G-Man Fishing

Ok, been out and about fishing various ponds and lakes in Northern Virginia this month. I’m kind of in a rut. My production during each outing has been decent. Managed at least one catch every time. The problem has been that all the LMB I’ve caught fall into the similar size range: 12″-14″. On average, 1-2 pounds. I’ve been at Burke, Audubon, Newport, the little ponds off of Fox Mill in Herndon, a hidden pond in Sterling, and the Claude Moore ponds in Sterling. My pattern has been pretty similar each time. Work the Texas-rigged plastic worm around targeted fish holding spots. Best times of day have been around dusk or later in the day. The one noteworthy catch I’d like to share occurred today at Claude Moore pond in Sterling. The park actually has two ponds. Both are rather small and shoreline fishing is the only option. There’s plenty of structure to cast to and the ponds are full of sunfish. I caught two small bass during the day and witnessed another fella pulling in a pretty decent sized bass. I found a secluded spot with some submerged timber. The area seemed rather shallow so I casted as far as I could. A few casts later something large took my bait. I fought and fought it and when I finally landed it I realized it was a 4 pound channel catfish. Thats right! A channel catfish went after my plastic worm. It measured 21 inches and my guess was its weight was around 3 or 4 pounds. I’m not into keeping my catch these days so I let it go. Even though the pounds are small, there’s some good fishing at Claude Moore. I read online that the pounds have been restored and that fishing has improved due to the maintenance on the ponds. Its certainly a fun time and a decent little fishery!

The weather was great today so I made a trip to Burke Lake. We’re in the middle of a deep recession and its obvious that people are cutting back on other forms of recreation and instead spending their recreation time fishing. I commend people for that since I think enjoying outdoors is a great and affordable way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Much of the shoreline near the parking areas were crowded with anglers as a result. I saw one angler pull in a decent channel catfish. I, however, decided to hike around the lake and work selected spots without spending too much time on any particular place. I figured that if there are fish I would get bites pretty quickly. I was right. The best spots I found were weeded areas near shorelines with a somewhat steeper drop off. I caught two LMB in total; both of which were in the 1-2 lb range. It was very efficient fishing given that most of my time was spent hiking around the lake with just a few casts here and there. I didn’t spend more than 10 minutes at any particular spot. The places where I caught fish I didn’t spend more than 5 minutes or so. That says to me that the pattern I used was the right one for that day. It was more a matter of finding the right spots while on foot- not always easy given that the shoreline is pretty wooded with few clearings near the ideal fish holding areas. See the videos below for the fishing action.

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