been a while since a post....works slowing now which is a good thing. Cant be bothered to write a report. ill let the pictures do there thing

 Hey guys was thinking bout fishing the Murray at pinjarah does anyone know if it's Anygood any advise would be greatly appreciated cheers fellas 

Myself and TimVB went for a quick jig today, plan was to get a dhuie for dinner and hit up some shallow water sambos before they head out deeper.

Went pretty much to plan, although the easterlies early morning were verging on dangerous for my tug and made it pretty uncomfortable on the way out.

Whilst we waited for the wind to drop, we sounded some new ground and found a nice little lump with some good shows. Dropped down jigs on PE2 and I got an undersized dhuie, but Tim got blitzed by a suspected Sambo. We upgraded to PE3, and Tim got dominated again, two nice jigs lost in two drops.....I hooked up on PE3 and landed a nice shallow water sambo. Went VERY hard in shallow water on PE3.

A few more sambos later and the wind dropped so we tried a demersal spot and I landed the perefect eating size dhuie, 70 cm. On the BBQ as we speak.

After a few undersized dhuies, things shut down, so back to the Sambo lump, and dammmm, they went off! We changed to PE5 and locked up the Stella drags  tight for a bit of fun and to minimise the jig losses.....and hung on for a manic 60 minutes of jigging. Dam, these things go hard in shallow water! Here are photos of a few of the fish we got in between the madness.

Great day and back on shore not long after lunch for a coldbeer and rest the arms.

Well with the weather looking ok for the long weekend, we made the call to head over to the Abrolhos Islands. With all going meeting at my house Friday morning. We were on the road for 9:15 and with a good run made it to Gero for 2:00 to be greeted by a strong 20knot southerly wind .We caught up with Rob H and drew74 from the forum. Once the boats were in the water and trailers sorted, we headed out through the passage, not the best for the trip across. Steve decided he would wait till morning and meet us there. It did drop half way across and we sat on a comfortable 19-20 knots making it to the Islands before dark. Now the swell was up and the sun low in the afternoon sky made it hard to find the end of the reef. Jesse was up front when he called out breaker looking back to see a set breaking behind us we darted across to the side and around the white water .We spun around and zipped in through the narrow passage to a flat calm bay for the night .After setting the anchors and tying the boats together we got ready for the evening meal and a brew.

DAY 1

Up at first light and a good cooked breakfast of bacon, eggs and beans and a cuppa and all were ready to hit the fish Neil headed out to go fishing and meet up with Steve, from what we were told the fish were going off with double headers coming over the side. We headed off in the kayaks to do some snorkelling on the other side of the bay. After a shot paddle we pulled the Kayaks up on the shore and swam out along the reef to some deep water further out. What a great snorkel seeing dhuies ,trout,baldies and large numbers of small colourful fish .Jesse got a nice trout around 60cm and Kevin got one a little smaller .After a couple of hours of snorkelling we headed back for a break and some lunch. Neil came back with the others in tow and rafted up for lunch. The guys headed back out for some more fishing and we geared up for a scuba dive in the same area as the morning snorkel. One of the best dives I have ever done .Got to love the islands .Late arvo and we all meet up again for the night .After dinner a couple of the guys were fishing behind the boat catching herring for bait the next day. Couple of other boats pulled in for the night which made the little bay full up with little room to move.

DAY 2

After a restless night, we woke to a light wind and slight seas once again the eggs and bacon coped a hiding and we were off for some more snorkelling, this time we swam through the entrance to the bay we were staying in .we watch the boys go passed heading out for the morning fish .they went straight over 5 dhuies in casting distance from shore. No big ones but around 500-700mm.we swam around for about an hour before Kevin and I started to get a little tied ,as we must have swam some miles in the first two days .seen heaps of Skippy and small trout. Viz was 20m +.Again lunch time came and went and we headed out in the kayaks into the middle off the Islands and checked out  a few shallow bombies .not a lot of fish so headed back to the shallows for some baldies. Kevin got a nice one around 5kg and one more a little smaller. Jesse lost his mojo missing a big baldie and a nice trout .A great snorkel 50m from shore. Another day gone and one more sleep before home.

DAY3

We headed out for a scuba dive and then home .We dived on a bomie 2m-22m the  walls were shear and the viz was 30m unreal ,you don’t get it like that metro . Once again dhuies, trout like blowies when we surfaced the wind had come up and the trip back to Gero looked like it was going to be a little bumpy. We meet up with Neil and Steve and turned for home ...35KNOT NE winds meet us once away from the Islands a slow bumpy trip back. But we made it in one piece. We loaded the boat after the water police checked the boats for safety gear and skippers tickets. We arrived home at 5:30 and were all packed away and cleaned up for 7:30.

A big thanks to DREW74 and his wife Jay for the generosity Also the guys Steve,Sherbs,Jason,Jesse,Kevin,Neil and Greg thanks for a great trip and hope we can do it again.

Sorry just deletaed the friggin report ,photobucket NOT working 2hours for jack shit .try tomorrow when i get back from FISHING,,,,,,,,,,,

FW crew anyone know if the Snapper have arrived in Western Port / Corner Inlet as yet??

I went out on sunday arvo after work to have one last crack at the Snapper before the ban kicked in. I took along 2 friends with me Chappo and Vaughan, It was Vaughans maiden voyage on the Tournament and I had said to him the virgins to the boat always come up trumps.

We went and checked a couple of spots just sounding out the bottom looking for the schools. We had a bit of a laugh at the 30 plus boats all crammed around the D9 and wondered if the schools were even there.

Between spots we noticed some slack water and on closer inspection it was a school in transit. Vaughan was first to launch his rig in the water and instantly hooked up to a nice 85cm Pinky. I didn't even have any riggs tied and hurriedly slapped up a weighted snelled rig to my small 20lb outfit, threw it in amongst them and hooked up, Only to have the old sun faded and salty braid snap. F*$K was the cry, and Chappo got on the helm to chase them. Another hookup with a heavier outfit that I chucked an unweighted ganged slimy on, and That got sharked.

We then lost the school and with the sun started going down we went to the next spot on the list and anchored up, and started a berley trail. The sun just went down and bang all 3 riggs went with a triple hookup, which was insane trying to get the lines all away from each other, over, under and around. Anyhow with some good team work we landed all 3. 2 at 95cm and another at 86cm. There was high fives all around, a full kill tank, a few beers and off on our way.

A new PB for me at 95cm, didn't have scales so none were weighed. Now its just a matter of waiting another 11 months to have another crack.

Any Crabs being caught at the moment in Kalbarri??

Made a spur of the moment decision on Saturday morning to head down to White Hills for a fish (we had some visitors over from S.A. and the weather was good).  Turned out to be a good decision, landing my first West Australian Mulloway (60cm) on my first cast!

Interestingly, I caught it in the middle of the day, which from my experience Mulloway fishing in South Australia is pretty rare (normally night time is better).  Is it common to get Mulloway during daylight hours in WA?

It was also interesting to note that I caught it at the time the alamanac (tides4fishing.com) said would be on the best times for the day.

Anyway, I was happy.

Drof

PS - the beach is a little soft in places down there are the moment.  There's also weed in sections, but easily avoided.

I spent the weekend camping out down at Logue Brook Dam relaxing with the missus and some friends and thought I would put up a report.  We chose Logue Brook because you can camp there, right on the dam for $7 a night pp or go to the caravan park for $10 if you want showers, you can also take your dog, but they cant swim in the dam and it is accessable with a 2wd vehicle.  The dam is located on Logue Brook Dam Road off the South West Highway just before Harvey so travel time is only an hour and 20 mins out of Perth. 

We headed down on Friday morning arriving at around 10am, there are several camping spots around the dam and we chose one on the far end of the dam with a relatively flat site and a fire ring.  Our camp overlooked a stream feeding into the dam and had several 4wd tracks over it which would lead to our main form of entertainment for the weekend. We would sit and watch people in 4wd's pull up to a mud pit and without even prodding a stick in to check depth plunge right in and get stuck.

The dam levels are quite low at the moment, so waterskiing on the lake is banned, but you are allowed boats.  We fished the first sunset with lures at the dam wall with only one small rainbow caught, but it dislodged the hook in the shallows. 

The next day was Grand Final day and we listened to the game on the radio, after it finished apparently everyone who had drank 38 beers thought it was time to go 4wding with the mud pit getting a good work out, one 4wd even got stuck 3 times! After this there were rednecks everywhere with circle work on the dam wall and revving cars through the tracks.

On sunday we went for a drive into Collie to go to the Good Shed Markets and had lunch from the bakery.  We then drove back to Wokalup to the HaVe Cheese Factory for cheeses, venison salami and pate, we then went for a drive to the Harvey River Bridge Estate Winery and the Big Orange.  We did some wine tastings but also Apple, Grape and Pear Cider, also White and Red Sangria.  Cartons of 24 ciders for $15 and 6 x 1lt tetra packs of sangria for $24.  Our Designated Driver then took us for a quick look at Harvey Dam before returning to the campsite.

When we got back we got everyone and their fishing gear together while I sorted out the my kayak stuff before heading to the waters edge.  Cam, Jane and Collette stayed on the bank fishing while I took the kayak out for a bash.  I have a 5.4mt Mission Eco bezig sea kayak which is not set up for fishing so I went out for a paddle while trolling some lures with the rod awkwardly held  between my back and the kayak seat.  I tried SX40's, Spinners, Minnows, soft plastics etc, but couldnt get a bite.  There were some other yakkers there, one bloke on a blue hobie pedal yak who said he had caught some small trout, lost a bigger one but that they would start rising soon as it got closer to sun down.

This is where it started to go pear shaped, I kept trolling and changing lures and as the sun went down you could see trout rising all over the place in the middle of the dam, so I headed out there and trolling, or even casting past the swirls and retrieving was not getting me a bite.  The trout were everywhere by now and it was starting to get dark so I started heading back to where our friends were, trolling again.  At one point the lure motion felt like it changed, could this be it, had I got a trout bite? So I put down the paddle and attach it to the leash and grab my rod from behind me, as I turn back, my paddle leash had somehow disconnected and my paddle was making a break for it.  I panicked and lunged for the paddle and that was all she wrote I was in the drink!  I quickly grabbed the paddle and my fishing rod and swam to the side of the kayak holy shit its cold.  I properly attach paddle to kayak and stow the rod and make an attempt to self recover back onto the yak but the yak is so full of water every time I try to get back up it seems to sink lower and my pfd kept catching.

I was getting tired and a bit freaked out, my friends had heard me go in and were calling out to me so I responded, and made the decision to swim and tow the kayak to shore.  I was probably 100-125mts from the shore and slowly swam the swamped kayak back in.  It took forever and it certainly gave me a new found respect for hypothermia. I was concentrating on keeping my breathing deep and steady and my side stroke smooth, by the time I made it to shore I was definately losing dexterity. It was well dark and I was definately cold, my friends helped me out of the water and got the yak out and emptied out the water. Fortunately I had not lost any gear and I made it back to shore - Humble pie tells me I was pretty lucky this weekend, really lucky that I did not get loaded at the winery.  We loaded everything back up and went back to our campsite where I proceeded to warm up by our large fire.

On Monday we got up had breakfast, packed up and left to be back in Perth for lunch.

I would highly recommend Logue Brook dam as a place close to Perth that you can go for a really cheap camping weekend with fresh water fishing - Just next time I think I will leave my sea kayak at home and bring the dinghy instead! Its a great spot, really close to Harvey and Collie so you have the options of Logue Brook, Harvey and Wellington Dams and all the river systems that feed them to fish from and all the good food and drink the south west has to offer. Hopefully I will be back soon to catch my first dam trout!

No Pics as I was surprisingly lazy with the camera this weekend.

Not as good as my previous sessions with Whitey (we blamed the full moon thingy) - but cracked the code of Demersal Jigging

Some not so great photos (apologies for the stick in my mouth )

Eric - where are your photos mate?!

With a short break from filming commitments and having done plenty of snapper tagging already I was keen to go for a Super Deep fish espeicially with the nice forecast yesterday!

Blake my shop manager was keen to get out and so was his mate Dan. Blakes done plenty of the Super deep with great success but Dans done a few trips out there in his own boat and is the expert green eye slayer ha ha

Blake said Dan would be wrapped to get out on your boat and something we have spoken about ages ago!

I've got plenty of Super Deep fish in the freezer so I said to the boys I will skipper and you guys get some fish for the freezer!

The plans gentlemans hour launch and we didnt get out there until after lunch. I dont like going back to the same spots all the time so I mix it up (farm my spots)!!

The first few spots were sounder quiet and If I dont see fish I dont drop as its a waist of time. After burning up many hours on the search at some old spots I just had to visit one more spot that I hadnt fished for ages!

After sounding around I found a dense school sitting higher up the water column and Blake said Blue Eye your reckon........ I said yep. Ironically I mainly get bass/hapuku and greyband at that spot but theres always suprises out there!

Dan baits up, drops down and whamo he's on. This fish or fishes is going really hard and puts up a great fight in 300m of water (all manual wind up). I said leave the hooked fish down for a double header and that he did!

Dan was wrapped his " First Super Deep fish" and a quality double header of Blue Eye Trevalla at that!

Dan looses his green eye slayer  status ha ha

Dans into the Corona's after that and was loving the Super Deep =)

Blakes next, does a drop hooks a solid fish also ......he waits for the double mmhhh nope not going to happen so up it came (manual wind up)

Blakes lands a solid Blue Eye Trevalla but no wonder he didnt get a chance for a double as the greedy fish eats both baits ha ha

Blake saying you drop Ryan.....nah all good mate you drop one bait down and lets get you your bag and cruise on in!

Blake gets another Blue Eye Trevalla and off we went!

A great day on the water, great conditions, good company and good to see an old spot fire up!

Gear used;

* Daiwa Megatwin 1000 electric reel (With JM drag upgrade)

* Jigging Master Evolution Titanium 400 overhead rod

* Berkley whiplash Braid 80lb

* Oceanside Custom Super Deep Rig

* 48oz sinker (drift wasnt too fast)

* Whole slimy mackerel baits (butterfly/tail cut out)

 Went out with Aqualib off Madurah yesterday and just wanted to say how good it was. Had us in the rig spots all day and everyone ended up with a keeper and after dividing up the dhuies we all left with a couple of kilos. Highlight was an arsey Dutchman who hadn't been fishing since he was 10 ended up with a 20.5kg beast.

60 n 70 cm :)

Hi,

went out fishing with 2 mates today, launched from Quindalup ramp and shortly after were in 100 foot of water with rods in the water

returned back to the ramp 4 hours later with 85 Sand Whiting in the catch containers

All undersized fish were returned to the water, so all taken home were a good size

It was a very different way of fishing, as they used very small hooks with large sinkers to get the baits down to the sand fast

I was using larger hooks and getting nothing, even though I was sitting beside them using the same baits, so I packed my rod/reel away and used a spare they had in the boat.

I then was adding as much to the catch buckets as each of them were

was a gr8 morning out there fishing with some whales breaching many times, they were only a few hundred mtrs away

Hi,

went out to rotto on saturday and had a cracker off a day. bag out in about 6 hours and beautiful weather.

Caught 3 pinkies - 59cm, 62cm, 81cm. - 2 Breaksea Cod (blackass) - 41cm, 50cm - 1 Red Snapper - 62cm

loads off tuna out there atm in front off rotto but only got a small one.

Just be careful out there coz there is heaps off whales

Cheers

A few pics from yesterday's jig session out with Whitey. Demersals were a bit slow apart from a  hectic 5 minute period where all 8 on board were loaded up with nice pinks. Sambos saved the day,a few donkeys in there as well. A few of the better fish.  

Cliffs pinkie on 300 g speed jig.....

Nice sambo on PE3 by Troy gave the Crostage and Caldia a nice workover. Drag was sizzling hot at the end!

My Amberjack. Go hard these little blighters!

Tims horse Sambo.

Hotogs fatty!

Cheers Craig, another great day out!

French angler on  a 1 DAY wild MAMA toman aka Giant Snakehead  hot pursuit with me.....

Many actions !!! Many misses !!! Many Fun !!!

Landed 5 X MAMA N 2 Singles Toman , all in 1 DAY trip.

What a day !!! haha !!!

Enjoys the topwater actions youtube clip !!!

Must watch !!! ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D5t1CZLaOQ

Highlight photo shots.....

6KG MAMA....

8KG MAMA......Monster catch !!!

After revisiting winter over the past 10 days, fishing opportunities have been limited, with only a few hours here and there proving fair enough to wet a line. Land based reports have been great, with the sand flats around the dunsborough area producing some thumping sand and yellowfin whiting. Specimens reaching 44cm have been a steady occurrance, as well as healthy numbers of 25-35cm fish. Herring have also been in and around the flats, and more than willing to smash any moving lure or bait in the area. Tailor have been around between dunsborough and the cape, with a couple of reports also coming from Busso way, both the jetty and wonnerup offerring tailor. The size has only been small, 25-40cm, but with the weather easing, and the swell on the drop, West coast beaches should start firing with the bigger  choppers and greenbacks.

From the boats, a few reports came in from last weekend, with Sambos, Small pinkies, and a few dhuies, including one horse caught by a local angler which bottomed out legit 24kg scales. The biggest dhuie that i have seen to date this year. A few choolos of small SBT have been popping up around the cape and in the bay, but no reports of fish being landed. You are doing well to keep up with them as they are on the move, and very flighty.

Crabs have been around in healthy numbers, with a few great sized blueys in amongst the ones caught. All the way back to busso on the first and second weed lines is the best place to drop your pots, also a great area to try and get a feed of KG Whiting. Fish the sandy holes in amongst the weed with prawns or squid and you should see the rewards.

The next few days look like they are going to be favourable to our species, and we look forward to hearing all the fishy tales Post GF and Long weekend. Until Next time, fish safe, fish hard, and good luck

 Headed to the d9 Friday arvo, never seen so many boats congregated in the 1 spot like that before, was like the boat show on water, the bro n I couldn't stop laughing when a charter boat rocked up with 20 or so on board, then there was the big cruiser with 6, a 6m genises with six, all up counted 80 boats, love to know how many lines were in the water any fish passing wouldve got tangled in all the lines lol

MAMA season, it time to rock N rolls...

For this trip, I brought 2 UK anglers to fish with me for monster MAMA toman aka Giant Snakehead in Thailand.

Both newbies to this kind of WILD fishing but under my supervision and great tips, all successfully landed their very first MAMA toman in Thailand.

Awesome fights !!! Awesome MAMA !!!

Enjoys some of the photos N vid youtube clip highlights......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcBlKd8HId4

What a beauty !!!

6KG MAMA !!!

Beautiful MAMA !!

[img]http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa221/888max/Alfin%20Boon%20Ma%20Day%201/fb7_zps11d9df3a.jpg[/img]

With a few whispers going around about the bream and chopper tailor biting a little early this year I thought I'll I'd go see for myself. Bottom line. Countless amounts of 25cm to 35cm choppers almost everycast, with this stand out river tailor being alot fatter and stronger than the others. But forget the tailor when ya having a ball landing  39.5cmTTT 37cmTTF Fat Female Blue Lip on your first river sesh of the year. She co-operated during the whole photo shoot and released very well. Whoo Hoo!!

 since they arent spawning yet the lucky omes would get hands on a run/fish.. these are caught sunday and monday night.. 

caught total of 9 so far and 4 days left till ban!! in sound ifcourse.. seen the grey white out on sunday night and took half of my fish (check fotos!!)

While i was trout fishing 2 of my workers headed to Cockburn sound looking to catch a snapper. I gave them directions to my secret spot , i nicknamed it the D9. Directions were ( Launch at Woodies, head south, when you see 30+ boats gathered in one spot , you are there )

Bloody pingers found my secret spot again

They set up to fish trying not to crowd any other boats , lol

They watched a few fish landed but were not having any luck, with some advice from a FW member ( keep trying ) they persisted until they got a run. Lost that fish (not to a shark ) and kept trying until one was finaly boated.

Ron with his first ever big Snapper

Soon Chad had his fish on the boat too

The guy's were very happy with a fish each and decided to call it a day . They just had to come by work to show off to me and brag about thier catch.

Well done guy's for being happy with one fish each and packing it in. Not well done for turning up to brag about it. Guess which 2 workers got to clean the toilet's today, ha ha sometimes it's good to be the boss .

Went and checked out my favourite western suburbs chopper spot early in the season and i was quietly surprised that they were around. got a few and kept one size one for dinner. Hopefully this is the signs for a good season like last year. 

Was down at the A Shed today waiting for the Dyfken to come back to Freo and watched a young bloke hook up a good ray, didn't give him much of a chance but it took him a while and he got it it in - just as well he had a heavy set-up. Good to see he got the photo and let it swim.

Don't know if you get on Fishwrecked but you can PM me if you want a few photo's emailed to you.

went to harvey dam sataday morning ,weather wasnt the best ,i lost my 2 big fish :(, but bigtuna got his 4 trout ,1 was given to another fisho who had no luck

A while ago, I was looking at some members' Life List on Roughfish.com. One member, Pat, had caught both the Cobra Snakehead (in Florida) and the Northern Snakehead (in Virginia). We started chatting about techniques to catch snakehead...and before I realized it, we were chatting about making a trip to Virginia for snakeheads!  :lol:

I didn't really envision making the trip so soon, but a number of things fell into place nicely and I was able to plan a weekend trip at a very low cost. Yeah!

June 28, 2012

At 11:30pm, I boarded the Megabus toward Washington. The journey was supposed to last about 12 hours, but we were held back at the border for 2 hours. For some reason, our driver was not allowed to cross the border and we had to have two new drivers come from Buffalo. Also, during a mid-trip break, one passenger boarded the wrong bus and we had to turn around to pick her up. We were late for a total of 2.5 hours...which was a pretty bad start to the trip.

June 29, 2012

Finally, at 1:30pm, I arrived at the Union Station in Washington DC. I quickly took the Metro to the airport to pick up the rental car, but with a departure time of 3:30pm, I was stuck in the terrible DC area rush hour traffic. Sigh...I just decided to relax and take it easy on the drive.

At 6pm, after a stop for food, ice and bait, I arrived at Point Lookout State Park in Maryland. I quickly found out that they do not allow sleeping in the car at the campsite...so I had to buy a tent (the only one left at the camp store...whew...talk about lucky!!!)  With things sorted out, I quickly set up camp...only to find that the site had a hard gravel ground where the tent pegs just can't even be pounded in. In the end, I just tied the tent to the picnic table and to the fire pit ring.



At long last it was time to head to the pier! The tide was filling in so I was in a hurry to get fishing before high tide sets in.

The late evening sun was setting as I cast out the first line.



I was using a 9' salmon/steelhead rod that I use for surf fishing. It was paired with a 4000 size reel with 30lb braid mainline. I used 15lb mono and #8 baitholder hooks to tie the high-low rig. I started the night using bloodworms for bait.

Here's where the epic species started. There was a chance that I could catch a Summer Flounder, but I didn't expect it on the very first cast! Here's a picture from one of the three flounders I caught on this trip. Here's species #216 - Summer Flounder (Paralichthys dentatus).



I was a little worried about the famous first cast curse because it was dead after that first fish. However, as the sky got dark, the hoards of Spot begain to bite...and I checked off another important target! Species #217 - Spot (Leiostomus xanthurus). I used another picture of a Spot I caught the next morning...the night time pics were just not that great.



Among the tens of Spots biting, I found a fish that put up a little more fight. It was a puppy drum about 9". I've caught Red Drum before, but they are always fun.



I kept a couple of smaller Spots as bait since I was told the Bluefish will start terrorizing the baitfish after dark. Like clockwork, they appeared and you could hear some bluefish blitz occurring every several minutes. Sometimes, you could see a Spot jump on the surface trying to get away from a bluefish. Using cut Spots, I landed about 6 bluefish. They didn't really want a mug shot.



I was fishing hard hoping to find an Atlantic Croaker, however, the Spots and Red Drum kept biting...and even this little linesider came in to spoil my quest! Even at 12", this Striped Bass gave a good accord of itself.



Before long, we saw some flashes of light in the distance. At first, we thought it was just pre-July 4th fireworks...but soon, the light show got closer and we could hear thunder. The wind picked up really quick and we were forced off the pier. I ended up driving in horizontal rain and had to dodged a couple of times to flying broken branches. Pine cones were flying sideways!

Instead of sleeping in the tent, I ended up sleeping in the car afterall.  :roll:  I was worried about trees crashing down and lightning strikes. There were so many lightning strikes that the sky looked blue constantly!



June 30, 2012

After a night of storm, I really didn't know what to expect. I woke up at 5am and made my way to the pier. Surprisingly, the sea was very calm. I didn't know if the fish would shut down, but my first cast yield my target species! This was another picture from one of the three Atlantic Croaker I caught that day. They only bit for an hour between 5am-6am. Species #218 - Atlantic Croaker (Micropogonias undulatus)



The fishing was slow to begin. It was low tide at 4am and the tide was just starting to move. As the current got stronger, the bite improved. There was all-you-can-catch Spots...but after a while, it got a bit boring. I was looking for new species but it was just Spots.

I poked around a pier piling to see if I can find an Oyster Toadfish...but instead, I found a school of juvenile Striped Bass. It was Striped Bass on every drop and I even had a couple of double headers on the same rig!



The best thing of all...I had it all to myself!!!



I was soaking half a Spot because these guys were around. The Cownose Ray were spawning and you could see either a single pair or a group of 5-6 circling each other.



After the Striped Bass bite dried out, I noticed a number of small silvery bait fish in near the piling. I thought they may be Silversides...and indeed they were! Species #219 - Atlantic Silverside (Menidia menidia). The thought of using them for bait strangely didn't cross my mind...who knows...



At about 11pm, nothing was really going on...so I went inshore to check out the beach area. I noticed 5-6 large rocks that jutted out from the rock jetty protecting the shorelines. It was just covered by the water. I sent out a test cast to see if there could be Oyster Toadfish hiding near the rocks...but instead, it was a puppy drum fest for an hour!!!



Again, it was so crazy that I had a few double headers on the same rig...



And this was the biggest of them...



It was getting very hot by 12pm. I was going to head back to camp, but I passed by this marina on the way back and found a little marshland with a lot of smaller baitfish.





There are a few smaller species that I wanted to catch. Using #20 hooks and 2lb line, I quickly found a Species #220 - Striped Killifish (Fundulus majalis)!

Female



Male



There were a lot of cool little Sheepshead Minnows spawning, but they just couldn’t be bothered with squid, bloodworm or bread.

However, the Mummichog were very aggressive. I had to upsize the hooks since they kept swallowing them! Species #221 – Mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus)

   


After catching a few of them, it really was too hot to stay out much long It was hot all weekend in fact. None of the days were below 105F...and the night was no cooler than 80F. I had trouble sleeping the night before in the heat, so I thought I'd get a bit of sleep during the day. I moved my tent under the shade of the tree. When I moved my tent, I found two Mud Turtle hiding under my tent.



I think I only got a hour of shut eyes before it was way too hot to sleep. Instead, I went to check out the Civil War Museum and Marshland display to catch some A/C  :lol:  I did learn that Point Lookout served as the largest prisoner encampment and site of a major hospital during the Civil War. There was quite a bit of artifact from the war.

At about 4:30pm, I decided to head to the pier and fish some more…since I can’t sleep anyways.

The pier had a few people. The bite was almost non-existent. Even the Spot was not willing to bite. Instead, I cast out a whole squid on my heavy rod to see if the Cownose Ray wanted to play.

While soaking the squid, I went to the set of rocks by the jetty to see if the Red Drums were around. On my first cast, I thought I had snagged one of the rocks. I pulled on it a little and my line budged a little. I had a small bite and I went to set the hook. Again, it felt like I had snagged bottom. I tug on it again, but this time, something started to pull back.

At first, the fish pulled pretty strong, but nothing that made me thing anything else but a big Red Fish or Atlantic Croaker. However, the fish soon picked up speed and I could feel some very big head shakes!

As the fish screamed off half my spool, I had to start following the fish down the pier toward deep water. About 100 yards off the pier, I saw something surfaced and it was a big Cownose Ray! I thought…NO WAY! That’s can’t be my fish! But indeed it was…and it was heading to the ocean!

With a quarter of my spool left, the fish suddenly slowed and then stopped running. We were at a dead stalemate. I thumbed the spool to stop the fish from gaining line, but at the same time, I could not put line back on the reel. At this point, I started walking backwards slowly and started pulling the ray back. Inch by inch, I started to gain back some line. With every two inches gained, the ray took back an inch. It was about 15 minutes of slow lift and fast crank to gain some line. At long last, I had the fish close to the pier and in shallow water of the beach. I was chatting with a guy from Florida earlier and he volunteered to leader the fish to me. We had the fish in about 2 feet of water. I had my hands fully occupied so I couldn’t take any pictures of the ray in shallow water  :(  As soon as the guy put a little pressure on the 15lb mono, the line snapped at the hook. I still can’t believe how I was able to stop the ray and reeled it all the way to the beach without having the 15lb mono snapped earlier. It was also amazing that the #8 baitholder hook had held this entire time! I have new respect for my salmon/steelhead rod since it did an amazing job the entire time cushioning all the sudden wing beats the ray made. I don’t think I can forget that fight ever! Too bad it was not a fair catch…because we did get it to leader and it would have counted if it was fairly hooked.

The rest of the night was slow. The storm must have messed up the night bite and there was another thunderstorm headed to us. I called it an early night at 9pm.

July 1, 2012

I woke up at 5:30am to break camp and head on the road. Before I left Point Lookout, I took a picture of the Civil War memorial.



Since it was the weekend, it was smooth driving with very light traffic. I made it to Pat’s apartment and we were soon strategizing the day’s target.

Pat has a special spot that we would check later at low tide. However, since the tide was still dropping, we decided to fish the creek behind his apartment for some new creek species. We didn’t have any bait so it took a couple of pet shops to find red wrigglers.

This creek is very shallow. In the heat, it was great to wet wade in sandals and shorts! The creek has a lot of Redbreast Sunfish…and it took all of 30 seconds to put one on my list! Species #222 – Redbreast Sunfish (Lepomis auritus)!



There were a lot of little minnows quickly gobbling up the bait. They were Satinfin Shiners, amazingly beautiful little fish. Species #223 – Satinfin Shiner (Cyprinella analostana)



There were also a few Swallowtail Shiners (Notropis procne) around – Species #224!



In the midst of catching Redbreast Sunfish and Bluegill Sunfish, I caught a sunfish that didn’t look like either…so anything I’ve seen before. I think this is a juvenile Redear Sunfish (Lepomis microlophus). I have looked at a few pictures on the web and it seems most consistent. If indeed true, it would be a new species too. But for now, I’m not counting yet until verified.



I also saw what appeared to be a Yellow Bullhead swimming among the big boulders. I had it hooked but there were a couple of branches in the way that interfered with my hookset. So close!

At 12pm, Pat said we should hit his low tide spot. I changed into swim shorts and surf booties since we would be wading at least waist deep.

We were to fish a culvert area where the Northern Snakehead like to ambush and hunt on the low tide. When we first arrive, we already spotted a snakehead in about 6” of water. However, it saw us and quickly departed. As we made a couple of cast out across the mouth of the culvert, we saw another snakehead moved in very shallow toward us. I flipped my topwater frog beyond the fish and worked it in front of the fish. The fish quickly showed interest and inched forward. I twitched the frog forward and let it sit. The fish inched forward again. As I made a second twitch, the fish rushed up and engulfed it!!!

I felt the fish on the tightening line and set the hook…but somehow the hook didn’t set! Darn!!!

So Pat and I went back to casting across the culvert mouth. On my second cast across, another snakehead blew up on my frog! Again, the hook didn’t set!!!

Pat went up to the top of the culvert (about 10 feet above water) and spotted a couple of 15lb range snakeheads! They didn’t really want to play. We then spotted a couple of snakeheads moving up over a bunch of fallen leaves. Pat explained that the snakehead favours fallen leaves since that provide the perfect camouflage with their body patterns. We pitched out lures at them but the fish only followed. Pat went to the other side of the culvert mouth and cast outward toward deep water. A few casts later, I caught a huge jump at the corner of my eye and Pat hooked into a mad snakehead!

What an awesome fish!



I switched to Pat’s favourite snakehead lure and gave that a shot from the top of the culvert. I had one follow and then didn’t spot any more fish. Pat and I traded spots and I got a small snakehead to hit but missed. On the next cast, a larger snakehead followed toward shore but then backed up after seeing me. I tried a few following up casts aimed in front of the path of travel, but the fish simply ignored the lure.

When the bites dried up, we decided to try further downstream. We got to this one spot under a few bridges and there Pat hooked into a couple of bass. I had a snakehead screamed toward my lure from 90 degrees with a huge V-wake but the fish didn’t commit.

After a while, we decided to head back to the culvert for a look. Not too long after we arrived, Pat spotted a snakedhead right below our feet and managed to get it to hit yo-yoing the lure!



We saw a few more fish but none wanted to commit. At the end of our session, I had a snakehead sneaked up on me and I tried to jig the lure in front of its face. However, it just backed up and slowly moved away. Snakeheads are super confident fish. Unless startled, they showed a lot of confidence and rarely do they show fear.

We made it back across the creek just in time. Since the tide was moving in, the water was deeper and I was now wading almost armpit high!

I had planned to try some catfishing on the Potomac in the evening. However, I’ve been up since 5am and we fished all day. I decided to head back to the hotel early and catch some sleep. I never did catch much sleep that night with the vision of the two snakeheads strikes repeating in my head. I wondered if that was my only chance I’ll ever have.

July 2, 2012

My 45 min drive from the hotel to Pat’s apartment turned into a 1.5 hour drive during rush hour (it started at 6:30am…that’s insane!)  When I finally arrived at Pat’s house, he came with all the gear ready to hit the water. We decided to start the morning fishing on the Potomac River for snakeheads. Pat has a few spots that produced in the past on higher water tides.

We both put on Pat’s favourite lures and started to work the banks. We would cast parallel to the shore, working from very tight to shore to out in the depths. Snakeheads often sit very shallow and tight to shore. We worked a good section of shorelines and Pat caught a couple of bass but no snakehead.

We finally arrived at this little cove. The cover had some deadfalls with two big logs on either side of the cove. Pat worked one side while I worked the other side. On one cast, Pat saw the mouth and gills flared open on his lure as a snakehead grabbed and missed the lure. He had this fish came out against the log. I immediately threw a few casts against my log. On one cast, I aimed the lure to hit just beyond the tip of the log and in line for the retrieve to pass right between two submerged branches. Just as the lure passed the first branch, I heard a big explosion and my rod loaded up! I set the hook for security and it was on! At this point, I was not sure if it was a snakehead or not, but the muddy bottom was completely stirred up by the fish. Finally, I saw a long shape! My heart was pounding and my knees were shaking! I told Pat it was a snakehead and he ran over to help with the landing. The fish didn’t want to cooperate and wriggled out of Pat’s grip. I was so afraid the hook may come out, but Pat finally got a good hold of the slimy fish and we walked well away from shore with it.

YES!!! Northern Snakehead!!! This was my premier freshwater target of this trip. There is no word to describe the feeling at all!!! Species #225 – Northern Snakehead (Channa argus)

The pattern is so freaking cool! And it was a nice specimen as well. As Pat describe, this is truly THE roughfish trophy for roughfishers!







Pat said that just as I hooked my fish, he had a fish missed his lure too. We worked the area after the photo session but didn’t get any more hits.

So we moved on downstream. Pat made one cast out from shore and got nails with a snakehead too!



Pat and I split apart for a while checking out different waters. I saw a surfacing snakehead but that fish didn’t want to play. Pat also saw another snakehead that refused to hit.

With snakehead checked off, we decided it was time to try for a Blue Catfish. We don’t have Blue Snakehead in Ontario so it was definitely something I want to catch. The Potomac has lots of them to the point of annoyance from these introduced fish. Pat caught a couple of white perch to use as cut bait and I rigged up with a 2oz bank sinkers, 15lb mono leader and a 5/0 circle hooks. Although I had a couple of pick ups, the fish dropped the bait in both cases. At about 12:15pm, we decided to have lunch before checking another spot for Blue Catfish.

After lunch, Pat and I walked from our cool little burger joint to the shored of the Potomac, right across the Washington Memorial.

Pat caught a bluegill and I cut a chunk and cast it out. There wasn’t much going on but the sunfish, white bass, yellow perch and even a channel catfish gave Pat some fun. About an hour later, I finally had a bite but the circle hook didn’t set. When I reeled in, I found the chunk of bait had wrapped around the hook point.

I tried fishing shallow since Pat caught the channel catfish in close. It was soaking for a couple of minutes and Pat suggest I should really fish deep since Blue Catfish prefers deeper water. As I was reeling my bait in, it was hit but the hook did not set.

I made a cast into deeper water again. About 15min later, I finally got a good run. I tightened the drag and felt the fish. I sweep the rod to set the circle hook but then it felt slack. I thought the fish may have dropped the bait again, but apparently the fish was just running at me. After a nice little tussle, I saw a catfish in the water. The slate bluish grey suggest that this would be my first Blue Catfish! Species #226 – Blue Catfish (Ictalurus furcatus)





With the two top freshwater water accomplished, we decided to go fish the creek again. There were still two more species I want to check off – the Tessellated Darter and Yellow Bullhead.

Pat let me try out his tanago rod rigged with the special small tanago hooks. This setup is the absolute perfect method to catch many of the small fish species. After trying it out, I want one now LOL.

The difficulty in catching the darter is really to avoid all the shiners that swarm any bait presented in the water. I found a little spot where there were no shiners. When I presented the bait gently into the water, one darter came over and showed interested. They had this interesting behaviour where they appear to poke their head in front of the bait before flaring the gills and fins to take the bait. I saw the bite and quickly set the hook! With the limber tip of the tanago rod, you could even feel the little fish bite! Species #227 – Tessellated Darter (Etheostoma olmstedi)!



With the darter checked off, I returned to the hunt for a Yellow Bullhead. Although they can be found in Ontario, they are very elusive. I put on a 1/32oz jighead and put on a whole red wriggler. I quickly spotted a Yellow Bullhead under the rock and dropped bait into the area. I lost sight of the bait as there was another boulder blocking my view, but my line tightened and I set the hook. I could see the bullhead struggling in the water and finally I caught my Yellow Bullhead! This was high on my list since this was probably my best chance to catch one. Species #228 – Yellow Bullhead (Ameiurus natalis)



We played around the creek some more catch Redbreast Sunfish, Bluegills, Satinfin Shiner and Swallowtail Shiner. Pat thought he saw some Blackchin Shiner. Both of us tried to see if we can get them to hit and hooked. I finally had one hooked but it wriggled off the hook before I can get a good look. Pat thought he had one but it ended up being a Creek Chub. At about 6pm, I had to get ready to pack and leave.

However, Pat suggested that I should try a little creek for a few minutes to see if I can add a couple of micro species before leaving.

We drove over to the little creek and a short hike later we were looking at a school of Mosquitofish. They were very eager to bite and it took very little to add one more species! This is for sure the smallest species I’ve caught thus far. The female was only 1” long! It was way cool to target and catch such as small fish! Species #229 – Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)



We looked across the creek and found some fish near the margin of shore hiding among some emergent plants. It took a few tries since the sunfish were relentless, but finally, I caught a Banded Killifish! Pat said there were lots in this creek but he didn’t spot any good number of them. I managed to find this one among a school of juvenile Largemouth Bass and sunfish. Species #230 – Banded Killifish (Fundulus diaphanus)



With that last species, my trip came to a close. I packed my gear in the parking lot and Pat offered me a shower. We loaded some pictures onto Pat’s computer and at 8pm, it was really time to go. I thanked Pat again and suggest again that he should visit me soon so we can chase a few new species for him.

At 9pm, I finally returned the rental car, took the Metro to Union Station, grabbed a McDonald dinner and finally boarded the bud at 11:45pm. The ride back to Toronto was fairly on time. We were only 30min late and that’s pretty good.

I had such a fun and productive trip! The bus ride was certainly interesting and the camping was another one of those trips-from-hell in my bucket list LOL. The fishing was phenomenal in the sense that all my major targets were properly targeted and caught! This was very rare since most times my target list is long and most of the targets were left unachieved for one reason or other. This time, Pat’s expertise and perfect conditions made everything happened according to plan. I can’t thank Pat enough for making this trip a dream come true, especially the awesome Northern Snakehead and Blue Catfish that has forever been etched in my mind!

In total, I caught 15 new species (16 if that is indeed a Redear Sunfish) with 4 other species I've caught before (Red Drum, Striped Bass, Bluefish and Bluegill Sunfish). :D