Who's getting in some fishing?

[mac1_131]

That's the lowest I've ever seen it. Wonder why?

Maybe the red algae. I see Tridelphia has all use closed.

 

[StantonCree]

That's the lowest I've ever seen it. Wonder why?

Dunno but they say Tridelphia will get the same but don’t announce when. My GUESS is they lowered browns bridge to deal with the influx of water from Tridelphia in the near future.

 

[StantonCree]

Maybe the red algae. I see Tridelphia has all use closed.

I was at Tridelphia last week no issues. Doesn’t list closed at greenbridge

 

[Slackdaddy]

Tridelphia has an upcoming dredging project,, It was supposed to be drawn down a few months ago,, but there is a hold up with the DNR permit.

 

[Slackdaddy]

This last Friday was "F@ck-it Friday" for me.
Son and I left house at 4:00AM and headed to a new section of the Shenendoah.

Ran a section above Luray, 9 miles.
Left the house at 4:00 AM, but once we got there, dropped the kayaks and son at the put in, drive to the takeout,, waited on my ride back to the put it,, we were on the water at 7:45AM.

Side note: For 75% of my river trips I drop The kayaks and son at the put in, drive to the takeout spot and leave the truck. I get a ride either thumbing it or have a pre-arraigned ride that I typ find calling local businesses (barber shops, hair salons are my "go to") and "pitching" the idea of me paying someone to give me a ride at a predetermined time/date. I have 100% success rate with this shuttle method. Years ago we ran Smokehole Canyon in WV, Our takeout was Petersburg,, We made arraignments with a gal from a hair salon,, 2 drunk chicks showed up at 8:00 am, At the Petersburg ramp (where we parked our trucks). The 40 min drive back to Big Bend was a near death experience.

Anyhow,
I rigged 4 rods:
5' UL with 1/8oz roadrunner (underspin) with 3" grub
6' Light with small whopper plopper
6' light with "Middle Wee Crawl" crank bait (tried various colors)
6' Light with 1/10oz ned rig head, various Z-Man buoyant sticks and crawls


I was really looking forward to working with the ned rig a lot,, Unfortunately I was feeling a little rushed and most of this river did not lend itself to the Ned rig,, without a complete stop and dedicated targeting. An hour into the trip the reel on my crank bait set up stiffened up and became difficult to crank,, so I switched the crank over to the Ned rig set up.

This section I really enjoyed, The bottom structure and flow was very different from just 10-15 down river. This had a lot of areas with 3-5 deep water littered with boulders and holes. There were rock gardens mixed into elevation changes, etc.

1st 45 min of the trip, we worked left bank that was lined with 30-50' rock cliffs, 2-3' water, rock gardens, etc ---- NOTHING,, this was supposed to be golden hour and we got nothing in PRIME structure and flow. Went threw 1 or 2 minor ledges with scattered rocks. We picked up a canoe about 100 yards behind us,, If there is nothing I hate more is feeling pressured with another group coming up on you. Son's main bait castor had issues and he staked out on the edge, I lolly gagged waiting on him,, other fishermen were now on top of us.
We came around to an absolutely gorgeous 100 yard long, river wide rock garden that literally choked the river with rocks, willow, pools and drops. Beached on a rock and got no bites in 6-8 casts, canoe beached not to far,, decided to bypass the whole section and let the other fisherman have it,, hopefully it would keep them busy for an hour and we could continue on with out someone up my rear. It worked, never saw them again.

The next 7 miles was lots of stacked drops, 2-4' water, twists and turns, submerged boulder gardens, etc.
It was hot and sunny, clear water,,, The smallies bit when the sun went behind an occasional cloud.
We each ended up with 21-22 fish, largest was 15",, Mine were all on whopper plopper and shallow diving crank (middle wee crawl) (note: the stock Rebel hooks on the wee crawl will not hold up)

This stretch has potential, We blew through at fishing 1 hour for a mile of river,, this 9 miles needs 2 FULL days of overcast to really start to pick it apart.

 

[Melnic]

One on the hook then we took to spearfishing. Son of family friend had his spear gun for 5 years and first day using it.
Son got a 13lb Mahi
Plus some easy target Almacoa Jacks

The Mahi have been hook shy and traditional bailing has not been working. We did see 2 boats on the troll pull in fish but we took the game to them.

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[Dingo222]

Anybody do any fishing on the pax river south of tridelphia to maybe browns bridge area? My sister in law recently bought a house and land that backs up to the river in the Ednor area. I went scouting back there yesterday and all I really found were a lot of ticks haha

 

[hooligan82]

Went to loch raven and rented a boat yesterday. Got a 17" pickerel. Went again today and fished from the shore. A few bumps but no catches. The water level is very low and fishing is slow.

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[Melnic]

Back out today and another guest
He got a Mahi on the rod then a Jack and couple Mahi. We got a few on the rod and rest with speargun. And unexpected guest showed up. This shot was with go pro as I was hanging over to reach down into the water. Camera phone pic of a video pause came out looking rather good.

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[remrug]

(middle wee crawl) (note: the stock Rebel hooks on the wee crawl will not hold up)

My Dad was casting a Rebel Wee Crawl and hooked the largest smallmouth I have ever seen ( at least 5 lbs) on the Potomac. He fought it for awhile and I was close to netting it and it got away. He was devastated to say the least.
Come to find out,one of the hooks on the treble broke off.

Replacing with a beefier treble is sound advice. I have caught a ton of differnt fish on those lures. A great one for trout in catch and release areas.

 

[Trepang]

Our cat .......... lol

 

[Slackdaddy]

My Dad was casting a Rebel Wee Crawl and hooked the largest smallmouth I have ever seen ( at least 5 lbs) on the Potomac. He fought it for awhile and I was close to netting it and it got away. He was devastated to say the least.
Come to find out,one of the hooks on the treble broke off.

Replacing with a beefier treble is sound advice. I have caught a ton of differnt fish on those lures. A great one for trout in catch and release areas.

When I started using the Rebel crank baits,, the hooks did not last 1 day of Potomac SM fishing.
I literally had 1 hook left out of the 6 (2 trebble hooks) by the end of the day.

I replace with Gamakatsu or other quality hooks and snip 1 point/hook off, so I am running 2) double hooks,, a double hook is exponentially easier to remove than a treble.

 

[Brickman301]

Back out today and another guest
He got a Mahi on the rod then a Jack and couple Mahi. We got a few on the rod and rest with speargun. And unexpected guest showed up. This shot was with go pro as I was hanging over to reach down into the water. Camera phone pic of a video pause came out looking rather good.

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Awesome! And That “ unexpected guest” would have scared the sh** out of me. Lol

 

[[Kev308]]

I went kayak fishing on the Elk river yesterday. I learned two things, why people buy pedal kayaks, and I need an anchor set up.

Up til yesterday I've only been in still water reservoirs.

Didn't Tridelphia just open back up this season after being drained?

 

[gtodave]

This last Friday was "F@ck-it Friday" for me.
Son and I left house at 4:00AM and headed to a new section of the Shenendoah.

Ran a section above Luray, 9 miles.
Left the house at 4:00 AM, but once we got there, dropped the kayaks and son at the put in, drive to the takeout,, waited on my ride back to the put it,, we were on the water at 7:45AM.

Side note: For 75% of my river trips I drop The kayaks and son at the put in, drive to the takeout spot and leave the truck. I get a ride either thumbing it or have a pre-arraigned ride that I typ find calling local businesses (barber shops, hair salons are my "go to") and "pitching" the idea of me paying someone to give me a ride at a predetermined time/date. I have 100% success rate with this shuttle method. Years ago we ran Smokehole Canyon in WV, Our takeout was Petersburg,, We made arraignments with a gal from a hair salon,, 2 drunk chicks showed up at 8:00 am, At the Petersburg ramp (where we parked our trucks). The 40 min drive back to Big Bend was a near death experience.

Anyhow,
I rigged 4 rods:
5' UL with 1/8oz roadrunner (underspin) with 3" grub
6' Light with small whopper plopper
6' light with "Middle Wee Crawl" crank bait (tried various colors)
6' Light with 1/10oz ned rig head, various Z-Man buoyant sticks and crawls


I was really looking forward to working with the ned rig a lot,, Unfortunately I was feeling a little rushed and most of this river did not lend itself to the Ned rig,, without a complete stop and dedicated targeting. An hour into the trip the reel on my crank bait set up stiffened up and became difficult to crank,, so I switched the crank over to the Ned rig set up.

This section I really enjoyed, The bottom structure and flow was very different from just 10-15 down river. This had a lot of areas with 3-5 deep water littered with boulders and holes. There were rock gardens mixed into elevation changes, etc.

1st 45 min of the trip, we worked left bank that was lined with 30-50' rock cliffs, 2-3' water, rock gardens, etc ---- NOTHING,, this was supposed to be golden hour and we got nothing in PRIME structure and flow. Went threw 1 or 2 minor ledges with scattered rocks. We picked up a canoe about 100 yards behind us,, If there is nothing I hate more is feeling pressured with another group coming up on you. Son's main bait castor had issues and he staked out on the edge, I lolly gagged waiting on him,, other fishermen were now on top of us.
We came around to an absolutely gorgeous 100 yard long, river wide rock garden that literally choked the river with rocks, willow, pools and drops. Beached on a rock and got no bites in 6-8 casts, canoe beached not to far,, decided to bypass the whole section and let the other fisherman have it,, hopefully it would keep them busy for an hour and we could continue on with out someone up my rear. It worked, never saw them again.

The next 7 miles was lots of stacked drops, 2-4' water, twists and turns, submerged boulder gardens, etc.
It was hot and sunny, clear water,,, The smallies bit when the sun went behind an occasional cloud.
We each ended up with 21-22 fish, largest was 15",, Mine were all on whopper plopper and shallow diving crank (middle wee crawl) (note: the stock Rebel hooks on the wee crawl will not hold up)

This stretch has potential, We blew through at fishing 1 hour for a mile of river,, this 9 miles needs 2 FULL days of overcast to really start to pick it apart.

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Dude, I love your write-ups.

I'm fishing OBX this week. Been slow so far. A couple of keeper Spanish, several throw backs...but nothing else. Two skunks on the boat in the sound so far. False albacore are biting, but not for me. More updates to follow!

 

[Slackdaddy]

Dude, I love your write-ups.

I'm fishing OBX this week. Been slow so far. A couple of keeper Spanish, several throw backs...but nothing else. Two skunks on the boat in the sound so far. False albacore are biting, but not for me. More updates to follow!

I do some tidal creeks off the PAX river,, but that is about as salt water as I get,, Wife does Crab off her kayak at least once a week.
Do you ever do any fresh water kayak fishing ?

We did an overnighter on the Trough in WV this weekend,, guess I need to get a write up posted

 

[John from MD]

I went kayak fishing on the Elk river yesterday. I learned two things, why people buy pedal kayaks, and I need an anchor set up.

Up til yesterday I've only been in still water reservoirs.

Didn't Tridelphia just open back up this season after being drained?

Be careful with anchors in yaks. In fast moving water, you can get flipped. I use a sea anchor to slow my drifts down in the rivers and bay.

 

[Slackdaddy]

Did an overnight trip on the south branch,,

Big John and I with our 20 year old boys, They are 2nd cousins and have been going on river trips since they were 5,, but it has been a few years since they have been out together.

“River trips” were our big vacation for us,, it is what we did. When each kid got to be about 5 they would go with me in the canoe,, and the older one graduated to their own kayak.

We would pull off in National Forest and set up camp and spend a night or 2.

The big multi family river trips are a thing of the past,, all of our families kids have grown, and moved off. Only my youngest still runs the river with me,, mostly day trips.


(I kept my PFD on the entire trip, as it is also my fishing vest,, I let the boys take theirs off in the 3' or less areas, just to shut them up)
We met at the put in Dropped the kayaks/gear and boys,, and shuttled one truck to the take out 13 miles down river and came back in the other truck.



Water level is SUPER low,, Clear 2.5-3’ visibility,, mostly sunny.

I was running 2 rods (with 2 spares in the hull) a 90 wopper plopper on one and a Rebel Wee Crawl on the other. My Son was running a wopper plopper and senko for the most part.



On the water by 8am,, 1st hour was slow and disappointing,, picked up a little throughout the day, We were catching 6-12” fish mostly, with a few 12-15”. I had a huge blowup on the popper than I totally missed the hook set. ,, Then it ramped up around 6pm as the sun was getting blocked by the deep canyon walls,, unfortunately we had to spend the last 2 hours of day light trying to locate a suitable camp.

Seems the sites we used years ago, have not been used in years and were beyond overgrown,, we attempted to clear one,, but it was no use,, in a panic loaded back up and headed down river,, found a site that looked like it had been used a few months back and had suitable trees to hang our hammocks. Got camp set up, a fire going, jump in the river for a bath and changed into dry sleeping cloths. Had steaks over the fire, a bourbon nightcap and cigar,, then off to bed.

We each caught about 12-16 fish on day 1.



My hammock was facing the river and had a beautiful view. At daybreak I heard some splashing of a fish up river,, 20 min later I heard something walking the gravel shore,, it was my son fishing. He had been up since before sun up fishing. 10 min later He had another one.

He caught a 20”, 16”, and 18” on top water at day break.

We cooked eggs/peppers/mushrooms/onions over the fire and lounged around till 11am



Day 2 was a day of 6-10” Small mouth,, a few of us caught some 12-14”

It was sunny and hot,, did not see the promised cloud cover.



It was a good time, my how time flies,, these boys were little tikes just a blink of the eye ago.



We hatched an idea, there is a 1.5 mile stretch that is deep and barely moving,, but TONS of boulders and tree cover both banks, it is good fishing early or late. , we are going to go up in the week and slip down to that section in a canoe with a saw, weed wacker, machete, etc and clear a camp site in that section. Then we will do a 3 day,, staying at that site,, fishing early and late, laying around camp in the mid day.

THIS IS THEM 15 YEARS AGO

AND THIS IS THIS WEEKEND:

 

[Slackdaddy]

 

[Slackdaddy]

Back out today and another guest
He got a Mahi on the rod then a Jack and couple Mahi. We got a few on the rod and rest with speargun. And unexpected guest showed up. This shot was with go pro as I was hanging over to reach down into the water. Camera phone pic of a video pause came out looking rather good.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How long was the "Sharkadoo" ??