Week of 11/2-11/9 Northern VA

[one100grand]

I decided that I probably go fishing too much to do a report every time I go and I'd like to provide as much information as possible without flooding the forum, so I'm going to try to do a week in review for fishing by day.
11/2-3 - I went out in the Potomac River in the area around Little Hunting Creek, this is one of my favorite spots because it's very close to my house & I can always find something biting. I'll typically throw my cast net and put a line out with a shiner while I toss lures to try and catch bass. In this spot, I've caught large crappie, largemouth & smallmouth bass, stripers, catfish, yellow & white perch, and I've even seen snakeheads caught (I'm still hoping to catch one myself), so needless to say there's always something. On the 2nd, I got a pretty good load of shiners on a single cast and ended up catching a couple of stripers, a couple of catfish, and found one of the largest yellow perch I've ever caught (12.5" long). On the 3rd, much of the same, except it was raining heavily, which usually means it's a good time for stripers, but I found a school of massive yellow perch, I hauled in around a dozen that ranged between 12-14.5" on light tackle, which made it an absolute blast.
11/6 - My buddy and I went out to the same spot for catfish and caught 3 fish that were between 5-10 LBS, and one that was right around 18 LBS. I didn't take pictures as this was just an hour or so out enjoying a little bit of night fishing from the bank.
11/8 - Back to the same spot, caught a couple of small bass on a small spinner, I was hoping to catch some crappie, but no such luck on this day. This was a short trip with not too many memorable fish, only caught around 8-10 fish with nothing of note.
11/9 - I brought out my boat for the first time! I bought it in late September and have been working on getting it seaworthy - after replacing the transom and repairing all the leaks around the rivets, it was time to bring her out and see if my work paid off [-o< It went very well, with the boat taking on a small amount of water through the drainage hole, but for a 7 hour trip, we had to bail about 2" of water out of the bottom twice. This trip was to Fountainhead Reservoir in Fairfax Station, VA; this has always been one of my favorite spots also, but since I've never owned a boat, I couldn't really explore it too well. We ran the boat a mile or so along the bank, fishing exclusively for largemouth bass. It was a bit windy and we weren't getting any hits along the shore, but the first cove we bumped into was very nice with my partner in crime catching a very nice fish on a Yamamoto 5" Senko Chartreuse/Shad. I worked a couple of crankbaits & spinners, but with nothing. I switched up to a Bitsy Bug 1/4 oz jig w/a watermelon paca craw trailer and missed a few hookups. I'm just learning to fish jigs, so I'm expecting that this is just part of the learning curve. Throughout the day, missing hookups was my M.O. as I missed probably a dozen fish. As the day wore on, I began to get concerned I wasn't going to catch anything as Julio kept nailing decent fish on the same bait. Eventually, I switched and immediately hooked up with a couple of decent fish :roll: guess I should have swapped earlier, but I just wanted to try and land something with a jig.

Overall it was a fun week of going out, bringing out the boat was a great experience and the fishing was pretty good all week long.

 

[Captain Ahab]

WTG man - nice Yellow Neds

 

[Zum]

Nice report...s.
Glad your boat is working for you and you catching some fish.
Did you eat the perch?
They did look like nice fillets.

 

[one100grand]

I C&R'd most of the perch, but did keep 2 though to eat; I mostly C&R, but as the day wore on, I thought it might be nice to have some fresh fish

 

[slim357]

How have I not seen you down there (riverside), ive been down there at least 4 times this week. I'll see if I cant help you get some snakeheads come spring, they haven't been biting to much lately but right off the front, where the parking lot is gets packed with them in the spring and into the summer.

 

[one100grand]

Neither of those photos are me, they're my fishing buddy. I'm the big guy with long hair; I usually haul a black cart w/white PVC pole holders on the front. I don't tend to get out to that spot a lot during normal daylight hours, it's usually a little later in the day and I'll typically fish until 10-12 pm. I've tried fishing the front area by the parking lot and I haven't ever caught a thing there, it's been a total bust, so I always go down the by the creek and usually fish right next to the picnic table. Come introduce yourself sometime!

 

[slim357]

I don't tend to get out to that spot a lot during normal daylight hours, it's usually a little later in the day and I'll typically fish until 10-12 pm. I've tried fishing the front area by the parking lot and I haven't ever caught a thing there, it's been a total bust, so I always go down the by the creek and usually fish right next to the picnic table. Come introduce yourself sometime!

10am to 12pm? or 10pm to 12am? If you ever see me down there at midnight it most likely will be because my car wont start. lately with my work schedule Ive been going down around 3ish and staying till about dark. The front hasn't been to great to me this year but I did have a few days in the in the spring when I was able to smoke em, with either a swimjig spinnerbait or 4inch tube style swimbait. In the late spring thru the summer it was all about frogs, now with the grass almost gone Ive been doing best with flukes and sticks rigged weightless. Ill probably only fish down there a few more times this upcomming week, before heading for a warmer creek, that I like to fish in the winter.

 

[one100grand]

10 pm is about when I leave most days when I go, sometimes I stick around later. I'm typically just over the bridge by the picnic table. I'm planning on goin out again tomorrow unless the wife gives me a hard time about it...if you want to meet up, shoot me a message