Fletchers, 4-23-05, tuff fishing

[HJS]

Fletchers, 4-23-05, fished early afternoon for about 2.5 hours. Started at Chain Bridge and fished all the points downstream about 1/3 mile. Had to work hard to get about 12-15 hickories - couple here couple there, no motherload today. I worked my way downstream to 2 spots where I did very good the day before but they just weren't biting this afternoon, or had move somewhere else. Afternoons have always been a tough time to fish for hickories and for me today was no exception. Partly cloudy at the started but heavy clouds moved in around 2:30. Water still running clear. No Americans, no herring. On Friday, fish were flipping all over the place but today surface activity was much reduced. Walking downstream from CB is more difficult than walking upstream from Fletchers.

Brandon - On my way home I drive thru torrential rains on I-270 from the DC Beltway all the way to Frederick before driving out of it. Cars pulling off and stopping all over the place. I have no idea how the T-storms will affect the river. North of Frederick got only light drizzle with no run-off. So who knows what the river will look like by Sunday.

[Brandon]

Thanks for the report! I am sitting at home thinking about what to do. We got some heavy rains here on the Easten Shore last night and I heard as you indicated that DC got a lot of rain.

Would not make it over there until the afternoon, so will have to see what the day brings. Might have to hit a local pond.

Thanks for the report!

[Tailing Loop]

Same here HJS. We made our way up from Gravelly Point at 5:30am and passed the stripers stacked below the lights under the bridges. some hickories were had and one Striper. John had the hot hand on the boat.

Fishing with Starrett was great fun though!! Looking forward to some bass come summertime Mike!!

Fishing was the worst I've ever seenfor what can be considered the "late middle" part of the run. I think I saw 1 bent rod from ther boats at the Fletcher's cove. Some guys were cattching tons of perch though.

[spilunkr]

Howard,

Enjoyed fishing with you before you headed down river. Except for that one hit I had before you left, I had no serious action until about 4:00 p.m. I had several fish follow on fast retireves but no hits. Then when the first sprinkles started to fall I moved back upriver a little closer to my car; back to the rock where we first started fishing and it was like somebody flipped a switch. In the 45 minutes before the sky opened up and the first bolt of lightning it was almost a hit a cast. For some reason I had a hard time keeping fish on my fly so I switched to a small silver spoon and started landing a much higher percentage of fish. In that last 45 minutes I probably landed 15/16 fish of over 20 hooked.

Guy

[Fishamajig]

4/22 was one fish after another all morning. We caught 30 apiece in about 3 hours, another guy beside us caught 100. We left to go catch catfish/bass/white perch down by Key Bridge.

Fishing is unpredictable, which is why we keep coming back !

[HJS]

Not sure why I titled this Fletchers because I actually started at Chain Bridge... force of habit I guess.

Guy - Good meeting you there. My shad switch wouldn't flip for me on Sunday. And with thunder rumbling in the distance I called it a day early. I fished many good seams off of points while moving downstream but none of them produced a single fish. It wasn't until I got down to where the river opened up that I started catching hickories again. But even then I'd catch 2-3 in just a couple of casts from area before it would shut down too. I'd have to move to the next seam at the next point before catching a few more. Dunno if they would spook after a couple of fish or what. I'd frequently see flashes after catching a few like they were all the sudden reluctant to continue hitting. I think it was more of a mid-afternoon slump and I didn't want to wait around for action to pick up.