Highlight of my fishing career

[vaddco]

I had one of the greatest experiences of my fishing career yesterday. I took my kayak out to Occoquan Reservoir and put in at 7:00am. I was out there for about 4 hours with very little action throwing everything from clousers to woolly buggers to poppers. I was about to call it a day when I came upon a cove that was filled with bluegill. There were hundreds of them around me. For me, Bluegill are the go-to to avoid being skunked. 

Even the bluegill were fickle and I didn't have any floating bugs to throw at them. They were completely ignoring little woolly buggers. I decided to change things up and switched to a black BooglePopper with a bead head black woolly bugger as a dropper (as recommended by Duber from Orvis Woodbridge). I threw the combo in a shady spot under tree cover and the water exploded as a LMB hit the popper. 

It didn't look exceptionally big but seemed to be putting up more of a fight than I would have expected. As I got it close to the kayak, I saw the reason...Another LMB had hooked up on the trailing woolly bugger. 

My only regret is that I couldn't get a photo...trying to fight/release both fish from a kayak (that had been pulled into the weeds) while attempting to find my camera without losing the paddle was more than I could handle.

[Joe Mathews]

That's what I love about fishing--once in a while you come off the water with great memories like that one.  Not having a picture of the fish is insignificant.

[Eric Y.]

Nice! I once hooked up on three small striper using a u-rig with 8 swim baits and one bucktail jig. It was cool, but using a big heavy boat rod on three small fish was like catching one hefty medium sized fish. I find myself fantasizing about a double LMB or rainbow hook up on a fly rod. Must be a blast!