spropro

Guys check out New Horizons Bass Anglers fishing club. It is a fish for fun club with club tourneys mostly on the Potomac river, and area reservoirs. Club includes boaters and non-boat owners. Or if rivers are your thing, checkout the smallmouth bass fishing club. Both can be found on facebook or through google.

Anyone been out on toho, istok, or butler chain of lakes with reports ?

Great Job ! I'll be down for 2 weeks in april.

I have been perfecting fishing shallow cranks over grass in pohick and it is amazing how many fish I catch. It is clear that the cranks are triggering fish to bite. I have switched over to senkos or chigger craws and nothing. Back to the shallow cranks and it's game on. Baby 1- minus in chartreuse and orange work great in murky water and shad when water is clear. Fish them on a medium power cranking rod with braid. Many strikes come when popping the cranks from grass. Also switched the hooks for the kvd ultra points which improved catch by 30-40 %. I can reliably go out in evening and catch 10-15 bass in 1 1/2. Make sure you bring some Manns baby 1-minus for the meet and greet.

Fished out of Pohick past few days and the bass bite is on fire. 3 1/2 hours yesterday we landed 20 lost 15. Lipless cranks and baby 1 minus over grass. Most 12-13 inches but 3 @ 3 1/2 and 2 @ 4 lbs. This evening the tide was dead slack but the fish could not resist walking dog on flat water in skinny water.

Traveler, the bow fishing seems to be getting moreand more popular.

Big barge, the inflatable certainly makes sense in your situation. Much to my wife's dismay I have an assortment of boats. I started out with a kayak and eventually moved up to an 18 ft center console to chase stripers in the Chesapeake. Storage has always been a problem for me also and the boat is stored remotely I fish less. I'm in the process of selling the bay boat and have purchased a 14 ft Jon with 15 hp that I keep in the garage and in process of modifying. And I still enjoy fishing out of the 22 yr old kayak. It's a different experience from other boats being able to access waters others cannot. To enjoy the bigger waters I joined a local fishing club as a non-boater. I fish out of the backseat on the big rigs and split the gas at the end of the day. I've met a lot of really skilled anglers who have been more than willing to share their knowledge. It has improved my skills. I agree about the noise factor. I've noticed that when fishing shallow or very clear water some of the club members will turn off the fish finders while fishing because o the clicking noise they make.

Quan, First of all, I'm envious of ur skills on the water. I live in Lorton across from south county hs and if you ever need someone to net ur fish. I'm the one. I'm not surprised that u caught a smallmouth that far down you seem to be able to catch em out of mud puddles !

Endless, you would have to go above Woodrow Wilson bridge and the further you go north the more smallmouth there are.

Anyone else catch Andrew Zimmerman of Bizarre Foods show this past Monday night? The show was mostly about the different ethnic resturaunts in DC, but he had one segment where he had teamed up with some locals to fish for snakeheads in the Potomac river. They went bowfishing at night for them. They locals had a nice rig. A pontoon party boat all tricked out with lights. Of course they had a kick ass chef along with a gas grill on board to cook up the catch.

Bigbarg50, Do you have an outboard on the inflatable? Sounds perfect for the creek. The tiny torpedo was my preferred top water years ago. I believe I caught my first nice bass on one when I was about 9 yrs old. I agree about the jet skiers. I wish that they would stay out by the main river. I was down at pohick a week ago and they were out skiing in dry suits. Talk about crazy!!

Very good. The biggest bass in Maryland Virginia come from lakes and ponds. All of my families PBS have come from two farm ponds. 4 bass over 10 lbs. I experimented with swimming a jig last spring and had an epic day on the Potomac.

Very good. Joining a local bass club can expose you to some good anglers. It's helped me a lot.

Wow epic !

I fish Pohick a lot. In August it will be full of grass. I normally like to fish early morning and late evening in August. I have a 14 ft Jon that I fish out of but many times prefer my kayak since I can access water that the bass boats can't. If you look at google maps of pohick there is a creek due west of the ramp and one north. Much of those creeks can only be fished from a canoe or kayak. I usually take 1 rod having a frog ( horny toad, scum frog, spro frog) and 1 with a trick worm or senko tied on. When the tide is up the fish have a lot of cover to hide in. As the tide falls the fish will move out of the lily pads and drop into the grass in the creek channels. If the last 2 hours of the falling tide occurs between 6:00-8:30 pm it can be fast and furious in those creeks. And there are a lot of snakeheads in those creeks. They like the topwater baits and it's a lot of fun when they hit. Another thing to consider is the rod and line you fish topwater baits (frogs) with. I use a 7'6" med-heavy bps bionic blade with a hi-speed reel spooled with 50lb braid and tie directly to the braid. The fish always try to bury in the grass and you need a stout rod to keep there heads up and ski them back to the boat.

Traveler I fished the occoquan the same day. Wanted to see if there was any green grass around. Ended up on the flats of Belmont bay at low tide, water was under 2 feet with small junks of ice floating around. I did catch 2dinks on a senko. I was surprised to find them in such shallow cold water. The next day I caught a junky 3 pounder at the ramp at pohick.

Wow Charlie! I don't believe there is any more to be said about this area of the river. I'm cutting and pasting you dissertation into my phone. By the way I went down to the pohick ramp a few days ago to test out some new gear and caught a fat 3lber on a red eye shad on the third cast. Water temp was around 38. Endless, I did respond to the survey. I have fished pohick a lot and had great days and been skunked. It's a beautiful watershed with lots of wild life. There is a lot of skinny water and best access is a canoe or kayak. There are lots of eagles, ospreys, cranes, egrets, muskrats, beavers, ducks, geese. It's a blast watching the ospreys dive and blast into the water catching fish. In August the fishing there can be very challenging. The whole bay will be choked with grass and the water crystal clear. I usually fish early mornings and evenings. When the sun gets up the fish can bury themselves in the grass and are hard to find. You have to drop the bait onto the top of their heads. I believe the eagles have conditioned the fish somewhat. Any fish that venture out of the grass when the birds are active don't live long enough to breed. I caught my first snakehead in pohick on a frog and when the fish hit I was sure I had the new state record bass. The fish was about 8lbs and I released it. When I got back at the ramp a dnr officer was doing creel surveys and asked if I caught any snakeheads. I said I did and he asked if I had killed it. I told him that since I was in shorts and sandals in my kayak and there was no way I was dropping that fish on my legs with those teeth.

Is the meet and greet at Pohick ? Is there a meet date, time, location ? Is there an agenda? Spropro

Im in a bass club in Virginia and several members have bumble bees, one even owned a dealership. I have ridden and fished out of many boats and the bees are very stable platforms. I have ridden in some fairly rough chop and they were suprisingly dry. I do believe they were Younger than yr 2000.

Bassassassin, If your buying new a kayak or canoe that you could stand in is gonna be more than $500. As other have mentioned most Kayaks under $500 will be alittle hard on the bum,back and casting shoulder over extended periods. While canoes can be more comfortable to fish out of they are little harder to paddle solo and tend to get pushed around by the wind. Over 20 yrs ago I started out with an Aquaterra Keowee II kayak. I fly fished mostly rivers for smallies, some lakes for largemouths and proteched waters on the chesapeake bay.I think new it was in the mid $500 range, I could carry it myself, it has a large cockpit for holding rods, small cooler, tackle bag, very stable, and I could take one of my small children with me. Many fish have come over the side and I still use it today. I used to float the upper potomac and rappahanouck rivers here in virginia alot. When tired from sitting I would beach the kayak and wet wade for a while. The boat has been dragged over rocks, slammed into rocks, etc. I have caught stripers out of the chesapeake bay with it and now use it to catch largemouth of of the potomac and occoquan. I also, have a 15 ft canoe, a 14 ft lowes jon, and a 18 ft Parker cc. If fishing is your passion, this first boat will not be your last. Get what you can afford now and adapt your fishing to it. Most likely not your last boat purchase.

Just picked up the "new" zoom super fluke with a swimbait style tail. Should be a good option for fishing grass in Potomac.

Long Mike, thanks for that article !

Went to Dicks Sporting Goods on an errand,wandered to the fishing section to look at reels and walked out with a quantum energy 100 hpt and accurist 30 which are on sale for $99 and $40. The energy 100 hpt has a solid and smooth feel, 8 plus 1 bearings. Will put some line on today and report back how it casts. Looked at the rods and was amazed by the quality being put out by the big companies in the $100 range. Looked at the Reese line of rods when they first came out and felt they were low quality promoted by a big name. Checked the Tessera line out yesterday and was impressed by the light weight, seemingly quality construction, reasonably priced with life time warranty for under $100. The shimano, berkley, and new rage rods by St. Croix felt great. Also ran across some $50 rods by field and stream (tec-spec) that for the money sport the latest split grip handles,real seats, and micro guides and also felt great. I grapped a couple for my son who tends to be very hard on tackle.

Thanks guys!

Thanks for the response!