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Occoquan shad
Dad and I launched from Occoquan Park at around 10:30 (April 9th) to try for some shad after hearing TJ's report, and to do some exploring. We headed upstream toward the town first. There were lots of people fishing from shore and in boats/canoes up there, but there didn't seem to be much action. There were all kinds of birds there, too--herons, ducks, geese, cormorants, buzzards, and an eagle. The blue herons along the Occoquan aren't very skittish compared to other places I fish.
I spoke with an older gentleman in a cool yak that looked like it was a submersible of some sort. He said someone caught a big snakehead downstream throwing spinnerbaits along the shore.
Dad wanted to explore downstream below the railroad bridge. We stopped at a couple places along the way. I threw shad darts around and jigged a Cicada and Dad tried an electric blue worm.
We headed down almost to Belmont Bay, and I picked up a 16" striper while trolling the baby bass Norman crankbait Joe (Friday) gave me. We started in toward shallower water in that area, and I caught a chunky 13" bass on small shad colored spinnerbait:
There were some big fish rolling in the area, but I couldn't tell if they were stripers or carp.
After lunch, we headed back upstream to try for shad again. On the way, back, I jigged the Cicada some more on some good marks but didn't have any takers. I bet they were catfish. Dad threw the dart around some more because we saw some fish rolling. There were some cool flowering trees in the area. Are these shadbushes/serviceberries?
Back up by Occoquan, I finally caught a small male hickory shad on a chartreuse dart weighted down with a split shot:
I missed a couple more, then caught a fatter female:
I missed a few more between multiple casts. We headed all the way upstream to see the fall line and to see if the fish were any thicker, but didn't have any luck there. We called it quits at 3:30 to get back home, but I think it was about to really heat up. Water temp was 50.2* everywhere I checked it. Dad took a skunk, but he had a lot of fun:
I spoke with an older gentleman in a cool yak that looked like it was a submersible of some sort. He said someone caught a big snakehead downstream throwing spinnerbaits along the shore.
Dad wanted to explore downstream below the railroad bridge. We stopped at a couple places along the way. I threw shad darts around and jigged a Cicada and Dad tried an electric blue worm.
We headed down almost to Belmont Bay, and I picked up a 16" striper while trolling the baby bass Norman crankbait Joe (Friday) gave me. We started in toward shallower water in that area, and I caught a chunky 13" bass on small shad colored spinnerbait:
There were some big fish rolling in the area, but I couldn't tell if they were stripers or carp.
After lunch, we headed back upstream to try for shad again. On the way, back, I jigged the Cicada some more on some good marks but didn't have any takers. I bet they were catfish. Dad threw the dart around some more because we saw some fish rolling. There were some cool flowering trees in the area. Are these shadbushes/serviceberries?
Back up by Occoquan, I finally caught a small male hickory shad on a chartreuse dart weighted down with a split shot:
I missed a couple more, then caught a fatter female:
I missed a few more between multiple casts. We headed all the way upstream to see the fall line and to see if the fish were any thicker, but didn't have any luck there. We called it quits at 3:30 to get back home, but I think it was about to really heat up. Water temp was 50.2* everywhere I checked it. Dad took a skunk, but he had a lot of fun:
i bet someone will land one over 40" this week, hopefully me
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