But don't let me leave you with the impression that I am ungrateful for the epic battles I found with these fish and an Epic 686 Olive flyrod - they don't call these guys "Freshwater Tarpon" for no good reason. I'll certainly will remember these last three trips fondly!
Man - the waders and multiple layers I had on this morning make me look like I am 50 pounds heavier... good thing I was having too much fun to care!
I used three different flies - first up was a short clouser I tied up for last year's shad run. This is also the same type of fly I used to catch the striper last weekend. Next up was the chartreuse fly from the previous post. I kept that on until the hook was bent outward - good fight that was! But the fly I caught the most fish with was a pink jighead fly I tied up last night. I ended up bringing ten fish to hand.
I haven't really fished this rod since I left Diego. And if you recall, this was the rod that broke at the lower ferule. But today, this 8wt was AWESOME!!! These fish were decent sized, but they took the fly down stream of where my SUP was - so they had the current on their side. They are great fighters even without the current so I needed every bit of the 8wt to land them quick enough to enjoy the wrestling match and get them back on their way to making a new generation of Hickory Shad. I cannot tell you how good it felt to get hits and a solid bend in the rod - what a great day of fishing!!! Chris S landed about the same number of fish - the shad would come up in waves (schools) so when one boat/fisherman got a hit, the rest were soon to follow. Total carnage and I loved every minute of it (but I had to go at 0830 to make it to the next adventure of the day... next post)
I took Marlon out to Fletcher's Cove on Wednesday morning to see if we could wrestle some Shad while they are in the Potomac (annual spawning run). We saw tons of shad breeching the surface - but we couldn't get a single hook up. The water was high and the current was swift due to the rains we got last weekend. That's my story and I'm sticking to it (it's the weathers fault).
I caught this guy on a short clouser on my third cast!!! Sweet Striper!!!! I didn't get this guy on a flyrod - I used my light action St Croix spinning rod - PURE FUN!!!
Saturday morning dawn patrol of a different kind. Met up with a few other Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders for a SUP fishing session at Fletcher's Cove. There was tons of surface action, but whatever they were, they weren't taking flies. I stopped using my 8wt and picked up my Nissin Two-Way Fine Mode Seiryu rod - and the skunk went away - landed a small - small mouth bass! Fun time!
Before I helped out at the FYCC (Family & Youth Casting Call - I believe an arm of the District of Columbia Fish and Game Department), I tried fly casting South of Fletcher's Cove at the point of rocks. There were tons of boats out but they weren't catching anything. And neither did I. I did see a bunch of fry swimming in schools right along the high water line. The weird thing is besides the surface activity last weekend, I haven't seen any other real fish signs - especially from the regulars (sunfish). I didn't take any pictures of the kids from the DC and Maryland schools fishing - because I didn't have a spare moment between baiting hooks, unsnagging line, rerigging poles and posing for pictures with kids with fish - fun day, but LONG and tiring. But anytime you can get a kid to enjoy time outside and away from video games is time and effort well spent. Sucks getting skunked though.
About a mile or so down the road on the Maryland side of the Potomac is Fletcher's Cove. Pretty sketch entrance, but it is worth the trouble. Lots of people fishing. The current was a lot slower. A couple of people fishing in a boat just offshore were killing it - not sure what they were using for bait, but it was working (catfish??? Maybe stripers...). I helped a father and son get their boat down to the water and headed back home - had to finish packing for Spring Break (going down to the OBX).
