Spring 2012 updates

March 19, 2012

Spring has sprung!  No surprise there I know, it feels like it sprang all winter long.  The last two or three weeks we have seen steady record high temperatures.  It’s one thing to just see a quick Indian summer roll in and out but this weather pattern has decided to stick around.  So what does that do to the environment, and more importantly what does it do to the fish?  Jim Cummins of the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin stated that “I like spring, but wish for a slowly evolving one.   Rapidly rising river temperatures can cause a lot of spawning problems - truncated fertilization time, stressed egg and larval development, etc. “Or in other words, the fish could blow their load too quickly and too early.  Some may never show up and miss the mass spawn, get confused and of course there is always the threat that some hint of winter could still resurface.  Drastically dropping water temperature has its own host of problems too, especially with newly developing eggs of the futures bounty floating around.  But the rapidly rising water temperatures could pose all types of threats and that is the direction we are heading.  Water flows are low for this time of year, actually dangerously low.  If this trend continues into summer, we will be in emergency drought conditions by mid May!  But most models are on course and most months this year show normal rainfall conditions.  It’s just not all that obvious to us right now.  I just wish spring, or maybe summer, would slow her roll so to speak.  Calm down, chill out… it’s my favorite time of year, no need to rush into things. 

This is it, this the ultimate time of year if you are a fishermen or outdoors enthusiast in the mid Atlantic Region, or more specifically within the Chesapeake watershed.  My favorite place to be this time of year is within the lower Potomac River Gorge.  There’s just nothing quite like it.  To be in the nation’s capital amidst the commuters and all the craziness with a fishing rod while watching all those clueless, helpless souls stuck in traffic on GW or Chain Bridge… I often think… if only they knew.  But I’m glad they don’t or else everyone would leave their cars stranded on the highway and flock to the river like so many anadromous fish species do this time of year.  Everyone is showing up to the orgy of biblical proportions, where are you?  As George Washington once said, “The River runs silver”, and it still does.  With shoals upon shoals of silver alosnids (Shad species like Alewife herring, blue back herring, hickory and American shad) swimming information on the Potomac, every so often their mirror like sides catch the sunlight and it literally looks like the river turns silver.   If you sleep in this year, you might miss it.  The way things are going this year, by the time Fletchers boat house finally gets their boats in the water, the cows will have come home and left to their summer homes in New England.  Cows, did I say cows?  They are just one of the spring fish that show up to Congress.  They are the last remaining fish that were born during the striped bass Moratorium that ended in the early 90’s.  These are the prehistoric, dinosaur proportionate fish that show up in the head waters of the tidal Potomac for what appears like blink of the eye the last few years.  AS more and more of these fish are either harvested or even just die of old age, the run of giants gets shorter and shorter.  But it still happens, they are still there and they will come.  If they haven’t arrived already.  AS I write this a large school of slobs could have parked themselves in the eddies of the Potomac a stone’s throw from Georgetown gobbling up the hordes of shad and herring. Usually they show a few weeks before they spawn to feast on the prey species of shad.  But if the water temperatures are past the prime spawning temperatures and egg development levels, the fish won’t stick around to feed.   There’s just something that most of the migratory stock doesn’t like about the Potomac or the entire Chesapeake Water Shed for that matter.  There’s a reason these fish migrate up the Atlantic every year and not stick around in the anoxic conditions of the Chesapeake Bay.  However, some larger fish do stick around, actually probably more than some.  Most of those larger fish are males that just never saw the urge to leave with the rest of the crew.  Lazy perhaps?  But it’s not completely uncommon to pull a 40 inch fish off a live spot or even a top water popper in the summer.  It’s just very rare.  Nothing compared to how common it is now but not for long.  By opening day, usually the third Saturday in April, most of the fish will have spawned and be well on their way to the Ocean.  I may have missed my mid bay Gannet brigade. Sucks not having your own boat. 

Here’s a few quick reports since I started writing this update:

I've been pond fishing with Ryan  a couple times.  With this heat wave it's about as hot as it gets and every fish is awake and putting on a massive feeding binge before spawning. 

March 9th: Devon Lee With a nice largemouth.  I had him hold it to make it look even larger, this is Ryan's best friend from Next door.

See Ryan below, with a couple less teeth, holding one of the many bluegill that cooperate on this early March afternoon.

March 14^th the National Capital Chapter of Trout Unlimited reported decent shad fishing in Washington DC.  The first time any numbers of fish have shown up before the spring equinox.  Even Americans have shown up?!!

March 16h- Diego and I took the canoe to fletchers.  Actually he got there before me on a nice warm afternoon and got into several large hickory shad well up river from fletchers.    Then fished fresh cut bait for stripers and catfish but only managed catfish.  In an hour we probably caught over 200 pounds worth of fish.  The blue cats must literally blanket the bottom.  Diego was having far better success than me fishing with 17 pound mono and 1oz egg sinkers compared to my thick braided line and a 2oz sinker. 

Reports from the weekend were not all that great for the potomac, head the shad action was very slow for the most part. 

March 19^th: I fished a local pond we used to fish as kids, Fallsmead.  The bass were on the prowl and were attacking almost anything that landed near the edge of the pond.  A 3 inch rapala x rap jerk bait produced incredible action in an hour’s time on my way home from one of our listings.

March 20^th: I took a skunk at Clopper one morning on my way back from Costco while the car was filled with fresh groceries like chicken and milk.  The sun that day was rather high with near record breaking temperatures again.  The thought was that I might stick a few crappie under the Long Draught Bridge but nothing wanted to cooperate in a 15 minute window while my car sat on the side of a busy road with no parking signs posted all over the place. 

March 21: Fished the entire outgoing out at fletchers with the boat.  Caught hickories, not many and plenty of catfish.  Actually too many.  Later moved down to Kennedy center near low tide.  Ryan, a regular I see every year who knows the river as well as anyone was there and reported a couple big stripers up river already.  He was fishing one of my favorite spots there with the large hump and said he even caught a herring and instantly had a fish on it.  He said he was supposed to be home by 4 and that “every minute I stay out here now is another punch in the face.”  I was in the same situation except I had till 5.  I later fished near the mouth of Columbia Island Marina hoping for crappie.  There was good incoming current into the entrance of the marina and with it were the largemouth who eagerly attacked rapala xrap deep diving crank baits. Even caught yellow perch there too on jigs.  That day I caught hickory shad, yellow perch, crappie (who were all over the boat dock back at the ramp), largemouth bass, blue catfish and bluegill. 

March 22, 2012- Ryan and I hit Clopper Lake near the boat house for 30 minutes on the way back home from his school.  It’s tough for me to pass up any opportunity this time of year.  He was getting restless again but we did manage to catch one crappie near the beaver dam to the left of the boat docks and missed quite a few more hits near the far dock corner right about the time when we were forced to leave by ranger danger.

March 23, 2012

John C. and I drove all the way to the Susquehanna River near Port Deposit because we were certain the giant slobs had made an appearance. We left around 7pm after all day in doing yard work and got there near 8:30pm.  We fished for 4 hours straight while standing on uneven rip rap and boulders then the water dropped to nothing at midnight.  Game over, we went home wet and tired. Didn’t see my bed till almost 4am. This one spot is probably one of the better spots to catch a giant striped bass on artificial lures or flies there is on the planet.  It just only lasts a few weeks a year.  Come to think of it I think I fished that spot 3 times for near 20 hours last year and didn’t touch a fish, even when we camped river side and fished all night?!!  John caught a nice one last year near 30 pounds and it has produced my person best as well.  But the whole entire Susquehanna flats catch and release fishery has suffered tremendously over the last few to more years.  Last year was because of all the rain but many of the bait guys did well even in near zero visibility muddy water.  Then this year people saw record numbers of fish near the CBBT and ocean.  So hopefully they show in the rivers in the same numbers but many people are not as optimistic. David G____, a local to the Potomac who’s spent every waking second in April fishing for these fish near the nation’s capital is  completely disgusted with the fishery.  Even someone as knowledgeable as him was completely skunked last year on the Potomac but did well on the mid bay area.  He thinks the last few remaining fish in the Potomac are what is left form the moratorium and that the schoolie resident fish have almost been completely wiped out by the commercial fishery.  There’s next to nothing for the future.  The next few years look dismal at best.  Even a sighting of one of these fish over the next few years will be like winning the lottery on that river.  Except, there is always exceptions and perks; The few sightings you do get this time of year, the fish is likely to be enormous, like world record enormous.  That’s enough to keep me going back. 

I caught this fish near that spot on the Susquehanna Flats catch and release fishery a couple years ago.  They grow this big and larger, that's more than enough evidence to keep me going back.

 The mid Chesapeake Bay is producing fish like it always does this time of year.  This might be the single best time of the year to fish the middle bay for striped bass.  The migration is at it's peak right now. If you wait till opening day, most will be long gone.  See the picture below of my friend Shawn Kimbro (www.chesapeakelighttackle.com) and company while fishing one popular spot before sunrise last saturday, March 24, 2012.  All three of them hooked up simultaneously and landed these three fish.  Then the bite ended as the the sun rose above the horizon.

March 24, 2012- I slept in some and Courtney took Ryan to see her girl friends and some shopping. I thought I only and a few minutes to an hour to fish before spending time with the family.  Gabe was at a boy scout trip and it was raining all day.  First I tried for crappie and muskie near Seneca Creek.  Nothing.  Then found out I had till 4pm so I raced down to fletchers in the Rain and rented a boat.  Par said he was already there but I didn’t see him.  People were catching shad pretty well, mostly only in front of the boat house on the most distinct current seam near the Va side.  Water temps were in the mid 60’s and the height was 3.8 feet and slightly rising.  I caught a few shad, even a few herring, Never have I seen herring bite artificial in March!  Only catfish cooperated.  Heard from Ryan and David that there were a few stripers around, Ryan has done well recently supposedly.  But things can and do change in a week.  I caught more catfish but everything was slow. Left at 3:45 to be back home by 4:10. 

March 25^th:  Ryan and I fished a pond near Travilla Road for an hour. We caught good numbers of small largemouth.  Ryan couldn’t hook them though. Only small fish in this one pond for some reason, some ponds are just like that.  The only way to fix the problem is to harvest some of the smaller fish but I just can’t bring myself to do that Let it be I guess.  Very cold too.  Even found a dead deer with antlers still.  Freshly killed.

Monday: march 26, 2012: Insane crappie action at the mouth of a creek on the Potomac.  Fished for about 30 minutes from 7:45 to 8:30ish while Gabe was at boyscouts, nonstop monster size crappie on 1/16oz jig heads, 2 inch Yum red and chartreuse tubes set 3.5 feet below a float. Probably my best crappie bite ever and it just so happened during the amount of time I sometimes sit on the toilet. 

March 27^th: Went back after Crappie with Ryan from 5:30-7:30 and only caught one bluegill.  Where did they go?  I thought I had them figured out. 

March 28^th:  The day is still young but I need a job badly.  Even though I was at the office with C all day yesterday and moved furniture from staging houses all day on Monday, I don’t get paid or get health insurance from fishing all the time.  Why not?  I just want to show the world that even a half hour trip to a local pond is worthwhile.  Ryan is home sick today because he has some rash.  I hope I didn’t expose him to something he’s allergic to while walking around in the woods yesterday.  But I have a strong feeling Ryan and I are going to go fishing for something today.  But I have to make sure I keep him interested.  He doesn’t like getting bored and if he gets bored he’ll lose interest and may not want to fish with me anymore.  He’s my best friend, my life… I need him to want to continue fishing with his Dad.  Maybe one day we’ll go into business together.  Now wouldn’t that be something. 

Ryan and I did get out, walked all the way to the big eddie above Chain Bridge, even with Ryan's "broken Knee."  He was fine but mostly I carried him on my shoulders anyway.  Some people go to the gym, I go fishing.  Check out this Crappie we caught.  I actually caught it but had Ryan hold it. I wanted to at least have him real it in but he was busy rock climbing and rock hopping.  Something his mother would NEVER let him do.  He's quite good at getting around on those rocks.  I just make sure he doesn't do it directly over the river. 

The crappie bite is about as good as it gets all over the Potomac now.  I may have to go try the spoils one time before it's all over.  Once they spawn they practially vanish, like so many other fish do. 

Crappie

March 26, 2012

I dropped off Gabe at Boy Scouts about 730pm and had an hour before I had to pick him up. In that hour I ran down to the Potomac River at a mouth of a popular creek to try and fish for crappie beneath the bridge. A few days ago I tried this but mostly threw Muskie lures and did not fish crappie tubes under floats, just free lined them, and was skunked. Plus I must have tried several other times for crappie there this winter without a sniff.  I rigged a 2” red and chartreuse grub/tube by YUM on a 1/16oz head about 3.5 feet below a fixed float and threw it under the bridge near the log jams. Maybe the second cast when the bait drifted towards the middle of the southern shore tunnel the float dropped. A respectable crappie. Next cast, massive, 12+ inch crappie and that continued for a few more casts. After the fifth one I decided to keep one thinking I’d have a fish fry but you guessed it, I only caught small ones after that. But the fish were still hitting when it was well past dark, although not nearly as well. The local guy named Tom I think with the lazy eye and all the dogs who gets the cops called on him all the time by camp Culeva was there. He claimed to have landed two bass over 5 pounds this year and one about 9 pounds. Said he was going to show me a picture of the 9 pounder but said his phone was dead. I could see it lit up just fine. He’s been known to catch a few fish there and claims to have caught 500 something bass there last year, but he fishes nearly every day and says he lives in Chantilly. So why come all the way over there?

Weather had been nice with the longest stretch of record breaking heat I’ve ever seen in the spring. Then some rain came over the weekend, less than .5 inches, and a front arrived. Air temps were in the 50’s and dropping with much cooler air coming later that night. The fish were feeding very well. Good to know the spring crappie bite is good near that bridge. I had been skunked several times already this year trying just that but finally put it together. I think the fact that I fished near current in deep water near structure was the key. Previously I fished near more structure and deeper water but no current and no fish except bluegill. Weird how the crappie were not over on the northern bank with more trees in the water. It must the current situation. Or the fact that I suspended the tube with a float. These crappie are equally as big as any tidal Potomac river crappie I’ve ever seen. Who needs to run down there to fish the spoils and catch contaminated fish when good old local Creek is loaded with them? I can’t wait to get back down there today sometime and put in a little more effort. I'll just have to stretch the truth about what I'm doing. I already told my wife I was cooking dinner. She asked me what and I wasn't going to tell her. Not sure how I'm going to say how we got all those crappie. Look at me, assuming I'm going to do well again. But I have a feeling I've figured this out.

Most people would be like, Crappie?! Who cares? Well, I used to be that way too. I've never really had a good crappie bite. Of course I've seen thousands on TV, mostly with those idiot guys like Bill Dance who is about as exciting as a watching grass grow or that half breed Jimmy Huston who a lot of people say I look like. I think in that single hour yesterday, or more like 30 minutes when you take in driving time, may have been the best crappie action I've ever experienced. That and the other day coming back to National Airport at the end of the day, already running late, I found a good school under the boat dock there at the ramp of all placed. I think that must have wet my appetite for more crappie. Then I go at one of the closest places to home and have a phenomenal 30 minutes of fishing. Gotta love that. The allure for me was that I've never really been able to do it well before. Plus I've rarely put that much time or effort in to Crappie fishing. It's nice to put a little effort into something very specific and have it pay off. We'll see what kind of fish fry I can come up with later tomorrow.

March 28, 2012 Update




You guessed it. I fished from 5:30pm to 7:30pm yesterday with Ryan and we didnt' get a bite. Well, we did hook into bluegill but that was it. I couldn't believe it either. Ryan was getting very impatient again and even said the dreaded words "I don't like fishing anymore Daddy." But he did enjoy hanging off the bridge while I grabbed his sweater so he could watch his float.  Except he'd contstantly set the hook, we've been working on that technique. I thought for sure I had those fish figured out. There were two other guys trying who Tom must have brought or called to tell about the crappie bite. They knew what they were doing and were also throwing tubes under floats and such. The only difference from the other day was that we left when I arrived yesterday. It's possible the fish didn't turn on till later but I highly doubt it. Even when Tom swears they mostly get crappie after dark. This guy also said he caught a 9 pound bass. Both are believable but unlikely. I think Crappie can feed after dark but not as well and therefore the fishing won't be as good as the magic hour, that hour before/during sunset. So did the cold weather that moved in the night before affect the fishing that much? People were catching smallmouth, just not crappie. Did they fish move on? Move out to the river or up the creek? Or is there no other explanation other than that's fishing. Sometimes there just isn't any rhyme or reason and that's when that annoying word "luck" comes into play.


I hate that word when synonymous with fishing.  The other day someone asked me, "Any luck"?  Yea, we all know what he's implying but I still dont' like it.  And guess what, I didn't have any luck.  Anyway, back to the crappie one more time before I try something/somewhere else.  The snakehead have shown up in the eddies around Chain Bridge but my past experience over the last couple of years is that they have lock jaw this time of year.  You could make a dozen casts at the same fish and it won't show any interest. The shad fishing is reportedly better than the weekend even though the river clarity and height has changed for the worse. I'll figure something out but I'm suppose to meet my wife in her office to help with some data entry.  Maybe  I can squeeze in a quick trip before or after.  After all, I am supposed to be the opportunistic fisherman. 

Muskie Hunting

February 23, 2012
Muskie Hunting
I t was another one of those mid winter spring days with temperatures in the mid 60’s, sunny skies and stoneflies blanketing the river.  I had some work to do early but knew I’d be busy later in the week and could barely concentrate today.  The river levels looked good on the USGS graph, maybe a little low even and I knew it would be clear.  I didn’t get off the computer till after 12 and didn’t see the water till around 2pm.  One of my favorite spots is very tricky to launch a boat from alone, one could say even dangerous, especially with a prop tiller boat.  I have to physically drag the boat off the trailer in waders at this ramp.  I was second guessing myself at the ramp and the swift current. Plus I saw the DNR van with an empty trailer in the parking lot along with another DNR pickup truck with a tank in the bed attached to a NO2 canister.  First I thought how cool, they are shocking fish.  Then I thought, wait a minute….  This might not be a good thing.  I hoped the boat had gone down river.  Then my fears were confirmed.  With only one boat in the lot, it happens to be an enormous electroshocking boat and this boat just so happens to be on one of my favorite spots within sight of the ramp frying the living daylights out of “My” fish.  I get ready to launch, am right about to put in and here they come back to the ramp.  There are two ramps, they could have used the downstream ramp but came in to the same ramp I was on.  Sure enough it’s Mr. Mullican the muskie guru and another gentlemen.  They told me they would wait to take out but I was a little hesitant.  I might as well use this time to pick their brains a little. 


I pulled down the ramp, sat there for a minute and pulled back out figuring I’d talk to them for a while and thought that at the very least they may have just alerted the fish in those key spots I was planning on fishing.  I usually don’t like fishing behind another fishermen if I can avoid it, not to mention a fishermen using electricity capable of pricking every fish within a 20 foot radius around the boat.  They might not catch every fish around their boat but they sure let them know something isn’t right and I wasn’t too sure how long it would take for the fish to settle down. 

When I told one of the biologists I was thinking of going somewhere else because they had fished before me, they kind of laughed thinking I thought they just caught them all.  They reported excellent catches of large, mature walleye as that was their target species for the survey at the time.  Plus John told me they turned up incredible numbers of smallmouth as they are about at their peak with respect to numbers and the fact that the legendary 2007 smallmouth year class were all in the 12 to `15 inch size class now.  The thought crossed my mind to chase the numerous large walleye around or even the smallmouth but I wanted a lunge today.  I’ve had more than a few skunks lately, so many I don’t want to admit it, I haven’t put one in the boat since last July!  The reports I’ve read with this eternal spring like temperatures are that the muskie are as hot as the June Blitz.  Why can’t I put it together?  The answer is rather simple, I’ve been targeting the wrong water lately. 

So I picked up and headed to another spot a few minutes down the road.  Okay, more like 20.  It was 3:30pm and I’m finally fishing.  At 4:05 I have a follow over 20 feet of water.  This fish is hot and is keeping pace rather well.  It startled me like they always do but I somehow kept my cool and dropped into a figure 8.  I’ve never had one not spook as I frantically drop into an 8.  Usually they see me react or see the boat and quickly turn away.  Or they smash it as soon as I first change direction.  Well, this fish stayed with the 9 inch crank bait like a kitten on a string.  Three times we go around and around, and every time the fish looks like it is slowing down, only to explode on it on the turn.  But by the fourth time around I lose sight of him.  My figure 8 was too shallow so I dropped my rod all the way to the reel and rip as hard as I could after the turn.  The second time I do that my rod violently stops.  FISH ON!  Incredible to see that happen in clear water.  The fish first head shakes a little, then wakes up and cartwheels at the boat three times, each time seemingly getting further and further out of the water.  This is February, did someone forget to tell the fish they are not suppose to jump in the winter?!  I hadn’t even had time to set up my net.  I remember looking at it on one of my casts and saying to myself, you should probably assemble the net Jon.  After a few good runs I have the fish kind of calm at the boat which gives me a few seconds to grab the net and engage the pin.  I have finally done this a few times before so I don’t make any stupid net swipes when the fish is still green.  I wait for the perfect opportunity and seal the deal.  Success tastes so sweet.  I get a picture of the fish in the net with my phone, even though I have a good camera on me and a good position to get a timer photo but chose to release it as quickly as possible.  The fish was just shy of my 40 inch mark on my bench seat, a very respectable fish for sure and a strong release.  Life is good.  I could have left then and been home in time to pick up my son but my wife had given me the go ahead.  Why not. 

Later I’m playing with a 4oz bull dawg, the shallow version that sinks far too slowly.  It’s near dusk now and I’m drifting over some deep calm water, past the ideal structure or so I thought.  I try a few different retrieves with the dog, not a lot of confidence with it as I just can’t seem to work it deep enough for very long.  It needs more weight.  If it were a 4oz jig head through the plastic it would sink like a rock in 60 feet and a 5kt current but those dawgs have such a large profile of plastic that they have just too much surface area  and are not aerodynamic in the least.  They sink more like a leaf than any 4 oz lure I’ve ever thrown.  Well, in the final sight fishing light I see a shape of a fish hanging far and below the lure.  IT’s the kind of fish that haunts every muskie angler’s dreams.  This fish looked to have the girth of one of those immensely pregnant fat cow migratory stripers that makes an appearance in the lower river once a year for merely a week.  I’ve held fish that size before, the kind of hold you need two hands to cradle the fish up against your chest with the belly dropping below your belt line.  I needed my lure to go deeper or I needed to be able to drop into a figure 8 immediately but I still had at least 10 feet of line out.  I tried to jerk the bait one last time to elect a response.  Or maybe that’s what I should have done.  I think I just froze as my knees began to shake.  Maybe I stepped off my bench to the floor of the boat and stopped the lure in its tracks to try and get a little more depth.  Whatever I did, the fish wasn’t having it.  It slammed on the brakes, turned, gave me one last look and bolted to the deep.  So much for making it home in time for dinner.  I tried every different style of lure I had.  Even the $30 sebile fast sink magic swimmer that should be in a plaque above my fire place, not on the end of my line over 14 feet of water strewn with tackle devouring rock ledges.  With the speed the first fish came into attack my lure and the speed the leviathan departed my life, the thought of top water even crossed my mind but I just wasn’t that stupid.  Or was I?  I’ll never know.  One fish in the boat and a follow from a fish that will forever keep me on my toes and has just restored another 1000 hours of confidence, I’d say today was a good day.  Made it home in time for the last of the pizza and watched the second half of ET with the kids.  I told my five year old I saw a fish bigger than him today.  How cool would it be to have a picture of those two over my fire place?  Ryan, what are you doing this weekend?

CBBT January 23, 2012

January 23, 2012 CBBT report







I met an old friend from NC who trailered up from Raleigh to hit the CBBT. It’s about the same distance for him to the CBBT as it is to Oregon Inlet and since all the reports last week were excellent, even a blind person could find a gannet storm in the area. It’s a no brainer, right? Hit the Travelodge near Lynnhaven late Sunday night to get an early start on Monday morning. Initial price was around $50 but with taxes and an additional person we could have got three rooms at the place next to Rudee. We wanted to head out of Lynnhaven because the winds were supposed to switch to the south later in the afternoon with gusts up to 20mph, which isn’t pretty in a 19’ center console when you are in the ocean.







We had some battery issues in the morning and got kind of a late start. Heard from Walleye Pete that the action was decent around the bridge. Of course we missed the good morning bite around the islands by the time we finally made it there around 9am. We were forced to hit the pilings in deep water, like 60 feet. The first group of fish we found were hugging the bottom at 50 to 60 feet. My medium action rod didn’t have the ass needed to set the hook in that depth with the minimum required ounce. Quickly stepped up to the medium heavy avid, 4000 sedona spooled with 14 pound fireline on its 4^th season, 1.50z head and started hooking up regularly with 7 inch bass assassins and BKD’s. Most of the fish were dink, 20 inch category. Each fish was smothered with sea lice. After the first three fish the boat was painted in those things. Never seen anything like it. It must have something to do with bottom hugging fish. Usually sea lice is indicative of Ocean dwelling fish which relates to where we were catching our fish but I’ve pulled an anchor off the bottom in the Potomac and it was covered in those things.  I’ve just never seen so many parasites on the fish at the CBBT or anywhere else for that matter.  Next we worked towards the 3^rd but never made it that far. I wanted to fish a few pilings that have produced in the past and sure enough Captain Pete Dahlberg was working the same area. He’s got a triple hook up when we pass him. Same deal, fish were down very deep. 40 to 50 feet, some suspended down 30 to the bottom. The best method was to do a countdown figuring your jig was sinking 2 feet per second and a 12 count put you on fish well. Or two lifts of the rod with the bail open would put you somewhere in the 20 foot depth range, plus what ever the length of line you cast up current was. I was captaining the 19’ tidewater CC with a 115 HP Yami 4 stroke equipped with a Lawrance side imaging structure scan. Wow that thing is cool. Talk about being able to figure out exactly which pilings had fish. Even if the fish were hugging the piling, you could pick them off and determine which ones were worth fishing. Unbelievable unfair advantage. For whatever reason, on productive spots, only a few select pilings were holding good numbers of fish and it paid dividends being able to see exactly which ones had fish. Each drift would produce at least a strike, it was up to you to hook the strike. Between three guys we usually got a fish per drift. It’s not easy getting a good hook set when you’re fishing 40 to 60 feet deep while jigging with pastics. Many fish came unbuttoned or just never found a hook. A jigging spoon might have been better equipped to hook more fish but then you run the risk of losing an expensive jigging spoon over a cheap plastic to the sea of rip rap down below. Anyway, bright colored plastics got bit. Most of the fish were around 20 inches, a few might have pushed that 30 inch mark but no monsters. Most were as porky as can be. Well fed CBBT footballs who were all down deep.

Here’s an out of focus picture with the wrong camera settings. Most fish were this size or smaller which didn’t quite warrant a picture. But certainly a lot of fun and far better than watching a broom stick all afternoon. The funky pattern on the tail of this fish was all sea lice. There must have been over 100 sea lice on the tail alone. Then all over the deck of the boat too.

Check out the fog. This is the same fish as above. Try to zoom in on the tail and all the sea lice.

 Here's another schoolie size fish.  Notice the lice on the fins and the fog in the back ground.  We pretty much were forced to stick to the bridge without radar to watch out for other boats. 

We tried running the ocean a few times but the fog was so dense it was impossible. I doubt even the birds could see through the soup. With no radar I thought it would be a death sentence to join the fleet at Cape Henry. But miraculously once or twice during the day the fog would lift. The first time it did we tried making the run. Only to have a destroyer ship move in from the west and a Carrier come in from sea at the same time. It was pretty awesome to see what the air horns were advertising as the floating fortresses suddenly appeared out of the fog. But right around this time a group of gannets started to organize. Then hundreds of Cormorants started to all gather in the same area, one or two dive bombs from gannets turned into rapid fire. All this was right smack in the middle of the shipping channel and any minute we were about to be overrun with a billion tons of steel that would almost certainly scatter the fish. We darted in there like cuckoo bird laying its egg to scan the area for predators hiding below. It wasn’t meant to be I guess, it was just a huge school of bait with no one around. Our jigs came up empty and the side imaging and structure scan turned up nothing either.

A destroyer when we were trolling at Cape Henry. That lasted all of 30 minutes before we realized our stupidity and futility.

We later ventured to Cape Henry in a relatively fogless afternoon. Then all of a sudden the fog returned like a wall of snow. The seas picked up to giant rollers broken up with 2 foot chop. To make matters worse we were in line to Rudee and a few charters blew past us. But we might have seen 4 fishing boats all day. One of them appeared to be hooked up to a tuna less than a mile from Cape Henry in a 20 foot center console. We circled the boat a few times waiting to see some glimpse of fin but it was taking too long. I don’t even want to fight one of those things for more than an hour, say nothing about watching someone else fight one. No thanks. We did mark a ton of fish and bait hugging the bottom near Cape Henry. I could have sworn we would have tripled up on fish but it never happened. Maybe they were all dog fish, or maybe they were the huge school of striped bass that seems to have vanished from that area lately. We talked to a few charter guys and checked every internet fishing board we could and everything said the striped bass bite died quicker than a deer on 95 in the rut. Charters were coming in early, refunding customers’ trips, many taking a complete skunk since last Thursday or Friday. The fish just seemed to have vanished all at once.

Well, maybe the ocean size “Schoolies”, the 20 plus pounders have vanished but the bay size schoolies running from 3 to 10 pounds are there for the catching if you want to play. Find some deeper water pilings near the islands and drop your favorite jig. It won’t take long to get some pullage. I think it’s time for some power plant fishing closer to home. But the warm winter isn’t attracting the fish as well as the cooler weather this time of year usually does. Maybe it’s time for some muskie fishing which I hear is about as hot as it can be from the DC to Nashville. Just about any named river from Tennessee to NY is producing trophy muskie right now. I guess my legendary gannet storm will have to wait till March. See you then Mr. Striped bass. Or like my son likes to call them, see you later Striper diaper.

Erie Steelhead Dec 7 -10 2011

The rains came and so did the fish. I was there from late Wednesday to mid day Saturday and it was a trip to remember. Upper elk is full of spawning and even post spawn fish who had a liking to streamers on the swing. Incredible action on old beat up fish on Wednesday and Thursday, well up river, much further than I have ever ventured before. Many of the fish looked like they had gone through the dryer on spin cycle. Some gravel beds were littered with spawning pairs that completely ignored everything we threw at them. But once we found a pool or some decent holding water, there was often a player on every bend or so. Some of the females were obviously spawned out and had little fight. The old horse males who hang on a little longer to protect their spawning grounds had a bit more fight left in them but nothing like a fresh from the lake silver steelhead is supposed to exhibit. But we were more than 20 miles up river, these fish have seen extreme drought and flooding conditions in a creek not much wider than a pick up is long. It's easy to see how they may have taken a beating.

First fish of the trip on Wednesday afternoon from upper Elk.  I dropped my kids off at school at 8am in Maryland and still managed a few hours on the water that afternoon. This is probably an average female steelhead that was still relatively fresh and had not spawned yet.  This is the more or less the cookie cutter size or "regular grade" Erie steelhead of about 5 or 6 pounds and 22 inches long.  The other fish that afternoon were similar in size and therefore didn't get a photo shoot.  With dirty conditions, poor visibility, i.e. perfect water clarity, the white bead was still very effective.  This has been the top producer for myself and my fishing partner John Chucoski from The salmon river to Erie this season.  8mm white bead pegged two inches up the line fished under an indicator on 6 pound tippet, on a 6 wt fly rod and a number 10 or 12 black bird hook. AKA steelhead crack.

On Thursday morning we decided to hit lower Walnut at one of the most popular spots in the entire Great Lakes tributary system.  The thought was that the high water would bring in massive amounts of fish and mid week peak hunting season would keep the crowds down.  Plus I was hoping to show a couple green steelhead fishermen mind boggling numbers of fish even if it meant we had to fight the crowds.  Notice no one in the back ground?!  With a few fish to play with but no where near the numbers that are usually there.  I netted this fish before it had a chance to wake up.  Not a whole lot of fight to it for some reason but it may have been the largest fish of the trip.  A variety of factors go into a steelheads fighting ability; water temperature, how fresh the fish was, how much oxygen they receive, whether it has been caught before. I think this fish was just a little cold and a little lethargic being that it was holding in some fast pocket water.  If this fish was caught in early November, Matt would have seen his backing probably more than once. 

 

On Friday we decided to stay a little closer to the lake but hiked miles on one stream into NY and found gold or better yet Silver. Numbers were incomprehensible. I told my guys, one of them new to steelhead fishing that if you can find unmolested fish who haven’t seen a fly yet that day, chances are you'll catch them. I said the day before that one of my secrets is to walk far enough and fast enough to be the first person at a pool. Well, Caleb took that literally. Often bypassing and not fishing mediocre water to find that hidden treasure that may or may not have been around the next bend. If it wasn't for the one other hardcore fishermen out on Friday who kept alternating pools with Caleb, I don't think we ever would have ventured as far up river as we did on Friday. This one guy obviously knew what he was doing, as he did not spend more than a few casts at any one pool and was on a mission to fish a certain section that was only accessible by helicopter or a very determined fishermen. The two strangers chased each other so far up river that eventually the flat, featureless bed rock turned into an excellent pool:riffle:run ratio and with it the fish. These steelhead were not the way upper river spawned out fish that ran back in October. These fish were in near perfect condition, some fresh and dime bright silver, so full of piss and vinegar that you would think they were November fish, not December. A few snow flakes were in the air, we had pretty much the entire stream to ourselves and it was just steelhead fishing zen. I for once fished slower today and picked at the leftovers behind Matt and Caleb. But I'll take leftovers when there's ample reserves. Beads pegged up the line, in white, 8mm in size was deadly. Something most of those fish probably have never seen before. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of those fish have never seen any fly for that matter. Egg flies such as sucker spawn, glow bugs, san juan worms, stone flies and wooly buggers all got action too.  We just may have been the first fishermen these fish have ever seen. When that happens, success will follow. With the growing season over now the streams retain water and color for much longer than they did in early November and October. Thus prolonging the "perfect" green conditions needed for epic numbers on the Lake Erie tributaries so prone to flash flooding.  We were there at a perfect time when the streams were just receding from a high water event.  Friday was one of the better days I've had on those tribs in 10 + years. It took a little determination to put it all together but I'll take it. It was a group effort.

Here's a perfect pool with perfect water clarity with no one else around.  Most of the fish were holding in the narrower faster water to the left of the picture, not the usual, deeper, slower water towards the right of the picture. 

Here's Caleb working the deeper water.  Matt managed to land three fish from this pool prior to me ever getting there. 

Here's one of the three fish that Matt landed from the pool above.  Notice the girth of this fish and her color. She was full of attitude. 

Some beautiful scenery that is always that much more spectacular with no one else around. 

Here's one of my larger fish from Friday.  This old male had been in the stream a while but was still full of vigor. He's posing next to my size 14 boot and may have pushed that magic 30" number.   

On Saturday another one of the Depp brothers was going to meet us in the morning. I had promised my wife and kids to be home for dinner in Maryland but I also wanted to put Timothy on his first steelhead. Maybe even his first trout. Talk about getting spoiled. Well, we fished upper Elk again and once again had the place to ourselves. Tim first started off with a spinning rod and a spinner. Water temperatures had plummeted, air temps were well below freezing, our guides were icing up immediately and to say conditions were difficult would be an understatement.  The snow was coming down so hard that it made it difficult to focus on the float.  I let Tim use my noodle rod rigged with egg sacks under a float and within seconds, before I could even turn around he's already hooked up. This continued for the next few casts too. I think he hooked three fish in three casts from an area we had already beaten to death with flies. But like so many steelhead do, they managed to find freedom. Finding, then hooking steelhead is only part of the equation. Landing them is a skill only mastered after quite a few trials and errors.

It was nearing mid day when I had said all my goodbyes and was a little disappointed I couldn't get Tim into his first steelhead. I decided to take a few casts at the last pool of the day near our cars. Well, this one pool was well occupied with fish. I hooked up with a better than average fish and was able to pass the rod to Tim so he could land his first steelhead. Success! This particular fish went home for dinner and believe it or not, she had already spawned. I later learned that Tim hooked up quite a few more times on his own that afternoon as I battled the snow squall towards home. I managed to make it home by 7pm which found me instantly soaking my sore muscles in a hot bath.  To say steelhead fishing isn’t a sport is sacrilegious in my eyes.  When you hump all your gear, food, water, miles into steep topography, then go to battle with a fish as psychotic as a steelhead, you need to be on top of your game.  Crossing the river dozens of times, leg pressing the current on every step is not your typical pond fishing experience and not for the faint of heart.  But I wouldn’t have it any other way.  As Larry Dahlberg once said, “A Good fishing spot is almost directly proportional to the amount of effort it to took to get there", or something like that anyway.   

My relaxing bath was soon rudely interrupted  when my 5 year old son came cannonballing into the whirlpool after he returned home from a friend’s house. I'll take it though. I think it’s almost time to show Ryan his first steelhead. 

The net job on Tim's first steelhead. 

Notice the smile.

Steelhead round 2, November 2011

November 16, 2011

The plan was to do another birthday steelhead trip with my best friend Diego for his birthday.  I was just recently his best man in Michigan this past summer.  We hadn't had a chance to do a hardcore trip together since, or really fish together since our "battle in the woods", salmon fishing on the Pere Marquette.  We caught a case of salmon fever that trip and hadn't really had a chance to cure it.  Most of our trips in Michigan were cut short due to chores and wedding duties.  The salmon in that river beat us up so bad that we needed redemption.   Redemption would come in the form of a high flying acrobatic steelhead.  We just were not sure exactly where to go.  Fish the Lake Erie tributaries or Lake Ontario?  With there being no water in Erie, we decided at the last possible second while on the highway to fish the Salmon River in Pulaski, NY because of the minimum base flow of 335cfs in this river.  But we knew crowds could be an issue as this is probably the most popular Salmon/steelhead fishery on the planet.  Except this time of year, most of the salmon snaggers have gone home and the river is over run with actual fishermen... for the most part. 

We  Fished Sunday (11/13-11/16) afternoon through Tuesday afternoon from the bottom of the river to the top.  We floated mid river the first afternoon and immediately got into small steelhead, like 16 inches small.  Not the super dinks but not a typical 3 year old either or two year old for that matter. Then hit some decent fish in the 20 inch category.  Got beat up by one or two biguns, mostly throwing beads on fly rods as it out fished egg sacks under floats on noodle rods.  Crowds were terrible near Pineville, never seen anything like it down there, even during peak salmon season. We first looked around Altmar and just laughed.  Even for a Sunday afternoon it was insane.  The Pineville parking lot was just about full!    But once we floated past the bridge trolls and short walkers, it was wide open. 

We decided to hit the DSR all day on Monday.  Started in the upper DSR, we were the first people there but later had people immediately below us and right on top of us when the rest of the river was wide open.  I had to say something about getting up late and expecting to fish over top of me.  I said to myself the next person who walks in this tailout is getting an earful.  Well, the next one did and I let him know about his rudeness.  I've been fishing that river since a young kid and learned long ago you sometimes have to stick up for yourself.  Some of the enchroachers got the idea, other’s didn’t so we worked further up stream finding a prime pool deserted and all to ourselves.  Again, small steelhead.  Like 16-20 inches.  A 20 inch trout is an awesome fish no matter where you are, still took plenty of drag, acrobats like you wouldn’t believe but not the slammer 4 year old 30 inch fish I was hoping for.  There was an unbelievable number of small steelhead around.  A lot of those 12 inch fish, silver as can be and a lot of those 16-20 inch fish too.  Most of these fish were caught on blue egg sacks under floats in the heads of the pools or the extreme tailouts still considered fast water. 

Here's your typical smaller silver bullet. We caught mostly fish this size and smaller which were not quite picture worthy but are still full of piss and vinegar. 

I later worked down the smaller of the two braids in the river and worked a favorite stretch of water with floats and egg sacks.  Nothing.  Then switched to the fly rod with a white bead and one of the first casts hooked the behemoth I was after that took me for a ride.  You wouldn't believe what I had to do to land it.  I wasn’t in the greatest position to land a fish and had to do some rock hopping, tree ducking and sprinting to catch up to the fish but it finally happened.  Mission accomplished. I can die a happy man now. 

Later that afternoon we took the kayak up from the estuary to access the harder to reach water.  Figuring we would get an extra half hour of fishing if we didn’t have to walk back to the parking lot by 5pm.  We hit the first few pools in the estuary.  Quite a few guys for this late in the game but jam packed with fish proposing and jumping everywhere and they were ALL steelhead.  A very friendly group of guys too who half took a boat up and the other half walked down from the top. They immediately invited us to join them even though it looked filled to capacity to me.  But the numbers of fish were unbelievable, the estuary was like salmon season except they were all steelhead.  However, they didn’t want to cooperate at first. Or at least not for us as others were hooking up. 

So we hit some fast water upstream in a perfect looking section.  Maybe two feet deep, maybe less.  The perfect holding water for steelhead when the water temperatures are still not too cold, i.e the upper 40’s.  The perfect water temperature for the most insane runs, and fights.  More like all out brawls.  God I love steelhead.  This section had it all,  Perfect gravel, cobble, the perfect lie to intercept the bounty of salmon eggs.  Plus I had it all to myself.  My friend chose not to follow me across the river, even after I phoned him to say he had to cross to fish this area properly and I was on fish.  Blue beads were getting annihilated.  They were hitting them so hard they were literally running off with them.  Sometimes it would happen seconds after the bead hit the water on an upstream cast and this rocket would explode out of no where to grab the bead and dart back to its lie. Other times they would intercept it on the end of the swing like spey fishing and almost pull the rod out of your hands while fishing one BB shot under and indicator.  Insane action for that last hour of light.  Landing percentage was terrible though. But again, many, many small steelhead.  Maybe a few made that 20 inch size.  Even some of the jacks, like the 12 inchers were colored up and no they were not rainbows.  However I did hook an enormous rainbow that I almost landed but didn’t and landed a handful of 20 inch silver bullets.  My best friend Diego joined me from across the run/riffle and hooked up almost immediately but was having trouble landing them as that side offers little area to beach the fish.  I was across from him carrying the only net.  So he left for more favorable landing water and missed the evening flurry of hookups. Sorry dude.  I was later joined by two respectable fishermen who shared the run with after asking if it was okay.  Definitely some gentlemen fishermen in the DSR besides the guides and the few a holes up river.  On the way out we just had to cast at the pool that has been off limits since September and would you believe it but I caught a king.  First I hooked up with a steelhead on an egg sack.  He was head shaking violently, jumping, kart wheeling, but then the hook popped out and I was left with a different, heavier, slower bull dog fight.  The hooked pulled from a steelhead and into a big fresh king.  It was snagged unfortunately but I still landed it.  Fresh looking king in mid November!? You don't see that very often. Cool.   We did see a few active spawning beds in the DSR too by the way. 

Final day, I need to get a fish landed for my best friend and we need to hit the road at noon according to him.  So the lower fly zone it was.  We entered about 6am on a Tuesday, not many people yet but some preferred spots had people with lanterns, lawn chairs just staking them out.  No big deal, I like fast water/riffle/run fishing.  We had a whole side all to ourselves and from what I saw we out fished just about every other person there who were mostly  throwing long leaders/tippets and lots of weight.  However it was good to see some guys fishing indicators and much less weight.  We rigged beads above nymphs under indicators and one or two BB or BB2 Shot 8 to 18 inches from the fly and had non stop action all morning long.  Even had a double.  Many, many small steelhead again, like that 20 inch category.  Very few fresh fish, almost all had some color, some had fight, others did not.  We did get into a few absolutely massive fish that I could have sworn were kings except they were silver.  Didn’t stand a prayer landing them.  Salmon eggs were everywhere in the gravel.  Thousands of them.  They looked white/yellow, 7mm maybe.  Guess what, 8mm white bead above a prince or stonefly nymph did the trick.  Not sure if they were going for the bead or the nymph, my guess is the bead.  I couldn’t keep track of numbers too well but I’d say we were both well into double digits as far as hook ups and possibly landings as well.  The few fresh fish I did catch were again, small but fresher is always better.  However, not to knock the old horses as many of them were full of spunk too.  Noon quickly turned into 1:30pm so at least I got another hour and a half out of my friend.  The look on his face when he was hooking all those fish was priceless.  Till next time. 

You know you are doing well when you both land a fish at the same time.  That's a memory that will last a while.  Mine's the bigger one btw.  HAAHHA

A nice brown showed up to the party too.  Diego's best brown trout.  Even though we have browns this size in Maryland, I'll take them when we can get them.  Diego was thrilled with this fish even though it fought like a wet rag. Sorry but they just aren't steelhead.

Your typical upper river steelhead.  We lost more than  few that were twice this size.  It's always better to have played and lost than never to have played at all. 

We stayed at the steelhead lodge which was fantastic this time. We stayed in the main lodge, we each got our own room with a double bed, excellent soup and hospitality. It was good meeting pinrod, and smokequeen. Thanks for the info guys. It’s always good to talk fishing with real fisherman and woman. Let’s do it again sometime. 



As I sit here and write this the conditions are about as prime as can be for most of the Erie and lake Ontario tributaries.  The rain the last few days did the trick.  The time is now. This next week will offer epic steelhead action on just about any drainage ditch in the great lake's water shed. It's a great time of year. Too bad life got in the way and I couldn't just turn into a steelhead.