A.Do?

I HATE YOU! >

Welcome Bill U!!! I'm from Alexandria as well. Kind of busy at work and have decided to cut down on fishing but if you ever want to go out for a bit shoot me a PM and i'll try and sneak in some time. I've also had a lot of success fishing from Algonkian and so I think you'll like it a lot!

Ron, that's exactly why I wouldn't go back on a weekend and why we didn't fish the other side when we first went there. Unfortunately, I don't believe that these inconsiderate jet skiers would have paid the launch fee either > (just a hunch). I see a lot of guys use the launch and not pay the fee, not just jet skiers either . How was the water clarity and current?

d**n! Nice smallies. Glad you guys were able to catch some fish!

The DGIF has Occoquan listed under the lakes that provide the "Best Fishing" for northern pike. Were you talking about the rez or the river? http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/fish/details.asp?fish=010364 I also read in another article that musky are becoming more abundant. They look like they can easily be confused with pike but I don't have any personal experience with either. Any ideas on targeting these fish? I've heard of using big inline spinner but don't have much confidence in them and never throw them too long. >

Only thing I've heard is that this lake is pretty pressured so you might want to try things you normally wouldn't just to give the fish something different to look at.

Beautiful fish!

oh yeah, don't forget your PFD's, licenses and a whistle. They checked us and we didn't have a whistle!! But the nice lady let us go after asking a few questions about my kayak.

Can't help you there but I'll try and answer the other questions. Not sure about specific spots but all Simon and I do is peddle up till we can't peddle anymore and then we just float down the middle. We fan cast upstream and bump/hop tubes off the rocks and into the grass. It takes awhile to tell the difference between bites and rocks as you're moving pretty quick on the kayak and dragging the tube along at a fast rate. Many of the fish we caught were in the middle and if you see panfish hitting the top of the water, throw an inline spinner or a small jerk/swimbait at them and you should be able to pull a smallie or large bluegill. Top water is fun too if you don't see a lot of dead bugs on the water like we did it should be good. Try a buzzbait or jitterbugs. I had a huge hit fishing the shore line of the first island but wasn't able to set the hook > It's worth a try and the river isn't so wide that you can't try it for a bit. There are lots of over hangs that a skipped senko would probably produce. Just remember to cast upstream of all your targeted strike zones as the current will carry the lure pass it. We were also told of two spots near the boat launch where creeks feed into the river and some of our buddies have pulled bass of size from there. We haven't tried that yet so can't tell you where they are but you might have some luck there if you can spot it. You should be fine, Simon and I have never been down stream far enough to see the fall. We like and have had success upriver so will keep doing that. Hope any of this info is helpful. Good luck out there.

Okay here's the real report. Got to the Algonkian park launch at 6:30AM where I met up with Simon. We got into the water and peddled our way upriver pass the first island and as far as we could pass the second. The water was completely different than it was last week. Visibility was about 3-4ft where you could see grass and hydrilla on the bottom, but not every pebble like we could last week. LOTS of dead insects on the top of the water and the fish was nippin at them constantly. Current was also faster, to me, than it was last week. Our floats down were a lot faster. There was also a lot of floating grass. We fished the side closest to the launch where we had success last week. We decided to start the day with topwater, Simon throwing buzzbaits and I was throwing my Cicada lure. I had 2 or 3 blowups but only managed to hook up with one smallie. He was a small guy and I didn't even know I had him hooked. When i set the hook I didn't feel any pressure but Simon say him jump out of the water. We then changed it up, Simon throwing his curly tail grub and I switched to the tube (3.5" in "natural" goby pattern). I got a gooood hit that took me for a quick run before spittin up my hook Simon then caught this nice smallie on a watermelon/red tube. So I changed it up too and caught this guy Simon then caught this guy to keep up. We then went back up and fished the other side. Simon switched to a white with black flake tube and caught this guy Following suit I caught this 12"er It wasn't much but it's my new PB and spit up lots of crap onto Simon ;D We caught a few more throughout the day but nothing of size. We did see HUGE bass but the current was so fast we were pass them in no time and couldn't get them to bite our lures. By the end of the day I decided to try my luck at catching those large bluegill we were catchin last week and threw an inline spinner and caught 3 smallies under 10". It was a fun day but a lot tougher than last week. Ended the day with about a dozen smallies total. Better than nothing!

I'm down for that! But I wanted to use my baitcaster =( i guess i could fish with my spinning gear.....

Rob, haha we wanted to work the other side but d**n 4th of july jet skiers were out in large numbers! > Jay, for the grubs we were using 1/16th size jig heads and for the tubes, I was using 1/8th but i'm not sure what size Simon was using. A lot of the fish were actually shallow and we weren't specifically targeting pockets. We kind of just tried to work the whole area as we were finding them every where. These smallies put up really good fights and i've got new found confidence in tubes. Heading back out there friday with Simon if anyone is interested. Simon and I ALWAYS have fun regardless if we're catching fish ;D but we love it more when we figure it out!

Thanks for the tips guys. The feather idea is really fascinating me! My biggest concern is getting them into where the skirts used to be. It's a pretty tight fit. Painter Dude, I saw that episode as well but really feeel like the legs would help entice a bass to bite. If I can't get legs back in I might just have to stick some weights in it and try that out though. Any ideas of where I can find feathers and what type of silicone would be good to seal it up? Thanks again guys, Andrew

Not too far away, we launched out of Algonkian Regional Park off of Rt. 7. There's a $2.50 launch fee for canoes kayaks and i think $5? for boats. The river is split but a few islands. The water is pretty shallow (wadeable) if you stay on the side closest to the launch, but we heard it's deeper with many deep pockets if you go pass the island toward the other side. We didn't get a chance to try the other side because of jet skiers and our friend told us the current was a lot stronger on that side as well. We saw a few jons but the majority of the boats fished the "deep" side while kayaks stayed in the shallow end. The water there is crystal clear and you'll be able to see every pebble on the bottom. I'm addicted to smallies and really want to go back this weekend. There are also HUGE panfish here. I hooked up with a bluegill off a 3.5" TUBEEEEE That thing was the size of a dinner plate but I lost it at the boat so wasn't able to take a picture

I've got some Spro frogs with legs that I've trimmed but on one I trimmed them too short . Is there any way to replace them? I was thinking of pulling them out but wasn't sure if I'd be able to put new ones in. Is it possible? Any tips on putting them in? Thanks! While I'm at it, is there any way of making them take on less water?

Definitely a great smallie fishery. SimonSays, a few friends and I went out to the upper potomac on friday and hooked up with a few smallies. This was the first time i've ever fished in a river and only my 2nd time ever fishing for smallmouth bass. It was definitely an awesome outting and I can't wait to get out there again. We started the day with small 2in. grubs and top water. I decided that i'd try out my cicada top water lure and ended up getting some pretty crazy explosions! The first was from a this sunfish and the second was a smallie, my first of '08 and my second EVER. I switched to a tube and worked that for awhile but got nothing. Then switched to a fluke and got nothing as well. Meanwhile, Simon was tearing them up on his clear grub and landed quite a few smallies and some big bluegill. We worked with small grubs for another hour or so, tossing them where we saw fish were hitting the top of the water. Caught a few more, this was the better of them. My buddy Jeremy threw a few senkos t-rigged and hooked up with these beauties, Later on that day, I was getting frustrated =( because I wasn't catching much while Simon and Jeremy were tearing it up. So I decided to take this time to work on my baitcasting and decided to try the tube again. Caught 2-3 small guys but there were probably my new personal best. Here's the bigger of them After this we all decided to use tubes too and we came out with these: The biggest of the day were 3 smallies that went for 1.5lb or so. We didn't have any measuring devices to measure the length so all we had were our scales. Totals (rough estimates, we lost count) were like 8-10 smallies for Simon, 4 for me, and I think about 12 for Jeremy. Definitely looking forward to getting out there again! We missed some good schools and we learned a lot so next time it should be more productive.

It feels like just yesterday when I first starting seeing you on the Southeast section! Sorry to hear you go but great to have had you here! Will you be coming back to visit? Good luck in Colorado and nice catfish!

Congrats Sam! There have been many times where I've been tempted to drive down to richmond to in order to take advantage of all the knowledge you have of that area! Thanks for all the valuable info you've provided the Southeast section as well as the rest of BR community!

Naw that isnt the problem you could have just gotten heavier Spiderwire I have 65lb power pro on one of my spinning rods just for that same reason. You could go back there with lighter line and a Mepps#4 though and try to finesse that fish It's rough but you still got a lot of fishing left in ya ;D cough...cough...Hahah, jk. Ya never know though!

Nice fish Rich! Catchin bass in a Yak is definitely more fun than when you're on land! ;D Good job out there! Did you take Rachel out too?

That sucks No worries, you know where she lives so just get back out there and just remember to bring a net! I had a similar experience with a big bass, nothing close to double digits but definitely would have been my new PV, but it hurt just as bad. Buddy of mine, who'd never caught a bass over 2lbs, went to lip the bass and grabs my 6lb test line to hoist her up > this caused her to jump up and wrap a pipe next to us and snap the line :'( I was mad but at the same time happy as hell I got to fight it. My hands shook for a good hour after this from the excitement and I was grinning from ear to ear. I totally agree with hawg caller about it being better to hook into a monster and losing it than to have never hooking into one at all. Use this as motivation! That's what I do. I guess you're no longer the captain of the dink ship?

That blows! > I hope they learn from their mistakes.

Algonkian Regional Park buddy. Yeah, that's one of the possible launch sites that Ernie uses and the one we'll be using this weekend with him. I'll have to ask him about the other ones cuz this one makes me nervous. You gotta remember to land before you hit great falls ! Now that could get ugly.

Great SMB you got there Paul! I hope Simon and I have the same luck you did!

Welcome back Paul! Sounds like you had a blast, any pics to share? Really good to hear you're out of your LMB slump too! Now let's get that boat out on the water!