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

My First Shad Run 2014

As the American and Hickory shad make their annual run up river, I decided I would give it a go to see what the fuss was all about. So I went on on my first chase on April 12, 2014. I managed to catch 8 shad that day. They certainly put up a good fight on light tackle.

Then chased after crappie after lunch.

Then after some largemouths, but blue cats decided to play.

I certainly had a great time out on the Occoquan River. I'll be hitting it again tomorrow. Hopefully the greenies will come out and play.

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!

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.