poor conditions at Mattawoman

[J.A. Veil]

Last evening I made a spur of the moment decision to head to Mattawoman on Fri morning. I left Annapolis with a light rain that kept up for 2/3 of the drive. Fortunately, as I headed down Indian Head highway, the sun came out. Initially the water was calm and not as muddy as I thought it would be. Sadly, that changed quickly. Soon it became quite windy -- whitecaps in the channel near the metal barge and gusting from different directions. The water was quite brown with low visibility. It was hard to hold position for casting.

Over the course of three hours of casting, I hooked two modest bass, but both came off before I got them to the boat. That was all the pullage for the day.

The most exciting part of the trip was when I had paddled well into the marsh with plants touching both sides of the kayak. I looked to my right just 4 ft away and saw two snakeheads sitting there in shallow water somewhat intertwined (I'm not sure if they were mating or just hanging out together). They did not spook at all, but gave me a bored look. I dangled two different soft plastic lures in front of them but they showed no interest. Eventually they submerged and I lost sight of them. A few minutes later I looked down and saw a 3' long gar swim by. I cast in its direction but got no interest.

I also had one significant boneheaded move. I purchased a new collapsible 3-lb anchor a few weeks ago. Today was the first time to try it. I planned to anchor up and bottom fish for some cats. I dropped the anchor overboard and fed out anchor line. I wondered why the line did not come tight. Apparently I had not tied a good enough knot from the anchor line to the anchor. Once dropped in the water, it sank straight to the bottom. Things were so slow today that I could not even get pullage from my anchor.

I have had a lot of fishing time this week. The wind and rain were common elements of most of the trips so far:

Mon - Ocean City
Tues - Weems Creek
Thurs - Weems Creek
Fri - Mattawoman
Sat - plan to launch the center console from Sandy Point in the morning. I will keep an eye out for other MKF members fishing near the bridge.

[sparky1423]

The first anchor I purchased was a 3# collapsable anchor and lost it also. I did notice a threaded bolt was still attached the end of my rope. It was a poor design and made sure my next anchor had a casted ring instead of an eyebolt.

[DavidGQ]

I got there around 2:30 and hit the water around 3pm. First time here John so I wasn't sure if the murky water is normal or not. My friend was sitting in the back and my daughter was in her own kayak. We were going around looking for SH. But really enjoy the weather and the scenery. We did go into one of the lily pads field. Stayed there and did some casting for Bass or SH. Then I saw a huge Gar swimming toward my kayak. I bent down and picked up my bow and ready to shoot but my friend scared it away. It might be the same one that you saw John. Anyway, love this place and will be back more often this summer.

Oh, is it normal to see many dead fishes in the water?

[dhawk]

Speaking of gar fishing at the M&G last week there I saw a gar that was feeding on bugs on the surface when I got close I spooked it and it about jump in my kayak it was a pretty good size gar