My buddy and I fished a bay off of the Potomac River that is part of the Quantico Marine Corp Base. We launched during the incoming tide and immediately began fishing the lily pads with buzzbaits. Within the first hour we each caught a 2lb LMB and then the bite just fell off. I don't know if it was due to all of the ordinances being blown up close to the bay we were fishing in or what, but this spot has never gone cold like this before. The last two hours of the incoming tide and the first couple of hours of the outgoing tide are usually the best fishing at this spot.

After not getting another bite for about an hour or so we decided to start working the lily pads and hydrilla with frogs, I used the strike king rage tails and my buddy used the ribbit frogs. We had quite a few strikes however most of them were striking short tearing up the legs of the frogs. The explosions were cool to watch but it was heartbreaking to not land these.

I fished for about an hour with the frog and had nothing to show for my effort so I decided to tie on a new spinnerbait (a Raptor 1/4oz tan herring with dual willow blades) that I just picked up Thursday night. On the first cast I felt something hit it hard, I set the hook and reeled it in only to find a snakehead at the end of my line, my second one in two weeks, this ticks me off. >

We continued fishing for another hour or so before we started heading back to the ramp, on the way back my buddy landed a nice 3.5lb LMB with his frog off of a downed tree in the water. I decided to follow up in that same area with my spinnerbait. Once the spinnerbait hit the water I watched a huge wake come toward it and I continued to watch it follow the spinnerbait all the way back to the side of the canoe. I then got my first glimpse he looked big and then he hit the spinnerbait, I immediately set the hook and the fight began. The bass jumped and I got a real nice look at it, he looked to be an easy 7lbs. Well I fought him for about a minute before he tried to go under the canoe and I pulled him back only to watch him jump again and throw my spinnerbait. :'( Once I lost him we called it a day.

Too bad rondef.  I know it's enough to make your heart sink.  I guess it's the perils of looking for that big one.  Keep the heat on and go back and get em!

sorry about that buddy.    still, not a bad trip though.  you'll get her next time i hope.

The score.

Big Fish 1

Jason    0

Big Fish 1

Dad      0

You guys are sooooooooooo close.

Man, I can feel your pain.

Keep on trucking.  

Sorry to hear about the loss of your personal best rondef. I do have a question though. What is a snakehead? I am assuming it is some type of fish but I was wondering why you don't like catching them.

For info on these snakeheads check this out....

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=139509

Ron,

d**n man that sucks!!!! I hope you have better luck next time!!!!!

Mrs Matstone, a snakehead looks like a bowfin only its skin has a pattern like a snake. If you look below you can see a thread I started a little over a week ago, it has a good picture of it. The snakehead is an exotic species that is not supposed to be in our waters, but some knuckleheads let them go in the waters here. They are a 24x7 eating machine. They compete for the same baitfish as bass. For all I know they may actually eat bass to but I have not seen the scientific proof of that yet. The problem comes into play with their sharp canine teeth. If you are not careful you can get hurt removing them from your lure. Virginia law requires you to kill them when they are caught, if you release them and get caught you can be fined.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1215806048