Ok, the bite was DEF on for Sat. at the CBBT (Ches. Bay Bridge Tunnel). What was biting for most of the day however were rather large black sea bass but I was after some big flatties. All in all, I caught like 4 undersized and one whopper 25"-6.5lb er' caught on a 5" mullet. Was GORGEOUS that day as well! Brad will be posting his catch from Sunday soon... hopefully...
	Brad landed this 18" on Sunday with me with full force! Go Brad and he's JUST getting started! Thanks for the shirt to Brad...

Eels, John, and Flatheadz Part 2

Do I listen? Or do I talk? I think this time I'll just listen.

You know, it doesn't matter what size they end up being, it's just the experience of taking part in what that river has to offer.

Life does not suck when you are staring upriver with a full bait bucket.

Somehow the guy always maintains and doesn't skip a beat.

Not a bad stringer. I think John weighed it out to be about 60 lbs.

After almost 12 hours of watching that rod tip and the JD escape us, John says it all.

Pre season rockfish

Ok, well I landed like 7 15-18" rockfish tonight at the Amoco dock. Caught them on my new graphite med-hvy 6'6" with small Penn combo. I tried a small white bucktail at first and they just played with it. Then I slapped on a top-water silver/gray split-tail bass assassin and the bite turned on a bit. It looks as though it's gonna be a while until the bigger fish roll through because the water temps are still up even though the nighttime temps are dropping./p>

Matt's trip to Montauk

Matt sent me this album from a recent fishing trip. Cool big water fishing pictures.

Greg's getting serious about his live bait

Haha, well this livewell is about 3.5' diameter (circular so that the fish don't get damaged and go crazy with a square design) by 4' in height. I spent $60 on the damn wire and I think that stupid ass True Value ripped me off! That dude has ALWAYS ripped me off! At any rate, works well and I put a zink at the bottom to give it weight and to ward of electrolysis.

Freshwater Bassin'

Smallmouth On the Run
(all photos in this post: Rochelle Adams)

There are pretty much only two reasons I am willing to wake up before light: work, and fishing. One of them I actually enjoy getting up for, and Sunday was no exception. My alarm went off at around 5:15, I rolled out of bed, grabbed some coffee and cereal, threw my canoe, rods and tackle in the car and headed to the closet local lake (less than two miles away). As I approached the lake and saw all of the cones blocking the road, I thought my day was busted. Hoards of bikers cruised by and I soon learned the Reston Triathlon was going on, so much for fishing.
I thought about going to bed, but instead decided to hit another local lake that is one of my trout fishing holes in winter and spring - I had never bass fished there in the summer, so what the hell. I'm glad I did, even thought the canoe would have to stay with the car; fishing from boats is not allowed on this lake. I would be shore-bound for the morning.
Within minutes ( 3rd cast?) I was hooked up with a largemouth bass, nothing big, but fun on the ultralight rods I've been using for these guys around here. The ultralights turn a 10-12 incher into a hog, and a 15 incher will damn near bend the rod tip to touch the butt. My tiny 3" slug-gos were like bass candy and I landed 3 more within 30 minutes. In under 3 hours I had landed 6 Largemouths and a Goggle-eye or Red-eye bass (depending on who you fish with). I hooked but missed at least as many. A very rewarding and relaxing morning, with the lake almost empty. Then the inevitable happened - my cell phone rang. It was Matt Grimes, he wanted to fish, and had a plan.
After a run and some sweet-talking about how nice it would be on the river, Rochelle and I packed some sandwiches. Matt and Paulina came over and we headed for Riverbend park, about 30 minutes from here. A nice little hike along the wooded flood plain got us to a spot where the girls could stretch out and relax while Matt and I fished. The girls waded out and sat on a rock while Matt started catching bait (he is a live bait fanatic, and I firmly believe he would rather catch bait than fish, not a bad guy to be fishing with). Meanwhile I started catching smallies right away on my trusty soft-plastics. I had moved up to a light action rod due to the current, but it was still a rod bender of a day.
Hooked up! Oh yeah - I had 3 smallies by the time Matt had caught a dozen crayfish, and that was just the beginning. I fished under the same riffle all afternoon While the girls ladies watched and caught up since the wedding. Rochelle also took photos (all the photos are are Rochelle's). Matt wandered around the river and caught a small catfish, but mostly just explored - its easy to burn an entire day up there just looking for another sweet spot, and there are plenty. I've done it more than my share of times at that park.
I landed 15 fish, easy in 2 hours. Most were very small, but it seems as indicated by numbers on this particular day the smallies are hopefully rebounding from the fish kills that have plagued the upper Potomac and its tributaries in the previous summers. The water was clean, the fish were healthy and plentiful - check out the rich golden color, no wonder people call them bronzebacks.
Heres a good action shot - check out the bend on the light action rod - in the lower right you can see the fish...
This is the nicest smallmouth I've caught in a few years since the fish kills(about a pound, maybe a bit more) , I'm being optimistic and reading this as a good sign.
So many times freshwater bass fishing can be slow and frustrating, and this was a good one. Not epic, but darn near perfect. (There has to be some kind of smallmouth canoe/camp trip on the horizon right guys?) There aren't many Sundays that can top catching both species of freshwater bass in one day (well, that Drum was caught on a Sunday too..). Tight lines!
(I want to say thanks again to Rochelle for being open-minded and going fishing with me and thanks for taking the pictures! All bass were released safe and sound)

Biggest Fish So Far

Early morning, York river, Sunday September 2nd. Greg and I headed out to hopefully catch more big mullet with cast nets, but the tide was against us. We had plenty of bait, but only a few of the big mullet we hoped would score some big flounder that day. But the tide was against us and we took the skiff back and jumped on the parker. We fished Back River reef after getting gas and hooked into a few nice flounder, close, but not keepers. Then we nailed a double, both hooking up with fish simultaneously and landed two keepers - perfect. We had lots of bites and a few snags, but not many takers. A few drifts later it happened...
I felt resistance, drop my rod tip and steadily pulled up slowly in founder hooking fashion, ready to drop the tip quickly if, it got off to put the bait back in front of the fish. Solid weight followed the boat in the drift a few feet as I reeled in slowly and then, the drag started screaming. I stopped reeling and kept steady pressure. The medium-light rod buckled in long screaming runs off and off for at least fifteen minutes. Greg and I were sure I had a shark on the big mullet - I felt the head shakes and everything, but the 50Lb fluorocarbon leader never broke - Finally i was surprised to see the huge head of this...
BIG OLE RED DRUM! 45 inches and my biggest fish by far, but the netting was stressful - he was almost twice the size of Greg's net, and I thought he was going overboard when he tried to heave it in the boat. Obviously he got him - I was flabbergasted. This is the biggest fish I have caught, and the biggest one pulled in on Greg's Parker. Greg is now ready to catch more mullet and target black and red drum after this haul.
We fished some more around York spit light, looking for flounder (we each landed another one just a little under sized), and spade fish. We found no spade fish, but the juvenile black sea bass ate our our clams up! It didn't take long to go through a half dozen clams and realize all that was there were the sea bass, so we headed in. Awesome day!