Not worth a Shad Dart (minor rant)

[bignose]

I gave Fletcher's another try today.
I wanted to do a little fishing for myself, tomorrow is my first charter trip of the year, and I will be helping others to fish, no time for myself.

The fishing picked up a little from last week. I caught perhaps 25-30 in two hours.
High tide, still incoming, the water was still quite stained, visibility about 1-1/2 feet. A lot of pollen and surface crud.

My best dart was a home made candy corn colored body with a chartreuse Krystal flash tail.

I had one of those "unpleasant" encounters with a 20 something kayaker, (Fletcher's rental) who thought that was funny to run up 5 yards off the shore where 10 guys were fishing.
I waved him away, and he replied with a one finger salute. He rode over a bunch of lines but was close enough that he ran under my line.
Now, I use fluorescent orange Suffix braid, so there was no chance he didn't see my line.
I told him to duck, to which he replied: "Eff-You!"
It was very tempting to just tighten up the line and drag the shad darts across him in the yak, but I figured hooking some idiot suffering from oppositional defiance and testosterone poisoning wasn't gonna make for a good outcome, so I carefully lifted the line over him, while he cursed me out pretty good for blocking the river!
He said it was too hard to control his kayak and we had to "give him room" (the Potomac is more than 50 yards wide where I was fishing. If he couldn't control his craft, he had no business on the water.).
I did file a complaint with the Boathouse staff, and they said they would speak to him about extending courtesy to fishermen, when he returned the yak to get his deposit back.

End of rant.

[Redfish12]

That's a shame Stu! Next time tell him to paddle up to the falls and let nature take its course...

[mi327]

I gave Fletcher's another try today.
I wanted to do a little fishing for myself, tomorrow is my first charter trip of the year, and I will be helping others to fish, no time for myself.

The fishing picked up a little from last week. I caught perhaps 25-30 in two hours.
High tide, still incoming, the water was still quite stained, visibility about 1-1/2 feet. A lot of pollen and surface crud.

My best dart was a home made candy corn colored body with a chartreuse Krystal flash tail.

I had one of those "unpleasant" encounters with a 20 something kayaker, (Fletcher's rental) who thought that was funny to run up 5 yards off the shore where 10 guys were fishing.
I waved him away, and he replied with a one finger salute. He rode over a bunch of lines but was close enough that he ran under my line.
Now, I use fluorescent orange Suffix braid, so there was no chance he didn't see my line.
I told him to duck, to which he replied: "Eff-You!"
It was very tempting to just tighten up the line and drag the shad darts across him in the yak, but I figured hooking some idiot suffering from oppositional defiance and testosterone poisoning wasn't gonna make for a good outcome, so I carefully lifted the line over him, while he cursed me out pretty good for blocking the river!
He said it was too hard to control his kayak and we had to "give him room" (the Potomac is more than 50 yards wide where I was fishing. If he couldn't control his craft, he had no business on the water.).
I did file a complaint with the Boathouse staff, and they said they would speak to him about extending courtesy to fishermen, when he returned the yak to get his deposit back.

End of rant.

Sounds as bright as the power boat that ran up to me while trolling on the flats a month ago. Then proceeds to ask me a million questions about why I am heading that direction, what lures to use where are the fish etc. I had to explain to him 3 times that I was heading in since I had another obligation, but he kept asking why are you heading in. I got sick of him and pointed in the general direction of where some boats were anchored and said head that way.

I don't mind helping other fishermen with general help or information but at least be courteous and don't almost run over my lines or me trying to talk to me.

[DanMarino]

No bueno. This story is a perfect example of why fishing down there has plenty of negatives like....trash....poachers....bad traffic....restricted access....dumb humans....

[kevinfry]

Thanks for keeping your cool buddy!

Sent from my E6810 using Tapatalk

[YakCapn]

No bueno. This story is a perfect example of why fishing down there has plenty of negatives like....trash....poachers....bad traffic....restricted access....dumb humans....

A few years ago I parked on the Virginia side of chain bridge and hiked down to the river, there’s a run there that meets up with the Potomac. The Potomac was RAGING that day and all the shad were pooled up staying out of the main river way. I’d never seen so many shad in one place in my life. And there was this guy with a black trash bag and a fishing rod with a huge treble hook on the end of his line doing nothing but casting out and snagging shad and dragging them back in and putting them in his trash bag to take home. I didn’t feel like having a confrontation, but it was enough to boil your blood to see it.

[J.A. Veil]

Good work Stu. Your diplomatic discretion in Washington, DC is more than I have observed from some of the professional diplomats.

You have fished long enough to know that there are anglers out there that are either oblivious or so full of themselves that they think they own the water. You handled that confrontation well.

[J. Rentch]

Agree with the others, glad you kept your cool. Sounds like he would come ashore after you, you don’t need that type of confrontation. On another front, sounds like the shoulder has healed-congratulations on your rehab. Maybe will run into you at Weems this spring!

[bignose]

The shoulder hasn't really been tested yet. I am concerned about paddling as it's my dominant arm........gonna try with the ultra light canoe this weekend.

20 years ago, I would have just let the idiot hook himself and dealt with it afterwards. Not worth the hassle anymore, it's fishing and supposed to be relaxing.

I did deliberately break off about 6 shad darts in some knucklehead's anchor line on the Susky about then after he anchored 30 feet below me while I waded. I then used his jonboat for "target practice. " The ping of a shad dart bouncing off of a hull was particularly satisfying.

BTW, we only caught one undersized fish (28") on the charter boat today.

[kevinfry]

The shoulder hasn't really been tested yet. I am concerned about paddling as it's my dominant arm........gonna try with the ultra light canoe this weekend.

20 years ago, I would have just let the idiot hook himself and dealt with it afterwards. Not worth the hassle anymore, it's fishing and supposed to be relaxing.

I did deliberately break off about 6 shad darts in some knucklehead's anchor line on the Susky about then after he anchored 30 feet below me while I waded. I then used his jonboat for "target practice. " The ping of a shad dart bouncing off of a hull was particularly satisfying.

BTW, we only caught one undersized fish (28") on the charter boat today.

Here's how I imagine things going if he'd gotten out of the canoe....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYCqgO7Me4U

[bignose]

What I wanted to do as opposed to what I actually did. Lol

[archeryrob]

I think you needed a HW rod with one of these and start bouncing it off his kayak and he might get the idea.
ae221e688363d63f9555717982f02ee7.jpg

[Fishtank]

If this happened in Jersey there would have been so many incoming projectiles, (weights, trees, old bucktails, rods we no longer wanted, that soggy sandwich we weren't going to eat anyhow), his kayak would been on the bottom of the river faster than he could flip one more salute. No herculean paddling effort would have helped him clear the firing zone quick enough.