Year of the Croaker

So after such a dismal few years of croaker they may be making a comeback this year. I've been out now two times with in the week and yesterday it all came together. A big shot out to my buddy Langston "Metroman" for clueing me in on where he found some fish a week and a half ago.

Anyways I set out last night to fish the tail end of rising tide on the Severn River. After my 1st not so successful attempt with only bloodworms I picked up some raw shrimp this time. Bait of choice was BW and Shrimp cocktail.

The action was pretty steady until just after dark when I called it quits. I was using a standard top/bottom rig with size 2 or size 1/0 hooks, some with spinners others without. Hooks didn't seem to make a different, but the shrimp definitely did.

I ended up catching about 25 croaker and a few perch from 13-22 feet of water. Most of the croaker were keepers and the biggest went 14". I was using my PVC rod holders and allowing the rod to double over before I set the hook, I did miss some fish, but this allowed me to fish two rods. I had a number of double hook ups as well.

 

The only two that measured for Kayak Wars, but still a great time on the water.

 

Good luck to those that get out after them, maybe you'll see me out there.

 

Once again all fish caught on Overboard Rods!!! Get yours today at All Tackle in Annapolis!!

 

MAKBF Event #2 - Recap

The 2nd event took place this past weekend at the Occoquan Reservoir in Woodbridge, VA. The idea was to spread out the locations to hopefully allow more people to come to events that couldn't make another event that was further away. And to also fish different types of water to crown a  true Angler of the Year. Unfortunately this may need to be reconsidered as the turn at the 2nd event was much lower than the 1st event.

Anyways we all had a great time. Thirteen of us headed out into the reservoir in search for the longest aggregate length for 3 Largemouth or Smallmouth Bass (CPR of course). It turned out to be a tough day of fishing with less than half the crowd turning in the bag limit of 3 fish.

I fished mostly lay downs and underwater timber all day with my go to Rapala DT6 crankbait  in Smash color.  I had pre-fished the night before and caught 2 bass on cranks within an hour, so I knew if I was persistent all day I should be able to at least catch the limit, even if they weren't big fish. After winning the first event it put me in good running for Angler of the Year, so my goal for each event now is to 1st catch 3 fish, then worry about upgrading, because sometimes catching the limit and actually photo'ing the fish can be a challenge.

It was a slow tournament day, I set off with Shane (Reelaxin) and we both worked hard continuously casting to both only be rewarded with 22" blue cats on cranks and spinners. We both thought we had solid bass on at first and then we felt the death roll of the cats. What a Tease!!!

We pushed on... I made a move to further down the reservoir while Shane continued to work a big laydown where he was rewarded with a 17.5" beauty on a wacky rigged worm. At this point I had caught up with my Dad and we were fishing the same general area. He put one fish in the boat, so we both started working the same area hard with our cranks.. after 15 minutes at this spot I had my limit. Nothing huge but 3 fish in the boat.

A total of 39.75" was what I ended up with for the day.

 

I fish the rest of the day only to upgrade a 10" fish to a 10.5" fish. But I knew I had caught the limit and was hearing from a lot of the guys that they had either lost a big one or only had 2 fish. I did not know what my Dad finished with until we checked in the fish and sure enough he sneaked past me, but I was pumped for him as this was only his second tournament and probably only his tenth time in the kayak. Both mine and my Dad's fish were all caught on Overboard Rods paired with Crankbaits with brown and yellow coloration.

 

 

10th - Steve Sekula
9th - Dave Thompson "turtle135"
8th - Will Pezzuto
7th - Alberto Tabian "berto"
6th - Shane Clift "reelaxin"
5th - Jon Snyder "Jsnyd"
4th - Andy Gaiser
3rd - Matt Baden
2nd - Dave Baden
1st - Bryan Herndon "heardoncatch" (Big Bass Winner 18.5")

The big bass prize was sponsored by Power Team Lures, a local lure company located in VA. Bryan took home a $100 gift certificate for big bass on top of his winnings. He even caught the big bass on a Power Team Lure 7" Tickler worm.

Again we were also able to raise some more money for HOW - MD!!!

 

I can't wait for the next event June 22nd at Point of Rocks on the Upper Potomac River. It will for sure be my first time fishing these waters in a kayak and hopefully it will be at least my first 3 smallmouth bass in the yak. Look forward to seeing everyone there!!

 

Angler of the Year Standings

 

Matt Baden - 18

Jon Snyder - 11
Bryan Herndon - 10
Shane Clift - 9
Dave Baden - 9
Jeff Adlington - 9
Dave Thompson - 8
Mike Soudee - 8
Wayne Chimielewski -7
Andy Gaiser - 7
Alberto Tabian - 4
Will Pezzuto - 3
CJ Espey - 3
Dave Adlington - 2
Zach Huntington -1
Steve Sekula - 1

Make the most of it!!

On Monday I headed back to the lake at my parents house to try and get some crappie points for Kayak Wars since I tore them up the week before. Also, I was planning on taking my boat out the next day with my buddy Capt. Luke and his dad to chase the elusive Black Drum that make a short windowed appearance in the middle Chesapeake Bay during the month of May. But I'll get to that story.....

So I got to the lake and launched at about 2pm... planning to target crappie for most of the day then try for some largemouth on the evening bite. Since I had fished the day before in VA at Briery Creek Lake I still had some topwater tied on. After launching I decided why not throw the popper in the 1st cove, which is generally shaded most of the day to see what happens... fourth cast of the day.....BOOOM solid blow up underneath some hanging tree limbs that were bordered by underwater laydowns and brush on both sides. The fish immediately started zipping drag and the fight was on..
I was certainly afraid that I would get tangled up in the brush as the fish made a number of runs, and a jump as she got close to the yak. I knew it was a big fish so I played it cautiously until I could get the net cleanly...BAM fish in the boat!! Measured out to 21.5" and 6 lbs on the scale. A few pictures and she was off to be caught again.

10th Largemouth Citation on the Kayak

 

I continued to go on and catch a boat load of crappie the rest of the afternoon, but only 7 were over 12", with most being just shy of 12". I generally troll slowly for best success, but I will also cast when I find a good school on the fish finder.

 

This is my go to crappie lure, DOA 1/8oz jig head with a Doc Irv Custom Baits Grub Tail in smoke color.

 

 

 

Day two started out just fine... I got the boat and trailer loaded up behind the car and had everything prepped for some light tackle monster drum fishing.

The rig looks awesome with all my toys!!

 

Unfortunately, the motor gave us issues from the start. She didn't want to turn over... then we got her running... and let her run for a bit... then we thought we were set. Little did we know.... off we went out of the marina and 500 yds out she cuts off on us... couldn't start her up again... GOOD thing we brought the kayak paddle. WE started paddling back towards the marina hoping another boat would venture out and give us a hand.

Finally a kind boater.

 

We get back to the dock and while I'm loading the boat back on the trailer we get talking to another slip holder at the marina. Luke asked him if he wanted to fish, that we had all the gear and would pitch in for fuel.... and wee were off!! How lucky is that... we made friends with a good guy and his pup Murphy and we were heading back out on the mission.

 

We fished a re-built Grady White 26 Wahoo Inboard Front Shaft, there are only less than 10 of these still on the water.

 

Off we went to the fishing grounds just outside of the Choptank River and south a bit. Overboard Rods rigged and ready with cut soft crab, egg sinkers, 60# leader, and a 8/0 octopus hook.

 

The way you fish for drum is you slowly motor around looking for lots of marks on the bottom of the fish finder before you drop the bait. You ideally want to put it right in front of their faces so they have to bite it.

 

 

After a little searching we found a decent enough school to make a drop, Luke misses then almost immediately hooks up on the second bite. Now the fiasco ensued... like always we make it interesting when we fish. Luke's Dad had snagged the bottom and was right in the way of where the fish was swimming. After trying to pass the lines up and over and under and around we decided to cut the other line and focus on this fish. Who knows it might be the only one we get. Luke is fighting the fish on a 7' MH Overboard Soul Pole Series rod with micro guides, essentially it is my LTJ rod for stripers. But we didn't want to only catch big fish, we wanted to do it sportingly.

 

After about a 10 minute or more fight, working the fish until it was dead tired we got it to the boat and I completed the net job. We usually don't care who reels in the fish as we fish a lot of tournaments and a fish in the boat is a team effort, so we were all stoked and posed for the a picture with the fish. Everyone was impressed with the durability of the Overboard Rods while fighting a 50# fish.

 

Me with the team's prize.

 

Our new Buddy Aaron with the 1st black drum on his boat!!

 

Capt. Luke at the end of the day with his beauty!

 

Unfortunately we weren't able to catch anymore, but we were robbed a few times of bait. But it was an awesome day that we really made the most of a lost cause!!

Our only other catch of the day and probably my most impressive catch to date... try and do that with that big of a hook.

5th Annual Yak Attack Tournament - My Mini Slam

 

The end to the last day of my 1st semester of Nursing School could not come soon enough this past Friday. I needed to make the trip to Farmville, VA for my first appearance at the Yak Attack event. The trip was originally advertised as 3.5 hours by my GPS turned into an almost 5.5 hour journey. I'm not the biggest fan of driving in the first place, but when there is traffic I absolutely despise it.

Anyways I made it to the CAMP right at 7pm to check in, get my captain's bag and to buy some raffle tickets. The Captain's Bag had some great stuff from some generous sponsors; polar bottle, powerteam lure assortment, 4 inch sample of the new YakAttack Polymer geartrac, and some stickers and other goodies.

I made my way around saying hi to some of the familiar faces and meeting some others. I was kind of there on my own as most of crew was either at the J-BAY event or back home. Fortunately, some of Tidewater crew (Richie Bekolay, Rob Choi, Joe Underwood and a bunch of others) that I knew took me in and let me hang with them for the two nights. Unfortunately, they didn't invite me fishing with them tournament day as they had a stellar day... But it was well deserved they had scouted the area for two days prior and really did their homework and I didn't want to step on anyone's toes and I definitely wasn't gonna ask to fish their holes, one of the unwritten rules of kayak fishing.

At night around the tent I did mostly listening, guys were telling stories of fish and tactics and all sorts of good stuff, so I was just trying to learn as much as I could from these guys, who are some of the best fishermen in the whole region.

Saturday rolled around bright and early... I was and Sandy River Reservoir and ready to launch by about 5:45 am with safe launch allowed at 6am. For the next 4 hours it flat out sucked... I had never fished this lake before so I was pretty much trying just about everything.

Eventually I caught up with Bryan (HearadonCatch), one of the only other Maryland guys that I knew. I was surprised to see him as he said he was fishing another locale, but he was late to rise so Sandy River is was. So we went to work.. sharing as much info as we both had which wasn't much cause we weren't catching much.

Anyways we fished trying to locate the SLAM (Bass, Bluegill, Crappie), which was the top prize for the tournament. Eventually after not much luck a tied on a 1/16 oz spinner bait and went to work, knowing that this type of lure had the potential to catch all three species... and it sure did... not only the 3 for the slam but a whole new set of 3 species.

 

This was the 1st Red Ear Sunfish I have ever caught.

 

 

 

Rock Bass was another new species for me!!

Both Bryan and I ended up catching our SLAMs and we were pretty happy considering the tough fishing for us on the new body of water. I ended up finishing 10th out of 75 in the SLAM Division with my Mini Slam of 27 inches and Bryan was just a spot or two behind me!!! So all in all we set out to catch 3 species and we accomplished it, next year we'll worry about getting some bigger ones.

The overall SLAM Champion ending up being Richie Bekolay, who is really on a roll... he also won the TKAA SLAM this past fall!! He is a solid all around fisherman.


Today I woke up and headed over Biery Creek Lake to check it out and fish. It was a really neat place I finished the day with 3-4 in the boat, hooked and lost 2 on the jump that were easily 18-20 inches, and missed another 6 or so blow ups on the frog.

 

Briery Creek Lake is trees and stumps for days...

Two weeks of fishing in pictures

Been super busy finishing up my semester of college and trying to fish a lot to relieve the stress. Not much time to type but here is what I've been up to.

First Days fish, not quite big enough

Dad with his biggest fish!!

Our Crew last weekend at the MSSA Striper Tournament, Placed in the top 4 in all Calcuttas in the Pro Division.

Our Crew last weekend at the MSSA Striper Tournament

My Girlfriend Elaina's Biggest Fish!!!

DE Striper

1st fish on my new Kanan Lures Swimbait!!!

Fried Cajun Rockfish Bites

Sautéed Rockfish with Onion topped with cheese and green beans

Off and Rolling!!!

The Mid-Atlantic Kayak Bass Fishing Series got off to a rolling start this past Saturday. The first stop of the four event series took place on Mattawoman Creek off of the Potomac River in Indian Head, MD. 32 participants showed up to take part in the event benefitting Heroes on the Water Maryland Chapter. This event was sponsored by Doc Irv Custom Baits. The series is set up for four events that will crown 1 Angler of the Year at the conclusion of the fourth event.

I got to the launch at about 5:40 and got all set up to start checking people in for the event as people steadily showed up all the way until 7:30 (launch time). After a quick review of the rules we all set out to launch, hitting the water at just after 7:30 am. About 25 of the 32 participants headed left out of the ramp up the creek so I decided to head the opposite direction. I had never fished down the creek toward the Potomac River, but I was going to give it my shot.

I started out throwing a white buzzbait trying to catch the tail end of the morning topwater bite, but it was to no avail. I then switched to a black and red spinner bait that I know fish had been caught on within the last week, but even that wasn't working for me as I worked all the lily pad groupings. I pushed deep in the pad all the way to the other side of the creek where I could fish the shoreline and the downed trees. I was fishing Overboard Soul Pole Rods all day.

The morning was slow with the spinner bait bite, but I stuck with it knowing it had worked before. I was able to manage one or two small bass no bigger than 12 inches. At this point I decided to push further down the creek, still working the shoreline, but trying to find a wider section of water with a little cleaner water.

I turned around a point and found a large open cove with a solid shoreline and some docks as well. At this point I decided to switch over to a Rapala DT4 Firetiger Crankbait. Almost immediately I got a couple bites from some small fish.  Then I connected with a 14.5" fish, and a 16" fish. I knew I had a shot if I could get another solid fish.  Shortly after while working the same shoreline I connected with a chunky 15.5" bass as a pair on a bass boat watched on.

Next bite I thought I had the tournament in the bag! My crankbait got exploded on and a solid fight ensued but I was to be let down as a decent channel cat showed himself at the top of the water column. Oh well, it was a fun fight.

I pushed on knowing I had 3 hours still to fish and to hopefully upgrade one or two of my fish. My original goal heading into the event was to break the 50" mark for the combined length of the three fish, I was sure that it would be a competitive number.

Perfect cast underneath a low hanging tree limb, the bottom consisted of rocky pebble as well. I retrieved the lure bouncing it on the bottom and pausing slightly between cranks when BAM, I got a solid hit and I fought it smartly directly into my net and in the boat. I may have yelled a few things out of excitement, much like Mike Iconelli. It measured out to be a solid 18" fish!! My total was now at 49.5" before noon, so I assumed I was in the running for the top spot.

I worked hard the rest of the day until about 2pm trying to upgrade my 15.5" fish in order to break the 50" mark, but it just wasn't meant to be. I finished the day with 10-12 bass, a channel cat, and a yellow perch. The other awesome part about todays tournament was my Dad fished the event with me as well. He started off the day a lot better than me with a 16" bass early on, but it was slow for him the rest of the day.

Once 3pm rolled around I started checking in everyone else's catches and verifying photos. A few nice fish were checked in including a 19" and 20" bass. Fortunately my number held up. I actually tied for 1st but I won on a tie breaker with the largest #1 fish.

1st Place Winner

I had a great time and was very happy with the turn out. It was good to meet some new people and put some faces with names. I'm already looking forward to the 2nd event!

5th Place - Dave "Turtle 135"

4th Place - Wayne (Chimo)

3rd Place - Mike (Chexone)

2nd Place - Jeff (Donkeyfish's Dad)

Big Bass and Hobie Kicker Winner - Mike (Chexone)

 

Top Ten:

10. Zachary Huntington - 41.5"

9. David (Donkeyfish) - 43"
8. CJ Espey - 43.25"
7. Shane (Reelaxin) - 44"
6. Jon (jsnyd86) - 44"
5. Dave (Turtle135) - 46.75"
4. Wayne (Chimo) - 48.5"
3. Mike (Chexone) - 49.25" <BIG BASS AWARD 20" LMB>
2. Jeff (Donkeyfish's Dad) - 49.5"
1. Matt Baden (CB Kayak 02) - 49.5" <Won on Tie-breaker, biggest #1 fish>

Tournament Scouting

Shane and I hit the water this morning at Slavin's Boat Ramp on Mattawoman Creek, the same location that will host the 1st MAKBF event next weekend, to do some scouting. It turned out to be somewhat of tough day. The wind was howling most of the day and area has been pretty heavily fished recently with the FLW Tour event taking place tomorrow. We went left out of the ramp and headed up towards the barge.

Shane got there a little before me and by the time I caught up with him he already had already caught a solid carp, but that wasn't the fish we were targeting. We wanted to find a good concentration of bass and maybe hook into a few snakeheads as well. Welp, we never really found any of that. 

We searched deep into the pads throwing topwater and numerous other baits. But it wasn't getting the results for us. Finally, I got a hit next to fallen tree and was able to wrangle in a 18.75" bass that was very healthy.

 

A little later I got my second hit in between the lily pads. It hit hard and made a couple runs on the drag, only to be surprised to have caught a Channel Cat, again not what I was going for, but I'll take the action cause there wasn't much of it today.

 

 

A short while later Shane hooked into a decent bass that measured a little over 16" or so.

 

Then I got my last fish for the day a 17" largemouth in a patch of lilies.

 

I was content with the quality of fish that I caught, but the tournament is the combined length of 3 total fish, so I will really need a third fish on tournament day. I don't think you'll be able to place without catching the limit as there are going to be some high quality anglers in the event.

 

Needless to say I can't wait for next weekend, Hope to see you there!!

 

Here is the schedule everyone for the event!!!

6:00 am - Registration opens ($20 cash only please)
7:30 am - Launch and lines in the water
2:30 pm - Lines out of the water3:00 pm - Check in starts
4:00 pm - Check in ends, must be in line by 4pm
4:30/5:00 - Awards and story telling