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.