Rappahannock Trip

[Jeff Silvan]

I took my girlfriend out to the Rappahannock on Saturday per the advice of Miles at the Clarendon Orvis. The water was very low, so the river was very slow moving and canoeing was a bit tough in some places. We caught a couple small smallmouths and tons of sunfish. A few sunnies were decent size - close to 10 inches - and all were by far the fiestiest sunfish I've ever caught. It might sound like the fishing was slow, but more was my experience level rather than fishing quality. I saw plenty of smallmouth and largemouth, many in the 16-18 inch range. I even saw one largemouth that must have been 22" plus. Unfortunately, I severely lack river fishing skills since I grew up fishing either lakes or the ocean. With most of the fish I saw, I had already scared away before I could even cast to them. Everything we caught came on either an orange or a yellow boogle bug except for one on a beadhead wooly bugger. We tried a blue one, but the dreaded tree fish broke it off on the first cast. I know the boogle bug isn't a dragonfly imitation, but I have a feeling blue may have worked even better since there were blue dragonflies everywhere. My lesson learned is keep one rod rigged with a popper and the other rigged with a sinking/sink tip line and subsurface fly for easy and quick changes to fish the deep holes when we came across them. I got kind of lazy and never fished a subsurface fly after the first 30 minutes...

A few interesting sightings: 

1. A bald eagle took off within 15 minutes of launching.

2. There were carp all over the place. I even saw a pair cruising through a deep hole that must have been 30 inches each, minumum. The carp were ignoring crayfish imitations and wooly buggers in the beginning. Any thoughts what else I can throw that they might take?

3. I saw a bass that had a pattern unlike anything I have seen before. It had fairly distinct diamond patterns on its side - it looked similar to the pattern of an argyle sweater. It may not have been a bass, but sure had that shape. Any ideas what species it may have been?

Jeff

[Carl Zmola]

On 08/06/2012 01:28 PM, Jeff Silvan wrote:
> We caught a couple small smallmouths and tons of sunfish. A few
> sunnies were decent size - close to 10 inches - and all were by far
> the fiestiest sunfish I've ever caught. It might sound like the
> fishing was slow, but more was my experience level rather than fishing
> quality. I saw plenty of smallmouth and largemouth, many in the 16-18
> inch range. I even saw one largemouth that must have been 22" plus.
> Unfortunately, I severely lack river fishing skills since I grew up
> fishing either lakes or the ocean.

That sounds like a success to me. You caught smallmouth, which mean you
were fishing in the right area. Sunfish are nice because they don't
spook easily and hit hard. However if you are catching a lot of
sunfish, you are not fishing the right are a to catch smallmouth.

You just have to learn what water looks fishy and cast to it. Seams and
holes in fast moving water are the place for smallmouth. If you see
foam, that's a good indication of a place to fish. The retrieve is also
important. Mix it up until you start catching something.

The only way to learn is to get time on the water. The nice thing about
smallmouth fishing this time of year is that at lunchtime you can go for
a swim and take a nice siesta.

I hope you two enjoyed it.

Carl

[FlyTimesDC]

Sounds like a great fishing trip to me! Solid report as well! The carp and bass have my attention for sure. I am gonna try and get down there next time I have time off from work. Where did you launch from?

As for your river fishing,  nothing can make up for experience on the water, but it sounds like you're definitely on the right track! Next time around you'll slay down there for sure! Just got to keep your ear to the ground and keep picking up tips and bits of knowledge from area guides. A fisherman's best friend is confidence and this past trip should give you plenty of it next time around.

Your mystery fish sounds like a snakehead or bowfin. That's the only species I know of with the argyle patterning.

[Jeff Silvan]

We did a canoe rental from Clore Bros Outfitters (btw, AWESOME customer service - I'd highly recommend, but note they only take cash or check so you're prepared if you go). The trip was their "Blankenbakers" trip, " one mile off route 620 in Spotsylvania Co" according to their website. I only fished about half of the drift since I moved way too slow and we did a late launch and had to get back by 6 PM. 

The mystery fish's pattern looked similar to the snakehead, but not as "broken" and definitely profiled more like a bass. Maybe my eyes and the water were just playing tricks on me and it was a smallmouth. I forgot to mention I also saw a small Alligator Gar (maybe 18" and no thicker than a water bottle) as well. That was neat, since I've never seen one before.

[Zach on the Hill]

Jeff,

Is this the mystery fish you are talking about...(attached) I have heard them called rock bass, but does anyone else know what that is?

All the best -

Zach

On Monday, August 6, 2012 1:28:18 PM UTC-4, Jeff Silvan wrote:

[Scott Stankus]

Yup, that's a Rock Bass:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_bass

 

--Scott

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[Jeff Silvan]

It almost looks like a hybrid between the two... had the shape of the rock bass, but pretty close to the coloration of the hogsucker. I just wish I got a better look at it... or caught it.

On Wednesday, August 8, 2012 9:25:17 AM UTC-4, Scott S wrote:

Yup, that's a Rock Bass:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_bass

 

--Scott

On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 8:54 AM, Zach on the Hill <zachary....@gmail.com> wrote:

Jeff,

Is this the mystery fish you are talking about...(attached) I have heard them called rock bass, but does anyone else know what that is?

All the best -

Zach

On Monday, August 6, 2012 1:28:18 PM UTC-4, Jeff Silvan wrote:

I took my girlfriend out to the Rappahannock on Saturday per the advice of Miles at the Clarendon Orvis. The water was very low, so the river was very slow moving and canoeing was a bit tough in some places. We caught a couple small smallmouths and tons of sunfish. A few sunnies were decent size - close to 10 inches - and all were by far the fiestiest sunfish I've ever caught. It might sound like the fishing was slow, but more was my experience level rather than fishing quality. I saw plenty of smallmouth and largemouth, many in the 16-18 inch range. I even saw one largemouth that must have been 22" plus. Unfortunately, I severely lack river fishing skills since I grew up fishing either lakes or the ocean. With most of the fish I saw, I had already scared away before I could even cast to them. Everything we caught came on either an orange or a yellow boogle bug except for one on a beadhead wooly bugger. We tried a blue one, but the dreaded tree fish broke it off on the first cast. I know the boogle bug isn't a dragonfly imitation, but I have a feeling blue may have worked even better since there were blue dragonflies everywhere. My lesson learned is keep one rod rigged with a popper and the other rigged with a sinking/sink tip line and subsurface fly for easy and quick changes to fish the deep holes when we came across them. I got kind of lazy and never fished a subsurface fly after the first 30 minutes...

A few interesting sightings: 

1. A bald eagle took off within 15 minutes of launching.

2. There were carp all over the place. I even saw a pair cruising through a deep hole that must have been 30 inches each, minumum. The carp were ignoring crayfish imitations and wooly buggers in the beginning. Any thoughts what else I can throw that they might take?

3. I saw a bass that had a pattern unlike anything I have seen before. It had fairly distinct diamond patterns on its side - it looked similar to the pattern of an argyle sweater. It may not have been a bass, but sure had that shape. Any ideas what species it may have been?

Jeff

-- 

--

================================================

[flyrodder]

That's a Rock Bass. I've heard others call them, "Redeye Bass". They do get rather large too. Caught a 14 incher on the Robinson last weekend.

On Monday, August 6, 2012 1:28:18 PM UTC-4, Jeff Silvan wrote:

[HeaveToo]

Red Eyes can be quite tenacious.  I haven't caught them in the same number that I use to catch them on in the Rappahannock.  It is a good rule of thumb that if you are catching Red Eyes then you are in the right water to catch smallies (kind of like Fall Fish).

On the Rappahannock the color yellow works great for top water.  It was a mystery why it was like this until I figured out that there was a ton of small frogs running around on the banks (their bellies are a pale color close to yellow or white).  This is surprising because blue is the number one color on the Shenandoah and there are a lot of damsel flies on the Shenandoah and the Rappahannock. 

This is getting to the time where hopper patterns are very good patterns on the Rapidan and Rappahannock.  Dave's Hopper and Letort hopper work really good (especially when dubbed with yellow body material).  If you find a steep bank that drops quickly into the water, grass nearby, and current flowing good by this bank the Hopper will really produce.  If the bank is shady it will produce most of the day with this pattern.  I have had a carp take a hopper once but it took off like a bulldozer and I never turned it on a 6 weight and 2X tippet. 

There is an area on the Rappahannock that the locals refer to as Snake Castle.  This area is what we would call boulder water.  This is water that is a bit deeper with large rocks in it and current flowing through.  This consistently produces big smallmouth bass.  I have caught a few nice ones out of snake castle.

[Zach on the Hill]

This particular one was caught on the Shanny.  I float it occasionally, but have recently opted for the Northern Potomac due to more easily navigable water and shorter commute, although there is no Spelunker Burger in Potomac, MD, but I digress... On this particular occasion there were many rock bass held up with many smaller Smallies in a large shallow eddy behind some current, which was more like a riffle.  That day they were taking - would you believe it - a black bead head wolly bugger.  :OP

All the best -

Zach

[Jeff Silvan]

I think I discovered my mystery fish - a Suwannee bass (maybe that's the same as a Rock bass mentioned earlier). I did a little research and it doesn't look like that species is native, so has anyone else heard of them being up in this neck of the woods?

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c319/the-bass-catcher/Fishing/2008/2008_0422Image0057.jpg 

[r...@robsnowhite.com]

Never had that species come up in conversation during Ichthyology (of Virginia fishes) in college.  That bass looks like a gigantic tessellated darter. 

Sent from my iPhone

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[Miles]

Jeff, 

Your mystery fish might be this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redeye_bass (Micropterus coosae) which is related to the Suwanee bass (Micropterus notius) more so than the the Rock Bass (Ambloplites rupestris). I actually did not know the Redeye and the Rock Bass were two different fish until I started googling it -- I thought Rob's picture of a Rock Bass looked a lot different from the Rock Bass I have caught, which I now think were Redeye Bass instead. I have caught Redeyes in the GW National Forest, so the part on the Wikipedia page about "Southwestern Virginia" is at least a little bit wrong. I am glad you had fun on the trip. 

best,

Miles

[Lane Smith]

Hey Jeff,

Just thought I'd pop my head into the conversation since I know you. Let me know if you ever wanna try around the Potomac or in Rock Creek. I caught my first smallmouth in Rock Creek this morning around 7:30AM! Nice fish.