Potomac Stand Up Paddle Fishing

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!

New Flies

I got a chance to tie up some flies today. Some electric chickens, several killer bugs, some egg flies and one chartreuse sabiki. The sabiki was killing it! Same cast of characters - bluegill of all sizes and some smallmouth bass. On one cast, I had hooked onto a pretty sizable bass - splashed up a bunch of water and threw the hook. Needless to say I'll be tying up more sabiki flies - I might even try to fish them on the Potomac and land some of the migrating shad. I am also going to get the kids their own fly rods - really short tenkara rods from tenkarabum.com - they are ready to catch on better equipment.

Sunday Catching on the Amphibious Assault Craft

We went fishing off the kayak this afternoon at the lake behind our neighborhood. Yeah the Amphibious Assault Craft is really that long - just over 14 feet. The Surf Taco's bed is just over 7' - so it is hanging out there in the wind. Our drive was only 2 minutes (going really slow) so I didn't want to load it on the top racks. Out of the bed, the kayak was pretty easy to handle. To me this thing is a SUP on steroids - I stood up the whole time while Marlon and Noe sat down up front. The anchor chain works great! I'll probably still rig a small 3 pound claw anchor so we don't swing in the wind. We caught today! I used the Soyokaze and ended up with two Smallmouth Bass - the first was 8" the second was probably 3" - and several Bluegill. Marlon caught his first Smallmouth Bass and bunches of Bluegill. We reconfigured the chairs while on the water and started throwing the fish in the live well - all caught and released. I recommend painting the inside of the tank with gray spraypaint and drilling holes in it like Drew did on the youtube videos. That will definitely help with seeing whatever you've thrown in the tank - bait or catch. If you have kids that like to fish, you need one of these Big Tunas. The kids both said repeatedly - "I can do this all day!!!" I know what we're doing next weekend ;)

Welcome Back Home Fishing

So we're back home - no more surf for a month or so (next time we'll hit the Outer Banks). I asked the kids if they wanted to go fishing and they said no - so I went solo. I started with a G Gnat, but I was experimenting with terminal knots and after I saw a large bluegill pig come up for the gnat, and then after setting the hook I saw it mouthing a fly realizing it wasn't food - I figured out that the knot slipped ($#*%). I put on a green scud and kept on fishing. I pulled in a bunch of small bluegill and these two smallmouth bass. Now that I am fishing for the fish that are here where I live, I am happy to get it all dialed in and go catching - it now doesn't matter that the fish I'm catching aren't 20 pound Trevally or thigh bone sized Albula - 1 or 2 ounce young Bluegills are fun when you can sight fish them. Another good day of fishing (tenkara style with a lightweight Soyokaze - awesome!!!!)

Monday Fishing Part 2

The level line had a green scud already tied to it so I fished that (until I lost it to a fish/rock/tree). I landed all three of these guys (and several more of the Green Sunfish - in fact I lost count of those guys) on the scud. I did switch to the gnat fly once I lost the scud. That gnat produced some incredible strikes - even though the fish were small, they were feisty! One pumpkin seed slowly swam just up the fly (which was floating on the surface), paused and then jumped completely out of the water to strike at it - those 5 seconds of anticipation waiting for a strike and then having the strike be so active - it's almost as awesome as bringing in tropical saltwater flats fish (almost). The smallmouth bass was a great surprise as well - excellent fighter but gets tired pretty quickly (actually reminds me of a Giant Trevally in character). The kids had a great time - next post.

The smallest smallmouth bass

I caught this guy today on the Daiwa Soyokaze 27SR with a 24 hook. The rod is so lightweight that even this guy was bending the rod (awesome)!!! Number 3 level line and 6x tippet for those of you interested in that kind of stuff. I bet I can catch even smaller fish!