Temperature Drop equals prime time...

I've been fishing river smallmouth lately.  What river you ask? The Potomac of course.  But the size is way down but it sure beats a stick in the eye.  The Susquehanna river is producing big fish on a regular basis from what I'm seeing on the fishing boards and the social media everything fishing board known as facebook.  I've gotten out lately with my son and on my lonesome a few times with the light 5wt fly rod.  I think that fly rod has been collecting dust.  I broke the tip on it before last spring, maybe the spring before.  It's nothing special just a 5wt GL2 Loomis but it was my first decent rod I got back in College and it's caught just about everything.  It was my go to steelhead rod for a while too. 

Anyway, the river temp is down into the mid to even low 70's.  Or was at least. First this weekend I set up for Musky with the big stuff but blanked on Sunday morning at first light.  Water temps were 73 degrees.  I then decided to wet wade the river in the fast water above Harper's Ferry.  Arguably the best smallmouth water on the Potomac.  The first few casts with a CK Hellgramite I hooked and landed a nice channel cat!  A few smallies later another one jumped on the same fly. 

This is my recent order tied by William Heresniak of Eastern Trophies.

 

 

Here's the channel cat with the hellgrimite in its mouth.  My boat in the back ground but I'm on foot.

 

Then the tubing hatch started about 1130 and pretty much shut down the bite.  The smallmouth were committing suicide well but most were about the same size, ~8.  At least the tubing hatch was accompanied by a bikini hatch.  So all was not lost. 

 

On the walk back to the car I encountered plenty of carp mudding in the shallows and had multiple shots at car.  Some refusals too.  So I got close.  But wanted to be be home to spend the afternoon with my son. 

 

Later in the week Ryan and I hit the river closer to home.  The section of river below Violets lock is very similar in character to the section around Harper's Ferry.  Excellent habitat with decent numbers of fish.  My son did well using a 1/16oz jig head and a 2" white power grub.  He wasn't casting that far but still outfished me with the 5wt and fly rod with CK Hellgramite and flash fly clousers.  Excellent afternoon. 

 

 

 

On the Monday, Alex and I hit the river around Edwards Ferry and I'd venture to say the fish were on average a little larger there.  Find the large boulders and you'll find the fish. 

 

Prime time for perfect weather, perfect temperature and some hungry smallmouth bass. 

Yellow Breeches White Fly hatch

Or lack there of. I fished the fly only water last night and did not see many bugs at all. The calendar says it should be prime time. The weather this weekend and yesterday were perfect. I think things are just a little behind maybe? The hexes showed up at 730 or with some fish responding. I don't think I saw the first white fly till well past sunset like 830 or so and there were probably more caddis then anything else. The fish were rising and popping till after 9 in complete darkness but just no gang busters and not many bugs at all. It will probably happen in greater concentrations here in a few days. Will I try again? Who knows. I don't know why I do it every year. You miss something like 90 out of 100 takes, 90% of the fish are small like less than 12 inches and numbers are not that good. But each year I get very excited. The anticipation that you are going to hammer the fish keeps me coming back I think. That moment when there are hundreds to thousands of bugs within eye site with fish rising everywhere but on your fly sends this feeling of total determination and earning for revenge that I think it just keeps me coming back. I keep telling myself that I'll fish elsewhere outside of the fly only water. Last night I came close and stopped at Williams Grove. There's a feeder stream there larger than Boiling Spring and the water felt cooler. Plus I think there are more and better riffles equating to better habitat. But it's not the C&R water and many of the fish are probably cleared out. Or maybe that's just what everyone thinks. So yesterday I made the 1.5 hour drive in the evening, when many other waters much closer to home were fishing far better, and got skunked. I could have just as easily gotten skunked at Williams Grove in the open water or who knows, stumbled upon a gold mine without two fly fishermen within talking distance. The crowds were not bad yet but still a lot more than ideal. I did not get the spot I wanted last night in the riffle and had to settle for the pool/run water. Sure enough that guy did very well but he also admitted to catching more fish before the hatch. He was using a "tangerine shrimp, size 20" before the hatch and was doing rather well. He would almost just let it sit in the riffle and twitch it every now and then and they hit it as it swung or swam in the swift water.

I never did throw something big last night after dark. I went as far as grabbing an articulated mouse fly tied like a large gurgler from my SUV and placing it in the pocket of my waste pack but never bothered tying it on. Oh well. Till next time.

 

Gearing up, Archery Season

It's that time of year again....  Maryland Archery Season opens in a few weeks.  Time to start pulling those cameras.  I've let my one camera sit over  a salt block for nearly a month now.  I pulled the card yesterday with only 300 something photos.  If I had corn down I'd get 300 photos in a day.  Out of the three hundred photos, on the second to last day these guys show up.  Both studs.  Both 3.5 to 4.5 years old probably.  Both mature trophy's and both are on the hit list for sure.  I also just picked up a large farm in Poolesville which ordinarily would be a gold mine.  Something guys would pay as much as $10k a season to hunt.  Which is absolutely insane to me but I'll take my little 3 acre suburban spot when deer like this are there.  Of course the photo is terrible.  Maybe someone can enhance it for me.  Either way, I know there are two shooters and I know where I'll be on opening day. 

 

 

Next years quarry

The studs.  That guy on the right is no joke.  200 pounds, ten pointer? 130+ inch?  To be honest I have no idea what 130+" would be but that deer is nice. 

 

 

 

Here they are again.  The guy on the left is the beast but the deer on the block isn't half bad either.  I know I have competition too. 

 

Annual summer Canada Trip August 2014

 

I made a tip back to Canada to hit the mouth of the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa River again. Both could easily produce the next world record musky. Just casting a lure into waters like that sends a chill down my spine. I blanked at my parents who live in Kingston Canada, near the Mouth of the St. Lawrence on Lake Ontario. I had three kids with me and basically could only get out for a couple hours each morning while they were still sleeping. Even still, I was in the right place, just maybe not the right time of year?


Then on to the Ottawa River in a section of the River referred to by Jim Saric from the Muksy Hunter as 'the last bastion of pure musky fishing left in the world'! The Ottawa River Musky Factory has been filling my facebook pages the last few weeks of countless 50 inch fish. In July they scored over 50 fish in a single month! With multiple big fish outings usually occurring around the major moon phases. I was hitting the river for three days in-between a major moon phase. But how could I lose? I put my cousin on his first two musky last year.

As soon as we got to the lodge I unpacked the car, had to drop the boat in the water and park the car and trailer outside of the island. I ran out on my own for literally ten minutes hoping for action. But I had three kids on their own, Jake at 17 years old, Gabe at 15 now 16 and Ryan at 7 years. We decided to fish off the dock and literally on the first cast with a spinner bait I hook up with a good fish. It had a dark color to it with a good girth and some length. Could it be? First cast! Ryan instantly wanted the rod but I was reluctant to give it up when it could be my first Canadian Musky! It fought well and was in the weeds. I worked it through and it jumped a few times revealing a trophy smallmouth. I let Ryan reel in the rest. Nice bass. Just not quite what I thought it was. This was on the 1/2oz double Colorado blade black spinner bait with the elongated skirt. The same lure that score the two musky on last year. Is usually my best bass lure here in Canada too. Ryan even missed a bowfin on it at my parents earlier in the week. I saw the fish track down the lure, hit it and hang around the boat for a while. Anyway, here's the smallmouth. Not bad. But where are all the little fish that usually hang around the dock? Was this guy eating them all? The place is usually polluted with small yellow perch and sunfish.

With no little fish at the dock we hit the water. Just as a strong storm was brewing. The barometer must have been dropping and the skies were turning ugly. After a perfect blue bird day. The weather recently had been outstanding. I take Ryan and Jake fishing just around the corner in a known musky hot spot where I've had action before but inevitably lost the fish. A big fish too near 50" maybe. We get out there and I'm kind of psyching up the whole outing. I was talking about how happy I was to finally be throwing huge lures in the land of giants. There's just something about that feeling. I think all the drama was getting to Ryan. He doesn't like it when I start to get excited because of a large predatory fish. He gets a little spooked. Well, he was so spooked that during the heavy wind and angry looking skies, a fly lands on his hand. This scared him so much he threw his rod in the water! I kid you not. I had to lunge forward and grab the bobber slowly sinking out of sight. I can't believe I caught it. But I also yelled at Ryan which totally turned him off. Too bad too because he was throwing that spinner bait like a pro.

We later drop Ryan off and Jake and I hit the water at sunset. This is the first evening. Not shortly after we see a massive surface explosion over deep water right smack in the middle of the river. This kind of surface explosion was no question a fish feeding on another fish. There were multiple blow ups occurring repetitively as if a fish was jumping away trying to escape and a much larger fish was on the chase. So we leave the weed edge in 15 feet of water to try the deep stuff where the fish had just surfaced. It was now near 80 feet deep but the sonar was lit up with fish from top to bottom but mostly near the bottom. Probably a school of mooneye getting hammered by musky. But musky are not supposed to school? It didn't take long and Jake yells, stops reeling and just points at the water, "There he is, THERE HE IS!" I tried to tell him to do a figure 8. Just keep the lure moving. Even if you don't see a fish but especially when you see one. Well, that was his first legit follow and first encounter. Missed opportunity. But wow was that exciting. We head back in to get ready for bed. I had been up since 5 and was exhausted.

The next morning I'm up well before sunrise without an alarm. Musky will do that to you. Or maybe it's just me. I hit the spot with the blow up with zero action. Then make it to a mouth of a large bay an hour or so after sunrise. I'm working a spook and not really paying attention. Then it happens. The fish went completely air born like they often do attacking a top water lure.  I was in about 6 feet of water on a weed edge but for some reason decided to cast to deeper water and that is when the fish hit.  This fish was the type of fish this place was famous for.  Easily pushing that legendary 50” mark.  A true giant, probably older than I am with more than a few musky fishermen’s hearts on its wall of fame.  Would you believe it, in bright sun, the fish completely missed the f…ing lure! This was a walk the dog spook magnum, same lure that caught my last large musky on the last super moon in early July back home.  The same lure that several fish have missed also.  Something about that walk the dog retrieve.  The side to side motion, although almost irresistible to musky, must also be difficult to calculate the exact position.  When the fish came completely out of the water, showing off all its glory within spitting distance of the boat, it then landed horizontally in a huge splash.  It then proceeded to just lay motionless at the surface for a few seconds.  Enough time for me to start jerking my lure again.  But with zero interest and the fish just sunk slowly out of sight.  Vanishing from my dreams.  As you can imagine, I tried about a dozen other lures in the general vicinity to no avail.  I couldn’t believe it.  Time to tuck my tail between my legs and head on home.  It was time to make my son breakfast like I did every morning this week.  After a full musky effort skunk fest each morning of course. 

We all played in the pool and returned after some poutine (cheese fries smothered in gravy, aka Canadian Crack) from Montebello.  This time we had a full boat with Gabe, Ryan, Jake and I.  I couldn’t tell Gabe or Ryan that we were going fishing for this musky or else they wouldn’t have liked to come.  But Gabe was cool with giving us a few minutes effort and Ryan had on a worm for some panfish.  As soon as we arrived we see a huge essox surface not far from where I had the morning encounter.  Jake soon starts screaming and pointing again.  He got another follow!  And did the exact same thing except this time I think he got in half a figure 8.  If he would have just kept his mouth shut, not pointed or gotten overly excited and kept moving his rod, he might have hooked that fish.  But landing it with the rod he had is another story.  Was it a pike?  Or was it Mr. Big from earlier?  He did say it was much larger than the fish from the night before.  Who knows, I never saw it.  Not soon after did we get hit with a scary looking storm and had to leave with rain pelting us the entire run home.  The remainder of the week pretty much saw me beating that spot to death.  Jake and I got out together every evening after dinner just at sunset.  Prime time.  On that first evening we encountered another boat both specifically working this area, both using huge lures and following through EVERY cast with a thorough figure 8 or three.  These guys knew what they were doing.  I later found out this was the Ottawa River Musky Factory, with a GLoomis pro on board. I also came to find out they boated 10 muskies those three days, the same three days I was on the water and we ran into each other three or 4 times too.  Unbelievable.

On the last evening Jake and I hit the water.  I was still muskyless.  Jake had not even caught a perch off the dock although he hadn’t tried too much.  Ryan had beat those fish to death.  He even helped teach three other kids from the lodge how to fish, unhook a fish and how to set the hook. That made me proud.  But Jake was fishless. We hit near where we first saw a nice fish and Jake hooks up on the figure 8!  It’s a nice musky, not huge but a musky no less and as soon as I grab the net the hook pulls.  This time Jake saw the fish, dropped the rod into a figure 8 and sure enough the fish struck on the first turn.  We both saw the whole thing.  Now that's exciting musky fishing.  Cool!  But still no fish in the boat.  The musky hit the spinner bait. 

With the final minutes of our trip nearing an end we returned to the giant’s lair.  I beat that spot to death the last few days and never did have another encounter.   Jake is casting a musky prop bait right into the weeds fowling in from time to time.  Then a huge surface strike and fish on!  It’s a nice pike near 6 pounds maybe.  Not soon afterwards he gets another pike on the spinner bait but still no musky.  I once heard from a very experienced musky angler that where there's pike, there won't be musky and where there are musky, there won't be any pike.  Maybe there's some truth to that.  Maybe the Ottawa River Musky Factory Guys landed my fish and she's since left the area.  We finished off the evening with a glorious sunset but an ominous storm threatening to cut our trip short.   Jake had a follow from a gar. That was it, the last evening but at least I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets that was that much more special with that ever present feeling that at any given second the largest predatory freshwater fish in North America could come knocking. 

One more morning.  The night before I could barely sleep. I kept thinking that I only had one more morning and that I should get good nights sleep because I was the only driver the following day.  The kids had to be back for some band practice on a Friday!  Plus it was Gabe's BDay.  But why come home to go to work on a Friday when I've taken the rest of the week off???  We had played monopoly till past midnight the night before with Ryan taking top honors. Later that night the dang bat returned and was flying around my room at 3am.  I think it woke me as it crawled on the ceiling making these menacing sounds as its claws scratched the old log columns. What was I going to do?  If Ryan woke up he’d be frightened and I’ve have to due something about for sure then.  So I hid under the covers.  Only peaking from time to time to wait for my chance to lock it out of the room.  Well, that worked but not till 4 something.  At this point I might as well go fishing.  I was on the water well, well before sunrise.  I hit some of my favorite spots where I previously had a follow from some essox and a couple other locations and of course beat the same spot as before and struck out, big time.  I’m Canadian Musky cursed.    At least looking at the pictures from the trip of everyone Else's smiles sooths me to some degree.  But I have the musky bug bad.  And there is only one cure. Only one thing left to do now…. Start planning redemption. 

My mother with a bass on Lake Ontario.  The small little bay in front of the their house is always a hot spot.  In the spring it fills with giant smallies and provides excellent wade/fly fishing for trophy smallmouth.

The kids at the bar having breakfast.

Ryan beating up on some smallmouth right next to the pool.  We even live lined a few fish on quick strike rigs while I sunbathed.  It's 70 feet of water within a cast from shore here.

Jake Jones with a nice top water pike. 

Smaller fish but nice all the same. 

Toofs

 

 

 

 

Invasive action

Diego and I got out for a couple hours this weekend.  We first wanted to float the upper river a lot closer to home but thunderstorms changed that idea to a quick tidal pool on the Potomac in downtown DC.  The canoe was still on the roof from the day before so why not.  The trick to fishing the tidal areas and creeks is to concentrate at low tide.  Why?  Because it pulls and forces the fish and water out of the floodplain. Out of the forest, out of sea of spatter dock and concentrates the fish to the channels that always hold water.  These said channels are usually not very wide.  Any other time I'd fish DC or the tidal Potomac like in the spring for the big cows, I'd concentrate around high tide and the strong current after high tide.  The currents are often canceled out with an incoming tide combined with the natural outflowing current of the river.  No current almost always equals poor fishing.  So... what tide was it when Diego and I finally hit the water at 10am?  It was high tide.  Oh well. A wise man once said, "Fish when you can."  We work our way into the the most difficult corner only accessible in kayak or canoe.  There's a tributary here that I've seen choker block full of 3 pound bass and lure crazed catfish.  Not to leave out the target species... the top water loving Snakehead.  I couldn't believe it when I came up empty in the creek.  It was perfect.  Plenty of water, a confined channel but no fish???  I think it needed more of a current and less water elsewhere.  The spatter dock fields were completely flooded.  The new moon tide had pushed water way back into the trees.  Casting even a weedless live target frog back into there is futile.  We had one blow up and that's it.  Then we decided to paddle through the middle.  I stood up in the canoe while Diego sat in the front.  We spooked something to our right.  Then I saw it, a good size snakehead cruising out in the open.  The water was a couple feet deep then who knows how many feet of grass.  At least a coupe because we'd often see holes in the grass just begging to have a big worm dropped in them.  I then proceeded to try a Live Target Bluegill wake bait.  This thing is so life like you'd expect it to breath.  The attention to detail in this lure is outstanding. It didnt' take long to hook up with the first quality bass.  A few jumps later and we have a 2.5 pounder in the boat.  Time was running out as Diego basically has his 2 year old nap time free.  His wife might crucify him if he's 5 minutes late now a days with two kids.  I must admit, I do not know what it's like watching two youngins at once. 

The wind is pushing us a good clip parallel to shore with a good drop off from the spatter dock.  I had just said, "This is where we're going to stick a nice fish.  Any minute now."  Sometimes I make these sound affects when I make a good cast day dreaming of an explosion on the surface from a fish.  Well just after I made one of those said sound affects, I got the real thing.  Good swirl, and a good fight.  I could tell however that it was not a bass.  It would have jumped by now.  The fight was more like a catfish.  It was something long and skinny spinning on the line or rolling on it. I got the fish very near the boat and it charged under it.  Still don't know what it was.  Then all of a sudden it surfaces and all hell breaks loose practically in Diego's lap.  He got a good soaking.  Finally it chills out and the target species is in the boat.  A nice 5 pound 24 inch snakehead.  They reportedly make pretty good eating.  Virgina and MD say you must kill it.  Isn't it funny how they have consumption advisory warnings on just about all other fish in the river except snakehead?  Sure, go ahead.  They are fine.  They are a delicacy.  Yea Chef Juan Claude could prepare a stick and it would taste good.  Killing one snakehead is like pissing on a forest fire.  There are millions of them.  I don't kill any of the blue catfish I catch either and there are ten thousand times more blues than Snakehead.  A blue catfish can get 100 pounds.  A snakehead might get 20.  Oh... there was an article recently that states Maryland will now recognize state record catches of snakehead and rewards are given for breaking that record.  Well, this was not a record. Right now it's around 17.5 pounds.  I have however seen world record potential snakehead in a tiny tributary right smack in the middle of downtown DC.  You might have heard of this creek.  It has an enormous and popular regional park.  It practically splits DC in half.  Anyway, there's isn't much tidal water where there are not snakeheads right now.  Even the eastern shore has them.  The pristine freshwater swamp known as Black Water Wildlife Refuge has snakeheads.

The MD portions of the tidal Potomac where snakeheads are common and reportedly originated from seem like the numbers are stabilizing or even dropping.  Night time bow fishing for them is incredibly popular and affective thus drastically cutting back their numbers.  But in Washington DC, you're not allowed to bow fish.  Sure, go ahead and try it right next to National Airport.  You'd probably get double tapped in the forehead from a sniper in the bushes.  So, therefore there are a few more snakehead in our nations capital than the rest of the river.  So go fish it. 

Tight lines.

The best bait of all....

I remember when I was a kid I had a Field and Stream article with the same title.  "The Best Bait of All."  I'll get into what that bait was in a minute. Well, Ryan and I took a couple hours this afternoon to visit a local pond.  A new pond to me starting this year but no more than a few miles away.  I had done very well there this year both with Ryan and without.  One trip without him I scored numerous quality bass, including one pushing 3 pounds in the middle of the day on a spinner bait.  That same day I had an encounter with two or three other fish that were well into that trophy size class.  But they were hesitant as you might imagine a large well educated lunker fish would be.  These big fish came in hot, which is usually the kiss of death but never did commit.  I remember thinking.....  I know what will get them.  It's not always the most glorious of tactics.  But it's a sure fire way of sealing the deal.  What you ask?  Bluegill.  In a farm pond there isn't much else but bluegill and bass.  Maybe some frogs and dragon flies.. which there were plenty of those today and bass 12 inches and under were launching their aerial pursuit attacks at the damsel flies over the pond all day today.  But if you want that giant, you've got to throw what's there.  Of course there's a turtle in this pond that would scare even the Turtle Man.  Absolutely gigantic.  A few other turtles were harassing our baits too.  But the first bluegill we caught on a fly rod went out.  It got hit just seconds after splashing down.  The bass bull dogged into the weeds and was near impossible to pull through. Ryan was reeling the rod and I tried to help by pulling on the braid to pull the fish out of the dense hydrilla matts.  No go.  Broke the line.  So I decided to tie straight braid to the hook.  The hook was a 3/0 VMC worm hook.  Nothing fancy.  Nice and big.  The bluegill were rather large, bigger than I'd want to cast normally but oh well.  It was either kind of large or very very small.   The next fish hit shortly after the bait touched down.  The bobber was set with maybe two feet of line below it.  The bluegill often freaks out the second you cast it but then just chills.  Usually laying motionless for a while. But when a predator gets near they start freaking out.  They could only just barely pull the bobber under on their own and only for a second or so.  I could actually see the bluegill swimming in circles to try and avoid the bass. It's amazing that they can swim so fast with a hook and line attached to them. Ryan ran to the rod and did all the work.  How he was able to pull it through the weeds I have no idea.  Somehow this fish just wanted to be caught.  Another fish almost the exact same size followed it the entire way in too!  Unbelievable one fish this size was in there but two?  Success and high fives.  Ryan was thrilled.  We managed a couple more on the bluegill rig before calling it quits.  We lost a few more too and the one I never did get to see that Ryan said was much much stronger and bigger. 

But there was this one fish.  I threw out the largest bluegill.  The kind that could be a filleted.  Why I don't know but didn't feel like getting something more suitable.  The bigger ones are easier to hook on a size #18 pheasant tail dropped under a bluegill popper on a 3wt fly rod.  Sometimes the bait fishing is too much fun.  I first saw the bobber dip down for a second.  Then dart in a few different directions.  That's when I saw the silhouette.  An absolute giant fish.  28 inches maybe? A bass that long you say?  24". I'd venture to say the fish we caught was 23 inches with a girth to match.  A 6 pound fish in all likelihood.  But the fish I saw out there tonight that came for only a single visit and decided something wasn't right and never returned....  now that fish will keep me coming back. 

 

 

 

 

Dark night, tough bite

So John and I just had to go again.  We couldn't resist.  I purchased a few different kinds of wake baits hoping to really get into the walleye again.  The bite we had on the full moon could be considered excellent... what will a moonless night produce?  It was about a half moon which did not come out till around 1130 or.  We fished on Thursday, July 17, 2014 from about 830 to 1200am.  We arrive just at twilight, well past sunset.  The river looked beautiful. Not a breath of wind, a sheet of glass interrupted by a few rings from rising fish.   There was a heavy mayfly and midge hatch at the time.  What should we start off with... well, we both wanted to try for walleye.  My wake live Target blue gill, 3" lure gets the first try.  John and I cast simultaneously.  I hook up on the very first cast or maybe second.  Nice fish, our lines are crossed, I lose pressure and it gets off.  Likely a walley, maybe smallmouth, not a musky.  The musky usually like a current break and we didn't really have one here.  But then we tried around the bend where we did have the current break.  Walleye or musky hold in this type of water.  They could be in the riffle, like the 2 foot deep riffle or out in the eddy or the main current.  No telling where and we've hooked them from all habitat areas.  But this one ledge I knew was there was a long bomb of a cast out... maybe 60 yards from the rock.  It can be done with the right lure.  I use a spook a few times and nothing.  Then I try a good old Smack It Still Water.. my number one striper top water bait... tarpon too.  I'm jerking it the Pop Pop....... Pop retrieve that worked so well on Monomoy flats several years ago.  It's completely dark.  Near zero visibility.  Then we hear it. The most jaw dropping of surface explosions.  We literally heard the fish somersault, tailwalk and crash back into the water.  This fish came completely out of the water for the lure and must have landed tail first long ways as we heard the whole thing as if we could see it broad daylight.  I may have only felt a tick in the line, or a brief pause.  The fish completely missed the lure???  That happens... unfortunately.  Sometimes these fish just whiff big time.  Whether on purpose or not but one can't argue this fish wasn't hot.  I try a few more lures and nothing.  We switch back to walleye for an hour or so to rest the fish.  It's getting late and John and I decide to try again.  We both get to the water about the same time. I let him go first thinking he'd take the rock tip to walk out on.  But instead he walks along the bank more, getting much closer to the offshore ledge where this fish was hiding.  I've missed a few from that ledge several times over the years and always figured you had to cast from this rock point to reach it.  But John just walked 20 yards down the muddy bank and got 20 yards closer.  Dumb dumb me.  Oh well.  I cast first and sure enough I get a good swirl.  No idea how big the fish is.  Same one maybe?  Walleye maybe but doubtful. 

John throws a huge wooden walk the dog and he gets another jaw dropping out of the water strike.  Then nothing next cast or two.  Then another surface explosion.  This time much, much closer to shore.  The fish must have followed it.  Or do we have multiple fish here?  All reasonable possibilities.  He then throws a jointed traditional musky wake bait.  Something that has a steady retrieve.  Something that would be a lot easier for a musky to track and attack.  Sometimes you just got to keep it simple.  If the fish is hot a steady retrieve should do the job.  We both thought it would just make sense.  I cast a huge jointed wake bait that was just gigantic with the same thought.  Another strike!  This time John's hooked up.  I soon remembered the reason why I didn't like walking down the muddy bank.  There's a down tree parallel to shore there.  Who knows how much of it is under water.  If his fish goes in there, it's over.  I drop my rod and run over.  But I'm not much help.  The fish jumps a few times but is looking near done.  Then again he has this look that he's going to give one more jump.  One more right next to shore with 2 trebles in his mouth just begging to dig into my leg.  I crab the leader and John's worried it's going to come off.  We beach it on the mud.  But the fish is still ticked off.  Twice we almost ended up with jewelry.  Get the fish off.  The opposite side of the mouth has a distinct hook mark.  Very recent too.  Other than that a very healthy, slender fish.  Once released it didn't go far.  It kind of turned back around and hung near shore.  When I tried to revive it more it would take off with a huge splash but then just sit there.  We ended up taking it into the current more in direct cold flow.  Most of the area we were fishing is still below 80 degrees for a variety of reasons from springs and seepage.  It mixes quickly with the warmer river.  This time it was obvious the catch took a toll on this fish.  But not likely too much of a toll.  The fish should be fine.  It was not deep hooked and we kept it in the water most of the time for hook removal and pictures.  But this very well may be the last time for a while.  Concentrate on bass and walleye.  Weird how we didn't score one walleye.  The moonless night was just too dark?  Or was it because that musky was around?  Who knows.  I'm sure that same fish and others were around the other night too but for some reason didn't want to play.  I don't think I worked that ledge well the other night.  Who knows.  Here's John's Muksy.  Nice fish, just shy of 40 inches. 



I'm off to Canada next weekend.  Hopefully booking Musky Rush Charters for a day.  Only going for a three day weekend trip.  Really not enough time to book a charter but oh well.  We'll see.  Then in three weeks I'm going back again, this time to Ottawa on the Ottawa River.. land of giants.  Hopefully this year I can connect.   

My faith in the Full Moon is back!!

John C and I had an incredible full moon outing recently.  This will be our last musky outing for a while because of the heat and the danger of over exhausting or killing the fish in warm water.  But that's why we chose night time under a full moon.  We started with fly rods hoping to break our musky fly rod cherry but came up empty... Except for one big largemouth.  But a properly presented top water walk the dog retrieve almost always works some of time.  This is one of my better fish.  The strike was as vicious as they get.  The tail walk, followed by complete chaos has played in my mind all week.  The ballistic nature of these fish is tough to put into words after the initial strike coupled with shallow water.  Complete awesomeness.  The walleye bite was excellent too.  These big walleye also wanted top water!? Or baits just under the surface.  Fun stuff, one of our best Shanendoha outings.  All fish released strong.  Oh.. The carp came at the end of the night like 4am.  We had beat the water to a froth with everything under the sun.  We had not caught a target species, something with teeth, in an hour or more. Then I hook into something absolutely gigantic.  This thing takes over 100 yards of line!! But it never jumped?  John was working a mulberry tree catching decent channel cats a little ways up river and I screamed loud enough for him to hear me back home.  Even with a medium heavy outfit I was powerless to stop this fish.  State record lunge for sure!.  The shock and disappointment when I found out it was a carp I accidentally snagged in the belly was devastating.  But they sure do command respect when they get that big.  I'd say that carp was 30 pounds!!  Anyway.... Crazy good fishing and we didn't drive more than 2 hours from DC.  We had a citation size carp, musky and walleye and narrowly missed a channel cat and largemouth citation in one night!  We Are really lucky to have such good fisheries so close to home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been busy but managed to get out on the water quite a bit lately. 

 

First,

 

Friday, June 13, 2014 John C and I hit the Potomac in DC.  We received an insane amount of rain over the last few days basically decimating the Potomac river watershed.  But I had a plan and an idea that parts of DC would still be fishable.  There was a wall of mud mid channel but gravelly point at the boat ramp looked great.  The Main river had zero visibility.  Looked for mulberry trees but the ones I thought would be good were not ripe yet?  When others are almost done?  No carp but found clear water in the Anacostia River and one other place and bailed striped bass almost every cast up to 22 inches.  Most about 18".  Good fun in the final hour.  There's still fishable water when the main river is brown poo!

 

Took a break from fishing on Saturday.  I think… Gabe, my oldest left for boy scout summer camp.   

Sunday was father’s day and I convinced my wife and son to go on a float trip with me.  Except the local waters were too high and muddy but I thought Antietam Creek might be fishable with the USGS graph reading in the neighborhood of 350 cfs I think it was.  This was an exploratory trip.  We put in at Devils Back Bone and floated down to the Burnside Bridge take out.  The bridge where over 600 men died on in a single day during the civil war.  The picture shows the bridge in the back ground.  One would think there would be a better way to flank the Confederate solders at the top of the ridge than run everyone through the pinch point to certain death. The history was worth the trip even.  The float was over 8 miles and we didn’t start till mid day afternoon time.  The water was a little turbid but somewhat fishable still.  Ryan caught two fish at the put in at Devils Back bone.  The same area that is heavily stocked with trout in season.  He caught a rock bass and a fall fish in short order.  I thought the rest of the trip would be excellent.  The creek is full of life.  Mayfly nymphs and stone fly nymphs paint every rock in the riffles.  Water temps were in the low 60's.  Perfect.  Rather prolific stream.  It should be dynamite right?  Well we didn’t catch too many fish but with 8 miles to cover on a canoe and a wife who wanted to get home asap and only wanted to read her book in the front of the canoe meant I had to do most of the maneuvering.  It was still a good time.  It was remote as could be with very few people on the river.  I thought I heard banjos a few times.  Mayflies hatched most of the day, some fish responded too.  We caught a few small bass and even a small brown trout.  Stream bred maybe, miles from the stocked section.

 

 

 

The next day my wife took Ryan to the beach.  That meant I had a few days alone to work and fish of course.  On Monday after work I wanted to hit the bay bridge pilings.  Fought the worse traffic imaginable getting over Severn river.  Finally hit the water at 6pm. No current!! Thought tide chart showed strong incoming at 730?  Well at 730. It turned on.  Bailed mostly 17" fish on the pilings.   Found better grade of fish suspended on deeper pilings. Probably caught ten over 20", best 24".  Jigging 7 inch white zoom flukes on 3/4oz head did the trick.  The bite really came on at sunset.  Decent close by fishing… close as when there isn’t any traffic.  I didn’t see my bed till after 11pm because I washed the boat afterwards.  First time this spring.  It was growing things inside it. 

 

Tuesday… June 17, 2014 I hit the Potomac again with John C.  This time we opted for somewhere closer to home.  The temperatures broke heat records all over the place.  The sweat just poured out of us.  The kind of miserable Washingtonian summer heat with air thick enough to cut with a knife was upon us.  Probably my least favorite time of year.  Possibly the worse time of year to go fishing too except this is when most people want to go.  So be it.  It’s better than sitting on the couch.  What we found was one of the thickest, most numerous sulphur mayfly hatch I have probably ever seen!  Tens of thousands of bugs filled the air. We literally had hundreds laying on us while we drove the boat. It was almost dark and we still had to wear sunglasses or else we'd go blind! There were so many bugs on the water Id say there were 5 bugs per square foot from Virginia to MD! Pretty spectacular. We were after carp under mulberry trees and had a tough time.  We located three trees in close proximity to each other hanging over the water.  Probably the same tree where last year John had an excellent day on giant carp munching on berries and willingly taking dry flies.  The water is still very off color and more swift than we'd like. Didn't see any carp and only a few rises. I'd suspect the fishing might be better once the water comes down a hair and clears a little. We did have one giant blow up from a musky in an area where I’ve scored before.  This tiny scheduled spot is under the radar, tucked away where no one would notice it.  But it’s also a mine field of woody debris.  The last few years a log had completely cut off access unless you were in a kayak or a very low gunnel boat in low water.  But this tree has since washed away.  But there are other trees just as large littering the deep slow water making it nearly impossible to cast, yet alone pull a fish out of the area.  To make maters worse, the down trees back up a lot of other floating debris such as leaves, sticks, and other lure fouling crap.    There are not nearly the numbers down here as there are up river so any encounter with the top predator is always a welcome surprise. The lure I was using mimics a wood duck chick.  It has a prop on the rear like an out board and sounds almost similar.  I saw one female wood duck the other day with 14 chicks!!! Yes 14. Big bass and musky will cut that to less than half in a week or two. Throwing big top water to heart stopping surface explosions is about as good as it gets.  We each took turns casting, respectively allowing the other to get a cast in the same sequence as each other. But this one time maybe John pushed me just right into position.  The top raider was turning through the mine field between two enormous down trees when the fish hit.  It was like an alligator with gold and bronze sides smashing the lure.  No question it was what we were after.  I had a rod capable of throwing a cinder block so I stood a good chance of heaving the musky over the tree that was just a foot under the surface.  Or so I thought.  The fish thrashed once and turned.  Just then the top treble hook of the lure gets caught in the darn tree.  The fish rolled and was gone. Just like that.  John was next up to bat.  He was working a surface walk the dog type lure and another surface strike.  Then almost simultaneously another surface swirl happened three feet or more from his lure.  It was the same fish except that was its tail!  The fish was that big that it made the two swirls at the same time as it turned around.  This fish is no joke.  It was the only fish we encountered all evening but wow was it well worth it.   Till next time.

Tight lines,

Jon Griffiths

 Here's John covered with mayflies.  The white stuff on his shirt is dried sweat.  haha

 The floor of the boat

My lap

The floor of the boat again

My lap again.  This was while flying down river on plane getting constantly pelted with bugs. 

 

A little more local trout stream scouting

Some people may know what this stream is and I'll give more than enough information without actually supplying the name.  It's a tailwater stream in suburban Maryland, less than 5 miles from my house.  Year round cool water, supports trout well, is stocked by trout in the class room with a few hundred fingerling rainbows every year and sometimes the state has an extra load of fingerling fish.  It was once a catch and release stream in the 90's but was "de-listed" because it did not amount to the quality of the other "famous" trout streams in the state.  Well, that's because it was never stocked with adult trout when it was a catch and release stream.  In the 80's it was a put and take stream and was stocked well.  The fish thrived year long, even after bait chunkers cleared the place out.  Anyway... it's often been said it does not have the habitat.  Which is true under low summer flows but there is a base flow of water to this stream and the trout know how to move to survive.  I've personally seen trout in the last few years to 18 inches, shocked up over 50 trout in a 75 meter stretch with MNCPPC and the DNR a few years ago including a 16.5" brown.  No one has stocked browns in years.  Last year, in the warmest part of the summer the state stocked browns and rainbows but they said the temperature in the stocking truck compared to the creek was near 30 degrees different and the trout didn't make it.  Yes, 30 degrees.  The water in the summer is often near 50 degrees even a mile from the dam. 

Anyway, here's some pictures of this poor habitat.  and yes, there are trout there.  This area hasn't been stocked in 20 plus years.  The trout have found a way.  Yesterday I caught a beautiful, hook jaw male rainbow that was as round as a k2 football and near 12 inches long underneath one of these boulders.  I was prepping the fish for a picture and it flopped out of my hands.  I even saw what I think was a March brown dancing over a riffle.  It was a large mayfly, with long anal antennae but unfortunately I only saw one.  If you look back a few reports you'll see the results of a fine afternoon of fishing in less than two hours effort I managed 5 trout what the DNR would consider adults.  And adult trout have not been stocked in 20 years!  Awesome fishery but it gets no respect or protection.  It's considered a natural trout stream with the standard two trout a day limit.  If someone planning on keeping trout fished this stream in a little over a week keeping two trout a day... it would ruin it.  The few fish that avoid the predators and each other could not take any harvest. 

Anyway, here's some "poor" habitat for a Piedmont stream.  Enjoy. 

 

 

Here's a shot from earlier this winter.

 

 

 

June is coming along well

So I stuck with the plan and hit the Potomac again this weekend in search of musky.  And it paid off.  First we fished most of the day on Saturday with little to show for it except for a few bass and one decent walleye on a tube while fishing the skinny riffles.  The walleye was a welcome surprise.  It's not like they can just vanish because it's summer.  These fish probably set up just like a smallmouth in the well oxygenated water of the riffles and rapids and ambush prey just like a bass.  Not only did we catch the walleye but we also saw a Lynx or Bob cat (lynx rufus rufus) come down to the waters edge for a drink in the mid day sun.  It was on the WV side of the river in steep topography at a near impassible riffle or series of ledges on the river.  We figured the spot where we saw the bobcat was as good as any to stop the boat and fish for bass in the fast water.  We were hitting ledges and rocks every few seconds in this area too.  This was also the spot the walleye turned up.  Go figure.  A lynx and a walleye... truly "Wild and Wonderful".  One would think we were in the deep north of Canada.  But we were merely an hour north of Washington DC. 

Anyway... on Saturday the sun was high, clear skies, temps pushing 80 plus degrees.  Water temps started off at 71 but climbed to above 75 by mid day.  We didn't even get a sighting of a musky.  No idea why.  Too nice a day probably.  We fished from approx 930am to 930pm.  We thought we'd have the energy to fish after sun down once we ate dinner but that didn't happen.  We were both exhausted and crashed harder than toddler after a play date. 

The next morning I was up before sunrise.  The barred owls in the area were causing a ruckus but I just can't sleep in when I'm sleeping river side knowing that the best time of the day to have a line in the water is wasting away while I lay in a tent.  We set up the tents on a known musky hot spot on the inside of a sharp meander in one of the deepest pools around.  This spot once awarded me a fine musky of 42 inches one mid February a couple years ago.  It was possibly the ideal winter spot for a musky with deep water, current break but maybe not the best June or summer spot.  These fish will take up all habitat types this time of year.  The water temps are not too high where they must seek cool water.  Oxygen levels are probably optimal and therefore they can basically roam free.  One float last year about this time of year we even spotted a large musky in a shallow run just above a riffle that was less than 2 feet deep.  The fish spooked so it must have been hunting that area. So in other words, anywhere and everywhere could hold a fish right now.  and they should be feeding well.  Now is the time.  I know I've said that before. 

So... we worked a few decent looking areas along the shore.  Casting to likely current breaks.  Diego was using a lure similar to a "tornado" where the lure doubles as a spinner bait sub surface or a surface buzz bait depending upon how quickly you reeled it in.  It made more noise than your average buzz bait and it was rigged with a skirt and stinger hook, as well as with a tieable wire trace.  We had just fished a good looking eddy when we came to a large wood pile.  Behind it was another good looking eddy.  My lure fell a few feet short of it mark when Diego's was already in mid cast.  It was a dead calm, clear morning with fog coming off the river.  The silence was broken with the river just opened up and this large musky just annihilated the lure.  It was the kind of strike you dream about.  There was absolutely zero hesitation on this take.  The fish then proceeded to cartwheel and tail walk just like a steelhead or tarpon.  Gills fared, teeth showing... The most pissed off fish that swims but on an awesome show.  Diego did well fighting the fish and I immediately got the net ready.  Success.  Diego's first.  They say a musky is a fish of 10000 casts.... This fish was took a lot more than that.  But success is so sweet.  I was equally happy if not more that he caught one.  Finally.  this might be Diego's last extended fishing trip in quite a while.  Baby number two is on the way and knocking at the door.  It was a good farewell.  For now.  Couldn't have worked out better. 

The fish hit around 730am but we continued to fish till after 9.  By now Diego was getting nervous and insisted we leave.  We talked about hitting one last spot near the ramp on the way in.  We did and came up empty.  Diego took control of the trolling motor and started heading to the ramp.  Just then my line went tight and the storm giant flat stick got smashed.  This was another decent musky, maybe not as big, 32 inches or so but had plenty of attitude.  I caught this fish on the extra heavy musky mojo rod and beat him pretty quick but not before several jumps.  Doesn't get much better when two good friends score a nice fish each. 

 

Till next time.