Fishing Mattawoman

Trevor has been desperately begging to go snakehead fishing, so I arranged a trip with Capt. Dave Snelling, Capt. Mike's new (since laast year) partner at Indian Head Charters, for an afternoon/evening Snakehead/Bass fishing trip on Mattawoman Creek, a tidal creek on the Potomac River south of Washington DC.

Trevor came directly from church, and he was so excited that when he changed clothes, he forgot to take off his church shoes.  We arrived around 3 PM, and after an early dinner of chicken and ribs, provided by Capts. Dave and Mike, we set off. Great barbecue, by the way.

We spent the first several hours hunting Snakeheads with frog imitations among the lily pads. None were caught. although we had a couple blow ups that might have been bass or snakeheads.  Snakehead fishing has been poor this year.  Mike believes that the prevalence of pseudo-commercial bow hunting for restaurants has taken a toll on the population

 Mattawoman Creek is on of the true gems of the Chesapeake, a wild creek a few minutes downstream by boat from Washington DC. A tidal creek, the ebb and flood of the tide makes all the difference in

It was a while before I put the first fish on the boat, but eventually they started hitting with some regularity on various baits.

Eventually the sun went down, and the fishing really started.  We got several hits more after sunset, although Trevor lost all his fish before the boat.  I blamed his church shoes.

Including this one, that Capt. Dave charitably said might be the biggest of the year to date.  It struck a frog imitation right off the edge of the lily pads.

Alas, no Snakeheads.