Saturday, May 25, 2013

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.









Sunday, May 5, 2013

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.