A few weeks ago, I got up early on Sunday morning for the "early service", and this is the sight I was greeted with at the point in my hike when I first encountered the Potomac. It was about 7 am. It was one of those magical mornings when the steam was rising off the river as I waded, the air temp was 56, and the water I would guess was 70 or so.
The light was beautiful as it hit the rocks. I had to stop and just soak it in for a few before I wet a line. I landed 5 or 6 in a few hours and shot some video landing a few fish, but I accidentally erased most of it. Not a bad way to wake up, I was home by 11 am after a trip to the grocery store.
Work has been pretty stressful, so I decided to blow out two hours "earlier" than most days lately (by earlier, I mean I left only 45 minutes after my contract hours were up for the day). I had packed my light action rod with 4lb test and my vest with only the essentials (a few hooks, soft plastics, camera, forceps and knife). It was a gorgeous Indian summer day, 80 degrees with water temps in the 68-70 degree range. I started wading in a location I knew usually held a few bass and sunfish. I hooked in the first smallie within minutes. Not a soul was around fishing, all I could hear were the geese, and I was shorts deep in the cool water. Suddenly, life wasn't so bad.
I hooked several fish in that spot, and decided to wade up stream, through sections I either had never fished or hadn't fished in years. It didn't matter much, the water is low and its like a whole different river. The old saying is true, "The same man never never steps into the same river twice." Ask this smallie, he'll tell you, check out the color of the reflections in the ripples.
I was doing quite well, and the bronzebacks were in full effect.
Here is a chunky one on the run, one of the eleven smallies I landed . I felt revived in under three hours. What a day, I wish I could do it more often.
Weekend before last, Rochelle and I went down to Gloucester to hang out with my family. My Brother and I got the little outboard running and took it for its first trip on the creek in the undersized flat bottom I have. We ran up and down the creek right before dark and were rewarded with incredible views including this amazing sunset. No time for fishing, the wives were waiting on us, but we snuck out anyway - it was great.
You all know that my wife thinks I'm crazy, along with my mom, and brother too. Last Saturday Night/ Sunday morning I had the opportunity to prove them right. The Captain (Greg) was out on the town with the guitarist from our high school metal band (Jerry) and I hadn't heard back from him, but I drove to his house at 11pm anyway, while my wife went to bed. I was pulling into Greg's driveway when he called me back and said he was just leaving the Greenleaf in Williamsburg. I parked my car, assembled my rods and tied up my rigs. At midnight we hit the A docks right off the bat just after low tide and there was zero action - I began to wonder if my recent fishing slump (zero keepers and two total skunkouts in three excursions) was going to keep me down, you see folks, I thought I lost my mojo. The captain said he knew the spot to hit in just such conditions (clear, quarter moon) He said it would be guaranteed because of a great location and insanely bright (and insanely expensive) dock light (whenever you hear the words "guarantee" and "fishing" put into the same sentence, one should always be wary). We rode a while and crept in quietly and silently as we watched stripers and possibly trout smashing the surface of the bathtub slick water. The last five minutes of the ride I could see the splashes, but we didn't want to spook them with the engine or an anchor. Lets just call this spot the "Food Chain", because at night, thats what it attracts in a very small area. Greg and I hooked into a double within five minutes of seeing the first rocks smashing topwater. Two simultaneous hook-ups occurs less that you would like it to. Of course it always calls for a silent end-zone style celebration dance while reeling in and landing the fish. We fished topwater and jigged jerkbaits with small lead-heads - which landed the rock, speckled trout and fattie puppydrum (redfish) I am gladly holding (I got my mojo back folks).
"The Food Chain" gorged us with 7 or 8 rockfish (3 keepers) 2 trout (1 keeper), the 3-4 lb puppy drum ( which peeled line off my reel and dug in deep for a fun, extended battle) and at least 25 flounder (no keepers). The light produced this eerie daylight, that was so surreal I had no idea that we fished until 4:15 am. We saw squid, tons of baitfish , lots of baby crabs, big mullet and the aforementioned species. Incredible. Greg was in awe, he really hadn't seen it like that before. We had never caught that many flounder jigging, and all in that one spot.
Greg "Hotlips" Lynn (AKA The Captain) and a keeper, no wonder he doesn't have many dates.
