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Succesful Float trip from Dam 4 to Shepherdstown
Putting this up late but better than never.
Put in at Dam 4 on memorial day and planned to make the 12 mile trek to Shepherdstown. Water was reeeaaaally low and I ended up walking my kayak the first 100 yards or so. Once I got out past the shallow stuff though the river (for the most part of the way) was calm enough that I was able to stand up on my kayak for most of the ride. This paired with the SUPER clear water made for a really cool day. I saw just about every species that part of the Potomac has to offer. The water clarity was easily around 6'. I learned a lot about where these fish are holding right now. Saw big channel cats, carp, lots of smallmouths, a decent amount of largemouths, and let me tell you about the suckers....
MASSIVE schools of BIG suckers. Lots of suckers around 24". I'm assuming they're getting squirreley with the water getting a little cooler. I was kinda bummed I didn't have any tackle to target these guys as I could have had a lot of fun the whole way down the river. They were scattered throughout the whole stretch of water. But I left all my smaller tackle home because I had another species to target.
As many of you know I'm obsessed with muskies. I've never actually seen one in person, only my brother has while he was out on the water a year or so ago. I know I've put well over 100 hours (hard hours) on the water looking for these fish. But on Monday I finally took a big step in the right direction of landing my first one.
I was on an undisclosed ;-) section of the river when I noticed I was once again practically on top of a school of suckers. It's no secret muskies love suckers so I figured I'd start throwing around some spots of the river that looked like good ambush spots. First cast I throw out my giant muskie lure and start ripping it back, when out of the depths pops out a GIANT! And I mean giant. Homeboy was easily 40", more than likely a few inches above. He follows my lure all the way to the boat and I start figure 8ing. He loses interest in my lure and instead just gets almost right below my kayak and stares at me.
He was so close to my boat I could have poked him with my foot. And he just sat there for about 10 seconds. I was shaking like crazy, I've never even come close to getting this excited on the water about a fish. Not my shark, not my brothers cobia, nothing notta has even come close to getting me as pumped. I lobbed my lure out again and tried burning it by him but he wasn't having any of that. It was almost like he got bored. He turned away from the kayak and I slowly watched him disappear into the abyss as I was spouting every curse word in the book while I was fiddling around trying to get my lure back in the water. But he was long gone.
It was honestly a little eerie how shy such a big fish wasn't. I know it's silly but I really didn't want to put my feet back in the water after that for a little bit. I stayed at that spot for about an hour trying to get another follow but couldn't manage one. I eventually continued on and paddled back to Shepherdstown. I ended up being on the water for about 8 hours. Would have been a lot longer if I didn't straight paddle the last 5 miles. It was getting dark and I started hauling butt to get to the boat ramp.
All in all I consider the trip to be a huge success. I didn't land a fish, but I finally feel I'm pointed in the right direction. My goal is to have one in the boat before Christmas.
Put in at Dam 4 on memorial day and planned to make the 12 mile trek to Shepherdstown. Water was reeeaaaally low and I ended up walking my kayak the first 100 yards or so. Once I got out past the shallow stuff though the river (for the most part of the way) was calm enough that I was able to stand up on my kayak for most of the ride. This paired with the SUPER clear water made for a really cool day. I saw just about every species that part of the Potomac has to offer. The water clarity was easily around 6'. I learned a lot about where these fish are holding right now. Saw big channel cats, carp, lots of smallmouths, a decent amount of largemouths, and let me tell you about the suckers....
MASSIVE schools of BIG suckers. Lots of suckers around 24". I'm assuming they're getting squirreley with the water getting a little cooler. I was kinda bummed I didn't have any tackle to target these guys as I could have had a lot of fun the whole way down the river. They were scattered throughout the whole stretch of water. But I left all my smaller tackle home because I had another species to target.
As many of you know I'm obsessed with muskies. I've never actually seen one in person, only my brother has while he was out on the water a year or so ago. I know I've put well over 100 hours (hard hours) on the water looking for these fish. But on Monday I finally took a big step in the right direction of landing my first one.
I was on an undisclosed ;-) section of the river when I noticed I was once again practically on top of a school of suckers. It's no secret muskies love suckers so I figured I'd start throwing around some spots of the river that looked like good ambush spots. First cast I throw out my giant muskie lure and start ripping it back, when out of the depths pops out a GIANT! And I mean giant. Homeboy was easily 40", more than likely a few inches above. He follows my lure all the way to the boat and I start figure 8ing. He loses interest in my lure and instead just gets almost right below my kayak and stares at me.
He was so close to my boat I could have poked him with my foot. And he just sat there for about 10 seconds. I was shaking like crazy, I've never even come close to getting this excited on the water about a fish. Not my shark, not my brothers cobia, nothing notta has even come close to getting me as pumped. I lobbed my lure out again and tried burning it by him but he wasn't having any of that. It was almost like he got bored. He turned away from the kayak and I slowly watched him disappear into the abyss as I was spouting every curse word in the book while I was fiddling around trying to get my lure back in the water. But he was long gone.
It was honestly a little eerie how shy such a big fish wasn't. I know it's silly but I really didn't want to put my feet back in the water after that for a little bit. I stayed at that spot for about an hour trying to get another follow but couldn't manage one. I eventually continued on and paddled back to Shepherdstown. I ended up being on the water for about 8 hours. Would have been a lot longer if I didn't straight paddle the last 5 miles. It was getting dark and I started hauling butt to get to the boat ramp.
All in all I consider the trip to be a huge success. I didn't land a fish, but I finally feel I'm pointed in the right direction. My goal is to have one in the boat before Christmas.
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