Other than Burke, is there any good place for a bank fisherman?  What about lake royal?

Thanks Dan

Sending you a PM

Has anyone fished at the Ni, Hunting ground, and Motts run?  If so, tell me about it.

Fished the Ni when I was a kid for Crappie near the spill way, couldn't count how many we caught, fished it last sumer did OK caughtprobaby a 3-4lb LMB, a couple of shad I think trolling a small crank bait. Also hooked either a chain pickeral or muskee pretty big boy too, didnt get it in the boat though. Fished Motts a couple years ago on a hot summer day and got skunked. from what I have read Motts is a steep banked resevoir that was stripped clear of structure during constuction so there is no underwater cover. Used to fish of the Motts dam at night when I was a teen for catfish and would catch a ton of them. The State record for Muskee or Pike, cant remember which one was pulled from Motts. Haven't been to hunting ground, you ever been to lake orange

Not yet.

OK fellas, going to serious get the boat on the water tomorrow..... and definitely on Friday...... and hopefully Thursday as well......

So where should I go?  Are the lakes still iced up?  Would Pohick be so shallow that all the fish not be there because they went deeper? 

I would hope that the lakes are de-iced after a few warmer days, but I have not been able to take a look myself. 

Top Candidates include:

Burke

Pohick

Fountainhead

Huntsman

Any info on ice or other suggestions would be very welcome. 

If you find a way to launch at Fountainhead before March 1, when they open, let me know.

Burke is semi-thawed. Given the forecast, Thurs.-Fri. it should be fine.

The Occ. River has been thawed (IDK if it ever really froze completely), the ramp is open, but the latest I heard the water is muddy.

From my experience yesterday......

Burke's boat launch (the free one) is iced in still..... was a no go for me.

Huntsman was almost completely ice free

Other than Burke, is there any good place for a bank fisherman? What about lake royal?

I stopped in @ Lake Royal today...and it LOOKS they are "dredging" it? (see pic?) any way i got my line wet and got a coupla bites but had to cut out sooner than I wanted to onnacount of the wife was comin home early from work...any1 else know what might be happenin @ Lake Royal?

That pic is too small, I can't even tell if it's Royal. Whereabouts @ Royal? We walked around the lake ~ 2 weeks ago and no dredging. If if is Royal, it may be part of the ongoing work to fix flood control issues at the dam, same thing is going on at Woodglen. Although I have seen no dredging at either place, and I thought the work at Royal was finished last year. Looks like the same dredging setup they had at Accotink last year.

yeah i tried to repost a bigger version but for some reason i couldnt. They definitely aren't done as they were workin there today...I got there around 4:30 and only stayed an hour are they done with accotink? here is another shot:

Looks like the boat ramp area at Royal.  ???  Otherwise I can't place it on that lake. 

Looks like the boat ramp area at Royal. ??? Otherwise I can't place it on that lake.

Thats right...

Hit Burke yesterday..... No action which was not suprising but was very pleased with the lowrance downscan.... very impressive piece of hardware and found a lot of deeper underwater structure. 

That unit in the limited 2 hours I was out on the water quickly schooled me on how wrong I was about how deep parts of that lake are. 

I was also marking fish rather easily, they were just all down in like 30 ft of water.... and the water temp was 42 degrees, so was not like there was a lot of action to be had. 

If I get a chance I'll upload some pics I took of some of the downscan.