Mattawoman Creek Sunday

[ronaultmtd]

Four of us met up at Mattawoman Creek today -Bill, Martin, Mike and I- we launched at 11:30 am- water was dirty and full of debris- we were looking for white perch, pike and kitty cats- Bill caught the first fish, a carp. I had some cut bunker with me so I rigged up a fish finder rig and anchored up in the mouth of a feeder creek and proceeded to catch 4 blue cats- got my 2012 fish and got the skunk off- It was nice getting back on the water with the MKF crew-

[CB kayak 02]

Nice work, how big? any pics?

[tufnik]

Nice cat, Ron. Anyone catch perch or snakehead?

[ictalurus]

The carp was just a little feller that I foul hooked on a jig-n-pig scented with Smelly Jelly:



It was a nice way to christen my new Powell baitcasting rod. I think I felt the carp prodding the jig and set the hook right as it turned away. It was hooked in the gill plate. It looks like something toothy took off the top of its tail.

I tried a variety of lures for bass or snakeheads: the jig-n-pig, a slow rolling spinnerbait, a black and white fluke rigged weightless and weighted, two differnent crankbaits, and a chatter bait. Nothing else was touched. I had one run off with some cut bunker Ron gave me, but didn't have any luck on nightcrawlers or expired sausage. It was pretty frustrating given the tremendous quantity of marks I kept seeing on my fish finder. I wonder if they were more carp or gizzard shad? Anchoring worked well for Ron but didn't make any difference for me.

I did get some nice shots today, though.

Ron's first cat:


The three Hobieteers:


The old barge:


Mike (chexone):


Martin (his red Revo reminds me of a classic Corvette with the chrome exhaust under the doors):


I think fishing the Mattawoman when high tide is around noon would probably be more productive in the winter. All the spatterdock had died back, so there wasn't much structure. There was some standing grass, though, which would be flooded by 1-2ft at high tide. If high tide was around or slightly before noon, that would give the shallows time to heat up and attract fish, and the grass would add structure. That's my theory anyway. ;-)

It was good catching up with everyone to start the new year off right, and I got my January fish.

[Shield]

Looks like you guys had a nice sunny day out on the water. Nice catches.

[chex]

Thanks for the fun day guys.

Right after you left, I got a hookup on a piece of bunker Ron gave me (thank you!). It got off though... 10 minutes later, another hookup and I landed my first 2012 fish! I have it on video, I'll post it later.




I'm tellin you, that cat was a LOT bigger in person

[chex]

Very short video of a cat fight

[ictalurus]

Nice cat, Mike. Watching the video, I jumped in my office chair when the fish hit. It always amazes me how much a camera shrinks a fish. It adds 10lbs to me and subtracts 30% of the length and weight from the fish.

[chex]

It always amazes me how much a camera shrinks a fish. It adds 10lbs to me and subtracts 30% of the length and weight from the fish.

Haha, that's so true... i wonder why that is... that said, Ron's catfish is really photogenic! (or maybe it was just really huge...)

[ronaultmtd]

If I had been dinner fishing- any one of the four blue cats caught would have been plenty to feed my family...they were just the best size you want to catch for eating.

[moc]

It was fun to give the kayak a shakedown for the 2012 season. I wish I did not get called into work after getting on the water. It seemed that Ron's cut bunker was the majic bait. Ron shared his bunker with the rest of us. Anchoring was the key in this case too. Ron proved that with four kitty kat hookups. My January fish will have to wait until next weekend.