Crap pie, it's what's for dinner

Crappie,

it's what's for dinner.  I usually don't keep many fish but every now and then enough for a fish fry is warranted.  Far from even a one person limit but enough to feed a few of us for an evening.  I have been on a hot crappie bite lately.  Similar pattern from a few years ago when they show up at the mouth of the larger tributaries to the Potomac.  You will know they are there when you see flipping or small splashes on the surface.  Sometimes this is crappie, other times it's the bait fish they are eating.  Other times I think it's some other fish but for whatever reason, this is when there are decent numbers of crappie around.  The rig is rather standard.  use a small, weighted float about 2 inches long and slender, with about 4 feet of line to a 1/32oz or 1/16oz jig head and then either a 2 inch twister tail, tube or for best results a one inch gulp minnow in  green.  Gulp is basically crappie crack.  I'm sure you could do very well on minnows too as there are decent numbers of one inch minnows swimming around the shore.  Last week we saw mid spring like conditions with a few days near 60 degrees, actually mid 60's.  I went mid week to check on it just to see if there were fish and sure enough guys were bailing them.  Well, one guy was anyway.  I caught a few in 20 minutes but had to get back to work.  Plus I only had a decent size bass rod with me, not your best crappie rod but it did the trick.  The next day a major cold front hit and temps dropped 30 degrees, with some snow and blinding winds to 30 mph gusts at times.  But this was the day that Ryan didn't have basketball, it was too cold to go to the park, so we went fishing.  Somehow we sort of hid out of the wind and I figured once the fish showed up, they should still be there.  Sure enough it was as easy as taking candy from a baby.  One after another of decent crappie and even a largemouth.  I thought about eating a few but let them all go. 

Later the next day after work we invited some friends.  The fish were not where they were on Thursday or Wednesday.  The water was  little lower and there was some boat traffic from the rescue guys that may have spooked the fish.  We got into a few largemouth, bluegill and finally right at dark found some crappie.  But only two.  Wasn't sure what was wrong but I think they were holding near the structure this time.  Usually they don't which I know defies everything about crappie fishing.  For some odd reason these fish hold out in the middle of the hole at the mouth of the creek, like near where the creek current enters the river current.  There's depth there but I wouldn't call this the deepest spot around.  Anyway, here's some pictures.  The fishing is good.  I just pulled up to the spot again so I'm going to give it another go. 

There's a decent number of bass here too.  Not big but odd to see largemouth bass actively feeding when it was that cold.  This was Feb 9th with a crazy weather shift from 60's on the 8th to 30's and 30 MPH wind gusts at the time.

 

Feb 9th bass

 

Crappie from Feb 9th

 

Another bass from the 10th

 

Beautiful sunset on the 9th or 10th.  Usually you only take pics of sunsets when you don't catch anything but on this day we had both, a nice sunset and plenty of fish.

 

 

Here's a nice stringer from the 12th.  We caught many others too that were released plus a few bluegill too.  Had two reports from friends of very slow fishing but they were using different techniques.  Try the float and suspend the bait, keep it small. 

 

 

 

So quick update.  I fished yesterday from about 4pm to 5pm and it was red hot.  A fish almost every cast.  There was a strong east wind coming form the land but wasn't bad hiding behind the bridge.  I was even experimenting with no floats, two inch scentless twister tails, jigging, it all worked.  But again the gulp got eaten far quicker. I'd venture to say I caught about 30 crappie in the time frame.  Many of them were small, likely males but there were a few jumbos too.  I released everything, hopefully educated them a little.  I doubt I'll keep anymore crappie.  The last batch didn't taste very good for some reason.  I ate it two nights ago and today I'm not feeling so well.  Been to the bathroom a few times but that could have been the draft beer from Witlows and the Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders "beer tie" in Rosslyn, Va.  Who knows.  But crappie fishing is about as good as it gets close to home.  Gotta love it.  

 

 

 

 

Skunked but valuable

So I guess I don't report too many skunks.  Sure there are thousands.  They're usually that half hour walk along the river during lunch or at the local lake on the way home.  But yesterday I only mobilized at about 310pm and decided to drive to the upper river just as rush hour was forming.  I figured it would take me an hour drive and I might get two hours of daylight to fish.  The best two hours of the day I might add.  Musky were the target species.  Jigs and gliders were deployed to no avail.  However, it wasn't a complete skunk.  A complete skunk is not seeing or feeling anything all day.  I did hook up in the first 30 minutes on a large skirted jig and swim shad trailer.  This was a solid fish but the hook pulled.  I screamed about as loud as can be and scared the crap out of a few dog walkers on the canal.  So basically the jig is just a typical Stanley jig but with a paddle tail swim shad as the trailer.  The skinnier ones have better action.  Just last week John and I did another half day trip and I hooked up three times while jigging the same rig.  The first one I had it next to the net but lost it, decent size high 30 inch or low 40 inch fish.  WE were continuously getting hung up on the bottom and damaging our hooks.  It's imperative to have good sharp hooks.  If it were a treble hook I'd just replace it with another but the jig hook is the whole lure.  I tried running a file over it but it didn't seem to do much.  The best hook sharpener I've seen has a groove in it specifically designed for the hook.  It's sharpens to a nice point but still not perfect.  Best for smaller hooks.   

I'll also tell you it wasn't easy finding the right jig.  I bought a handful of typical bucktail jigs for striped bass in the 3/4 to 1.5 oz.  The hooks were not that great either.  Not big enough.  Most bass style skirted jigs are way too small.  The hooks are too small for the larger swim baits I like to add to them.  Sure I could go with a parachute used for trolling for striped bass.  That might actually work.  I'll look into that more.  I've always thought that the typical Chesapeake Bay trolling spread of parachutes and umbrellas would work wonders on musky up north in Canada on Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence and other large bodies of water.  But I'm casting and jigging here,  making contact with the bottom just like striped bass fishing except we are fishing 6 to 15 feet of water with a decent current and the bottom is strewn with boulders and logs.  65 and 80 pond power pro usually brings in most of the logs but doesn't do your hooks any good.  Hence why I missed the fish yesterday and three last week?!! Makes me want to swear.   Because that is avoidable.  If I had enough patience and time I'd have taken better care of my hooks and I may have put four musky in the boat in the last two trips.  Not really sure how to properly sharpen hooks I guess.  It's easier to just buy a new lure but these larger skirted jigs are hard to come by.  and not cheap either.   Money is tough right now.  I've eaten all my frozen striped bass from my freezer and I don't even like fish.  I'm also well on my way from eating all my deer meat, the deer meat I was supposed to give away.  Sorry people.  Don't really like deer meat either but it's sustenance. 

This weather is insane.  60 degrees today by 9am?!  It was near that yesterday too.  Stoneflies blanketing the surface of the water but nothing popping on them.  We need warm water for that to happen but the bugs know the fish are cold too.  Too bad the musky don't eat size 12 bugs off the surface.  I talked to an experienced musky angler yesterday and they were also skunked.  But he said his last fish came in mid December on a Whopper Plopper... that's right, a top water lure!  I've always thought they would hit on top in the cold by the fish's attitude when it smashes a glider just a couple feet under the surface.  Heck sometimes it's about 6 inches under the surface with 32 degree water?! 

  I might try for walleye downtown today.  Or great falls.... we'll see.  I'd like to hook up the boat again and take off up north again.   But John is busy and I just drove 120 miles yesterday.  same the day before.... I went to a friends place near Annapolis this weekend then fished the Magothy with his daughter out of a canoe.  We were hoping for perch and pickerel but didn't catch anything.  Another skunk.  Then I drove another 40 miles across the bridge to fish the Tuckahoe hoping for an early showing of big yellow perch and pickerel but only managed one tiny pickerel.  Like 8 inches tiny.  But guys were catching freshly stocked trout well near the dam.  Just not me.  Can't catch them every time. 

Update:

February 7, 2017

Just got back from the National Capital Chapter of Trout unlimited shad night.  It was good to see and hear the DC fisheries crew talk shad.  I got to ask them all types of questions.  Like Why can't we keep hickory shad in DC waters but can in Virginia?  and Deleware for that matter.  They didn't have a good answer other than it's the Atlantic state's marine fisheries who decides that.  Heck 5 fish a day would be plenty. IT's not like there are any shortages of hickory shad.  For 5 weeks they blanket the river from Georgetown to well above Chan bridge.  But they do not make it over little Falls.  There was some discussion on that.  Anyway, they claim the first shad was caught on March 11th last year.  I think I also fished there that time and didn't find any shad near the bottom of the cove but did find some nice largemouth.  This warm weather has got everyone thinking shad.  The glory days will be here before you know it.  "shad.... did somebody say shad?"

I also fished a little today down below great falls, MD side.  Threw swim jigs and swim shads and hooked up on a solid fish near the first few casts on a large swim shad rigged on a swiveling weight attached to a worm hook.  This thing is completely snag proof.  But for some reason I think I snagged whatever fish that was on as it came tight after I jigged the lure.  Who knows, maybe it bit.  It felt solid and part of me things it was a musky.  Or just a big walleye.  Very possible and more believable.  There are musky down river and they sure would take up residence in the type of eddy I was fishing.  Everything that swims should be in that kind of eddy. One of these days I'll do well there.  Even in the glory walleye days of early march I only managed a few fish a day there, with about two to three hours effort.  But I had seen other people do fairly well.  Like four fish and one of them was pushing double digits.  They were there at first light so either first or last light might be the key.  Usually is anyway.   Lots of opportunity out there.  Everyone should be thinking power plant striped bass fishing, walleye eddy fishing, musky jigging, striped bass slaughter time on power plants....Oh I already said that.  But the weather is not that cold, actually almost spring like.  I even heard they were doing well at the mouth of the Potomac fishing over birds the other day.  one of the fish I saw caught was 46 inches and that was on a jig in the open bay in February?@  When have you heard of that happening?  Go gettem.... get off the couch, get away from the fishing seminars and fishing shows that are just to sell things and go fishing.  Now might be one of the best times of the year to catch a true giant record striped bass and more than a few of his friends too.  Not to mention musky, walleye....... take your pic