Fishing Report 10/3/2014

Catching up on some posts from the weekend. I went SUP fishing to explore the low tide exposures at Dutton Island. I got skunked, but I did get some hits on a curly tail gulp - the bait got nearly cut in half by the first hit and had some good teeth gouges on the second. I'm not sure what the fish where, but a skunk is a skunk. I did get a real close look at the edges of the spartina grass flats - lots of holes where fiddler crabs were the dominate species - not the marsh crabs I saw last time during the high tide. This is enlightening (for me anyways) in that most spartina grass flies are of the bigger crab type tied in the "merkin" fashion to get a fuller body. I'm going to have to get over my reluctance to tie with yarn and make some 'fiddler' crab flies. Those holes in the mud are crab condos - or redfish feeding troughs.... where's my vise?

Freedom!!!!

The kids and I went back to the lake late this afternoon to let the turtles get back to the water. They had their fill of hot dogs and kiddie pool time - While Noe and Marlon were letting the turtles go, I was trying to catch the pancakes I know live in the depths. Summer is slipping away and we have the goal of making some epic Bluegill gyotaku... I nailed this decent sized LMB and a bunch of almost-epic gyotaku sized bluegills. Noe had trouble letting go of the smaller turtle. She'd let it swim away and recatch it before it got too far. I had to distract her to give the tiny guy a running start. When the two guys were out of reach, they popped their heads back up out of the water and sent a telepathic message "thanks for the rock'in dogs SUCKAS!" - after that, I let the kids take turns wrestling the 'almost" bruiser sized bluegill. Tomorrow is another day!

Goose Creek Quickie

After brunch, we were out on the road getting errands done. We were out West - Asburn/Leesburg area - and in between Dick's (where I got a bunch more 1/32 ounce jig heads) and Wegmans, we stopped off at the Goose Creek fishing spot. I did not bring fly gear, just the ultralight spinning gear. I wanted to try out more of the soft baits - especially the Gulp minnows. The current was not as strong as the last time - so the tailing section was not as pronounced. And the bass were not as concentrated either. I hooked into two - and like most of the bass I've hooked into recently, they jump and spit the hook. I think the weight on the hook gives them something to throw... I'm still new to softbaits so forgive me as I learn. If you have ever wondered, Gulp does work. I had two other baits on the same jighead and there wasn't a time when I had the Gulp on that fish weren't picking at it. All to quickly, it was time to move on and I caught this fish that Marlon and I are not quite sure how to identify - I think it is a "Flier" Centrarchus macropterus; Marlon's thinks it is a White Crappie. This is the second one we've caught at Goose Creek - we'll do more research to find out what it is.