Huntrava

Went out a few days ago. Nothing. Not a bite. Not a nibble. See you fellas in the spring ;-)

For what it's worth, the river had huge, huge clouds of shad tucked way up in the shallow areas. They were suspended about 3' below the surface in less than 10 feet of water. I'm used to seeing clouds a few feet wide, but in this case they were four or five times that size. I wonder if the bass have been gorging themselves on these shad, maybe? Perhaps that's why they haven't been overly hungry?

Spent about 4 hours on the Occoquan river on Monday (not going to make a new thread for that) and only pulled in a single bass. Maybe 12 inches, didn't bother to measure. Missed 1 bite because I was falling asleep. A couple guys on a jon boat said they were catching striper way up at the mouth of the river by the dam, but I didn't see much activity. Sure has been tough the last few weeks. Starting to wonder if I'm cursed...

Still producing. Friday was a grand slam...had crappie, bass and cats all taking the same presentation.... For the record, this weekend was the first time I went overboard while fishing. I was standing on my kayak--probably one of the most stable kayaks on the market--and tried to make a fancy cast to the rear. As everyone knows, on a kayak you need to turn your entire body or you run the risk of going for a swim. Once I realized I was going down, rather than capsize the kayak I simply bailed and jumped overboard. Ah well, had to happen sometime. Completely user error.

I use a FC leader. It's probably mostly in my head, but I think it's less visible. Also, I hate tying things to braid, so a FC leader lets me deal with FC most of the time.

I saw what looked like a boy scout troop swimming next to a couple canoes. Can't say it really bothers me, and I doubt it's enforced at all. They were swimming for about half an hour right around the corner from Fountainhead. It strikes me as the kind of thing a park might have to prohibit for liability reasons, not necessarily because anyone cares. That said, I wouldn't go swimming there. Not because of any park rules, mind you. Mostly because lake swimming--and the accompanying mud, smell, salt, and sunburns stopped being fun about 20 years ago.

Do you have any strategies for working the suspended fish? A couple weeks ago they were hugging the bottom, and that was easy. When they're suspended (deep, like 15 feet) I haven't got a clue.

Tried to fish the second bite today this afternoon. Was there until 5. Tried some new areas closer to the dam and was totally skunked. Had a hard time figuring out where the bass were. FF was either empty, or showed suspended fish dispersed between 10 - 20 feet. The Occoquan giveth and the Occoquan taketh away

d**n it, I'm cleaning coffee off my screen. That **** is funny. Unless you're a bluegill I suppose The people you talked to are describing basically the same thing I'm hearing on BR...it's either feast or famine, depending on your fishing style.I was slaying at Woodrow Wilson bridge a few weeks ago with a shakey-head grub. Not surprised a ned-rig would work.

Was fishing there a few months ago when I met another guy who was into the bass tournament circle. He mentioned Ryan's dam is often off limits during tournaments lol. But, FWIW, the deepest channel I've seen on Occoquan runs from Ryan's dam to Fountainhead, with the south side being slightly steeper (with more docks, structure, etc.).

The other day when I was at Occoquan, I noticed there were a bunch of other people in the same vicinity who weren't having much luck. We were all in the same general area (about a cast away from each other) but I was pulling fish out and they weren't. That doesn't happen often! We were all sitting above fish, and everyone else was throwing diving lures, umbrella rigs, etc. But Occoquan is deep. I doubt anything went deeper than 15 feet. Occoquan is easily twice that in some areas. Throwing a jig is good, but it needs enough weight to get to the bottom fast, especially if that's where the bass are. I don't think the average 3/8 oz texas rigged worm is going to get to the bottom in an efficient way, but that's just my two cents.

Welcome! No worries...everyone here is trying to learn how to catch more bass. What's the composition of the lake like? What is your FF saying?

Here are a couple of 3 - 4 lbers I pulled out on Saturday during the same outing. Good, healthy looking fish. @marvinlee718: do you have a FF? What have you been using?

Here's a 21 inch largemouth I took out of the water on Saturday at Occoquan. If you look closely, there's also a 26 inch catfish on the deck lol. Both caught and released. @JStevens: check your inbox! Happy to help out-

Hit Occoquan today. Hooked some big fish. They are in there, and they're deep.

Good luck to you. The "kayak" is a Pro Angler 12. It's more like a 1 man bass boat than a kayak though. I love it.

I'd never been to Aquia before, so I checked it out today. Learned a few things. Bear with me, grumpy post ahead- First, traffic in the area is a *****. Usually I tell people to avoid travelling south of DC on interstate 95. Could have taken my own advice today. It took me about 3 hours to get from Manassas to Aquia. Second, didn't have a lot of luck finding public launch sites. Couldn't find my intended launch point, Widewater State Park. Ended up paying to drop my kayak into a marina. As a side note, after getting home, I pulled up the BR forum and saw there's a place where you can shimmy a kayak over a wall and down to the water. That's better than nothing, but there's no way I'd be able to do that with my kayak. One would think they'd be able to fit a small public park with water access somewhere in the area. Third, the fishing was marginal. It's clear Aquia is favored by recreational boaters who need a wide, protected bay for waterskiing and tubing. Looked like fun. But the fishing topography wasn't ideal. It was typical of many places on the Potomac--wide, shallow, and full of thick green salad. The entire bay area is about 5 feet deep. I paddled up toward the creek as well as out in the bay. For future reference, while I caught more fish in the bay than toward the creek, I think the creek area probably holds more fish. To top things off, I gill hooked a small striper, one of the few fish I caught during the day. Once I lifted him on the scale I realized he was bleeding profusely. Dropped him right back in the water. In all, it was a learning experience.

Good to meet ya and welcome to NOVA. I've spent an absurd amount of time fishing for bass in the area. Here are my recommendations- Occoquan will reliably produce bass and it's fun with a kayak. Some days are better than others, but it's generally what I compare everything else against. The Potomac will give you bass and catfish. There are plenty of fish there, but they can be tricky to find. Plenty of places to put in a couple kayaks...Seneca, Algonkian, etc. Depending on where you put in, it can be a little hairy. I fished for catfish at the Woodrow Wilson bridge the other day and wouldn't recommend to a novice paddler. Lots of choppy, fast moving water. Not sure about snakehead. I've found Accotink, Brittle, Germantown, and Silver lakes to be tough. They hold fish, but unless you have lots of time on your hands, it's probably best to steer clear of these. I'm no biologist, but they seem a tad overfished.

I tried cartopping my PA12 for about a month and gave up. I'm 30 years old and in good shape, but it was too much of a hassle. Kinda like moving a refridgerator shaped like a kayak. Sure, you can do it yourself, but do you want to? The PA is superior in terms of space and stability, but you can get the same comfort and 90% of the stability on an outback. Plus it's half the weight and a little faster on the water.

I have certainly been wrong before, and I can't speak for annual passes, since the only rates I'm familiar with are for the day passes. In the case of out of jurisdiction day passes, they have a surcharge for kayaks hauled on trailers which is equivalent to the boat launch fee ($6 I believe). I checked the website and it doesn't seem to mention the trailer surcharge fees, but I guarantee it's on the chalkboard. Last time I launched I griped to the high school kid about paying $6 instead of $5. He said, "it's only a dollar." "Since it's only a dollar, can you cover me?" I responded, fully realizing he didn't get the annoyance. Kayaks don't need to use ramps, and that's why they generally get a discount. But if you charge kayakers ramp prices they're probably going to use it, and there's bound to be some idiots among them.

I'm not going to defend bad ramp practices (you should be in and out as quickly and safely as possible) but there's a legitimate reason why you're seeing kayaks launching down the ramp. The kids running Fountainhead are charging us yakkers ramp launch fees, even if we don't launch on the ramp. I told the person running the baitshop that I park in the upper lot and bring my yak down on a cart, but he insisted on charging the full price. He said it covered the cost of parking the trailer. Sure enough, it's written on that little chalk board. So if you bring in a yak on a trailer, you might as well launch it from the ramp since you're paying for it. I think it's ridiculous, but the Fountainhead staff is at least partly responsible since every other boat launch typically gives a discount to folks launching from the shore--which I'd prefer!

So there's bass in Occoquan in case anyone is wondering. What they're up to these days? Anyone's guess. Here's my best analogy for today's bite: sometimes Bugs Bunny lets himself get caught by Elmer Fudd as a sort of professional courtesy. Most of the bites today were like that. I wanted to focus on soft plastics and drop shotting, but ended up using my old fallback--the spinnerbait. A fair number of fish were hugging the bottom at 20+ feet, but I couldn't get any of them to bite, even after dropping soft plastic on their little heads. Fish on my sonar suspended between 5-15 ft seemed to be fair game for the old spinnerbait routine. Caught a handful that way. Caught one on a wacky rig. Not the most productive day, but I wasn't expecting much. The challenge is forcing the bite...

PS Sam- Since when are 1st Louies company commanders? Everyone already knows you're hot ****, but d**n!

That has to be a new record. Never seen a tiny first post cause such a big reaction. Just had to squeeze my two cents into this topic before getting locked for eternity. PS, welcome to the forum.

I'l be out at Occoquan tomorrow (Friday, 10 July). Will most likely be using football jigs and wacky worms. Maybe some live bait. If you see a skinny-fat guy paddling a yellow kayak, give me a wave! I'll let you know how the bite is...