Winter Fishing at Bull Run

As December approached, I focused on crappie. I really never targeted crappie, I mainly caught them while chasing largemouth bass. One of those "oh, hey, look what I've got here", kind of things. I believe Robert Altman said it best: "I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don't know what's on the other end. Your imagination is under there."

I began researching the best approach to keeping your lure in the target area during the winter season. Since my favorite winter hole is known to have some huge giant timber laying underneath brought down the creek from the rushing water. I wanted to minimize hang-ups, but get the lure down to the those fish in deeper water.

First, I decided to look into the slip bobber approach coupled with a dual jig rig. Since I am fishing fairly deep water, I wanted a setup that allowed me to adjust accordingly.

Second, I went with Strike King Crappie Tubes coupled with Road Runner jigs. Additionally, I filled the tubes with Berkley Crappie Nibbles. Here is the method I used to inject crappie nibbles into the tubes. The method works as you can see here.



It's been a great December and a great year of fishing. Hopefully, next year I'll be able to get a couple fresh water citations.

Hiking and Fishing Bull Run 2013

Here are my adventures down Bull Run from October through December 2013. There were some mild days, there were some cold days, there were some skunks, there were plenty of tiny fish caught, but most importantly it was relaxing, fun, and I got plenty of exercise. I love this time of year!

Fall Fishing October 2013

I had some time to spare over the weekend, so I decided to pound the bank at a local lake that has produced around this time of year in the past. I tossed a StrikeKing Redeye Shad and a Berkley PowerBait 3" Smelt on a 1/8 jig head. I ended catching two greenies on each lure. Here is a quick time lapse of my outing this past weekend.



I'll definitely be bringing my yak out with me next weekend.

 Until next time, tight lines.

Chased Greenies, Caught Señor Gato

It had been almost 3 weeks since my last outing. I decided I would head out to my old favorite fishing hole to see if I get some bucket-mouths. Since majority of my fishing time back in August was geared toward smallmouth, I figured it was about time to go after some greenies. 

I began hitting the edges of the spadderdock with my usual setups, a spinnerbait and a carolina rig with  a worm at the end. I missed a couple by not paying attention, you know, wiping your forehead, moving something out of the way. Yeah, those short strikes are really precious when the fishing is slow. 

It took roughly about 45 minutes before I landed my first fish. This catfish smacked my spinnerbait on the retrieval along the edge in the distance.

The 6.5 pounder came later. This one smacked my worm. I tell you what. It darted towards the spadderdock, then made a sharp turn back towards the channel. It took me about 15 minutes to land her on the light tackle. 

 The release.

The bent Gamikatsu hook.

Although, I didn't catch a largemouth, landing a decent size cat was surely fun. 

August 2013 Bass Fishing

It's a been a while since I last posted. Since my July 27th post, I chased mainly smallies during the month of August, with only one outing where I targeted bucketmouths. I guess I got hooked on river fishing and fighting those feisty bronzebacks.

Here are a couple of videos from my August outings. Enjoy!


First outing

Compilation

Goose Creek | Upper Potomac

This outing was one that I had been wanting to make since I began kayak fishing. The problem is, I really didn't know too much of the area. More specifically, I didn't know if it was one that required two vehicles. A drop off and pickup point. Well, I found out it doesn't. Thanks to Steve Clark who put this outing together. Matt Matocha and Scott Wilson also made this really nice float down Goose Creek into the Potomac River.

On the float down Goose Creek, I had several short strikes on a small buzz bait and tube on a carolina rig, but no takers. 

My observation of Goose Creek is it has no vegetation, but lots of hidden boulders. I can see smallmouth being drawn upstream in late Spring, early summer, when the water is flowing. 

We finally hit the upper potomac. Should we go left or right. Steve had made this trip before, he made the recommendation to go left. He began picking them off left and right. Matt and I were missing. Matt eventually hooked up as we headed up river. I, unfortunately, had a skunk going. I eventually got onboard on the way drift down stream. 

Steve and I began picking them off on the drift down stream using a dead stick technique. Color didn't matter, since I was a coffee color BPS worm and Scott was using a smoke color Yamamoto worm. Scott on the other hand, pulled out a nice size largemouth hitting the bank line. 

Although, numbers weren't there for me, I would definitely make this trip again. Next time, I'll have some type of in-line spinner tied on, since it was working for Scott. 

Playing Guide

There are a couple of fishing groups and forums that I am active in. One being kayakbassfishing.com and the other is the Northern Virginia Fishing group in Facebook. Once I heard KBF Northern VA anglers were planning a frogging outing, I grew excited. Then I heard they would becoming to my playground. I was even more excited.

On Saturday morning, most anglers launched earlier than I had wanted to. I believe I launched 0630. Low tide was at 0515, but I wasn't sure if they opened the gates early when there are tournaments. Anyhow, just as I was about to launch, Steve Clark arrives. He had sent me a message on Facebook asking about the creek. So, I told him, unload and I'll be waiting for you on the other side of the tracks. 

As I arrived at the entrance to the creek, I noticed all the other anglers were spread out. With storms on the forecast, I wanted to get some fishing time and get Steve hooked into some decent size bass and maybe even a snakehead. 

Steve paddles up about 20 minutes later. I told him, lets go. We are heading to the back, but first lets make a quick stop on along side the main channel.

Here is my biggest of the day. Top water action is awesome! The footage is in the video below. Check it out. 

We couldn't get others to bite, so we headed off into the creek. With Scott Wilson now joining Steve and I. I let them take lead, giving some pointers along the way. We got into some decent size bass and Steve landed his first snakehead. 

All in all it was a great outing. I got to meet some new friends. It will be there turn showing me the ropes as we target some smallies on the upper Potomac on 7-21-2013. Hopefully, I can land a nice bronze back. It will be first smallie outing of the year.

Well, here is the video. Enjoy! 

Summer Froggin'

It was fun to get out again on my orange Ride.

The day started fairly slow as my buddy Miguel and I hit my favorite fishing hole. I really wish I had got him into some fish in terms of quantity. Unfortunately, he had to head out before the fun began.

 

 

Tossing the Rage Tail Frog was fun, but I should have learned my lesson from the last time. Stick to braid with snakeheads lurking around. As you will see I landed some nice tidal largemouth, but I had another large snakehead take me for a ride and with it's lock jaw, it broke off as I tried to get a hold of it with my fish grips. It just wasn't going to have it. You bet the next time around I'll have the Ego S2 Slider landing net with me. Yup, just picked it up today.

It took some time to land some fish. And as you will see, I lost juice on my GoPro. So I had to turn to my Kodak Sport to capture some footage of the fish I landed and being pulled by the snakehead. I hope you enjoy and I'll be at it again on Saturday with some friends from Kayakbassfishing.com and my fishing partner, Matt.

Playing Catch Up...

Anyone paying attention to this blog has noticed a drop in my blogging. Well, I can say it isn't from a lack of fishing, but rather a lack of time to edit footage and write about my outing.  I have found that a photo blog such as Tumblr or Instagram much more easier and less time consuming. But, I'd have to say It's difficult to get into details. Here is my link to Instagram site. Anyhow, since my last post, most of my time I've been focused on my new position at work. A challenge I accepted and needed. On top of that,  I was coaching soccer, taking my daughter to soccer travel tryouts. I'm happy to say she made the team.

Carp and Kayak Bass Fishing
It was my first time targeting carp, so I had to take to the tubes to learn about carp fishing. I found it very interesting and amazed at some of the carp being pulled out from different waters here in the United States and in Europe. It's pretty crazy!

The tackle of choice and bait were fairly simple. I like to keep things simple as possible in anything I do. I used a No. 6 single short-shanked and straight-eyed hook on a carolina rig. My good buddy Jason Defraitas brought the corn and away we went.



Creek Fishing June 9,  2013

I made a trip back to my favorite creek, launched at the tail end of high tide, and had a decent outing with 10 bass and 1 snakehead (lost) on this day. There is some great topwater action using Rage Tail frogs in the video below, but I wish I had not lost juice on the GoPro when I hooked into the snakehead that was about 25+ inches long, however I have the story below.

I  was using 15lb fluorocarbon line with a Rage Tail SpaceMonkey at the end. I tossed that bad boy onto the muddy edge, gave it a couple of twitches as I slowly brought into the water. Then Bam! The fight was one.

The landing piece was a bit difficult. She sat still as I had pressure on her while I made my decision on how to land this long beast. I decided I would reach out with my fish grips, slice her, and set her in the back of the yak. The excitement and adrenaline was awesome!  So I went in with my fish grips, it was like she knew, she started to slam against my yak about 4 times, went into a death roll, and then SNAP!  My line snapped and it she went under. After that, I had lost interest in fishing for the day. So, I called it a day and went home--a defeated man!

Rain, Occoquan Bass, and Cicadas

Last weekend started out to look like a total washout. I finally caught a break late Saturday for about an hour, so I decided to hit a local residential pond for some action.After missing out on a big girl, I ended only with a feisty dink. It was great to get out out of the house if only for a short period of time.

The following day, the forecast called for 60 percent chance of rain in the morning, clearing up until 3'oclock p.m., and 40 percent chance of rain the remainder of the day. I loaded up and headed out towards Occoquan Regional Park.

I began pounding the banks with overhangs as I made my way up towards the bridge and lily pads. As I got to the first bridge, I finally landed an 18" largemouth on a Gulp 3" minnow.

She put on a good fight and made the trip worthwhile. Even if I was looking over my shoulders as storm clouds approached.

I continued my way landing a few more dinks until I reached the lily pads. Along the way I had seen some huge snakeheads cruising along. I decided to target them by throwing top water frog and a spinner bait. But, no such luck.

On the way back, the sun began to peak but darker clouds began to form, it was time to call it a day. As I enjoyed the scenery, I had some hitchhikers onboard who decided to go on a cruise. Cicadas!

  

It was a fun little trip. I finally had a chance to see these somewhat clumsy insects flying around crash landing in the water.

From Good to Bad--Fishing

I got an early start last Sunday morning. There was rain in the forecast, about 20 percent. Yeah, I thought, it isn't going to rain as I left the house. As I arrived my destination, the wind was minimal. Just as I launched, the wind picked up making it a little rough. I immediately made it out to the edge of the channel, tossing a Carolina rig with a stick bait at the end of the hook. I fan casted, made some pitches in the some holes, then finally landed a 14 inch bass. That would be the last one in that area, my buddy and I decided to begin heading into the creek. Since it was high tide, the spatterdocks and submerged vegetation were not an issue, we headed into the shallows in search for bass or snakeheads.

We began tossing spinnerbaits along with a Carolina rig. My buddy ended landing a snakehead in 3 feet of water off the Carolina rig with a stick bait on the end. As the rain began to fall, we began catching bass on a white spinnerbaits. Mine had a little chartreuse on the skirt, that was the only difference.

In summary, it was started a bit rough, but caught some fish. He ended the day with 8 fish to my 4.  I caught my first fish off a frog for the year. That was the good. The bad began when the rain came down, my bag, where I store my phone, was not properly sealed and on top of that, I began to fill sick out on the water. Needless to say, I had a bad week. Hopefully, my next outing is a much better one with no issues.

Cold Sunshine

Last Saturday hit a pond with a buddy of mine. I only managed a couple of short strikes but that was about it. I had three rods with me. One rigged with a jig, a Carolina rig, and another for hard baits. It was terrible!

I decided after a lunch to hit Bull Run since it was much closer to home. The water was a bit muddy, cold, but the sunshine was out.

The location I was casting from allowed me to target deeper water. I decided to stick with the Carolina rig minus the bead. With the water being cold, I decided to go with a light barrel weight and Zoom Fluke. Since these fish had to be in deeper water. I wanted a slow fall with something that mimicked a dying bait fish. 

The one that would save me from a skunk.

Zoom Fluke

After a few casts, a couple of short strikes, I felt a thump. In this particular cast as my lure was descending, I felt my lure bounce off a submerged log. The water in that area is 20 feet deep with tons of submerged timber. As soon as it bounced off the log, I gave my rod a quick few twitches. BAM!  

 She didn't put much of a fight, but she was a beauty with a battle scar.

The release.



The excitement level of hooking a fish whether a 12" or 24" is always the same. With this crazy early spring weather and lack of sunshine. It felt great to wet the line once again.

It was slow the rest of the afternoon, only managing a few small bass and white perch.Taking in the sunshine, a little vitamin D while I waited.

Until Sunday when I take my Ride 135 out for the first time, enjoy this tune.

First Bass of 2013

Well, I've been missing in action due to a huge project at work, finishing up school, and no way to transport my yak since trading my old Santa Fe for a VW GTI. It was a decision I made and planned for, but the money I had set aside for kayak rack was used for a family emergency. Fast forward. I finally got my Thule kayak rack coupled with the Slipstream 887XT for my Ride 135. Install was free with purchase from Eastern Mountain Sports. Thanks to Mike and EMS Dulles for the install. Fabulous job!

Now if the weather would cooperate. Any how, I finally got yesterday to pound the banks with some old buddies. Jason DeFratus and his dad, Ron DeFratus. They are a some great folks, who have done so much for wounded warriors through Ron's Reel American Heroes Foundation.

Here are some shots of of the two I picked off yesterday. Here is Jason with a 3lb 6oz bass. He managed to catch another 3 pound bucket mouth.

Here is my first bass of 2013 which went for 3lb 6oz. Amazing it was the same weight as Jason's fish. I had been fan-casting into one location that looked promising. I probably tossed out to that point about 20-30 times before she hit as my lure landed in some weedy grassy edge. 

My only other fish came the same area. A 4lb bucket mouth. You bet I was excited. Heck I trembling from excitement. I knew she was a decent fish by the fight.I would say this one took about 10 fan-casts. 

Here are some other shots. One with the hero of the day. A swim jig with a Fat Albert grub.

A couple of hours fishing with some good old friends is was what I needed. Until my next adventure, here is a good tune. Check it out.