Ok, I said I was going to log my fishing experiences and I meant both successes and failures so here’s my first failure article. Burke Lake, located in suburban Northern Virginia, can be one of the toughest lakes to fish for large gamefish. By gamefish I am talking bass, walleye, or muskie. The lake is stocked with largemouth bass, walleye, muskie, and catfish. This is the lake I probably frequent the most given its close proximity to where I live but the fishing is quite tough. First, there’s a tremendous amount of baitfish in this lake. Its overrun with small shad, bluegills, and perch. Second, it is a heavily pressured lake with lots of boat traffic.So here’s the scenario. I went there on a whim on Sunday afternoon for about 3 hours. The weather was cool and cloudy and it even drizzled for a few minutes after I got there. I fished off of the dam and set up by the spillway. Using my Smartcast wireless fishfinder which you cast out and reel in, I was able to locate some fish in the 15 foot depth range. The Smartcast fish finder is a neat little device but unfortunately it doesn’t indicate the size of the fish located. It could be a monster or it could be a tiny baitfish. The device does give me a quick and easy way to profile the bottom of the lake however.
Anyways, I went on the assumption that it was bass that was located and casted out a drop shot worm. I worked it back slowly for several casts. I moved around the dam and got no luck. Not even a bite.It looked like it was going to be slow so I took the chance to unofficially survey the angling scene. There were a few people fishing nightcrawlers. Didn’t see them catch anything. Another fella was bouncing a bass jig along the dam. Nothing. A few guys were fly fishing but they looked like they were just practicing their casts and not really fishing. A guy in the parking lot had told me that he hadn’t caught anything the last couple of days but had caught several catfish the week before; mostly in the 2lb range. I asked him what he uses and he told me that he uses chicken livers.Now one thing about Burke Lake that is consistent, at least during the warmer months, is the catfish bite. I remember last summer pulling in a couple of 2-3 pounders and several others that I tossed back. The problem was that I was using nightcrawlers which also tends to catch lots of small perch and bluegill. Trust me, it gets boring reeling in those little guys every five minutes. Seems to me that if you want to target catfish and catfish only at Burke you’d have to switch to something like chicken livers. That way you don’t end up pulling in those pesky bluegills and perch.I’m sure there will be more disappointing days at Burke but I am hoping that the laws of probability will eventually pay off. My next trip there I hope to be in a boat pulling in some bucketmouths.
Ok, had a successful weekend in that I caught a 4 lb 3 oz Largemouth Bass at Lake Brittle. The weekend started off slow but ended quite nicely. Here’s how it went…Got up early and made the 1.5 hour drive to Lake Frederick near Winchester, VA. My plan was to rent a boat for 4 hours but the bait shop didn’t open on time. I was there from around 8am to 9:30 am and didn’t want to wait any longer so I decided to drive to Lake Brittle which is near Warrenton, VA and also happens to be along the way back home.I arrived at Lake Brittle around 10:30am and the skies were overcast. Air temps in the upper 40s/low 50s and the water temp around 50 degrees.The forecast called for rain beginning in the afternoon so I was sort of taking a chance when I rented the boat for 6 hours. The cost: $30 which includes electric trolling motor, a jon boat that seats 4, anchor, oars, lifejacket, and live well. Its actually not a bad deal given that if you want to rent by the hour, it is $12.50 per hour.I loaded one spinning rod with 6lb test line, my tackle box, a small net, a bucket of small minnows, and my new toy, the Bottom Line Fishin’ Buddy 4200 Portable Fish Finder
