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

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.

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. 

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.