So here's the recap of week 1, the 18th through 23rd.Monday: 6/18
Hit the Shenendoah River from abou 6:30 to 9 and ended up with 12 smallies and 1 largemouth. All of the fish were caught near faster water chutes & current seams. Caught them bouncing a Winco Predator Craw down the chutes & then working a spinnerbait, smaller X-rap & buzzbait fast. All were little guys, with nothing over 13", but still fast action for about 2.5 hours.
Tuesday: 6/19
Already posted this earlier, but fished a subdivision pond for the first time this year. The largemouth were loving the wacky rig, with 7 of 11 largemouth caught on it. The biggest, at 16.5" came on a Zoom Finesse worm on a shaky head. Here's a 15.5", the biggest on the wacky rig.
Wednesday: 6/20
This day was so stinking hot, decided to hit a small stream that I could wade in & pull the kayak behind me. And then hop in to float back down to the launch. I ended up with 7 smallies, the biggest going 14.5" inches that hit a 2.75" tube drifted along the deeper channel. All the fish were caught along the deeper side channels, in & out of shade, drifting some type of plastic. Majority of fish came on a Winco Warm Water Delight craw, that's a small profile & perfect for little streams.
THursday: 6/21
Spent the evening after work fishing my favorite subdivision pond with the Commander. Shant was supposed to meet me, but couldn't get away from work. So gave it my best shot alone. I went from 6-9:45 & started off nailing the fish along one bank with the good old wacky rig. That lure works so well here because of the amount of grass/brush lining the shores. THis guy was the biggest as I was starting out.
Then as it started to get dark & got a break from the heat, started throwing the War Eagle Finesse spinnerbait. About 9 I started working down the same bank at the beginning. The idea was to hit that & then jump over to another nearby bank that holds bigger fish. Caught a little 12" one on the first bank & then hopped over to the other. About 9:30, I made a cast to the point & started the fast retrieve just under the surface. Didn't get very far & felt the thump, but didn't realize how big it was till it jumped next to the kayak. After a couple of minutes, this 19.25" largemouth was in the Commander.
I ended up with 8 largemouth, 6 on the wacky rig & 2 on the spinnerbait
Saturday: 6/23 (am)
Fished the Potomac with DanMarino (Tom). He already posted up a report that I added to, so here's the quick recap for me. After a tough start to find a pattern, I ended up with 10 smallies. Biggest went 14.75" that nailed my new favorite lure, the 08 size shad pattern X-rap. I got 7 on that, with a Wino River Darter & same War Eagle spinnerbait taking another. Here's the chunky 14.75"
Tom found the pattern of the day with this smallie. They were in or near faster current chutes & also the push water above ledge rock rapids.
This is a great float that I'll be back to a few times this year.
Saturday: 6/23 (pm)
Fished the Shenendoah from 6:45 to about 9:15. Ended up with 12 smallies, but no big girls again. Average size was probably 10". But I had fun catching them on the same X-rap. I've been doing very well with that lure over the last month or so, sticking with a very fast/erractic retrieve.
Fish tonight were found next to fast water chutes.
So that's week 1. Stay tuned for week # 2
