Mallows Bay - Tues May 26

[J.A. Veil]

Several of us retired guys are planning to fish at Mallows Bay (south of Indian Head on the Potomac) on Tues morning, weather permitting. We will launch at about 8:00 am. Anyone else is welcome to join us. If you have not been there before, this is an interesting historical spot, with more than 70 old wooden ship hulls burned to the waterline and sunk in place. Over the decades, sediment has filled in making it a shallow area with lots of unusual structure.

In addition to the area with the ship hulls (essentially a cove off of the Potomac shoreline) you can fish a marshy areas with lily pads and a freshwater feeder creek. I have caught LMBs, catfish, yellow perch, and crappie there. Snakehead are around too, but they have eluded me there.

Due to the large amount of debris, including metal pieces remaining on the ship hulls, this is not a good spot for pedal drives (Mirage or Propel). Paddle kayaks are preferable, or if you have a pedal kayak, plan on leaving the drive in the car and paddling your kayak.

[Mark]

I'm looking forward to this, my first trip to Mallows Bay.

I hope others here join us.

[silasvirus82]

I'd love to go, we'll see if I can get the day off

[J. Rentch]

Have it on my calendar, got the camera charged up and ready to get some great pictures.

[Cheng-Tot]

Sounds interesting. I might be sick that day

[bunnielab]

I would love to go, assuming this is open to guys with nonstandard working hours, in addition to retired guys.

I have been really wanting to go there for some time, but have felt like it was a spot that would be best with a group, due to the treacherous terrain. Is here any technique (for LBM) that works especially well there? I have a small pile of used lipless crankbaits that I would be willing to sacrifice to the old ships and a new baitcaster that has yet to get a catch, but other then that I'm not sure what would work best among all those snags.

[J. Rentch]

Bunnie, you are certainly welcome to join our group. I am a rookie at this, but am excited about everything this
Lace offers. Have been told that the water is extremely shallow. I am leaving my propel home and going to paddle. As for lures, a redfish magic has been suggested. Hope to see you there.

John

[J.A. Veil]

I fished there twice before, but have minimal skill in LMB fishing (I am primarily a saltwater guy). Search for "Mallows Bay" in snaggedline and you will find four pages of previous posts. Some of those were made by experienced freshwater fisherman, and they offer tackle suggestions.

Here is some tackle guidance from a planning email I sent to John Rentch and Mark earlier today.

"You will probably want at least two different weights of rods and suitable tackle. For the ships, you can throw medium weight tackle with spinnerbaits (last year I had success with Redfish Magic spinners and white paddletails), jighead with twister tail or paddletail, or swimming plugs. I am not a bass fisherman, but recall reading that some of the snaggedline guys like to use chatterbaits there. The water is often murky so adding noise to your lure may help attract the fish. You are likely to snag your lures often – be prepared to lose some lures and don’t throw ones you are unwilling to lose. In the ship area, you can expect to find LMBs, some catfish, and maybe a snakehead. If you want to fish in the lily pads, you may want to rig something weedless.

I generally have at least one lighter rod (my typical perch or pickerel rod) and throw a small spinnerbait (Woody’s or Bignose) or a twister tail at the edges of grass and up in the creek. Because the entire area is so shallow and close to the ramp, there is not really a need for a FF or GPS. I will not have my electronics unit with me that day."

[bunnielab]

Thanks for the information guys, it sounds like I already have most of the lures you both mentioned. I was also planning on bringing my UL spinning rig along as well, I am still getting used to the baitcaster and I have already had one day-ending backlash with it.

[Mark]

Bunnielab,

I cannot speak from experience at Mallows Bay but whenever I am faced with warm temps and shallow water and a lot of structure my initial thought is topwater – poppers or sliders on the fly rod or floating hard plastics like Zara Spooks, Pop Rs or floating Rapalas on conventional tackle cast tight to structure. I will try that until the sun gets high (or if I have no success after a decent effort) and then switch to suspending flies like lightly weighted wooly buggers on the fly rod or soft plastics on light jigs or plastics hooked weedless on conventional tackle – baits I can keep moving at variable speeds through or over the structure.

[BeyondTheBounds]

Well I think I'll have to join you fine gentleman. Especially when we are talking LMB


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[jhoss]

The cove to the left of the launch had a good number of snakehead last summer when I was there. I also observed an adult SH circling around and protecting a school of baby fry snakehead. They had much lighter colorations from the ones I'm used to seeing in the Mattawoman.

[BeyondTheBounds]

Well I hope y'all had a good time! Couldn't access the forum to find out if any details changed, so I decided to go to work instead. Really bummed to have miss an opportunity to fish there.


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[Crevelingma]

Enjoyed the day with brother Al, from Arnold, MD. I got a bass first thing in the cove, then nothing until he got a catfish on the way back from the ghost fleet.

As a biology teacher I like turtles...couldn't resist sneaking up on a basking painted turtle (patience is the key) and earlier a giant snapper was sneaking up on me.

Bass 3.jpgCatfish 1.jpgPainted turtle 7.jpgSnapping turtle still.JPG

[Mark]

Congratulations on your catches.

I got blanked.

But I enjoyed the scenery and the company.

I.jpg H.jpg F.jpg B.jpg A.jpg