whaticaught.com
Winter/Spring Fishing -2009

The all-day class emphasized tournament fishing on the tidal Potomac and included discussions on rod basics, line selection, the Potomac River, topwater lures, crankbaits, boaters and co-anglers, jig versus football heads, electronics and grass fishing.

Spring thru fall the bass are in the grass!  Mann’s Baby 1-Minus crankbaits in craw
and baitfish patterns are great, working summer thru fall.  These shallow baits are
a tidal angler’s mainstay. Three edges include the inside and outside of grass as well
as the top edge.  Tides force baitfish to move or be eaten or swept away, so they
become visible targets for bass.  Stronger the water movement, more bait movement,
more bass feeding.

With higher water grass beds have more water under them, exposing crayfish in the
grass.  As tides come in, move in with moving baits like crankbaits and spinnerbaits.
When grass gets matted use 1-ounce or heavier tungsten weights on braided line
to punch thru the ceiling deck. Grass frogs are great weedless choices for topped-out
high tide grass or for matted low tide edges. 

In areas of heavy grass, all fish must vacate as grass will compress, and leave no
cover below. Outside edges are falling tide targets, with fish concentrating there
or in adjacent channel drops. Fish scramble to find cover as the water lowers and
position on outside edges of massive grass beds on down current sides of all cover.
Use moving baits like topwater, spinnerbaits and small crankbaits, which are readily
attacked by tidal bass. 

Since fish are “conditioned” to eat when the tides are moving, fishing sucks on the
slack tide. In the absence of grass, hard cover like wooden barges, bridge pilings
and docks as well as “out of the current” areas are targets.  Use Texas rigged soft
plastics, dropshotting, with docks being best at higher tides, fishing to the shore.
At low tides fish move to the deeper end of the docks and to scattered cover away
from the dockin deeper water.

At incoming tides, keep on the move with topwater from summer thru fall.  Fall days
produce big bass on crankbaits and spinnerbaits.  Firetiger great color for crankbaits
in stained water.  If you see lots of darting yellow perch use crankbaits with orange
bellies.  For soft plastics, match the predominant craw color such as black junebug,
green pumpkin or watermelon.

Baits with treble hooks should be matched with “slow-action” rods and soft
plastics with “fast-action” rods.  7-foot rods best for spinnerbaits, with the 7-foot
medium-heavy, fast taper rod being the most preferred, all-purpose rod of all, with
favorites being St. Croix and Fenwick.  80-20 fast taper with 80% not bending and
20% of end bending.  Loomis break more easily due to high amount of graphite, tough
trade-off regarding durability versus sensitivity (with the Loomis being very sensitive).
The only benefit of split-grip rods is to make them lighter.

The DC and Maryland Potomac have a 3 to 3.5-foot tidal swing daily, with the bottom
being primarily sand, gravel and/or SAV.  Milfoil vertical, hydrilla horizontal, eelgrass transitional and then spatterdock.  Stargrass above Chain Bridge, floating algae later
in the summer on top of milfoil, knows as slops.
 

South sides of navigation channels are best, southeast banks have shipwrecks and
more debris as fishing cover.  Cobble and sand transitions, cobble dark, sand light,
bass hold on dark cobble|(dark room) for ambush into light room sand.  Drop the bait
on the edge in the lighted room.  Moving tides best power-fishing inside grass edge on
raising tide.  Tide drops fish move to outside edge. On hightide fish rock, riprap, walls, shipwrecks.  Blue Plains and Spoils are great winter and spring fishery.

The “spoils” is the cove on the Maryland side and immediately north of the Woodrow
Wilson Bridge. Steve likes Mt. Vernon, Swan, Piscataway, Possum Point, Hunting Creek
and Four-Mile Run.

The Potomac is a shallow water fishery, no need for deep water lures.  By March 1 grass starts growing, fish outside stream meander ledge to starting grass, “sweet spots.”
Always fish into the current and pull the lure with the current to best mock natural
baitfish movement.  Boat trail openings and/or mowed/plowed SAV grass are good
fishing locations. 

Berkley is John’s favorite line.  Mono has 30% stretch, will absorb water, can dry rot over time and he likes Kevin Van Dam spray for mono line.  Floro is dense, fish can’t see it more sensitive than mono,
20% stretch, very brittle, can shatter.  John like 15-pound Fireline braid for his spinning
rod for spooks, poppers and buzzbaits.  30-pound Spiderwire Ultra Cast is his favorite
for heavy topwater mat fishing.  Mono is not good for topwater.  Trilene 100% Floro his favorite for dropshot worms, loves 6-pound test Floro with Senko worms. Mono for cranks
and anything with treble hooks, jigs too. 

His favorite line of all is Trilene MAXX Mono, 12-pound uses for all of his cranks
and spinners. Mono Palomar knot, Floro cinch knot or trilene knot, braid Palomar
knot and leaving a 1-inch tag line minimum.  Clear is his favorite color.

Woodrow Wilson Bridge and north are DC waters, and which requires a DC license.
If you own boat you must take and have safe boating  permit.  Go to Boat US and
take on-line test. 

Winter deep, speed slow, silver buddy blade lure.  Early spring creek mouths warmer,
southern exposed banks, lipless crankbait.  March mad-craw dark red colors rattle traps.  Remember how bass take lure Ram-Suction.  Mid spring crankbaits, choppy water spinnerbaits.  Late April into May bass committed to going shallow, suspended jerkbaits, LuckyCraft Pointer in baby bass or clam color or gold with black top.  May and June
topwater, especially in low light, lowtide, and calm water, use feather trebles.
June summer pattern, poppers in the rain.

The real grass edge is further out in front of the visible edge, cast short of the grass
line for more fish.  Mono only for prop baits, and used only in highly stained water.
Favorite soft plastic is the Ribbit, in white.  Likes SPRO bronze-eye frogs, always modify
by bending hooks away from the plastic body, cut out a small butt-hole for draining and
trim ½-inch from leg skirt to improve sashay (sway from side to side) action.

Swamp Donkey by Reaction Innovation may be best of all frogs.  Does not like Snag-Proof frogs.  Use toads for long casts, frogs for short casts.  His favorite topwater walking lure
is the Reaction Innovation Vixen, with three hooks, also likes spooks and Sammy.
Likes toads and frogs over buzzbaits, does not use buzzbaits anymore.  Frog colors black
or white and pretty much nothing else.  Once water hits 65 to 70-degrees, post spawn, topwater good.

Always spool line counterclockwise off of spool,  as you are reeling it onto your reel use
a wet towel on the line with tension as you spool it on.  His favorite scent is Jack’s Garlic Juice, sprays it into the soft plastics bag, never onto the lure or on the boat.  The smell
we smell as garlic is an imitator of an algae taste for fish and masks human odors.
He loves all Berkley Gulp products.  The king of all lures for co-anglers are Senko’s
rigged wacky or Texas.