View Full Version : Fletchers, 5-4-05, still good
Fished the Fletchers area from shore, 5-4-05, 6:30 to noon. Lots of hickories still there. Caught lots of small males and many decent females. Also caught 1 herring but no Americans. Others reported catching a few herring but I saw no herring in the shallows. Maybe thats a sign that the bluebacks are just now starting to form up for a run. Both spoons and jigs seem to work about the same. Water in good condition, vis 2'. Hard to say how much longer the hickories will hang around. I didn't expect to catch as many as I did today.
msusawyer
05-04-2005, 04:31 PM
There wasn't anything going on at CB this morning. Had 1 6" white perch and 1 10" smallie between 7:30 and noon. Went down to Fletcher's afterwards and didn't have anyluck flyrodding from shore upstream of Fletcher's. Didn't look like the boats were having much luck either, but could be wrong.
I may go to Fletcher's on Friday if I can talk a friend into going to share a boat. I'll just have to remember to leave before 3pm to beat the traffic (or stay till 7pm)
Salmo trutta
05-05-2005, 10:53 AM
Stay until 7 or later if you can. The fishing always pics up as the sun sets a little. Return the boat and fish from shore for a little while if you have to.
The blue back herring are in there pretty strong. Clouds of them can be seen around the rocks up stream of chain bridge and they can be easily caught on legal sibiki rigs down through fletchers area. The larger herring, river herring I think, are still around too. I'll probably give it one last shot this weekend before I give up on shad completely. Still waiting for the chain brige schoolie striper bite to develop. Haven't caught any on artificial this year yet but did miss a good fish on a bass assasin on Sunday. Maybe this weekend they'll take a fly?
I did see some herring activity on the surface and also felt a lot of tiny bumps on my lures. Probably herring that couldn't get a good bite on the large spoons and darts I was using. This should be the start of the blueback run. Normally when they spawning, they push way into the shallows chasing each other. But I didn't see that on Wednesday.
Fished from 3 pm to 8 pm yesterday and caught lots of Hickories. They were sitting deep in the column and taking a medium => slow retrieve. My friend and I also caught quite a few Schoolie Stripers off our shad flies. As to be expected from the size of our flies, most were dinks (6" up to 15") but, they were a welcomed site. Also caught a 2lb largemouth in some slow water.
All-in-all it was a pretty good day.
fish4evr
05-06-2005, 11:23 AM
Fished Tu-Th above Fletcher's this week and action was sporadic. Best action seemed to be the two hours on each side of full tide. Caught a fair amount of large Hickories still full of eggs, a handful of stripers <10" and a bunch of herring. I've pounded the river pretty hard over the last month and it is definitely slowing down. I'm surprised how big some of the herring are, I caught some fatties that were about 10" and pushing a pound. I've seen three larger stripers caught this week that ranged 18-30". Of course the 30" was by the VDGIF guys electrofishing... I hate to see the shad leave but am glad to see them go. I'm ready for stripers and smallmouth!