Where to fish today?

[William Hea]

GF and I have to get out of the house today. Is there anywhere near Arlington, VA open with fishing and parking? Would love to hit up Fletcher's but thought the parking lot is closed.

[BigtimeBG]

My wife and I hit 4MR today around high tide. We really only fished like 90 min (and just walked some). We caught 2 largemouth 12-15inches and a channel cat that was about 20 inches. We saw tons of bass moving around (some monsters) and a lot of movement on top too. Fun little afternoon.

[Todd Shaw]

Excellent. Where were y’all casting from at 4MR today?

[BigtimeBG]

Started at the lot near Veronica's Bakery on the shore near the bike path. That seam along the rocks. Caught one there (lower end of that seam) and saw others but also saw 3 snakes and my wife got freaked out so we bailed from there. We walked down to the bridge without casting at all and came back up the trail on the 4MR park side... we went up and near the "Kingfisher" bird sign ( maybe 100yards past that little bridge) we stepped in a few places and fast from there for the rest of the time. Tons of activity on top and saw a bunch of fish within 10 ft of the shore that were a nice size. Caught one largemouth there and the catfish. Walked our way back from there without another cast.

Honestly given how much people have been saying it's been really bad there I was super surprised to see so many fish... with a bunch of really legit sized ones. Glad we made the trip!

[Christopher Kent]

Thank you so much for the inspiration to hit 4MR again. In 90 min you caught more than I have within the last 10 trips there over the last year!

What fly(s) were you using? Popper dropper?

[Kevin Jones]

I'll second Bigtime. My kids and I were in the same area today and we saw more bass than I could count. No luck catching any, but it was still fun.

[BigtimeBG]

Ah a bit cheating... we were using spinning rods and caught everything on an original perch rapala. We are super novice fly fisherman... I tend to stick to flies for trout fishing since it's more of what I know and have in my box. 

Curious... in your 10 trips, did you not see fish at all? Even walking along the path I could look down in and see some legit fish (15+ inches easy) and the top water activity was pretty heavy. Just curious if the issue has been not even seeing them or more getting them interested. 

[Christopher Kent]

BigTime, I started fishing it last summer and only the fishing was really tough (I believe Rob Snowhite would agree). The catfish I saw regularly but not that many 15+ bass over many visits. Never caught a bass over 12 inches but that could be the angler.

I am stoked to transition back to fishing it and hopefully I can figure out the bite. It is minutes away from my house.