Tweet
NPS finally opened the parking lots at Fletcher's Cove so me and my son decided to get in our first Potomac trip of the year. The parking lots were mostly empty and the kayak launching 'beach' was completely blocked by logs. After a bit of moving what logs I could, I managed to get a barely passable meandering path to the water. Not fun with a loaded 14ft kayak. Now if I had half a brain at the time, I would've realized that if it was that much of a hassle going downhill, going uphill after a day of fishing would be a hair shy of crazy. Unfortunately, covid induced cabin fever must've robbed me of my normal thought processes.
The fishing was decent with blue cats more than willing to eat what what we had to offer (thawed bluegill chunks from a previous community storm pond outing). Still trying to figure out portion size as no matter what size bait/hook I throw at them, its hard to find fish in the edible size range (for reference in the picture below, my boat is 3ft wide and the fish in the water was too big to drag onto the kayak). Maybe its the deep water at Fletchers that attracts the bigger fish as Ive never had an issue finding smaller blue cats at places like Bushwood or Mattawoman? In the end, we found three worth keeping. Also of note was that we only saw one other boat fishing. There were fewer people fishing from shore as well.
New this trip were the snags that refused to come free. Given the rocky nature of the bottom, Im used to hitting snags there. What I'm not used to were snags that I couldn't break free from with 15lb test and 20lb leader. How you can pull 400lbs worth of kayak, people and gear upstream and not break 15lb line was new to me. I would reel in as much line as I could, point the rod straight at the snag, cup the reel, pull as far and hard as I could and nothing. Still snagged. I finally found a way to get free by doing the same thing but while under full power from the motor. After getting free a few times with terminal tackle intact, I pulled up the culprit! Massive piles and tangles of old mono. We're talking mono tumbleweeds here. I figured that all the mono at the bottom of river had more stretch than I had room to pull while anchored. Crazy and sad.
All in all a good day on the water and some of the nicely shaded mini waterfalls from the small tributaries in the area give good relief from the sun and heat.
1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg
The fishing was decent with blue cats more than willing to eat what what we had to offer (thawed bluegill chunks from a previous community storm pond outing). Still trying to figure out portion size as no matter what size bait/hook I throw at them, its hard to find fish in the edible size range (for reference in the picture below, my boat is 3ft wide and the fish in the water was too big to drag onto the kayak). Maybe its the deep water at Fletchers that attracts the bigger fish as Ive never had an issue finding smaller blue cats at places like Bushwood or Mattawoman? In the end, we found three worth keeping. Also of note was that we only saw one other boat fishing. There were fewer people fishing from shore as well.
New this trip were the snags that refused to come free. Given the rocky nature of the bottom, Im used to hitting snags there. What I'm not used to were snags that I couldn't break free from with 15lb test and 20lb leader. How you can pull 400lbs worth of kayak, people and gear upstream and not break 15lb line was new to me. I would reel in as much line as I could, point the rod straight at the snag, cup the reel, pull as far and hard as I could and nothing. Still snagged. I finally found a way to get free by doing the same thing but while under full power from the motor. After getting free a few times with terminal tackle intact, I pulled up the culprit! Massive piles and tangles of old mono. We're talking mono tumbleweeds here. I figured that all the mono at the bottom of river had more stretch than I had room to pull while anchored. Crazy and sad.
All in all a good day on the water and some of the nicely shaded mini waterfalls from the small tributaries in the area give good relief from the sun and heat.
1.jpg2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg
Comment