Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Wowzers. I still think I am still recovering a few days later.

I was excited for this trip. Not a giddy like a child before Christmas, or a grown man about to get on a ferry to Block Island, but excited none the less. I heard a lot of good things about the water down there, and since I have resurrected my love for freshwater species, I thought this would be a great way to learn more, especially some structure that I don't fish or don't feel I am very good at. Plus I wanted to see what these snake heads were all about.

Paul hit all the basics, so I will add a few things from my perspective.

Pohick Bay: Hickory shad took over the area I think the LMB wanted to be staged in at the current tide. If the bumpers didn't start, we might have found them in some other spots. The hickory's were thick and rolling on small bait. Looked like killies to me. Still surprised we didn't pull a fish or two out of the hydrilla.

And I am to blame for the storms. every trip I plan, I bring some level of suck. Storms. Heavy seas. Crazy wind. I am the common denominator. While its all my fault, Paul should have know to tell me he was out of the country when I invited myself.

Accotink: I found a weed line and fish with in a few casts. And then another fish that was a bit bigger. Hung out there for a bit and decided to head into the creeks for the outgoing. Paul had one while we fished our way through. Some nice structure, but not really much bait. We headed back to the original weedl ine and had fish again. They were eating lil Barky, so I let them. I tried a few other things, but I really like fishing that bait. I think we both had 4 or 5 fish. I won the daily pool with a 3 lb 2 oz LMB. No snake heads.

Paddling through 12" of water, pulling a rope is not fun. But it did pay for dinner and some gas for the drive home. So mission accomplished I guess.

BVD. After a little bit of sleep, we headed out and I was going to get a lesson in deep water fishing. After tying a rope around a rock for a makeshift anchor, we were off. Paul is clearly a good deep water fisherman. He understands the structure and how to attack it, and it showed with his 4 lb 6 oz. LMB that was the first fish boated. It took me some fumbling, but I think I sorta got the hang of it. No bites for me though. I resisted the urge to go find some fish in shallower water, and did a good job for a while. Until I had to pull anchor to go retrieve a rattle trap from a rock. Then I sort of drifted there. I blame the wind. Still left there a bit skunked.

Upper Potomac. Smallies! I love these fish. I don't fish for them often, but I really love them. They hit like a train and have 5x the heart of a largemouth. It started out slow and we probably stayed in a few spots a bit longer than we should have. It all looked good, but they were there, or not eating. I am usually pretty confident when fishing current and willing to fish quickly from spot to spot. Paul got the first on a popper. I finally got one on a shad rap and daily skunk was removed. As we drifted lower, we started to get some bites on tubes. Then we get to a set of rocks and we find them holding pretty good.A few on tubes and a few on lil Barky. Paul was beating up on them with his popper. I wore out my welcome, so I move across river and found a nice current break where I had the 3 lb 10 oz on lil Barky. These fish are so strong in current, and know exactly how to use it. They remind me a lot of tog. I caught another and decided to just sit for a few minutes and let my sunburnt feet cool off in the water.

Final tally for the day. Paul had a couple LMB with the daily pool for his 4 lb 6 oz. I am guessing we both had 12-18 SMB each.

And as Paul mentioned, I had to recruit my former athletic self to go fetch my keys. I don't think I have ever done anything quite so dumb. Pretty sure Paul was going to drown me. On the bright side, if you guys like biking or running, the C&O trail is really nice. I got back to Point of Rocks after destroying Paul's truck with my funky self, and took a quick dip in the river. We loaded up the trucks and was back off to NJ.

Thanks to Paul for his hospitality and putting up with all the hi-jinx I bring on these trips. Dude really should have learned by now. And special thanks to Ernie for the kayak rental. My jon boat wouldn't have handled some of these spots nearly as well, especially on the river. There will be a package heading your way once I get back into the swing of things here.

Ernie. I am apologizing to you for not dragging your kayak through the car wash before returning it to you. It's a bit of a mess. I hope it doesn't smell nearly as bad as I did.

Charlie- no worries. I was feeling bad because it was already dirty....camouflage!