April Meet & Greet at Fletcher's Boat House, DC :: April 14

[chex]

Hey guys, I guess it's not too early to start warming up the April M&G...

Date: Saturday, April 14, 2012
Time: I think 8am is good, but open to suggestions

Where:
Boat House At Fletcher's Cove
4940 Canal Road, N.W.
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 244-0461

Website: http://www.fletcherscove.com/index.htm

http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8...947043&iwloc=A




What: Shad... though I'm sure there are cats and others too.

Food: The boathouse sells a few food items. PotomacTide did a re-con earlier in the year and took a picture of the menu (attached). Thanks man.

Useful info:

It's right off Canal Road in DC, not far from Georgetown.

There is a bit of parking on the Canal side. There is plenty of parking on the Potomac side, but getting there might be a problem for some since you have to go through a little tunnel to go under the Canal. PotomacTide (thanks once again) took a picture of his Xterra in the tunnel to show how much clearance there is (attached).

I probably had about 12 - 15 inches without anything on top. I could have easily made it through with my yak mounts on with no problem, but I wouldn't risk trying it with my kayak on top.

As others have pointed out, its probably best to just offload in the top parking lot and cart your kayak down. There is a well maintained bridge, path, and ramp to get you down. Although it is probably a little over 100 yards, so you should definitely bring a cart or borrow one from the group to get you down to the water.

Redfish12 posted this video from Shawn Kimbro about Potomac shad




Can't wait! Hoping for a big turnout and good weather.

[Shady]

I thought the place would be open by now, but the website has not been updated since they closed in October... Are they opening this year?

[chex]

I hope so... I'll try to get more info about that.

Also, forgot to mention that you need a DC fishing license. If the boathouse is open, they sell them.

Fishing License Calendar year, annual permits, good on all District of Columbia waters, including fishing from the Virginia side of the river, opposite the D.C. shoreline.

$10 (DC residents)
$13 (non-residents)

And here's a link to their website: http://www.fletcherscove.com/index.htm

[Shady]

Looks like the boat house will be open tomorrow and people are already catching shad, white perch and stripers.

[chex]

Awesome, thanks.

Hopefully the shad are still around a month from now

[nay_sayer]

I won't make the M&G since it's the same day as the Susky Flats Kayak Fishing Jamboree. Tight lines to all!

[Splitscreen]

Can't wait for this one! I'll have to do some more research on the proper way to fish shad darts since that seems to be the lure of choice.

[mmanolis2001]

how are you planning on handling the current flow? Are you going to drift fish or try and anchor up? The bottom of the river there is a boulder field and the current can get crazy depending on the river level. I was thinking about paddling up stream and tucking in eddies on the VA side to cast from. What plan of attack do you guys have?

[Meadeo]

I plan to attend this one as it should be a very good time and a great section of river.


See you on the river..


Meadeo

[Cliff]

I just moved to Maryland and currently in the process of getting a kayak. I hope to have it fully rigged and ready to go by April 14th. Looking forward to meeting everyone and landing some fish.

[mmanolis2001]

Im going to head to chain bridge (VA side) on Thurday morning for a couple hours of shad recon from the bank. I will post the results

[Old Cajun]

Went to Fletchers this Saturday. They had opened but did not have rentals. They told me only a few perch and just a few small shad had shown up.

I went to the anglers inn area and launched for small mouths. Water running at 4 feet. Almost too much for my 9.5 sit kayak. Caught one smallie and 3 people who flipped their cannoe in the fast moving area around the s curve. One of them was a 5 years old. Glad they had on their floatation devices. Asked the father after pulling them out to a sand bar what he was going to tell his wife? He didn't know, but started thinking about the question when the canoe started to roll over.

Ya'll be safe!

[bigfluke45]

I'm planning to make this M&G.

I stopped by Fletcher's Monday for a few hours to pick up my DC license and see if there any shad around. I fished from shore for almost three hours and caught two shad.

I'll probably stop by there a few times a week after work from now until the M&G, I'll let you know how I do.

[medicyaker]

Sorry I will not make this M&G. I have prior obligation to the susky Flats Jamboree. Good Luck and be safe on that current!!!!! Tight Lines Guys. This M&G has the potential to be an awesome M&G and great fishing too...

[mmanolis2001]

Shad Recon trip to the Potomac......

I got to the river around 8:00 AM today. I wanted to fish the VA side but the parking lot was closed. I made my way across the bridge and fought with the one way traffic and other frustrating things that happen on the road during morning rush hour and finally got the the parking lot directly across the river from my first choice (Canal side). It took me 45 mins to get from the VA side parking lot to the DC side lot (a 1/4 mile as the crow flies). I forgot how much i hated the traffic patterns in that area during the weekdays.

I made my way down to the river and finally wet a line around 9:00. I started using a 1/32 oz and 1/16 oz tandem dart rig. I caught a nice hickory on my 3 rd cast. I made 20 or 30 more casts with this rig but i could not get it deep enough. I switched to a 1/16 oz and 1/8 oz tandem and was able to get deeper. Over the next hour i lost several fish due to leader breakage. I used a old spool of 4 lb mono for my leader and i think it was too light with the loop knot and tandem rigs. Next time i will use 8 lb leaders.

I switched the rig to a tandem 1/8 oz dart and a small gold spoon trailing it. This started catching herring. The shad seemed to ignore the gold spoon but a nice one grabbed the dart and broke it off. At that point i discarded the mono leader and tided the rigs directly onto my 8lb braid main line. not the best solution but i had a limited supply of darts with me and they were disappearing fast. I hooked and landed one more nice hickory before the outgoing tide slowed and the fish shut off.

I saw some massive snakeheads cruising the shallows today. One of them looked like it was pushing 15 lbs. It was huge.

Grand total for the day was 2 nice shad, 7 herring and 2 small perch. Caught one shad on a Orange/Chartreuse dart and one on a Green/Chartreuse dart. All herring and perch were caught on the gold spoon.


The shad fishing was not great but the water looked excellent. I'm guessing the shad will be in there thick over the next week. I'm going to hit it up again later next week when i get back into town.

Video Recap.