Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Welcome Jon....glad to have you!!

At times on this site, you have been referred to as "blue boat".

I think that catching them in the summer is totally different than when they are up at Chain Bridge (spawning?).

Anyway, THEY would be a cool thing to target in the spring! I do know that some guys from TPFR caught some on a fly this spring.....

they most deffinitely are not spawning right now esp up there, they only spawn in vegetation in slow water, they will clear out a hole throughout the water column in thick slop when doing so. My best guess as to what they are doing in chain bridge is either taking advantage of the copious amounts of bait fish and or pairing off to spawn later on. The prefered diet of NSH are small minnows so I would throw an inline spinner right now.

Curly wrote:

Could the same schoolie pattern hold for this May?

Hope so! We'll find out tomorrow!

That's okay if it went from Snakeheads to stripers.  That's the way I wrote it up anyway.  If I can't catch stripers, I'd like to catch snakeheads.  There sure seems to be enough of them.  I just hope the lack of stripers doesn't have anything to do with the bounty of snakeheads.  How it would?  Maybe they ate the young, who knows.  Rock Creek is another good place to try for them BTW. 

The schoolie bite used to be so predictable up near Chain Bridge in May. One year like I think it was 2004, we had them up there into July.  They were there July 1st but then vanished by the 3rd but we had a day in late June early July that year where we caught 50 + each, we as in HJS and I, of fish ranging from 16 to even 30 inches.  All on plastics on jig heads. Actually most years when the bite was on we’d have days like that. That year we had high water throughout most of the spring.  It finally came down towards the end of June and the fishing was red hot. 

The last few years the schoolie bite has been pathetic.  Even later on like in mid to late May.  Last year I was happy to get one or two.  But I did do well on them in late April fishing around fletchers with artificial and some of those fish were pushing 34 inches too.  But this year.... has been terrible.  If I didn't have that day in late March, I'd take up golf.  Usually earlier in the year you get the cows and usually you only get hit them well in March well down river.  This year they were up river early and then kind of vanished with one here one there maybe. 

My big blue boat is rotting away down in Solomon’s.  Only used it twice between March and April.  Hopefully I'll get back on her as the top water bite picks up this month.  This year I've spent a good amount of time on a 14' sea nymph with a 9.9HP yami on the river or on a fletchers row boat and a trolling motor.  It's such a pain in the neck to run up from National.  But up river is where the bait is.  I even fished alone on a canoe one afternoon well past dark.  The action picked up for larger fish after dark but it was too nerve wracking being alone in a tippy canoe fighting a large fish.  A good SOT kayak is a better alternative and so would a roof top john boat with a light gas engine.   

If you like large turd rollers, than the Potomac is where it's at.  Last year I got two over 50 pounds near fletchers.  This year like most years 20 to 30 pound blue cats are everywhere and they don't even get a second thought for a picture.  The second fresh bait finds the bottom on a good hump or current seem anywhere from Chain Bridge down through Georgetown, it's picked up by a big roller.  I tried fishing bait on a slip bobber rig up near Chain Bridge the other day to keep the bait out of the rocks while fishing from shore.  I thought it would be a dead ringer rig for stripers but even still I got two 20 pound turd rollers in a matter of seconds.  Jigging might be the only way to avoid them but even still, you end up snagging them and I've even caught blue cats with artificial.  The other day my step son got one around 3 pounds on a gold spoon!  Well off the bottom. 

anyway... it might be Muskie time up river for me now.  A few more trips in search of snakeheads and schoolies maybe but the Muskies should be off the spawn and looking to feed before the heat shows up.  Then when it does, it's night time top water for those beasts.  How many have I caught?  None.  How many hours have I tried?  hundreds.  I have had a few follows and near misses at the boat though so that keeps me coming back.  These are the true strain, non-hybrid muskie that have established a population on the Potomac from Washington County and more recently showing up well in Montgomery County.  I’ve done a lot of homework on these fish from numerous email and phone conversations with DNR biologist, Muskie specialist like John Mullican. 

Here's to the Potomac River.  The greatest, most diverse river in the world and it just so happens to be right in our own back yards.

Last edited by Salmo (May-06-10 7:44AM)

Not Spro frogs!

Salmo:

If you truly want to catch snakeheads head for Pohick Bay. After launching, turn left and head for the lily pad fields. Toss a WHITE spinnerbait, Chatterbait or buzzbait up to the lily pads and retrieve back across the hydrilla. The fish will do the rest.  They absolutely annihilate these baits. One of our club members caught 9.9#, 9.7# and 8.5# fish during our last Potomac River tournament 2 weeks ago. A number of other members have caught them over the 5# mark consistently in this area on these baits.