Northern Virginia (Nova) Fishing Discussion/reports

[sc1978]

Lake Brittle - weekend crowd....fish early or fish later in the evening. I fish from Kayak. getting ready to focus on snakehead. I have seen smallies near the docks, I havent seen any in double digit length..

[David Brown]

11 hours ago, Choporoz said:

I don't fish for panfish, but I catch 'em on the Occoquan with regularity.  I'd rent a boat from either Fountainhead or Lake Ridge; pretty similar - mostly would depend on whether you live in Fairfax or PW county.   If you're out more towards Loudon, you can try Brittle - but, IIRC, the boat rentals there were kinda expensive for my tastes.

Thanks! Been meaning to go there...and maybe I'll be able to get a cast or two in between baiting hooks.

8 hours ago, sc1978 said:

Lake Brittle - weekend crowd....fish early or fish later in the evening. I fish from Kayak. getting ready to focus on snakehead. I have seen smallies near the docks, I havent seen any in double digit length..

Thanks. It's always gangbusters there and I haven't been for a while...but may be the weapon of last resort.

[Burtonxj]

On 6/1/2017 at 5:31 PM, vaparrothead said:

Just returned from Huntsman Lake; didn't expect a lot and I was surprised when I landed a pound to pound and a half large mouth just off the rocks at the dam end of the lake.  Didn't take a camera; why would I?  Anyway there are bass in Huntsman!!

 

Sure are! Used to fish it quite often in High School. Haven't fished it since they drained it though.

[Choporoz]

18 hours ago, Burtonxj said:

 

Sure are! Used to fish it quite often in High School. Haven't fished it since they drained it though.

Gnarly!

[quanjig]

Didn't know they restocked Huntsman. I know it was supposed to have been re-populated with the the fish they removed and put in Mercer but that was a future endeavor by the county. 

[TOXIC]

For you small water guys, I used to be the expert on tiny water!!  

 

I fished out of a Bass Hunter PVC boat and a 40lb thrust TM.  Here's my list:

 

Brittle.  Literally 5 miles from my house.  Has boat rentals is stocked with Walleye and most recently someone intorduced Snakeheads.  Lots of catfish, good panfish and crappie.  Best areas are the coves around the 2 points that are in the center and the bank from the coves to the dam.  Where the creek feeds in from the top there is a MASSIVE flat that is pretty much dead water.  

Germantown Lake/Crockett Park.  I called this my "grocery store" lake.  Whenever I needed to restock the freezer with crappie, I'd head there.  Boat rentals.  Good bass, catfish and sunfish.  Best areas, creek channel of feeder creek for bass and I trolled for most of my crappie.

Lake Curtis.  No boat rental.  I did fairly well there on a regular basis up in the back and at the dam.

Lake Orange.  Boat rentals.  Good Bass and crappie, lots of deep standing timber.

Lake Pelham.  No boat rentals.  Permit required.  I caught a lot of white Perch, bass and crappie out of this lake.  Another one of my "grocery store" lakes.

Mountain Run.  Same as Pehlam but smaller.  Was less productive for me.  

I fished a few more that I can't recall of the top of my head because I haven't frequented them since getting the big boat.  If I can help anybody out just ask.   

[David Brown]

Thanks for the Tiny Water tips! 

 

Ended up at Lake Frederick for a few early hours Friday morning with The Boy. Left the kayak at home and rented a jon boat. Had a good morning with five bass and a slew of sunnies. Wasted a little bit of time being stubborn about the top waters--absolutely no top water action but eventually made peace with it and moved to senkos which saved the day.

 

We got off the water late morning and the parking lot was jammed! I can't imagine what it's like on weekends. Frederick is probably best as an early morning midweek destination.

 

 

[David Brown]

Thanks for the Tiny Water tips! 

 

Ended up at Lake Frederick for a few early hours Friday morning with The Boy. Left the kayak at home and rented a jon boat. Had a good morning with five bass and a slew of sunnies. Wasted a little bit of time being stubborn about the top waters--absolutely no top water action but eventually made peace with it and moved to senkos which saved the day.

 

We got off the water late morning and the parking lot was jammed! I can't imagine what it's like on weekends. Frederick is probably best as an early morning midweek destination.

 

 

[Choporoz]

Got sorta quiet in here....

 

I haven't been out as much the last six weeks as I'd have liked.  But, I'm really looking forward to the next six or eight....or twelve.

 

Spent more time this summer on the Occoquan River than anywhere else.  Had a great numbers day out there a week and a half ago.  Nothing over 4#, but plenty from 2-4.  There was a big tournament going on, so I was having to work my yak between a lot of bass boats...in fact one guy ran right up on me...as he trolled by, maybe 6 feet out from me, he said "Hope you don't mind...we're fishing a really big tournament"....like that excuses rude behavior.   Anyway, seems like every boat was throwing drop shots or wacky worms...neither of which I have much time for.  Never seen so much fast drop shot fishing.  I did just fine on shaky head, Keitechs SI's and jigs, thank you. No question, the fish were pretty scattered, however.  Only going to get worse before it gets better.  

   Spent one evening in Gunston Cove...best fish were all in/around/above the nastiest grass....rare decent day with a frog...for some reason, my frogs don't get bit much in the Potomac.

    Was on Hunting Run all day Saturday.  Thumb got tore up pretty good...funny thing was that I had different things on 7 or 8 different rods and nothing much worked...except Rage Tail Anaconda...didn't matter if it was 7" or 10"...find the outside edge of the weeds and lift/drag...set the hook....repeat.....other curly tails (Culprit) got a bit of attention, but not like the Anacondas. 

 

 

[sc1978]

yeah, we have to get this thread going again, I myself have been in and out of the waters with a few hooks of 1-2lbrs, I have lost many battles on lite lines. Most of my trips are @ brittle, Occoquan Res & River with little to no success (still studying the area). I'm in the faze where I am testing out homemade lures. below is my recent  outing @ brittle. First hook, I lost the battle due to lite line, second was a success @ 1lb (est), third was unknown species (lost battle). 

 

 

 

[sc1978]

Another outing at my local lake. went out around 0600, fished till 1200. Went out to try some homemade spoons and other lures. spoons were a miss except the tiny rigged for panfish. The other custom lure I made was just a 3/4 ounce bullet sinker with jig skirt (black) and a size 5 treble hook (plain and simple). 1.7lb and 2.5lb took a good hit and landed them. tiny spoon hooked up a dink.

 

 

 

[Choporoz]

Spent a few hours Fri evening in Gunston Cove.  Got skunked out there for the first time in a long, long time.  Lots of movement in the pads, but I suspect that I spent way too much time targeting carp. 

Put the kayak in the Occoquan River at ORP Saturday morning and didn't fare much better.  Boat traffic was worse than mid-summer.  Never thought I'd say it, but I can't wait for the temps to start dropping.  Bass have gotta be getting hungry.

   @TOXIC's snakehead pic in another thread reminded me....last week at Hunting Run, I didn't hook up with any, but I saw snakeheads there for the first time.  I'm sure they've been there for a while, but I was totally unaware. 

[Burtonxj]

Fished the breaks after work yesterday..10 total biggest went 16".

 

Gonna spend some time fishing at Great Falls here soon. 

[RichF]

Hit up the Occoquan Res Saturday.  Had an ok day.  Boated 8 bass total.  Biggest was just under 5lbs, the rest were between 2 and 3.  Only caught 1 of those fishing shad imitating baits.  Rest came off a jig which made me happy (since that's my normal game). 

[Choporoz]

Nice.  I was out there Friday and again Sunday.  I had similar results...for both days, combined   Sticking a 5er on a jig in thick wood yesterday made it all worthwhile, though. 

[RichF]

That's exactly how I got my 5er!

[Choporoz]

I was out Saturday, also, but not on the Rez.  Took the yak across the river and fished Mattowoman out of Slavens.  A bit slow there, also.  One nice fatty, though.  I did get some huge hits on chatterbait, but couldn't hook up.  Once I finally did, I realized why...I fought a beast for a couple minutes, but it came off.  Bait and line came back slimed....bad.   I'd never had cats hit chatterbaits before.

[RichF]

My buddy went out last fall on the Potomac and caught 25LB cat on a chatter bait in 3ft of water! Crazy.  That's a nice looking bass btw.  Super healthy. Like a beautiful northern NY bass haha.

[TOXIC]

Chatterbaits (any bladed jig) are catfish magnets on the Potomac.  But then again so are spinnerbaits, crankbaits and plastics!!  

[gbassman519]

yes  I got a snakehead from  hunnington  run rev.also wt. about 5 lbs.

[Riazuli]

Let's get this thread going again!  Tis the season

 

I'll be taking my kayak out Saturday, with the wind being calm that day.  I'll be on the water all day and will report back afterwards. 

[Choporoz]

Where are you headed out from?  I'm pretty conflicted right now

[RichF]

I went out of Fountainhead on Sunday.  Only caught 1 decent bass and 3 other dinks.  I'm fishing the BFL as a co-angler on the Potomac this saturday.  The cold spring is cramping my style.  

[InFishingWeTrust]

2 hours ago, Riazuli said:

Let's get this thread going again!  Tis the season

 

I'll be taking my kayak out Saturday, with the wind being calm that day.  I'll be on the water all day and will report back afterwards. 

Same here. Plan on hitting the shenandoah. Pulled my first top water fish of the year last Saturday. 

[SeeNoSun]

I took the yak to the Rez out of Fountainhead yesterday (4/18).  Extremely muddy conditions and 56 degree temps.  Going to try again next Monday and hope it clears up some.  No rain in the forecast before that.  Anyone know how long it usually takes the muddy conditions to improve on the Rez in the spring?  Any ideas on lures/patterns for cold water that looks like coffee with too much milk?