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Dogue Creek Recon
Some coworkers of mine want to catch some snakeheads, so I've been looking at different spots to try. I've been striking out on the Mattawoman, and last year's trip to Leesylvania was a bust. Back in the early 2000s, Dogue Creek had the highest abundance of snakeheads of all the creeks on the VA side. It seemed like a good candidate, so Kevin and I checked it out today.
We launched from the Marshall Hall boat ramp at around 9:30, which was midway through the falling tide, and headed across the Potomac to Dogue Creek. The wind was blowing hard enough that we made it across in 14 minutes.
The water was really muddy, and there was lots of logs and other debris, even in the creek. The water temperature was about 71-72*, if I recall correctly.
Kevin picked up a perch somewhere around the mouth of the creek, and I missed a good hit. The area around the mouth didn't seem like great habitat, the wind and waves made it hard to fish, so we started working our way up the creek.
We found some spatterdock and started working the edge. Our timing was off as the tide had dropped a lot which added to the list of less than ideal conditions. While casting a bit into the spatterdock, I hooked one of the stems. I gave it a few jerks. It came free, but my lure drifted off to one side as I reeled it back in. I thought it was a bit of the spatterdock stem, but it turned out to be a monster bass. When I realized it wasn't moving right, I thought, "I should set the hook." By that time, the fish was back at the boat. I got a quick broadside view and a really good look at the head before it threw the hook. It was probably the biggest bass I've ever hooked, and I would guess it was in the 18"-20" range. Kevin saw it, too, so it's not a fish tale, but keep in mind our poor ability to judge fish size on our last trip.
It hit a Camelbird Special--1/4oz white chatterbait with a white Zoom fluke as the trailer. Kevin had a few hits in the area, but couldn't connect.
That was all the action we had until we worked our way a good bit upstream. Right before we decided to head back, I threw the chatterbait at a big tangle of woody debris and caught a 17" bass:
That was a rush! I can't believe I pulled it out of all those tangles without losing it. Anyway, that convinced us to try a bit more in the area. Kevin picked up a fat 15-incher in the same area, but I didn't get a photo of it. It hit a crayfish colored chatterbait. We also met Followme438 while we were there and got the low-down on the creek. I always like putting a face to a screen name, and he gave us some good tips for future trips. After that, we had to head back.
Since I don't have much in the way of fish pics, here are some pics of some cool irises we saw:
I've seen iris leaves at a lot of places I fish, but I never get the timing right to see the blooms. Anyway, I would definitely like to hit the creek again under better conditions and see I can actually land another bass like the one that got away.
We launched from the Marshall Hall boat ramp at around 9:30, which was midway through the falling tide, and headed across the Potomac to Dogue Creek. The wind was blowing hard enough that we made it across in 14 minutes.
The water was really muddy, and there was lots of logs and other debris, even in the creek. The water temperature was about 71-72*, if I recall correctly.Kevin picked up a perch somewhere around the mouth of the creek, and I missed a good hit. The area around the mouth didn't seem like great habitat, the wind and waves made it hard to fish, so we started working our way up the creek.
We found some spatterdock and started working the edge. Our timing was off as the tide had dropped a lot which added to the list of less than ideal conditions. While casting a bit into the spatterdock, I hooked one of the stems. I gave it a few jerks. It came free, but my lure drifted off to one side as I reeled it back in. I thought it was a bit of the spatterdock stem, but it turned out to be a monster bass. When I realized it wasn't moving right, I thought, "I should set the hook." By that time, the fish was back at the boat. I got a quick broadside view and a really good look at the head before it threw the hook. It was probably the biggest bass I've ever hooked, and I would guess it was in the 18"-20" range. Kevin saw it, too, so it's not a fish tale, but keep in mind our poor ability to judge fish size on our last trip.
It hit a Camelbird Special--1/4oz white chatterbait with a white Zoom fluke as the trailer. Kevin had a few hits in the area, but couldn't connect.That was all the action we had until we worked our way a good bit upstream. Right before we decided to head back, I threw the chatterbait at a big tangle of woody debris and caught a 17" bass:
That was a rush! I can't believe I pulled it out of all those tangles without losing it. Anyway, that convinced us to try a bit more in the area. Kevin picked up a fat 15-incher in the same area, but I didn't get a photo of it. It hit a crayfish colored chatterbait. We also met Followme438 while we were there and got the low-down on the creek. I always like putting a face to a screen name, and he gave us some good tips for future trips. After that, we had to head back.
Since I don't have much in the way of fish pics, here are some pics of some cool irises we saw:
I've seen iris leaves at a lot of places I fish, but I never get the timing right to see the blooms. Anyway, I would definitely like to hit the creek again under better conditions and see I can actually land another bass like the one that got away.
Plus, Kevin was available for a couple recon trips. He's always up for long paddles in questionable conditions with uncertain outcomes. 
Anyway, my wife's schedule is calming down, the water is heating up, and I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things now.
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