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!
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!!!
I paddled out at Algonkian Regional Park on the Potomac River again for my weekend fishing expedition. I brought a lightweight spinning setup, an ultralight, and the Orvis Helios 5wt. There is an island to the West of the launch, and one to the East. For the three times I've been paddling here, I've always gone upstream (West) - logic being on the way back in when I am tired, I can drift with the current. No change in direction this time either - but I did paddle on the Northern side of the island. The current was stronger on the Northern side, but still not overpowering. I saw a few channel cats taking chunks out of a dead carp - I took a few casts at them, but they saw me and bolted. I paddled right over some huge carp that were rooting around the weed beds - I was too close to make a cast... Finally I saw a channel cat nose into the current, lined up looking for food to drift by. I cast a Gulp Cricket on a small jig head hook and watched the cat chomp on it. It tugged well on the ultralight rod, but if the rod were any stiffer, the cat would have been dead weight. Pretty lethargic for a medium sized cat. Kinda skinny too. I saw a few more carp and cats swimming around, but go no response from any casts. I made it around the island and started casting in the crosscurrent. Using the lightweight spinning rod, I hooked up with a little small mouth - it put on a good airshow jumping several times before I got it on the board. Nice fish! I cast back into the same area and got a hit from an even bigger small mouth! Multiple jumps and a few runs from this one!!! I started my drift down stream back to the launch - I stopped fishing because there were two jet skis ripping back and forth across the river. Nevermind the canoes, kayaks and jonboats fishing in the area - they could have gone just a few hundred yards to the West and there would have been clear and open water - but they were clueless. Sharing is good so it was a good time to leave anyways - and on a good note with three fish caught and released.
After I got back to the house, we jumped into the truck and drove over to Riverbend Park to hike along the Potomac. We took the Northern path this time to check it out as opposed to the Southern route which we have been on a few times now. By the end of the trip, we got the kids to hike 5 miles! La has some cool pictures up on her Facebook account - butterflies, lizards, cool trees. I was also keeping an eye out for some spots to flyfish from in future outings - I saw three accessible areas where a back cast could be managed with a short wade out. The river was swollen from all the rains we got recently, so the intel gathering was not as good as it could have been, but that's part of the game isn't it???...!!! Fun day and a tough accomplishment for the kids (they minimized the complaints since it was Father's Day)!
