charliepff

My wife and I both run Jackson Coosa HD's. We bought them for a few reasons. We can stand and fish off them easy. They had large compartments to store everything in including fishing rods.The one big item that sold me was the fact the center console was removable. Our lab goes with us on every trip for the most part. With the center console removed he can sit in front of me all day long and watch the ducks. Also, on a plus side. Now that we are use to them we can do pretty well in the white water around us also.

Wacky is always my fallback on rivers. The first time I used it the water was low and super clear. There were huge grass grow fields in the slower current with pockets on them. The first cast into a pocket I caught a 3 lb. fish. It works amazing. Just make sure to pay attention to your type of hook to avoid gut hooking fish.

One thing I do, especially with new water, I watch for google map pictures for when the water is really low. I then print them and keep them in a binder. It really helps a lot to reference these before I go out on the water.

Nice. I think the water being so low in the Potomac is messing me up too. So besides the fishing pressure, that makes it even worse. The leaves are starting to make things interesting on the Shenandoah now. I will need to pay attention more around the eddies, especially the deeper ones.

I never realized how much pressure is on that section of the Potomac. The water is awesome their, but I have seen more people their then on most other sections of the river. I was rally surprised at the number of people. The above methods would have helped. In fact, my last hit on the way back to the ramp was dead drifting a warm with a little weight in the deeper current. If I would not have been arguing with my yellow lab at the time I probably would have caught a decent fish. I thought about fishing pressure and changing my methods up. I guess I should have went with my gut feeling. My wife did lose a nice fish off a square bill in a deep pocket. If you all are out and fish off of kayaks, let me know. I am always game to learn new spots.

I did notice where we were getting hits at seemed to be in the deeper moving water away from the floating grass. I noticed later in the day that throwing up and bringing the lure down seemed to keep me grass free, well, as grass free as possible. I did not think of the swim jog either. Especially since they seemed to be in the deeper riffles. So getting to the bottom faster in the rocks most likely would have helped. Thank you for the help.

Thank you short fish for the help. I am sure the leaves here will pick up shortly. They are starting to fall now. I agree about the current seems. We will pick them apart more next time we are out. It seems like it is worse this year for some reason.

Hello Everyone, My wife and I were fishing the Potomac today and we were really having some issues with the floating weeds moving down the river. Texas rig was working ok for the most part. We seemed to be confined to this as there were a lot of weeds in the current. I was wondering if anyone has any tricks to dealing with this.

Hello Everyone, I ran the wife down to the Lander boat ramp to do some fishing on the Potomac today. Conditions were interesting. The river is very, very, low and very clear. On top of that there is so much salad floating in the water that it honestly was frustrating at times. We lost a few on texas rigs with super fluke minnows and white grubbs. We unfortunately did not land anything today and talking to a few others the luck was about the same. We did however get to play with large turtle and I floated over a walleye that was the biggest I ever seen in the Potomac. It also had a growth on it. If anyone has any advice to deal with the floating salad let me know. Good luck to everyone fishing this week.

The friend we have out their works federal la enforcement. They were telling us that people were trying to loot before the storm even started. It is ridiculous. I could definitely understand that part of not wanting to leave. I could not imagine trying to ride something like that out. My wife and I are pretty prepared but not sure on that one. My hats off to ya.

I would recommend searching for some kayak fishing videos where they are running sections of river like that. Their advice and watching them helps. When my wife and I got our kayaks, we took them out with no fishing stuff on them and basically on purposely placed ourselves in wave trains and harder rapids just to get the experience of going thru those areas. Scouting is a very good idea. It has saved me a few times when I have been by myself.

Nice job. We usually find enough trash we can not carry it back in the kayak. We tried to donate cans, bags, and fishing line recycling stations to the WMA Shannondale Springs boat ramp areas and they told be no. They would rather just pick the trash up off the ground. I never ever thought I would ever be told something like that. I am glad you are able to do that and correct an epidemic issue.

I think yes and know to this question. Yes for when I trout fish in PA. A lot of streams that were gems in the day made it into magazines and Tv shows. This has brought crowds from multiple states to fish them. A lot more property has been posted since I was young and fished with my father. The name of the game seems to be to buy property and post it when it comes to streams in PA. On the flip side, the state recognizes this and tries to boost the populations of fish and regulate the fishing as best they can. Streams that I never dreamed of having fish are being rehabbed by trout unlimited, liming basins installed, and now have populations of brown trout. They are even trying to buy access for fisherman. With limited budget they do with what they can. My hats off to them for the impossible job they have sometimes. I can also remember a time when I could go to the boat ramp or river access and not have to worry about fighting with some needle pushing junkie ticked I am telling him to move his car and leave the boat ramp. It gets old. Very old. I pull into our ramps now expecting issues from people. As far as fishing in itself goes, we have great well equipped kayaks. New top of the line gear available, all kinds of fishing lures and techniques out their, so I guess it does even out. I also know more about fishing now then I ever did from experience and learning off of sources like this forum. We are also able to educate more people on proper catch and release, selective harvest, and able to just get more people involved in the sport which is a huge plus.

New Orleans has been having issues of reoccurring pump failures. They had the army corp of engineers trying to help but I am not sure. The wife and I watched the weather channel most of the night since we have a good friend that lives in Kingsville Texas. It looked bad when it came on shore. I am disappointed with the mayors who only chose to do voluntary evacuations.

I love this thread. I have been really sick most of this week and this thread has really cheered me up and actually brought up some good memories. I had a few tricks to getting money for fishing. First was my uncle always went to Canada every year for pike and walleye with his buddies. They would buy 500 worms off of me. So nighttime I would be busy hunting night crawlers. Especially after rains. The cops knew me and use to come watch. Especially since there were times I would be breaking curfew. We had a nosy neighbor next to the community park and pool who would report my friend and I as burglars all the time. They use to bring us a candy bar or a soda and talk to us for a little. The second was washing and waxing cars. I did it twice at my dads house and when he got his water bill I had to improvise to on site washing and waxing. So I set up a wheel barrel with the stuff I needed and went house to house. At one point I had an appointment book. It got really busy. Almost to busy. While in high school I worked for two dealerships doing the same. I also did the standard cutting grass, shoveling coal into peoples basements, and helping friends with farm work. I think the best was working with my dad on the cars he use to work on in his garage on the side. He did a lot of motor swaps and project cars. One was replacing the motor in a Suzuki Samurai with a motor from a Geo Tracker. I learned a ton about everything including life its self. I fished for trout and panfish mainly and these jobs gave me the money to buy new reels, rods, and even get into fly fishing. My dad never had a lot of money to spend on fishing gear so I was able to get him stuff for his birthday and such that he would never splurge on for himself. They even helped pay for a camping trip to fish for native trout in north central PA one summer.

Ha ha ha ha ha, that is great. I have caught a few fish with lures in their mouths. Just never one with my lure in its mouth. My wife hooked a swim bait thru the eyelet the other day. I do not know how stuff like that happens. It makes me shake my head sometimes. It does amaze me how well they can throw a lure when they want though.

I will say, definitely play around with your drag. I had a few the past two seasons train wreck me and break me off. Especially on the initial hit. I had a large one today that if I did not have my drag adjusted the way it was I would have broke it off without a doubt. It made three runs back to back with the last one trying to cross the river. You also need to be patient with them. If you play with them for a few minutes you will get the gist of when they are ready to come in.

Hello Everyone, Thank you for your help. I will send an order in shortly for the recommendations and try them out. I did try google also but, I figure most people on this forum do a lot of fishing and should have some solid suggestions. The chart at the top was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again for the help and you all have a great weekend.

I was wondering if anyone can recommend swim bait hooks and proper sizes for 3" gulp and Kietech paddle tails on the smaller side. I am in a heavily fished area and I try to up size a lot or down size to match the bait I am seeing. The issue is I can not seem to get a hook to fit these. I try to use them on a carolina rig and hook them weedless. Anything you all have advice wise would be great.

Since the wife was gone yesterday for a girls day out, the dog and I decided to hit the river in the afternoon since it clouded up. We fished the Shenandoah in multiple spots around Molten Park area with the kayak. I had two rigs set up in the back of the kayak. A small yellow and orange crank bait and a white whopper plopper. The water was dirty with no visibility after two feet deep. The topwater was the lure of the day. I did not catch anything over 17", but the numbers were decent. I also had a lot of blow ups and misses. The crank bait had two or three misses but nothing major. I am not sure why they did not seem to want this crank bait. A crayfish rattle trap might have been the better bet for for the deeper dirty water. As the evening got later and later the bigger the fish I seemed to get. I even noticed them chasing minnows more which was not happening when I first went out. Unfortunately, I had to call it an early night and stop the night fishing outing due to forgetting the pups food bag. It was so peaceful, I finally found an area where no one was around and the water was glass, but, I made sure the lab had his food. It was a great evening out. The picture of the dog is what he thinks when I loose a fish.

So, While out on the kayak yesterday fishing the Shenandoah river, I had a very interesting encounter with a large small mouth. I recently bought a small size whopper plopper and wanted to give it a fair shot so I went to the river in the area of Molten Park and figured I would lead off with the new top water bait since it was cloudy. I was working around small islands and eddies since the river is up and murky. I lost a few fish here and there but nothing big. So I cast above this island next to the overgrown bank and hooked what felt like to be a psycho bass. This thing went three shades of nuts. The second time it jumped it hit the water and ran straight upstream breaking me off. I was so mad I lost the new lure let alone a massive bass. So I figured I would paddle over to that area and look around since it was fairly shallow. As I was floating up on that spot, the fish jumps out of the water shaking my lure. It almost hit the front of the kayak and dog. It definitely had the lure in its mouth. So not even 30 seconds later it came out of the water again and threw the lure upstream about 5 feet. I ended up retrieving it and tying it back on. I have never ever experienced something like this. I wish I would have had it on camera.

In the eastern panhandle of West Virginia we have this indigenous species of boat ramp campers. They are a cheeky specie with their coolers, comfortable lounge chairs, and the knack of taking up the whole boat ramp. Not only do they do this but when you ask them to move as polite as possible, they hiss and carry on. They are very temperamental and easily disturbed. On a serious note, it is so bad with here that I watched a boater actually back over the stuff at the boat ramp, along with almost backing over the people themselves due to them telling the boater to go find another place to launch his boat. It has been terrible this year and getting worse. The second would be the weekend warrior bass pro tapped out at full throttle thru the wake zones.

Hello Spartan351, Glad to hear you get out during the week too. Its the only way to go. I can pm you with some new wading spots to try.

All good advice from above. The advice from Big'un is right on. The wife and I fish the river regularly from the VA/WV line to the Potomac River. Riffles are your friend. You will see lots of rock ledges also. Our go to is usually a paddle tale swim bait or Berkeley gulp minnows. These seem to work well majority of the time. I usually use a Carolina rig due to the deeper riffles you will come across. The wife has also used a bobber with a gulp minnow hooked thru the back with split shot in between and it works very well. The water is low and starting to warm up more and more, so like I said, moving water and deeper riffles are your friend. Do not count out the deep pools. Especially if it is sunny. I wish I had some pics of the large fish I floated over last year above FRC on a float. We fish off of kayaks exclusively. The two rod setup you have works great. 6 to 8 pound test is fine. You may come across a muskie or large catfish though. We use 8 pound mono on ours. I keep one carolina rigged with a gulp minnow and usually the other has a frog, top water plug, or if the water is muddy, a spinner bait. Front Royal Canoe has decent fishing reports and river condition reports. I recommend checking them a day or two before you go.

Congrats on the big fish and getting back into fishing. Welcome to the forum.