Fishing Report 6/18/2014

I went to get the minivan serviced this morning. It just so happens the place we get it serviced at is not that far from Goose Creek. I was being efficient by going fishing and getting the oil changed at the same time. The water was a little high again - I was a bit concerned that the fish wouldn't be around. I was really hoping to get into some of those king sized redbreast sunfish again, but that wasn't the case. I lined up the Barclay Glass 3wt with a RIO Gold and worked the bank where the water was a lot slower than the middle channel. I ended up catching a bunch of these small greens and pumpkinseeds (which I am beginning to think are juvenile redbreast). Small - yes, but super feisty! They didn't pull drag, but they did put up a larger than proportional fight!

Fishing Report 6/7/2014

Saturday morning flyfishing at Goose Creek. I brought the Yomogi 7'0" 3 piece 3wt and the SA Supra DT3F line. The water was still a tad high to fish this place easily (lower water tends to concentrate the fish better - especially the bass), but definitely WAY lower than the last time I was here (epic flood conditions). The Yomogi is a rod that forces you to cast well. When you dial it in, it is a wonderful partner. If you are sloppy with your casting, it makes you look like the village idiot. "Catching some rays" - yeah that's corny but I am on sabbatical and very happy - expect the corniness to increase exponentially. I started catching these small pumpkinseeds early on, but eventually I found the hole where these huge redbreast sunfish slabs (thanks for the ID Chris B) were hiding out. I pulled these guys almost every cast for a solid 30 minute period - they pulled like tractors and put serious bend in the yomogi! Check out the turquoise coloring on the flank... really cool fish! Look at those round bellies!!! These are well fed fatties!!! Super fun fishing session!!!

High Water at Goose Creek

I went to hike Goose Creek this afternoon. Actually I went to fish it, and I was expecting some high water - but not this high! This was easily 5' higher than it normally is. So I decided to just make a few exploratory roll casts and hike to the end of the trail where the creek joins the Potomac. For the record - if you want to make this hike, it is only about a 20 minute walk.

Small Large Mouth Bass and Medium Small Mouth Bass

The bass action came late in the fishing session. I could see these guys following the sunfish - egging them on to take the bait. Eventually, they joined in the fun themselves. I love watching the small mouth jump to try and shake the hook off - tough fish. These guys were really healthy too. Makes me want to hook up with a really big one to play a good game of tug-o-war. So - no catfish school today - but these two small mouth more than made up for that. That second picture was taken while the large mouth was jumping out of my hand - kinda funny looking to me (like it is floating away...)

Dawn Patrol - Not Intuitive

I decided to head back to Goose Creek and try my luck at that channel catfish school again. The morning was gorgeous - nippy 58 degrees, no wind, warm water and low humidity set the stage for a gently rising fog vapor from the creek. I looked for the school where I last saw them, but I didn't even see sunfish. I cast for awhile - first with the flyrod, then the ultralight spinning gear, then with Gulp and I wasn't getting any response. The water level was lower than last Monday, so I decided to try a different approach. I headed back up stream and cast softbait into the pools. That wasn't really working either. I kept going upstream and ended up near the trailhead. I saw a fish rolling out of the corner of my eye and I started casting across the narrow-ish part of the creek. I hit paydirt and spent the next hour reeling in fish (mostly green sunfish) cast after cast. I did get a few other types of fish - a Flier (Crappie) and some bass (saving that for the next post). After a few minutes of casting, I took the 5wt out again and the result was the same - tons of fun fish to hand. I'm not sure if it was the location, the terrain, the softbait, or the Sun's position, but it sure did take a while for the creek bite to turn on. Maybe next time I'll sleep in and stall the dawn patrol. Or maybe I'll wait for Marlon's Saturday show to end and then go and bring him too (darn Pokemon...)

Channel Catfish Have Gotten Bigger

Late post - I spent part of the last bit of the long Labor Day weekend fishing at Goose Creek (again). I brought the St Croix Ultralight spinning rod and the Orvis Helios 5wt to try my luck. I was able to catch a bunch of the resident Green Sunfish casting to the dropoffs, shelves and rocky outcroppings. I saw a few carp, bass and large channel cats, but they would look at my flies and turn away (yes - I have tied better). After a bit, I switched to the spinning rod and tied on a size 8, 1/32 ounce Trout Slayer jighead and placed a Gulp Cricket on the hook. As I waded back upstream, I saw a huge boil of fish. I looked for a little bit and it turned out the school was composed of catfish. I cast into the school and the cats went into a feeding frenzy. I ended up hooking five or so of these guys. If you go back on this blog a few months, you'll see this same school but the individuals were much smaller. Another few weeks and I suppose these fish will go down river as the temperatures begin to fall. That means I need to get back there this weekend and catch them some more ;)

AAAARRRRRRRRHHHGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

I tend to get real quiet when I'm fishing - really great way to relax. I also get really still - crane still. So I thought I was being really stealthy while this turtle came wandering along. It got really close - so I picked it up and brought it over to the catch bucket. When I took a closer look, it wasn't my stealth or lightning reflexes - the dude is blind in one eye. We tried feeding it one of the minnows we caught, but it really just wanted to get back to the water. We said "ARRRRGGGHHHHH" to the one-eyed turtle and let it go on it's merry way.

Rolling Down the River

We hit Kephart Park again today and we met up with some old friends - the Thorntons! Mike and a blast catching crayfish with Noe, Melda and La 'rafted' down the creek which drew the kids to walk upstream launch and bounce along the creek several times over and over, Michael, Isaac and Zion fished almost as long as I did. We spent five hours fishing and rafting - and the time flew by.

Goose Creek Fishing

We went fishing today at Kephart Bridge Landing park (also known as Goose Creek). The friendly folks at Orvis Tysons Corner told me about this place a couple of weeks ago - we scouted it out yesterday and came back this morning around 1000. We all had a blast! The kids caught some of these catfish (blues???) with the dip net. The sunfish were more than happy to hit the flies we chucked at them, and La even had a good time sight fishing (she exclaimed "I'm coming back!" and even took her own fish off the hook). If you have been intimidated by flyfishing, go to www.tenkarabum.com and pick up a starter kit from Chris - tenkara style fishing has become my preferred method of angling here on the lakes and waterways of Northern Virginia - you will not regret opening up a new way of fishing that oh by the way helps you immensely with then casting conventional fly fishing gear. Since the tenkara rods I brought were all spoken for (we all had lines in the water - unbelievable!!!) I strung up my Helios 5wt - I had sunfish up the wazoo, but notably caught one large mouth and two small mouth bass - but more on that in the next post. Marlon got his first crappie to hand!!! What a wonderful Sunday!