The Return

Well hello. It's been a little more than a year since I jotted some words or shared some photos on this blog. 2015 was supposed to be a better year in terms of running. Unfortunately, I rushed my return to pounding the pavement after sustaining an injury on Christmas Eve 2014. I didn't do much running only managing 300 plus miles. Since I couldn't run, I did a lot of fishing. Which it kind of balanced out. Anything to get outdoors.

Here are some highlights of 2015.

Injured foot



First complete 5 mile run in 2015




Back to full strength in late fall



Switched to a Garmin Fenix 3 watch for 2016




Fishing 2015 Top 4

19 1/4" at Bull Run Marina in September 2015



19 3/4" at Beaverdam Reservoir in December 2015



20" at Bull Run Marina in June 2015




21" at Bull Run Marina in August 2015




















My biggest toothy fish caught at Sandy at Sandy River Reservoir during YakAttack 2015.

Reel Running Begins

I've decided to change my blog from kayak fishing to fishing and running adventures. This fits perfect for the way 2014 turned out and how I see 2015 shaping up to be. Mind you, I had no goals set up for fishing in 2014. However, this year will be different.

Here were my running goals for 2014:
1. Double my mileage (300 miles in 2013)
2. Lose weight. (Down 20lbs)
3. Get one race under my belt (Army 10 miler)

So here is what I will attempt to accomplish in 2015:
1. Run 1500 miles.
2. Run an official half marathon.
3. Run an official marathon.
4. Run an official ultra marathon.
5. Add more scenery to my runs by running more local trails.
6. Add strength training to increase strength and reduce injury.
7. Catch a 22" Largemouth Bass
8. Catch a 20" Smallmouth Bass
9. Catch a 15" Crappie

From September 2014 until the end of the year did not end so well with a new challenge I took at work. I spent majority of my time behind a desk the last several months of the year which limited my time outdoors. Anyhow here some highlights from the final months of the year.

Began fishing Fountainhead. I would like to fish the waters of the Occoquan Reservoir more often.

19" largemouth bass at Foutainhead Regional Park

Added a retractable anchor system to the yak.

Jeff Little's Special

Added a sweet combo to the arsenal.

Lews Speed Spool coupled with 13Fishing Omen Black

Pounded the bank from Bull Run Marina

A little Fluke action

Finally purchased a yearly pass at Fountainhead Regional Park and key to Bull Run Marina.

Largemouth bass at Bull Run Marina

Chasing some Crappie at Bull Run Marina

On to running. Added mileage and shed some weight. 

Army 10 Miler

Pounded the pavement.

Hitting the hood

Added new kicks. I started off with LunarGlide 4, great shoe, no problems running in them, so I decided to stick with the Nike LunarGlide as my road shoes.

Nike LunarGlide 6

Added a much need trail shoe.

Salomon SpeedCross 3

Hitting the trail scene.

Trails at Bull Run Marina

Trails at Hemlock Overlook 

Final total miles for 2014.

1260 miles on Nike GPS Watch

There were lots of ups and down throughout 2014.  I ended the year with an injury. Grrr! I have rehabbing my ankle since the end of December. However, I did get out and test the ankle on January 1st. No confidence on my ankle. So I begin my 2015 journey with 3 miles. Stay tuned. 

Summer 2014 Fishing with a Sick Stick

So it's been two months since I last posted. In the month of June, I don't believe I took the yak out once, since I was mainly focused on my running challenge of 150 miles for the month. Which I am very happy that I accomplished. Anyhow, I definitly made up for it in July into the first weekend in August.

In July I mainly hit Leesylvania State Park, but I also pounded the creeks at Pohick Bay, Mason Neck, and a little Occoquan Reservoir action. Not to mention Lake Mercer to finish off July. I managed to land fish 15"+ in each of those locations using PowerTeam Lures Sick Stick Texas rigged. Not too bad for this part of the state. My largest bass of the year is an 18", still looking for the 20"+.

Anyhow, here is a short 2 minute video of the fish I caught from July through the first weekend in August.

Muddy Waters

With all the rain we've had this early spring, it's been quite a challenge for me. My goal this year is to get my confidence up using the jig and craw rig. It seems to be working the best as I found out yesterday while fishing Pohick Bay.

We had a group of Northern Virginia anglers meet up yesterday for some fishing. Out of about 5 anglers, managed to catch more than two. Numbers were not that great for the rest. He managed to catch them on jig and pig rig. While the others that did catch bass, all landed them on a worm. One angler had a wacky rig, another had 10" ribbon worm on a weighted hook, and I had a Carolina rig tied to the end of mine.

Selfie

Bass attempting to eat Berto's camera

While it's been tough, I always enjoy being out on the water. Here are some other shots from my previous outing. Until next time. Tight lines.

Bass at Lake Audubon

Senor Gato at Lake Audubon

Hickory Shad

Pounding the Bank and Pavement Winter 2014

It's been three months since my last post. I guess it was a bit of laziness on my part. Since majority of my photos were posted on Instagram, I didn't take the time to take care of this blog. So I decided to catch up before I take the yak out for the first time this year. 

So what have I've been up to this winter? Well, I made a promise to myself that I would take care of my body and add more cardio exercise this year. You see when I left the US Navy, I de-compressed and stopped working out. Well, that wasn't very smart of me. So, on Thanksgiving 2012, I took my first steps back to getting into shape by taking a mile walk. A week later, I was running a mile. In 2013, I ran a total of 300 miles. Now those that run or love to run, I should say, that is nothing. But it was a start. My goal for 2014 is 900 miles.

Snow running.

Spring running.

In December, I stumbled upon a post by @oldguyrunning on Instagram. He was reminding runners about registering for the January challenge in Challengeville. Basically, you select a challenge, you run, post your mileage and tag it in Instagram. There are several challenges to choose from. I'll get into that later. Anyhow, I started on the lower shelve with the #oldguyrunningtimefighter, which was 48 miles for the month of January. I decided to move up the shelve to the next challenge, which is #oldguyrunningtinman. This challenge which was 93.3 miles for the month of February. I then decided to stay with this challenge another month since the weather wasn't cooperating. I ran another 93.3 miles in March. 

The shopping cart as it's called.

A guide to some of the challenges. 

I was asked last month to join the Challengeville City Council. I happily accepted.

My April challenge is #oldguyrunningbigfoot, which is 150 miles for the month. I currently have 17.3 miles is in. More to come.

Now, onto fishing. Well, I have not taken the yak out since December, but I was busy casting true left, right, and center when the water wasn't frozen over. I did some research in late fall on how to land more fish when fish become lethargic. I downsized. I used 1/32 jig head with BassProSop Mini Magnum tubes filled with PowerBait Crappie Nibbles. As you can see, my research and persistence paid off.

Crappie

More Crappie

Bluegill 

Bass

The first three months of 2014 have been fantastic! Heck I feel fantastic! My running will continue and kayak fishing adventures will start up again tomorrow. Tight lines, my friends. 

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!