish.  It's all the same fish in that 50 inch category.  From a 50 year old wooden row boat that's probably caught more fish than Hedron and Eagle Claw.

Ryan getting it done with some hickory shad.  It was fast and furious and it isn't even April yet?

Potential state record DC crappie.  Except DC isn't a state and this fish won't qualilfy for the mustad million dollar state record promotion.