Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I went to Chain Bridge to take another shot at catching my first shad and maybe even a snakehead if i saw one. My initial plan was to fish under the chain bridge on the VA side, but I left the house later than expected and all of the parking was fully. This turned out to be a good thing though. I ended up parking in the other side of the river and fishing there. The first two hours were slow as I sale lots of fishing feeding on top but only snagged two gizzard shad. I decided to move and man I saw tooooooooooooooooooooooooons if fish feeding on top and I could easily see them all swimming around. This is where the fun began. For the next two hours I caught 20 hickories and lost a bunch more! Lots of fun on light tackle I did snag some of them in the tail or back and there were bleeding with a gash in them, does anyone know if they would survive? I had to leave them biting as I noticed that it was a lot cloudier and windier a few drops came down and I got out of there as fast as I could since I had about a 10 minute walk back to the car. The drops stopped and I made a few casts in the canal when the drops came back. I made back to my car and as soon as I stared the engine it started pouring. Phew!

All of the hickories were around 12". Not nearly I size I had heard about all season, but I guess the big ones already made there way? I couldn't take any pictures because they would not stop flopping around.

I was using a double rig so I experimented with colors and lures. I didn't have and shad darts or spoons so I was using 1.5" curly tails and tubes. The only color that produced was a chartreuse curly tail, so I always had that tied on. I was amazing at just how many fish there were. I got hit at least once on every retrieve! A number of them came undone.

I did see a strange fish that I couldn't identify. It was close to shore and I saw it nearly vertical and it ate something I couldn't see, like a bug or something, then it disappeared down to the depths. It was about the size of a large carp, but it definitely wasn't a carp. It was brownish and blotchy. The face was scary and it looked like a toothy fish. The only thing I can think of that it could be is a walleye, but it seemed a bit girthy to be one. Any ideas on what this might have been?