Spring is Sprung, Fish on Boys

Last Saturday Matt Grimes picked me up to head to a place out near Browntown,VA where he was preparing to pitfire some of his ceramics. He had dug the pit last summer and fired there once, the pit is about 10"x20", and he just need to check everything out so he could take his class out there to fire in a month. He told me there was a pond and he just wanted to get out of the city and hang out. I packed my rod and we picked up some hotdogs and beverages to go alone with campfire we planned to make. I caught my biggest largemouth bass to date, 20.5 inches and estimate around 5 lbs (my smallie from this summer was much thicker and an inch longer). It was great, Matt spotted him and I belly crawled into position, made a perfect cast, worked the fluke slowly in front of him and let it drop. He took 15 or twenty seconds to decide to take it, but when he did I crossed his eyes from my belly. I swear to you that's the way it happened. You can ask Matt, who coincidentally has been with me when I have caught some of the largest fish of my life (20.5 inch LM, 21.5 inch SM, 42 inch flathead, 40 inch flathead, and a few dozen other catfish ranging from 10 to 27 lbs). He is either the best good luck charm ever, knows where to fish, or he could be just as full of shit as me. Go fishing with him and decide for yourself.

That thing is right in front of my chest, no exaggeration, and you are seeing almost the whole pond behind me, I did not expect to catch anything that big in there, but then again, maybe I did.We also constructed this collaborative art project, made of wild grapevines we pulled off of some trees. It is about 3.5 feet in diameter and currently resting 10 feet up in this tree.

So its time to get off your bums and get fishing. I can't because of preparing for my art show, so we should all dig up some of those pictures and stories we haven't posted...

Snowed In With A Case Of The Shack Nasties

I am glad it finally snowed, and I am not really snowed in. Nonetheless the ground is covered with snow and all of the streams and lakes are frozen. I got kicked out of work early due to the weather, only to come home and work all afternoon.
I am so ready to fish that Rochelle is ready to kick me out of the house. After finishing working from my laptop, I re-organized my trout lures and restrung two trout rods, one with 4lb test on and ultralight 5'6" and 2lb test on a light action 5'6". Yes, that seems backward but trust me its not, the ultra light is for fishing spinners quickly so the rod is more forgiving as a fish smashes the spinner, increasing hook ups. The light action is a little stiffer and better at tossing micro 1/64 oz jigs on the light line. 2lb test, no shit. It casts a micro jig a mile and allows the tiny jig to cork in the current I will be netting every little fish I hook. My goal is a a 3-4 lb fish on the 2 lb test (along with some 4 ouncers I sure when I hit the wild trout streams).
Sometimes I think I spend to much time considering this shit. In the meantime I am thinking about this...

Back in action

I set up a new profile and reopened the blog so anyone can look, but my students won't see me acting a fool holding huge flounder - I am going to cranberry to catch some trout in April beeyatches.

whats going on?

Damn bros, its hard to believe its been almost two months ince anyone has posted, I know fishing has been happening, I've caught a fuckload of smallmouth, Captain Greg cleaned up the spanish this summer, now when the wind isn't blowing, he is tearing up the keeper bluefish (15-24 inches), up to 40 in a day.
I just found out my favorite trout creek in George Washington National forest got stocked today - I am leaving work at the split second end of contract hours to hit it for hopefully my first trout of the fall!

Takin a Young Buck Fishing

Gabe is eleven and the son of my friends/neighbors Mike and Jennifer. He's been asking me to take him for a year so as the days of summer are waning, I decided to make good on my offer. I picked him up at 5:30 this afternoon, we stopped at subway to pick up some dinner to eat on the water, stopped by Adam's to dig up some worms and launch the canoe on a neighborhood lake. It was slow going, but as the sun set, things heated up when we found some bluegill beds and some bass hanging around trying to grab a quick meal. I landed several small bass on topwater jerks and 4 inch unweighted finesse worms, then Gabe hooked into the monster bluegill picctured above, cool ass markings on this 9 inch porker!
Gabe's largemouth bass, can I get a hell yeah for worms from the compost pile?

Gabe freaked out when I hooked into this fat 13 inch largmouth, I knew I had a decent fish, but Gabe went apeshit when it jumped 4 times 2-3 feet out of the water. Then all of a sudden he goes "Oh man, John I have a fish too!" Here is a picture of our double, He got another sweeeeeet bluegill. We had to paddle back soon after this toget Gabe home by 8:30. Good times.

studio to river

I spent the morning and last night working on some new paintings, then had a studio visit from the curator for my Solo Exhibition in the spring in Reston. I grabbed canoe and headed out for a few hours and I did pretty well on topwater jerkbaits (about 10 fish, mostly 12-14 inches and a little chunky) . I'm telling you guys, you need to come up and go fishing with me here, its 10 miles from my house - fishing trips for 3--4 hours can be done, as can all day and even and overnighter, camping out on an island in the middle of nowhere - who's in?

25 miles on the Rappahannock - Whew!

Matt and I will edit more, Oh man what a trip it was but here are the highlights.
Trip - 25 miles on the Rappahannock in 3 days.
Conditions - great weather, but really low water, too much dragging the canoe.
Number of fish: lots
Fish caught; Smallies, Largemouth, Channel catfish, redbreasted sunfish, bluegills, goggle eye bass (red eye)
Biggest Smallie: John 20.5 inches (a solid 5-6 lb fish)
Biggest catfish: Matt - 25-28 inches
Most bream: Matt
Most Goggle Eye Bass: John (5)
Weirdest event - Matt through a small channel cat at me in the front of the canoe and one of its spines stuck directly in my leg, so the catfish was hanging out of it. This was revenge for waking him up with firecrackers at 6 am.
Closest call; almost sitting on a HUGE copperhead at our campsite
Funniest moment: Waking Matt up with firecrackers at 6 am
Craziest wildlife encounter: Matt grabbing a 20 lb snapping turtle by the tail and grinning like a 10 year old boy
Bald eagles sightings: at least 20
Losses: ripped my canoe seat and lost a 6.6 MF action St Criox rod and Diawa Samurai Reel (RIP)
Best Dinner: Strip steaks over the fire
Awesome time!

Solo Campout

Since Matt and I were planning the 3 day Rappahannock trip, I had to go for a test run with the new drybag. 8 miles. It was only my second time solo camping (not counting at campgrounds in State Parks), and it did not disappoint.Leaving the boat ramp on a slow section of river.

Catching Smallies once I got past the first set of rapids.

Set up camp by a nice stone beach half way into the float.

Ate part one of dinner and made some coffee and headed out to fish.

Sunset in between casts, I floated both sides of the island I was camping on, and fished until I couldn't see my camp anymore.

A wonderful time, but as a boat owner, I know my fellow buds will agree, something always goes wrong with your gear. I think I will keep track of the wins and losses for a little while , just for shits and giggles.
Trip Tallies:
Fish: 40+ in two days
Biggest Fish: 14 inches
Losses: My camp stove died after 10 years of hard service and had to buy a new one for the Rappahannock trip.
Weirdest or coolest things: Being woken up at 2 am by feeding carp crashing the shallows like killer whales. Several sightings of the resident Bald Eagles.

Spanish Macs from the York channel...

I'm back in action boyz! Here's some shots from a GREAT 2 days of fishing in deep water for macs and blues. The technique my friend Gray and I found on fishing for them is extremely effective and I'll have to share it with everyone at some point. Sat we caught 14 macs and 5 under-sized flounder in about 4 hours. On Sun we landed 12 in about 2 hours!!

Here's my friend Grays INSANELY cool dog Bo:

And Let There be Fish

Woooooohooooo, Summer Vacation 2008 has started! Friday I got up at 5:30 to start it off right, grabbed the trusty canoe and headed to RB solo and fished some new drifts. I caught 15 or 20 before 3pm. One of them being the suspect above, decked out in full camouflage.

Saturday Adam and I went for my first local float i had mapped out on google sat photos and it worked great, such as the cool rapids (bad photo) at the first big drop in elevation.

Adam's first smallmouth, caught on top water no less, by the middle of the day, he was kickin ass. I bet he caught 8 or 9 bass...
...Including this sweet light bronze 15 incher, hell yeah!

Here was the catch of the day, a monster 17 incher - thick and fat! we caught several nice fish today and had lots of action, I lost track of how many fish I caught, great time and a really fun paddle, cool riffles, bald eagles, deer, carp island, good stuff. Expect to see more in the next few weeks. Who wants to come fish with me this month?

Floating....

Rochelle and I went Rafting on the New River last weekend with her sister and some of her friends. It was a blast!!! Here are some highlights! I am starboard front and she is directly behind me.