Kayaking in the heat

July 7, 2012

It was one of the hottest days of the year and I had just finished a full days’ worth of field work delineating wetlands inside the Beltway.  I had consumed over a gallon of water and was about wiped out by the time we made it back to the office.  But Route 50 wasn’t that bad and my kayak was still on the roof from our trip to Kent Island visiting Pete for his birthday.  I never got a chance to use it.  Part of me wanted to get into a few fish since my wife and kids were at the beach.  By now it was peak rush-hour on route 50 catching the workers going home and mad weekend traffic making a mad dash across the bridge for some fun in the sun.  What the heck…. 20 minutes wait at the bridge but I’m across.  Head to Ace Hardware to build a tackle /rod storage device out of milk crate. It comfortably and confidently held 4 rods.  I dropped the kayak in at Hemmingway’s (no idea if that was legal) to hit the eastern shore pilings.  Why the eastern when the western side is so close and easy?  Because it just fishes better.  You have the sewer pipe there enclosed in tons of rip rap and the eastern side pilings just before the channel tend to almost always hold fish.  Sometimes, even now, past peak migration, they can be trophy size with the magic wand in the proper hands. 

Usually jigging ¾ oz head behind the pilings just before the drop off does the trick when rigged with long skinny plastics to cut down on drag and then popped violently off the bottom quickly enough not to get snagged and aggressively enough to entice a strike.  The strikes almost always come on the drop of the violent jig or whip of the rod.  Braided line is a must, as is a good heavy leader. 

I picked away at some fish with the sun still high in the sky but there were all dinks.  Around sunset the tide was waning and I thought my chances were useless.  I picked a bad day to hit the bridge with the tide at its weakest at the magic hour of the day.  But, with a little luck I drifted over a school.  First I hit the pipe in the deeper section with a few other boats from 16’ bass boats to 26 foot offshore center consoles.  The water was like glass out there tonight. 

There weren’t any fish taking top water or the jig for whatever reason.  Then I moved shallow once the sun had completely set and figured I’d work the pipe towards shore on my way home.  Well, there was one good hump with some decent disturbance and sure enough the fish were there.  First was the jig to get hit by a respectable 22 inch fish.  Then a bunch more dinks.  Then they were all over the surface but wouldn’t touch the spook for whatever reason.  They wanted that jig and they wanted it near the bottom.  Multiple hits per casts, many hook ups, many many fish to the kayak in that magic 30 minutes of ambient light when the blistering sun had finally set.  It’s almost as if the fish were waited for that magic hour.  The tide couldn’t have been any slower but that sun was just relentless all day long.  Once she was gone… look out.  It’s smart to only fish that first and last hour of light this time of year.  You’ll probably triple the number of fish in an hour’s fishing during that magic hour than you would all day otherwise. 

Get out there… easy close to home fishing.

Dry or Die Trout fishing

Casselmen May, 25, 2012

My usual fishing partner John C and I did a suicide run to the Casselmen yesterday.  Which really isn’t all that difficult with it being about two hours from home. We did however compare the distance to Mossy Creek, Spring Creek at State College, Tyrone for the Little Juniata, even Pens Creek because we both wanted to get on the legendary Green Drake hatch.  Ironically almost all those other famous trout streams were about the same distance give or take 15 minutes.  But the casselmen was the closest by about 30 minutes and being that I had some work to do in the morning, a 10 oclock departure would be pushing it for the other streams. Plus I knew the Casselmen very well and knew it’s the place for numbers.  We both hadn’t had a good trout afternoon in a while and both wanted good insect activity.  We were both kind of in a “dry or die” kind of mood.  Even though we both fish for musky with the heaviest of conventional tackle, we will both chunk bait for giant blue catfish when the opportunity arises but we also like our quality trout fishing.  John probably more so than I as he chose to go to college at a school with the Yellow Breeches practically running through its campus some 15 years ago. 

Okay, back to the fishing.  We get there sometime after noon.  Set up in a far away difficult to get to spot with one other car.  Most spaces had company already up and down the stream. We knew conditions were low at around 50cfs.  Which is about at the bottom of the fishes comfort level and mine for that matter on that river. I prefer to fish the stream around 150cfs, even 180cfs after a decent rain or on its way down after a high water event.  At that stage fish are literally everywhere, behind every rock where back casts catch fish as well as forward casts.  But at 50cfs the flow is slow and low and it concentrates the fish making it seem overly unnatural.  The water temperature was into the 70’s already.  The fishing this season there is just about over.  What will today bring?

We immediately get into fish on dries as there was a decent breeze and some caddis dancing on the surface from time to time.  Nothing huge, beat up fresh stockies most likely.  We worked upstream passing a lot of bed rock and featureless water until we get to a long flat stretch.  I almost shot straight past it to find the head of the pool and the riffle but John noticed a few rises. We had found the mother lode of fish in the tailout of the long slow pool and they were regularly rising to something.  Something very small and we noticed midges and maybe #26 ants or something in the surface film with the occasional shuck from a larger mayfly.  We worked over these fish taking turns casting for a couple hours in the hot mid day sun.  The fish would occasionally come up and hit my leader knots of all things but I did manage the only brown trout of the trip with a #22 midge emerger off of a beetle patter.  It was a quality fish of about 14 inches.   That was all we managed from this spot where there were dozens of rising fish, some massive golden trout were seen but easily spooked and the place was just chocker block full of fish in the slow water but they were defiantly difficult to entice.  If not impossible.  We wasted most of the day playing with those fish too. 

We moved on up to the head of the pool in long perfect looking riffle. The riffle itself seemed lifeless but the few pockets down below in the deeper run had a lot of fish.  Rises were seen easily too.  I picked away at a few fish on caddis flies and John worked up river.  I knew that the water up river wasn’t the greatest but had a lot of riffles.  I wanted to be right in the best looking riffle come evening when the finest hour was approaching fast.  John went up and the light grew shorter. Things started to get very interesting.  March browns starting swirling over head by the hundreds.  Previously in the late afternoon I was only able to hit fish in this one tiny little pocket below the riffle all the way across the river.  But once these bugs starting showing themselves, they started feeding much better.  But again, only in this one spot and only after I’d let it rest a few minutes after pulling a fish from it.  Then I’d see some rises in the riffle itself.  That got more intense as it got darker.  Sulfers had joined the March browns and things were coming to life.  The riffle literally exploded wutg life with fish coming out of the wood work and a strike almost every cast.  If I could dance and skip my March Brown fly across the surface the fish would fight over it.  It was incredible to see a place that previously was deserted of fish literally explode with fish.  Even golden trout showed up to the party when there were none in sight a few minutes earlier.  The rainbows I was catching in the riffle right at my feet appeared in far better condition than the fish from earlier in the day.  They had almost pinkish fins with a  more robust body form and almost a steelhead like appearance with bright, flawless silver sides.  I think these were the warm water variety rainbows so common on the North Branch of the Potomac and the Youghiogeny.  They were no where to be seen earlier but were throwing themselves at the fly in the waning moments of the finest hour.  It was dry fly fishing zen.  My last March brown finally was far too wet to ever get to float again but even just swinging the fly in the riffle got action.  When I was able to bounce the fly off the riffles with my 7’ 3wt it would almost always get a rise, even at the end of my rod. 

The fishing stayed good even after true dark.  It was 9:30pm when it finally slowed down and it was well past pitch dark.  But I was still fishing and so was John, somewhere up river.  I thought about a spinner fall, and I could still hear the occasional rise.  I’ve known from experience on popular trout streams that the largest of the large, the top dogs of the river come out to play at night to avoid the angling pressure of the day time.  Could it be that time? I had my last strike around 9:40pm just as John showed up.  We stuck it out another 20 minutes and walked back to the truck to call it a night.  John C also said this was one of the craziest hatches and dry fly outings he’s ever had.  I agreed with him completely.  What a day.  Home just after midnight with that happy and content feeling you often feel after a fine, successful fishing trip. 

We were too busy catching fish to get any photos of the fish.  I was holding out for one of those swimming logs that are common to that river but we never caught anything of any size.  Mostly 11 to 14 inch range.  But we certainly made up for it in numbers.  It was an insane numbers day.  Gotta love it when a plan comes together. 

The first picture below is a cell phone picture of a swarm of March Browns dancing over my head.  They later danced right on the riffle as dark 30 was knocking at the door. The fish were litterally throwing themselves after them, sometimes going competely airborne.  

Just a few shots of the river from my cell.  Too busy catching fish to take many other photos.

Close by Trouting

May 24, 2012 Patuxent

Trout fishing is pretty good right now on the Patuxent.  Particularly below Brighton Dam in the Fly Fishing only, catch and release section that extends a few miles below Brighton Dam on the main Branch of the Patuxent below Tridephia Reservoir. 

Just last Tuesday I got an unexpected rain inspection for my current job so I was able to mix in a couple hours of fishing after work.  The last job site just so happens to be within a few miles of the best access point on this river.  Or did I just plan it that way? Duhh?

So on Tuesday I was rigged with my 7’ 3wt with plenty of gear and gave it a go for the surpluss of trout that have been stocked in that section this spring. Most of the stocking takes place in early March but I’m usually busy fishing elsewhere come mid March through April.  It usually isn’t until now do I take notice in trout again and what better place to do it than in a tailwater stream close to home.  The water temperature was still rather cool, much cooler than the Little Patuxent was at Savage mill last week. All I caught there was a good buzz at the Savage Mill Inn. Very warm water when I was wet wading.

Anyway, I fished a copper John nymph probably size #12 below a large stimulator and managed to catch two good size rainbows in the riffles.  There’s only about two good riffles in that entire stream and they just so happen to be right next to the parking spot.  But I also managed a ten inch yellow perch on a bugger, numerous fall fish, creek chub, stone rollers and creek chub suckers, along with a couple sunfish. So it wasn’t a bad two hours fishing.  I did realize that many of the trout that I saw, but did not catch, were very inquisitive to anything that fell into the water. So… next time I was going “dry or die” so to speak. 

Went back to the Patuxent today (May 24, 2012) below Brighton Dam a good ways and fished a long slow stretch that had a few rising fish. Sure enough they were trout, and more than a few fallfish. The lie was very difficult to get a fly into with a overhanging branch. I had to do a sideways rollcast that hooked the tree 3 out of 5 times but when I got it in there I'd always get an inspection. Pretty cool to fish over well educated, long since stocked trout. These fish were all browns that I helped stock back in early March, or was it February this year. Nothing huge but they sure were coming up quite often. There was a good breeze and seed pods from dandy lions and who knows what else was in the water and the trout were hitting them pretty regularly. But they were also showing a liking to my #16 Japanese beetle pattern. Caught two in a couple hours and missed quite a few more. Lost two spools of tippet somehow too out of my waste pack so in the end I was throwing 4x, 6.4 pound tippet. That probably didn't help.

Then I worked upstream to a popular spot that I know was stocked with over 100 fish. Probably 300. When I first stepped off the bank in ankle deep water (sneakers and shorts) I saw a brown rooting around on the bottom like as if he had a bad case of whirling disease. But he was chasing something and ate it right in front of me, less than a rods length. I was rigged with a beetle pattern and a #22 midge with a glass bead and flicked it out right on top of him. Some tiny little fall fish quickly grabbed it. That continued until I snagged a branch. Broke off and went to a bugger. a few misses and it was time to go home.

On the way there I spotted a huge school of good size 20+" suckers spawning below a blow down in the gravel. They had nests just like a steelhead would. I passed them on the walk up thinking I'd try to find some more rising trout but on the walk down I really wanted to hook one of these suckers. Put on a large "thinga ma bobber" and a san juan worm with some shot and dredged the fast run. I ended up spooking all 100 suckers somehow, even crouching behind the giant multiflora bush. But there were quite a few fall fish and trout in and amongst the suckers. I had a few takes. Got the text that the wife wanted to go out for happy hour. Had to rush home. But got in two good hours of fishing close to home and the job site. Gotta love it. Oh.. just finished happy hour too. 

Here's a shot of a good run/maybe a riffle that often holds a few fish.  Sure doesn't look too shabby for being between the two beltways.  The fishing there should stay good for about another month. 

Now What?

It's the middle of May and I'm a little heart broken summer is rolling on in.  I can just feel the sweltering, hot, humid, lifeless days of summer creeping closer and closer.  And to top it off, what I'm really depressed about is that most of the migrants have left our region.  The big cow stripers, which I did not connect with this year too well but made up for it in numbers, have hit the ocean hard and using their tales like fish so often do.  Almost two weeks ago I got a report from my Indian River Inlet, DE friend Neptune Pete that the fish have arrived in decent numbers. It's nothing like last year's blitz after the sustained NE winds but it's sure pretty darn good. Anglers are wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder in the inlet and are catching rather well.  Last week Assateague Island in Va and Maryland had an incredible showing of fish.  Just my luck too because I'm in charge of a Boy Scout trip to AI this coming weekend on May 18-20th.  Most of the fish have moved on but with a little luck I might be able to put some boy scouts on some fish.  I'm planning on putting out a 10 plus rod spread on the beach this weekend and see who's home.  I received some good Intel that quite a few Black Drum are feeding in the surf on sand fleas mixed together with a crab fishbite combo.  I'll have the scouts catch my bait and who knows.  I know last year I caught a good fish from the surf in OC as late as Memorial Day. 

The last week of April did not disappoint.  My favorite week usually.  The Potomac had a showing of schoolie size fish since mid April which usually signifies the end but Diego struck gold on April 26th putting numerous big fish in the fletchers boat.  He had one at 42 inches confirmed that hadn't even looked like it spawned yet and another considerably larger that he lost boat side.  Plus countless 29 inchers.  I took the kids on the John Boat a little further down river on the same day and played with more than a few 20 something inch stripers, jigged up a 35 inch fish, missed a few others on the jig, played with 30 pound blue catfish too.  It started raining and the fish loved it.  Except the kids didn't too much. 

I made another quick trip down that deathly walk from GW Parkway to fish the big pool at night on Sunday, April 27th around midnight. First or second cast gave up a 28 inch, followed by a 30 something inch stripa and a 22 inch walleye, all on 10 inch BKD's.  Capt Steve liked the picture of the walleye so much he gave me an incredible deal on a fine package of baits too. 

But that was then.  The fishing came to an abrupt end around the fist week of May, right about the time that AI island was infiltrated with good fish from the shore.  We went out one last time searching for stripers on row boat and came up empty. Well, except Ryan and Diego. We did however find the mother lode of giant blue catfish.  But we had to go way up river to find current with 3.5 feet at little falls.  The striper came on a shad fly.  The shad fishing still wasn't too bad but they were all small males, spawned out too. Check out the size of this kitty. 

The Casselmen trout fishing is about as good as it gets.  One report from PPTU described it as almost too easy with 150 fish coming to hand in a couple days effort.  The DNR only just stocked brown trout into the system too and they did not cooperate for this one report. Recent rains have the river flowing at optimal flow of 150+ cfs.  Reportedly the grannon caddis hatch was still going strong, sulphurs and a plethora of other insects were out on the prowl and those clueless stockers didn't stand a chance. 

I messed around in Little Seneca Creek a few hours last week and came up empty.  No fish in the usual good pools up from the bridge for some reason.  I did get a swing and a miss from a small fish so it wasn't a complete loss. Then this weekend I took Ryan, Matty, Jake and their dad down to Black Rock for an hour or so to give the mothers a rest on Moms day.  We set up in a popular spot and I almost immediately saw one of the largest trout I've ever seen in that stream or any stocked water for that matter.  This fish was up there close to double digits.  Sure enough I went back after him or her early Monday morning in the rain but struck out. Diego and Par did the same Sunday evening but no sightings. A couple inches of rain fell last night so that fish probably washed out of there with a little luck, or else went home in someones freezer. 

Musky fishing is not taking off into the expected post spawn blitz type pattern like it did last year.  The difference with this year compared to last is that around this time of year last year the Potomac was finally coming down after a long prolonged high water event. The fish basically hadn't fed well the whole month of April and then it was game time.  This year conditions have been perfectly clear, maybe too clear and low fishable water all spring long.  Many regulars and good fishermen are getting the old skunk.  Like John and I did on the full moon in early May near Shepherdstown.  I'm 90% sure I had a follow and a swirl near a bridge abutment covered up with a log jam on a 8 inch soft tail.  John managed a 17 inch smallmouth on a creeper top water bait which is more like a kids toy than any lure I've ever seen. So at least the smallmouth are on top water. 

Tides are about perfect for some Kent Narrows top water and the area opened up to fishing today.  Heck it was even Washington, DC's opening day Rock Fish season today.  I'm sure there are a few big fish sitting behind center rock and my 8' heavy action Musky Mojo rod is just the tool for the job too.  I just can't be bothered though.  No time either with the new job, even if it's only part time. Another very import interview tomorrow too and I'm here now writing a run on fishing report.  Too bad this doesn't pay the bills.  I bounced two checks this week, well, they paid it but I've got to forget about fishing for a while.  One check was from November! 

Okay, one more quick report. I hit up Needwood lake in rockville, MD today coming home from my site inspections. There is so much life back towards Rock Creek mouth it isn't even funny. The forebay is complete and filled with water.  YOY and yearling fish litter the banks by the thousands.  Schools of bass can be seen chasing bait fish too.  The place has really come back alive.  But I only managed one bass in an hours effort working pretty far up the creek too.  I had a hunch that some good bass, trout, heck maybe even a musky would push up the creek with the high water but the creek barely rose at all, just discolored.  OH well.  It's definitely worth a look if you have the time in the evening hours.

Where to fish and when?

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


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

Where would you fish and When

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

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

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

Notice the full moon creeping up above the smoke stacks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's a big susky flats night time fish. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Susquehanna Flats 4-18 and 4-19 2012

Ed and Jon’s striper Adventure 

April 19, 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s some fish porn.

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

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

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

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

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

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


First the 50

 Then the tiny 49 inch

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

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


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

April 17, 2012

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

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

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

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

1000-1800-2 small at 11k

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

2200-2400   2 small at 11,000cfs

479 American shad caught today all east lift

4300 were caught this season

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

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

Counting back to Thursday...  April 12, 2012

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

 

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



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



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