Fletchers Sunday ....... Be There

[Memory Maker]

Shad are as thick as bees in a hive .......... should be ton's of fun

http://www.tidalfish.com/forums/show...521-Fletcher-s

Fjarhead and I are meeting @ the IKEA PArking Lot at 10 AM .........

Join us .........

[Memory Maker]

..... Badassbass ........ join us even if you haven't picked up your aircraft carried ....... you can bring your other yak and test mine ....... if you don't have a yak then fish from shore ........ shad till your arms fall off .....

Who's going .....

[Japanesezero]

I might make a trip down there. I need to slime my new yak. What time are you thinking? should be a good shad day tomorrow cloudy and a high of 73 with 10% rain according to weather.com

[Memory Maker]

I might make a trip down there. I need to slime my new yak. What time are you thinking? should be a good shad day tomorrow cloudy and a high of 73 with 10% rain according to weather.com

Meeting at Ikea in White Marsh @ 10 am so we should be at Fletchers by 11:30 at the latest ........

[crawdad]

I'll be at chainbridge fishing from shore.

[Japanesezero]

Just looked at the tidalfish thread. Stupidjet... your truck wont fit. my chevy 1500 z71 barely fit last year when I had that truck. To get in there from the "wrong direction..." I have backed my truck down the hill to the upper lot for the C&O canal trail. If I go tomorrow I'll be parking at the C&O parking lot and wheeling my yak down to the water. I drive a dodge 2500 now and it definatly wont fit.

[Memory Maker]

I've got a F150 ....... they said I would have no problem ........ if I can get thru and you guys can't then you can load your yaks in the back of my truck and I'll drive ya thru ......... but you might be right since I've never been there ........ just going by what the guy at the shop said .....

[Memory Maker]

Lee (Fjarhead) went to Fletchers ........ I followed him and his GPS had problems finding it ...... but after a couple of route changes and and a turnaround we got there ......... interesting entrance ....... only 1 way into it and only from 1 direction ....... no wonder the GPS had concerns ........ got through the tunnel OK but I opened the sunroof and kept centered ......... less than a foot clearence ...... wish I would have videoed it ....

Neat place though.

Lee got ready and launched ...... I stayed back and made some shake down adjustments ..........

Man ........ if you buy a PA, expect ALOT of interest for others ......... People kept coming up and wanted to talk about the PA ........... about 2 hours after Lee launched I was ready to launch ........ then trouble w/the cart ........

Lee came back in and had to leave to take care of something and was gracoius enough to take my PA to the launch pt and pick up his. He caught 4 shad .......... they were there but not on fire ........

I launched and found the new rudder hub was tight and difficult to turn ....... went anyway ........

A bunch of boats out there ...... some catching shad and some nice bass and 1 nice striper ......... found they were catching big stripers at the cain bridge ........

Tried out the new video camera ...... works great but I have to work on the mount (kept flling off) and the sound needs work .......... lost an anchor and 2 shad rigs ...... the steering became way too tight ....... need to lub it ........ and a lead on the DF battery broke so I came back in after about 2 hrs ........ no fish but they are there ........ saw them caught and on the DF ..........

I'm REALLY sold on the Mirage Drive ......... even with all the current I could still do 2.5 mph ......... faster than any of the guys rowing ........

I'm SOOOOO out of shape .......... when I got out of the YAK my stomach muscles screamed "What the heck did you do" .......

All in all ....... another good day .......

Thanks Lee

[ictalurus]

Thanks for the report. I wanted to join you guys out there, but the timing didn't pan out. I was wondering how will the Mirage drive would work there. Too bad the fish weren't more cooperative.

I get questions about my Hobie everywhere I launch where there's a fair amount of people. I started carrying brochures for my local dealer so I could maybe help drum up some business for them. Even people with power boats ask about it.

Pedaling does use some different muscles, but they seem to build up fast in my experience. I think pedaling (and paddling, too) is almost an ideal exercise because you can keep your heart rate elevated without getting out of breath. I lost about 15lbs in fairly short order when I first got my Hobie, and I've managed to keep it off since then.

[moc]

I am glad you got out there Rick. I was busy all weekend with home repairs and maintenance. I guess this was your shackdown launch to get the bugs out of your PA. I still hjave to install my FF. I plan on getting my parts this weekend and getting the install done.

[mmanolis2001]

Thanks for the recap. The entrance to Fletcher's gets tricky especially with larger vehicles. The tunnel will also scare you the first time. It is deceiving coming down the little hill into the tunnel entrance. It looks like its 5 ft tall

I have been trying to get the nerve up to hit there with my yak but I'm worried about the current. It would be allot of work to hold position, Paddle and fish. I guess i could paddle up stream until i find a nice eddy close to shore and cast from there.

Was the river muddy?

What kind of anchor did you use? I was going to make some wreck anchors just for there but been too lazy to head to Home Depot for the mats.

[Memory Maker]

Thanks for the recap. The entrance to Fletcher's gets tricky especially with larger vehicles. The tunnel will also scare you the first time. It is deceiving coming down the little hill into the tunnel entrance. It looks like its 5 ft tall

I have been trying to get the nerve up to hit there with my yak but I'm worried about the current. It would be allot of work to hold position, Paddle and fish. I guess i could paddle up stream until i find a nice eddy close to shore and cast from there.

Was the river muddy?

What kind of anchor did you use? I was going to make some wreck anchors just for there but been too lazy to head to Home Depot for the mats.

Current wasn't too bad ....... around 2 mph I guess ......... I just peddled up current and drifted back ....... water wasn't muddy at all

What do you mean about using mats for wreck anchors ......... I thought they were spider weights but heavier ........... that's just some pipe, lead and SS welding rods ........... I was going to make some for Sunday but ran out of time .......... lost a 3.5 lb folding anchor, 60 ft of line and a nice float .......

should have just taken a couple of bricks .......

[mmanolis2001]

Current wasn't too bad ....... around 2 mph I guess ......... I just peddled up current and drifted back ....... water wasn't muddy at all

What do you mean about using mats for wreck anchors ......... I thought they were spider weights but heavier ........... that's just some pipe, lead and SS welding rods ........... I was going to make some for Sunday but ran out of time .......... lost a 3.5 lb folding anchor, 60 ft of line and a nice float .......

should have just taken a couple of bricks .......

I was going to use 2 wire coat hangers, 6" PVC tube, PVC end cap and some Concrete. Drill 4 holes in the end cap, Cut the Coat hangers and u bend them, Run the ends thru the cap, Twist the upper sections together to make a loop to tie off, Push it all thru the tube and glue on the cap, Fill pipe with concrete.

It should work fine.

Actually bricks are a great idea. The ones with six holes in them would be easy to tie up. Throw some cheap rope on it and you are good to go.

[Memory Maker]

I was going to use 2 wire coat hangers, 6" PVC tube, PVC end cap and some Concrete. Drill 4 holes in the end cap, Cut the Coat hangers and u bend them, Run the ends thru the cap, Twist the upper sections together to make a loop to tie off, Push it all thru the tube and glue on the cap, Fill pipe with concrete.

It should work fine.

Actually bricks are a great idea. The ones with six holes in them would be easy to tie up. Throw some cheap rope on it and you are good to go.

Good luck ........ tell me how it works out ......... think the coat hangers will be a little though ........ I'm probably wrong

[fjarhead]

good run

All said and done, Rick and I had a great time. the mirage drive worked very well at fletchers and was no problem with the current...... I was moving at a pretty good clip and was getting alot of questions from all the boaters. I just told them to save their pennys. (lol) the current was moving one way and the wind was blowing the other. I did use my anchor but had put the clip on the wrong side and could not fish face downstream (which would have helped. will know for next time. on another note we did have a few flukes with the gps but found after a turn around. Getting into fletchers is quite a feat with the tunnel, and oh by the way, NO TRAILORS , I got lucky and asked the park ranger he said to ask fletchers. not a problem, but could be in the future. you may want to use an anchor line that is a little more sturdy than the thin line that most anchor kits come supplied/



Have a great day, Have a safe day.