Mattawoman Creek 5/20/2012

After long deliberation, I decided to head down to Mattawoman Creek, since I had to be back home in time to go somewhere by 2:00pm. Don (Shield) and Keith (Wingman) wanted to go somewhere where there would be a high probability of catching some fish. The winds all over the area were predicted to be 9 to 15 mph, but at Mattawoman the winds were non existent and the water was like glass with the morning mist rising off of it. The temperature would reach 75 degrees with a sunny morning turning partly cloudy by midday. Armed with salted herring, raw shrimp, and a left over assortment of worms, along with spinners and plastics, I met Don and Keith at Mattingly (Slavins) Ramp at 6:20am. We launched and headed up river fishing artificial's along the way. My fish finder was registering allot of fish, but none of them wanted the artificial's. I saw an Crane standing in the water along the shoreline and witness him grabbing a large fish out of the water. It looked like a shad, silver in color about 10 to 12 inches. He ate it whole. We made it up to our usual spot near the islands and we anchored up. I landed the first three fish at that time. I am not sure of the species of catfish, but one was a blue cat, another was channel, and then the other may have been a flathead. Man, where is Bill when I need him. Don caught the next cat. Keith even caught several cats. I ended up with 9 catfish on a top and bottom rig. The hot bait was raw shrimp. Using a 1/8 ounce jig head and a chartreuse curly tail 2 inch bait, I landed a 14 inch largemouth bass near the sunken barge in 2 feet of water. The wildlife was amazing today. I saw several muskrats and at least 5 water snakes. I even saw some birds that looked a Red Winged Blackbird.

I went up into a creek and tossed a black frog into the weeds and lilly pads, but came up empty. I was hoping to see a snakehead but it alluded me. It was a great morning and no one was skunked.

[chex]

Nice! Glad you got some pullage.

[tufnik]

Nice report. Glad you guys got some fish. Next time, it'll be SHs.

[ronaultmtd]

Nice report. Glad you guys got some fish. Next time, it'll be SHs.

For an invasive species, this fish gets a lot of fishing pressure- more than the catfish- which speaking of- I cooked my last bag of filets this weekend- everybody loves the taste of my fried catfish, ranch cut french fries, home made hush puppies and coldslaw...time to replenish the freezer-

[moc]

Sounds like you need to cook some of that for us at a meet and greet

[beerums]

How far upstream are the islands from Slavins?

[moc]

About a 10-15 minute paddle to the left of the ramp upstream.

[beerums]

Okay thanks...i'll have to check that spot out next time I go to Mattawoman. I went about 1/4 mile up from that old dock and fished that straight stretch before the bend.

[tufnik]

For an invasive species, this fish gets a lot of fishing pressure- more than the catfish- which speaking of- I cooked my last bag of filets this weekend- everybody loves the taste of my fried catfish, ranch cut french fries, home made hush puppies and coldslaw...time to replenish the freezer-

Replenish? Is it Bushwood time again?

[ronaultmtd]

filling up the freezer

Replenish? Is it Bushwood time again?

I usually fish a deep drop off just outside of Cobb Island where the water steeply drops from 4-5 feet to 30 feet for croakers and catfish, but Mattawoman has been so predictable and productive that I almost always fish for blue cats there. I can get a nice mess of catfish in a couple of hours at Mattawoman and it is ten miles closer to home.

[archeryrob]

Ron, my daughter has been beating me for fish for the pan. If you head out on the weekend let me know.

[ronaultmtd]

Martin- I try to avoid fishing on holidays due to congestion at launches, boat traffic, etc. plus it gives me time with the family at the BarB Q cooker- My hunting partner is feeling like I have abandoned him so I told him we would go shoot some groundhogs in southern PA Saturday- I am flying to the west coast next week for a week- plan on carrying my Chark Bite travel rod and catching a few salmon while I am there- so it will be a while before I get back on the kayak- but when I do get back I am thinking that fishing at night on the Mattawoman Creek could be extremely productive for the bigger cats....and you could get a lot of smaller eating fish as the catfish bite really turns on at night. Figure a couple of us could catch several dozen catfish- enough even for a big MKF Fish Fry at the Tournament this year if we wanted to-

[new2yaks11]

Depending upon when you plan to do a night trip, I'd be up for joining a few guys for some night time catfishing. Have fished plenty of times at night from my boat but never a kayak. Actually been considering a trip to the Narrows for some hot striper action. Just cannot recall when I've done well there. I thought it was getting close to the times I've had lots of action there at night.

[beerums]

I was able to make it out to Mattawoman this afternoon for a couple of hours and headed up towards the islands you were talking about. I was using a chartreuse spinner bait and a green frog and didn't catch anything. Looks like a nice spot though by that sunken barge.

On the way back to the landing i stopped by that small dock and threw a small spinner bait in there. I noticed a long black fin right up near the shore and decided to check it out. To my surprise, it was a 2-3 ft long snakehead splashing around near the shore. I tossed my small spinner bait and hooked it and it took off, not sure where or how i hooked it but it jumped out of the water and shook off the hook. It was massive. A couple other boaters saw the splashing and jumping and quickly hurried over to my spot to check out what was going on.

Almost had my first SH!

[moc]

Nice attempt at the SH. You made it closer to catching one than me. At Mattawoman, it is loaded with Catfish, so if you want some pullage, then bring a top bottom rig and bait it with raw shrimp or nightcrawlers. Toss it into the channel near the island or barge and you will catch a variety of catfish.