Occoquan River Report - 02/13/2011

I got to the ramp at 9:00am with the hopes of a Yellow Perch derby. The wind was moderate and I was nice and warm in my gear. I only used 1 pair of wool socks. This would come back to bite me later in the day. I talked to another Kayaker on the way out and he said they were tearing he perch up last week. I found some marks in 22ft to 32ft and commenced to Jigging. I started with a 1/16oz jig head on a small dropper rig. I used a 1/2oz sinker and tipped the jig with a 2” chartreuse grub.

I had no love so I moved down river a bit and switched to a tandem rig with a 1/16oz upper and 1/8oz lower. I tipped both jigs with 2” white and yellow grubs. I fished from 15ft to 20ft and again saw marks all over my FF. It looked like pods of bait with marks below them. After 2 hours of jigging I decided to try further down the river by the railroad bridge. There were several boats there and everyone was jigging away. I kept the tandem rig and got in line with the boats. I tried that area for another hour with nothing to show. I decided to head back to the I95 bridge and try jigging a small 1oz metal I picked up on Friday.

I saw TJ on the way back sporting his new Hobie. He was going towards the rail bridge to pick up where I left off. Hopefully he figured out the bite and filled his bag with Perch.

I spoke to another boater and he already caught several crappie along the docks so I gave up on the deeper jigging and hit the docks. I switched my lure to a 1/8oz jig with a small 3.5” twitch bait. At this point 4hrs in my feet were getting really cold. I should have put that other pair of wool socks on. With cold feet and nothing to show for the days jigging adventure I came to grips with the fact that the first trip this year was a bust. I made my way to the last dock for the day and.

BAM Fish on.



Not a crappie but a nice little bass to save the trip. I made another cast to the same dock and



Now my feet are numb and I am hungry. Great time to end the trip. No perch but it was a nice day to get out and wet a line.


I had trouble getting the videos to process in my editor software. In fact i have spent the last 4 hours trying to get it to work. I finally had to split it up in two parts.

Oh and the Jock-a-strap 200 camera mount worked great when i used it.
I had to keep taking it off and placing my cap back one due to cold ears.

Video Recap
Part 1
Part 2

[DOGFISH]

Call me old fashioned, albeit some may want to try, I have generally tipped my shad darts with a live grass shrimp when early season fishing for perch. It is admirable that alot of folks want to go the artificial route all the way. However, some grass shrimp only take up alittle room in the kayak. They may save you day. I always liked to use a double shad dart rig. Depending on the wind a current, you may not even need a weight, or drop shot as some would not say.

Always enjoy the video. I must say, I enjoyed the fly fishing video last fall much better. There was more cursing. Fish like cursing. They take you more seriously, when you curse. It always works for me.

[the_kegs]

Glad you didn't get skunked. Video looks good.

[ictalurus]

Thanks for the report. At least you didn't get skunked. The water looks pretty stained in the pics. Is that how it really looked? I think it was clearer last week.

I hit both Bass Pro and Greentop this weekend, and both places were out of silver and chartreuse Cicadas. I guess I'll have to make do with what I have this season.

[MetroMan]

Glad you didn't get skunked! I know the feeling of frozen feet! Thanks for sharing the report

[Grady-Black]

Thanks for the reports and video mmanolis2001. One suggestion if you don't mind, you might want to slow your presentation down some in water this cold. When I say slow I mean take a nap between twitches slow! Like plastic worming for LM Bass but even slower than that.

I do appreciate you checking out the Occoquan, I may hit it myself Thursday or Friday.

Thanks Man

GB

[mmanolis2001]

Thanks for the report. At least you didn't get skunked. The water looks pretty stained in the pics. Is that how it really looked? I think it was clearer last week.

I hit both Bass Pro and Greentop this weekend, and both places were out of silver and chartreuse Cicadas. I guess I'll have to make do with what I have this season.

The water was stained maybe 6-12" visibility. I guess the snow melt and rains silted it up. Alot of the boat fisherman were using silver Cicadas. I tried to find some on Friday at Dicks but all they had were large versions.

[mmanolis2001]

Thanks for the reports and video mmanolis2001. One suggestion if you don't mind, you might want to slow your presentation down some in water this cold. When I say slow I mean take a nap between twitches slow! Like plastic worming for LM Bass but even slower than that.

I do appreciate you checking out the Occoquan, I may hit it myself Thursday or Friday.

Thanks Man

GB

I will def try to slow down a bit on my next trip. I might hit there again later this week time permitting.

[surfdog]

nice video, need to curse at the fish they like it when you talk dirty to them you have more patience than i do, id be ready to drop shot. some cherry bomb teasers to them. one way to keep your feet warmer is to keep them in the yak

[tj06sti]

Nice job getting the skunk off! Videos look clear, I must not have been paying attention or simply didn't notice the new head-band camera mount..

[the_kegs]

mmanolis2001 , when the weather warms up, you may want to keep some of this on board..... for your forehead.

[mmanolis2001]

Nice job getting the skunk off! Videos look clear, I must not have been paying attention or simply didn't notice the new head-band camera mount..

I only wore the camera mount when i was filming. My ears were too cold to keep it on all the time.

[mmanolis2001]

mmanolis2001 , when the weather warms up, you may want to keep some of this on board..... for your forehead.

hahaha Thanks for the info. Hopefully i don't get an itchy forehead later this year.