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Cold day on the Mattawoman, 4/25
Kevin and I were on the hunt for crappie, but it turned out we couldn't hit our first choice. We decided to try our luck on the Mattawoman and also see if any shad were about. We hit the water at about 11:45. The tide was high and still coming in, and there was a bit of a breeze with it. Even though I wore my waders and my rain coat, I wished I had dressed warmer. The water temperature was only 53*. 
We started off poking around the downed trees by the ramp. No crappie for either of us, but I caught a 9" yellow perch on a 2" white Storm shad:
I didn't get to fish for yellow perch this year, so that little guy made my day.
After that, we headed up to the barge. No crappie there, either, but I got another 9" yellow perch on a firetiger Berkley minnow grub. Kevin hooked up with a nice shad right by the barge, which surprised me, but it jumped off before he could land it. At least we had proof that shad were in.
We trolled some shad lures up toward the metal wall. Kevin had a couple knockdowns, and I hooked into a really nice hickory. It looked to be between 16 and 18 inches, but I fumbled it trying to swing it into the boat.
It hit a 1/4oz chartreuse shad dart. Kevin started casting, hooked up, but lost another one before getting it back to the boat. I didn't have any luck casting, so I trolled the same area again and landed this guy:
Much smaller, but made me happy nonetheless. My spring fish checklist was complete.
We worked our way farther upstream to where we caught the shad last year, and Kevin ended up catching a channel cat on a flatfish and a hickory on a spinner:
The cold started getting to us around 4, so we started working our way back. I hooked up with three shad in a row and lost them all. Missed a bunch of hits, too. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong because I usually don't lose so many shad.
The hooks were sharp and not bent.
Kevin rounded the day out with a feisty bass on his ultralight:
No more fish for me, but I serendipitously took a cool picture when I started putting my camera away with the timer still going:
I like the lighting. I call it "Blood 'n' Guts Still Life".
So no crappie for us, but I was happy to catch the shad and perch. Between the weather and my schedule, I haven't been able to do as much spring fishing as I would like this year.
We started off poking around the downed trees by the ramp. No crappie for either of us, but I caught a 9" yellow perch on a 2" white Storm shad:
I didn't get to fish for yellow perch this year, so that little guy made my day.
After that, we headed up to the barge. No crappie there, either, but I got another 9" yellow perch on a firetiger Berkley minnow grub. Kevin hooked up with a nice shad right by the barge, which surprised me, but it jumped off before he could land it. At least we had proof that shad were in.
We trolled some shad lures up toward the metal wall. Kevin had a couple knockdowns, and I hooked into a really nice hickory. It looked to be between 16 and 18 inches, but I fumbled it trying to swing it into the boat.
It hit a 1/4oz chartreuse shad dart. Kevin started casting, hooked up, but lost another one before getting it back to the boat. I didn't have any luck casting, so I trolled the same area again and landed this guy:
Much smaller, but made me happy nonetheless. My spring fish checklist was complete.
We worked our way farther upstream to where we caught the shad last year, and Kevin ended up catching a channel cat on a flatfish and a hickory on a spinner:
The cold started getting to us around 4, so we started working our way back. I hooked up with three shad in a row and lost them all. Missed a bunch of hits, too. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong because I usually don't lose so many shad.
The hooks were sharp and not bent. Kevin rounded the day out with a feisty bass on his ultralight:
No more fish for me, but I serendipitously took a cool picture when I started putting my camera away with the timer still going:
I like the lighting. I call it "Blood 'n' Guts Still Life".
So no crappie for us, but I was happy to catch the shad and perch. Between the weather and my schedule, I haven't been able to do as much spring fishing as I would like this year.
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