Quick After Work Session

A.W.S. - After Work Session - 

Because sometimes you just need that midweek fix.

And sometimes you hook a nice one in the mix.

Had three others around 15" that took the ned rig.  The bigger on ate a spinnerbait.

Sharing the Love

I tell ya, sometimes I just feel like a goofy, giddy little kid when I'm out on the water; stupid grin and all.  Is goobery a word?  Either way, that's me.   Happy and goobery.  Especially lately as I've been falling in love with the near by lake.  After work on a Thursday, I decided to invite a few friends to share the love.  Lockhart, Beck, and Britland joined me on what turned out to be a gorgeous evening out on the water.

Alex Britland enjoying the pedal drive on the new Old Town PDL

I quickly picked up two bass on a texas rigged Cut-R Worm and that aforementioned grin was clearly visible to all.  I shared with my buddies what I used and how I was fishing it to pick up the 16.5" and 18.25" fish. 

 "You should feel the rocks there.  Once you get passed them, there's a drop off.  Make sure to let it get all the way to the bottom." Then I switched up to see if the swim-jig would produce similar results.  A few casts into it I got a solid thump.  Immediately after setting the hook that smile went away.  I went into oh-please-get-in-the-boat mode especially after it thrashed on the surface for us to see that it was close to that 22" citation mark.  Not long after, I landed it and the grin came back.  And when I laid it on the board I smiled a little more...

22.5" Citation Largemouth Bass

Not too long after, Mike Beck landed a 23.5" Pickerel (half inch shy of citation).  And Alex Britland landed a respectable 19" Bass. 

Mike also scored a 19.5" bass toward the end of the night.  Jeff Lockhart had the only topwater bite of the evening with a 16"er.  He also had the misfortune of being the only one who got crapped on by a bird.  

Guess it can't always be smiles and pretty sunsets for everybody.  

But there's always next time.

 

Trophy Bass from the Neighborhood Lake

We decided to take a family paddle around a neighborhood lake on Memorial day.  On the way, crossing a bridge named after a fallen veteran was a poignant reminder of what so many had sacrificed for us to enjoy the freedoms we have today.  As my family and I drove up to the launch area, I made sure my kiddos knew why we had the day off, and reminded them why we should not take it for granted.

After ninja-ing our way up close, we got a pretty good look at a heron before it flew off.  The kids also enjoyed a dunk in the lake to cool off.  We then did an exploratory excursion into some hard to get to areas and my fishy senses began tingling.  However, as with most outing with the stinkers, their patience ran low and all that swimming made them hungry. Plus with the sun still blazing it was a good decision to head in and not to get too crispy.  After dinner though, my wife noticed my wheels turning and smiled.  "Go ahead".  

Oddly enough, top water lures were not getting the attention I had hoped for.  I switched over to a spinnerbait and casted along the edges of the pads.  In no time, I connected with two 15"-16" fish.  Then a few minutes later, I set the hook into one much heavier.  Turned out to be my new personal best and my first largemouth citation (trophy).  

I love the salt and obviously spend a lot more time there, but I suspect with fish like this near by, there will be more quick trips to my neighborhood spot.  

Hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend too!

Pickerel in the Mist

It had been nearly three months since my paddle pushed through the water.  The forced hiatus, which may have allowed me to focus on many "grown-up" things, still felt like an eternity.  

Jeff Lockhart and I met Drew Camp and his dad, Chip, in their neck of the woods in search of bass and pickerel.  Even though it was wet and chilly, a perma-grin remained plastered on my face as I felt my kayak glide.  And my cheeks didn't get any rest for awhile because my first fish of the day was a trophy pickerel.

Afterwards, we caught several more pickerel but the bass were tough to come by.  I had a few little ones but that was it.  My best luck came on a spinnerbait, husky jerk, and square bill.  

Bass Dorsal

Pickerel eye markings and gill plate

Being able to check a citation off the list with my first trophy pickerel felt pretty awesome especially while juggling daddy-life, office duties, and trying to get a house ready to put on the market.  

'Til next time, hope you all get on the water, and hopefully it won't be too long before I get out too.

Froggin' and Making Little Green Friends

The decision was determined by the forecast.  Open water pursuits for big saltwater species were put on hold for small creeks protected from the wind.  The game became ripping frog imitations across the surface and Jeff and I had a good time with it.  

 

 Jeff ended up with the two biggest of the day at 18" and 20.25"

The highlight of the day was discovering not one but five little frogs on my kayak.  I'm assuming that one of the patches of lily pads I paddled through produced the hitch hikers.  

Skinny Sweetwater Shenanigans

The 2pm kid-duty-switch-off agreement put the kibosh on 

hopes of returning to my salty big water conquests.  

Instead, little creeks became our stadium.  

And we came to play.

By the time the first rays of light pierced through the trees, Jeff Lockhart, Matt Anderson, and I were already well into our first creek.  A few small bass had been hooked and quickly released before finding what we were hoping for.  Snakehead.  

The 22"er struck Jeff's frog imitation in less than a foot of water.  Our expectations of a furiously savage fight as described by others encountering the invasive specie were muted by the fact that it quickly had a huge amount of vegetation around the line and covering it's face.  Regardless, we were ecstatic to confirm our hunch.  The area is not known to hold snakeheads but we thought it was worth a shot.  

As the day went on our search for more only yielded a few suspicious wakes.  However we were still all smiles with the abundance of other life in the area.  The little creeks were holding tons of baitfish and the largemouth bass were waiting around nearly every bend or dip to ambush them.  Weedless, weightless flukes and frogs yielded a little less than a dozen bass with most of them in the 18" range.  Topwater blow ups never get old and it was thoroughly enjoyable to watch bass take the fluke only a few feet from the kayak.  

Matt got into double digits of bass as well on various swimbaits and senkos.  In a larger part of the creek, Jeff landed the biggest bass of the day going a little over 21".  At one point, I kept getting short strikes on the fluke when I finally set the hook into something that surprised us all for this time of year.  The good sized yellow perch made me switch to the smaller set up with a little white grub.  The following 3 casts rendered 3 more perch with the biggest going a bit over 11".  Matt scored one just shy of citation at 11 3/4".  Not too long after that, I lucked out with a new specie checked off my bucket list; bowfin.  It tore up the baby bass fluke and provided a most satisfying fight on relatively light tackle.  Unfortunately, my GoPros turned themselves off due to the heat and the 23"er flopped out of my hands just before Jeff could click the shutter. 

For a relatively short trip, it was really a blast.  Jeff added one more specie for the day with a decent crappie from under a duck blind.  The call of the salt may be strong, but if weather and timing doesn't work out, we'll definitely be up for some more skinny sweetwater shenanigans. 

Pressure Drop Bassin' and a Perch Fishing Surprise

The weatherman's crystal ball showed warmer temps, but lots of wind and rain...

while my mind envisioned the barometer dropping 

and largemouth appetites growing.

Soft mud squished under my boots as big drops plopped on the hood of my Kokatat Goretex Full Zip. Sharing the same anticipation, Drew Camp slid into the clear dimpled water first. The smile inducing "fish on" came before I even sat down on my kayak.

Drew quickly picked up several fish on various baits but we couldn't really pin point a good pattern.  A few fish were caught a little deeper on jigs.  A few were also caught on shallow diving crank baits so we went back and forth not focusing enough on either... until we ventured into a cove where the water temps were a few degrees warmer.  They were stacked up and it was literally hook up after hook up for what felt like an hour.  My preferred lures were a Sebile Magic Swimmer (realistic sunfish pattern for clear water and no shad population) and the new Rapala Shadow Rap in olive. 

We both lost count of fish but I can definitely say that Drew outfished me by a lot.  He's got a great detailed report here (link).

In my defense, I was busy playing around with cameras all day.  Here's a short little video of some violent splashing recorded at 120fps 1080 resolution.  




The following afternoon, I was given the opportunity to go grocery fishing since my kids loved the previous week's perch so much.  Jeff and I went to the same spot as before, hoping for similar results.  Unfortunately, the perch were not there anymore.  Small catfish dominated the action until Jeff hooked into something very, very different. His tiny 4' super ultra light perch set up withstood the nerve racking dilemma of trying to land a 25" snakehead with no net and no lip grippers. 

Lip grippers borrowed from Chuck Wrenn after landing it.

Textured plates on the side of it's head.

We could have sworn it was too cold for snakehead, but then again, snakeheads don't cease to amaze those who have encountered them.  Jeff was generous enough to share a fillet off the invasive specie and my son and I can definitely say they're delicious.  Interesting note: it had roe in it.  Prints coming soon...

Winter Bucketmouth Mission

As with most winter fishing in Virginia, I knew it was going to be hit or miss.  So I recruited a couple of my favorite kayak bass experts to aid in my newly acquired mission.  The growing inbox of bass print requests had been in the crosshairs for way too long and it was time to pull the trigger.

This post is brought to you by the YakAttack Boomstick camera mount.  If you like taking video with GoPro style cameras, you're gonna love it.  Full articulation, quick release, floating... it's brilliant.

Complete review with details coming soon.

I met up with fellow Werner Paddles and Kokatat team member, Drew Camp, his dad Chip, and the legendary Forrest Short.  As I was taking photos and video for the upcoming review of the Boomstick, Forrest and Drew quickly got into some fish early on.  A 17" bass and two good size pickerel were caught before I even left the ramp.  And of course, by the time I got out, they didn't want to bite anymore.  A few hours later, Chip broke the monotony with a 13" slab of a crappie on a jerk bait.

We all hoped the action would turn on as the water temps crept up but it stayed slow.  A while later my jig finally enticed a good sized bass.  

Just shy of 21" and a little over 5 1/2 lbs in 8' of water right next to a cypress tree.  I thought about keeping it for prints, but couldn't.  My respect for larger/older fish couldn't be shaken and it was released... fingers crossed... hoping I would run into one I didn't mind killing.

Not too long after that, Drew picked up a 16.5" bass on a square bill crank bait   

After a thorough inspection of the super healthy short round, it went on the stringer.  

Mission accomplished.

I was hoping for an upgrade to about an 18"-19" but that never happened.  Forrest took off to try another lake and scored a huge 25" pickerel and a healthy 18.5" bass.  I went on to score one more fish; an 11" crappie on a small husky jerk, which accompanied the bass for an ink session.  Drew went on to catch another nice pickerel.

All in all, a very satisfying and successful trip.

Hopefully the upcoming weather doesn't keep us off the water too long.

Those of you who have been waiting patiently for a bass print,
soon my friends...

2014 YakAttack Tourney

The YakAttack tournament has grown considerably the last few years and could no longer be held at the little off-the-side-of-the-road camp spot.  Rumor has it that it might have become the largest freshwater kayak fishing tournament.  The venue changed to Twin Lakes State Park and Conference Center but the camaraderie was the same.  129 of us got together to have a good time, eat some awesome food, fish, and help out two great organizations; Heroes on the Water and Project Healing Waters.

The PowerTeam Lures Mafia showed up as well as many bass gurus from just down the street to as far away as Florida, Indiana, and Oklahoma.

The only thing is, with so many big names in one place

 the paparazzi started getting out of control.

Luther Cifers, president of YakAttack and creator of the tournament was not prepared to deal with the over abundance of cameras.

And neither was Joe Underwood, the tournament rules chairman.

Superstar Forrest Short, tried to go incognito by not cutting off his sleeves, but the relentless cameras still found him.  Being used to the lime light, he shrugged his shoulders at the situation.

Ok, so maybe I exaggerated a little about the paparazzi and I just wanted an excuse to use those picture.  

 

But seriously, we all had a great time.  

There were a lot of smiles and the food was again, amazing.

As far as fishing goes, it was tough for many of us.

Richie Bekolay has another YakAttack Tournament wrap up here.

 I only managed one 17" largemouth, but the select few who did connect on some quality fish went home with some nice trophies. 

 Congrats to all the winners and a huge thank you to all the sponsors and everyone who helped make this event possible.  As always, the biggest winners are Heroes on the Water and Project Healing Waters.  Over $10,000 from the tournament and raffle proceeds will help repay our debt to the men and women who have done so much for us.