Made the first trip of the year today with my son. I caught one, and lost another at the boat. He caught three, including the largest of the day, a 2lb 12oz LMB. Water temps were about 49 when we started at 10:30, and were up to 52-53 by the end of the day. The only down side was the wind, which was blowing 15 sustained, with gusts that felt like close to 25 (there were times when my river anchor wouldn't hold the boat still.

Caught them on a variety. Mine came on a 3/4 oz trap in the bleeding shad color. My son caught two on a chartreuse spinnerbait with gold willowleafs, and one (the largest) was on a Bomber Long A in firetiger.

Plan on going back out tomorrow. Less wind, and clouds--could be a great day.

Mine

Big fish of the day:

            Vekol, glad to see that your on them early. Drums is picking up a bass boat in the next few weeks and we will need some pointers. The boat will be kept at a marina in Aquia Creek. I'm looking forward to fishing with you again.

Nice bass! I hope to get out on the river more when I get back from FL. I have been out on a Aquia Creek a bit, but been fishing mostly for perch and crappie.

Nice fish Vekol. I plan on heading out of Occoquan this weekend at the Regional Park Ramp and moving down torwards Occoquan Bay/Belmont/etc. We may make our way down to the Potomac depending on water traffic through Occoquan and the bay/wind/etc. where abouts you fish for those guys? Don't want location but type of location. Where you hitting open deep water? Creek mouths? Secondary points? drop offs? Just an idea of what type of pattern we may wanna look for.

I know we are at the end of a basic late winter pattern so I have that much to go with, but I just want to get an idea of how these fish are positioning with water temps rising up to above 50 on the surface now during the day. I gotta think they are almost in transition by now.

Good luck on day two. I'm sure you guys will reel in some more. Take care man.

P:s:  Did you guys throw hard jerkbaits at all?  I guess it would depend on the specific area you were in and whether the temps allowed at the time, but I figure that may be a good bet in some areas out there right now.

Flippin--let me know when.

We were fishing the "bays" in Aquia creek. If you look at a chart, there are a series of them. You want to look for the warmest temps you can find, but you also need to fish where the tidal current moves the bait fish. You will find that each bay has a primary drainage on the side closest the river. Since Aquia is on the west side of the main river, those drainages are on the east side of each bay as the water follows the most direct route to the main river on each tidal cycle. You will find a slight "channel" in these locations. Our best bite occured the first two hours after high tide.

Thanks for the info Vekol, very informative.  I think we should be able to piece something together for that if we end up heading up river far enough.  If not we plan on fishing over by Belmont Bay (good spot for us last year).  There is deep water here, plenty of docks in deep and shallow water to flip, whatever grass may be there now, and other features that make this a lockdown spot.

We may also work our way around to some of the smaller creeks off the Occoquan River and Occoquan Bay there.  They are hard to navigate though so depending on the tide we may have to head further up to the Potomac and hit either Neabsco or Powell's.  But if we hit one of these places I'll try and use some of the info you got me.  I appreciate the help man.  Anything to help us find our way anywhere near fish is great lol.

Nice fish Vekol, you son looks like he caught a nice fish. I fish the Occoquan and Potomac quite a bit with my son (JCrzy4Bass) and we have found some nice spots to fish. I am launching the boat for the first time in 2008 this Saturday and hope to have some good luck and catch some nice LMBs. I have always found that the best bite is when the tide is receding (first 2 -3) hours after the high tide. However I have also found spots to fish during the low tides. Let me know if you and your son want to get together and have a friendly competition (just for fun) with my son and I on the Potomac it could be fun.

Yup, and then we could always meet up at Tim's River Shore for lunch... mmmmm!  Haha.

Be cool to meet some new guys out on the water and have more people to fish with around here.  Always good to have extra buddies so you can compare work schedules and see who is available when and so forth.

Day Two.

Whacked them. 20 fish total, I caught 12 and Matt caught 8.  The key is tidal stage. You need to be in your best area when the tide begins to go out. Eight of my twelve were caught in a 90 minute period right after high tide. Spinnerbaits were the hot lure. Green, or greenish white with willowleaf blades. Fish them in and near grass beds. Traps are a good back up.

My big fish of the day. 3lb 12oz

Matt's was 3lb 7oz:

Tommorrow it'a on to Smith Lake on Quantico to see if we can hook up with any crappie.

Rondef, sounds like a good idea--perhaps sometime in April.

NIce LMB's, it looks like you tore it up out there today.  I am hoping to have a good day tomorrow  when we launch out of Leesylvania.