JULY M&G Report Thread!!

[ictalurus]

Fishing and catching up with everyone today was a blast, and it was good to meet a bunch of new fishing buddies, too. Thanks to Mike for putting it together. I'd also like to thank Rick (Memory Maker), Richard (creolo25), and Bob (Capt C-Hawk) for taking time out of their fishing trip to scan the area for my lost rod. I really appreciate it. We didn't find it, but it was a good time to chat and see what a down-imaging sonar shows.

Unlike my trip on Wednesday, I couldn't buy a bass yesterday. None of Wednesday tricks worked, and the Smelly Jelly didn't help. I foul hooked two bluegill, one of which was 8 or 9 inches, when my crankbait T-boned them, but both got off at the boat. I lost a nice fish on my small firetiger Rapala minnow. However, none of that mattered when I got to see a 26" snakehead hit my 1/4oz white chatterbait. It was near the mouth of a small creek or gut near the metal wall in a clearing in the spatterdock. My lure was about a rod length away when the snakehead shot out and inhaled it. What was funny was that it must've realized that it wasn't food because I saw the snakehead cough like it was trying to spit it out, but the hook must've partially stuck. I set the hook, the snakehead turned, and the fight was on. It made one run, then I got it in the net. Then the real fight was on. Unlike the snakeheads Mike (Redfish12) and Joe (Comeonfish) caught that were so calm in the net, this guy went absolutely ballistic. Fortunately, the lure got tangled in the net, and the snakehead twisted the net shut. I cut the isthmus clean through, ripped out as many gill arches as I could, and it was still thrashing 10 minutes later. I untangled everything and stuck my net into my cooler bag and worked the fish into the ice. Victory!

Here are my pics from the day. Sorry I didn't get everybody.

Keith (yakersaltlife)


Group shot


Flotilla


Ryan (shadyfisher)


Sun


Keith (yakersaltlife) and Shane (Reelaxin10)


Random flowers (Commelina and cardinal flower)



Bob (Capt C-Hawk) fighting a catfish



Matt (CB Kayak 02) fighting a bass



Jeff (beerums)


Dan (DanMarino)


Rick (Memory Maker, "it was thiiiiis big")


Richard (creolo25)


26” snakehead




Retired chatterbait


Now for some lunch photos. At least I’m not the only one lacking smiling skills.

Dave (donkeyfish) and Shane (Reelaxin10)


Ron (ronaultmtd) and Bob (Capt C-Hawk) aka “near and far”


Mike (chexone)


Sun, Richard, and Bob


Ron, Richard, and Bob


Jimmy


It was a great day on the water, and I had a really good time catching up with everyone and meeting new folks.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I rigged the chatterbait following Justin's (camelbird) suggestion of using a 4" white fluke as the trailer instead of the one tha comes with the lure. Thanks for the tip, Justin!

[DanMarino]

Hi guys. I had a great time yesterday. I launched from the top end with Wedge and worked our way down towards that large metal retaining wall. Along the way we ran into a few guys from the group. I couldn't stay long and paddled back up to the launch around noon. The funny part was that all the bass boats that made it up to the top end were complaining about all the kayakers. One of them asked, "So what's going on with all the kayaks today?" I explained that we all were from a kayak fishing website and the website has monthly fishing trips to meet people and fish together. They guy looked at me with a blank stare.....

I caught this 16 inch bass on my first cast of the day.



2nd bass of the day, a 17 incher.



3rd bass of the day, a 17 incher.



Ictalarus with a snakehead that he caught on a chatterbait.



I ended up meeting a few guys from the website before I had to leave. On the day I caught 4 bass total and one white perch. The three bigger bass all came early in the day on a Zoom horny toad frog that was fished like a buzzbait. Lots of fish exploding on the frog and missed them. Caught one smaller bass and a white perch on a Mann's baby -1 crank bait. Nothing on the spinner bait. I had a couple of fish follow my frog and the fish made a big wake and wouldn't commit to the lure. Also had a carp hit my crank bait, but it came off after a couple of seconds.

[CB kayak 02]

Here is my newest blog post that included this M&G!!!!! Nice fish everyone!!!!

http://thehobielife.blogspot.com/201...-straight.html

[Shady]

Great pics everyone! Here are the two that I have from yesterday:

[yakersaltlife]

I had a great time out there, and meeting up to put names with faces is always a plus too. Thanks for the help on my first snakehead goes out to Shane(reelaxin10) as he saved me from with the net. Never had time to go an get a fish lipper. As Phil(ictalaurs) said when I met up with him earlier that day, I was bound to catch one just because I didn't have a net or lipper. Oh well... it made things interesting. Overall I had a blast and that was the first time at Mattawoman, so I say it was a success. I managed 1 SH, 3 cats (on cheap BPS yellow perch spinners), and one bass about 15". I left around 1130, so sorry i didnt get to hang out with you guys at the dinner. Look forward to fishing with some new people.

[Sun]

I also had a fun time. Thanks chexone for taking the reins on the M&G. and also thanks to chexone for....the cut bunker, the nightcrawlers, and the 20-or-so inch blue catfish that he gave me.

I didn't catch a single thing until the last hour or so when I tried catfishing with some of the nightcrawlers from chexone. Thanks for saving me from a skunk! haha. Let's see...here are some of the things I tried that didn't produce for me:
1. 8" black and purple plastic worm.
2. White chatterbait.
3. Firetiger rapala minnow.
4. 2" curly tail grub on a roadrunner jighead.
5. Cut bunker - I had hits, but the catfish just wouldn't get hooked.
6. Jitterbug.
7. Electric chicken paddletail.

I fried up the 3 blue cats that I brought home last night, and they were a hit with everyone. My wife wants me to bring home some more blue catfish....but she doesn't want me to go fishing for half a day. How am I going to work that out...haha. Anyone ever fish there at night? I'd be a little nervous fishing at night...especially when there are boaters with weapons that can pierce through me.

[archeryrob]

My best of the Day. We got there late with the long drive, traffic and Greg trying to amputate a finger. John it was nice fishing with you. Next time you can give us pointers on fishing the salt. We are still trying to figure that style of fishing out.



I would say is was nice meeting all of you, but we only hung out with John Veil all morning.

[J.A. Veil]

John it was nice fishing with you. Next time you can give us pointers on fishing the salt. We are still trying to figure that style of fishing out.

I am looking forward to it. I ran my center console 32 miles around Eastern Bay and Poplar Island for 5 hours this morning. I caught lots of small fish of 7 species (rockfish, bluefish, perch, spot, croaker (one of the croakers was 14"), a mini flounder, and even a menhaden hooked in the mouth while jigging. I caught fish by jigging, casting to breaking fish in open water, casting to a shallow shoreline and retrieving, trolling light lures through an area to locate the fish, and bottom fishing.

[creolo25]

Thanks Chexone for setting up the Meet & Greet, I had a great time even though i got skunked. It was nice meeting all you kayakers and putting a face to the names on this forum, lunch at grinders was great. Looking forward to getting out on the water again and gaining more experience, thanks to all that gave advice, shared knowledge, and bait.

[camelbird]

Nice work guys! Wish I could have made it

Bill, you definitely pushed that chatterbait to the limit. Glad you liked the fluke trailer, I'm convinced it makes a difference in comparison to the stock trailer that comes with the lure...way more profile and action

[DOGFISH]

I just added a few photos of a couple of the bass I caught at the meet and greet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC2Eq...ature=youtu.be


I will catch the snakeheads next time. I have snakehead fever now.

[ronaultmtd]

Nice vids- snakies are addictive- they can be very tough to get hooked up and once you land one- it ain't over until you put it in the bag-

[DOGFISH]

Nice vids- snakies are addictive- they can be very tough to get hooked up and once you land one- it ain't over until you put it in the bag-

I noticed that, about being in the bag, after seeing others catch a few snakeheads.

[jsquare]

Here's my very late report for the meet and greet. Been away from the forum for a while.

Had a great time out there. Was a pleasure sharing the water with a great group of people and putting some faces to names.
I caught 2 bass, one at 8" and one at 17"(credit to ronaultmtd for this one. Thanks for the spot, Ron)
I also managed to catch 2 snakeheads, one at 23" and one at 27+".

I'd been to the Mattawoman once before on an exploratory mission, but this was my first time really fishing there, and my first time trying for snakehead. I had a blast. Thanks to everyone for being such great fishing partners.