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I fished on Saturday and left my kayak on the roof figuring I might go somewhere on Sunday. I decided to try the Mattawoman in the evening to see if I had better luck at finding snakehead. After my last adventure at low tide on the Mattawoman, I launched from Slavins. I think I am easily distracted so I had to stop to see if I could entice some bass to hit the frog I would use on the snakehead. I got several strikes, so I had to stay there until I got one or two of those in the boat! I missed two or three strikes per actual hook set I think. I got two to the boat including my new personal bass best of around 16". Topwater is a lot of fun! Unfortunately, I spent more then a third of time chasing these bass. Back to the snakehead hunt... I tried to get in closer to the shore on the in the patch of spatterdock I was in and I couldnt actually see the shore in that area, so I through the frog a few more times and moved on.
The next area of spatterdock was a huge field so I decided to go to that back of it. There was open space between the edge of the spatterdock and the shore. This didn't seem like a likely place but I tossed the frog on the shore and dragged it in here and there. Not a sign of anything, so I skirted the shore and started tossing some casts along this back edge of the spatterdock. I was thinking I was in the totally wrong place and that the splash of the lure would spook them anyway. Third cast... got a strike! I missed it and don't know if it was a bass or snakehead. As I continued around the edge of the vegetation, I did scare a large fish of some sort in 1' of water. Might have been a carp, but it definately moved a lot of water as it fled from the kayak. After 30-40 mins of mucking around in the back, I gave up and decided to just cut through the middle to get back to the main river. Took awhile to get through it all, but it made for a neat picture. By the time I got back to the channel, it was time for me to start working back to the dock. It was about 8:15 at this point and it seemed things had slowed down already. I missed one more strike as I left the field I had just paddled through, and that was pretty much it. As I paddled back I would stop and cast here and there, but that was it for my night.
As I neared the dock, I saw another kayaker fishing and asked how they did. It turned out to be a fellow forum member... Wedge. He had caught a snakehead right across from the dock. He shared his approach to catching them before I pulled up for the evening. It was nice to run into someone from here on the water! Now I have another tactic to try when I launch from Slavin's next time. I think another challenge I need to overcome is my casting distance. I fished with a more experienced angler on Saturday and they cast for more distance than I do. I think I need to work on this, particularly for the snakehead.
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The next area of spatterdock was a huge field so I decided to go to that back of it. There was open space between the edge of the spatterdock and the shore. This didn't seem like a likely place but I tossed the frog on the shore and dragged it in here and there. Not a sign of anything, so I skirted the shore and started tossing some casts along this back edge of the spatterdock. I was thinking I was in the totally wrong place and that the splash of the lure would spook them anyway. Third cast... got a strike! I missed it and don't know if it was a bass or snakehead. As I continued around the edge of the vegetation, I did scare a large fish of some sort in 1' of water. Might have been a carp, but it definately moved a lot of water as it fled from the kayak. After 30-40 mins of mucking around in the back, I gave up and decided to just cut through the middle to get back to the main river. Took awhile to get through it all, but it made for a neat picture. By the time I got back to the channel, it was time for me to start working back to the dock. It was about 8:15 at this point and it seemed things had slowed down already. I missed one more strike as I left the field I had just paddled through, and that was pretty much it. As I paddled back I would stop and cast here and there, but that was it for my night.
As I neared the dock, I saw another kayaker fishing and asked how they did. It turned out to be a fellow forum member... Wedge. He had caught a snakehead right across from the dock. He shared his approach to catching them before I pulled up for the evening. It was nice to run into someone from here on the water! Now I have another tactic to try when I launch from Slavin's next time. I think another challenge I need to overcome is my casting distance. I fished with a more experienced angler on Saturday and they cast for more distance than I do. I think I need to work on this, particularly for the snakehead.
2013-07-01T09-19-39_0.jpg
2013-07-01T09-19-39_1.jpg
2013-07-01T09-19-39_2.jpg
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