Cold-Weather Blues

It's been one rough winter with snow still on all of our minds here in Virginia.  Spring is here though, and fishing season has already started for me.

The Potomac River has blue catfish.  These things are monster bottom feeder that bite well in March and April.  I've never caught a big one before, so going last week was something that I was really looking forward to.

Blue catfish are a non-native species here and were stocked in Virginia in the 1970's  (source: Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries).  They can get big.  Really big.  They feast on herring, shad, bass, crawfish, and other marine species.

The section of the Potomac River where we were fishing is also prime bald eagle and osprey territory, and even they seemed excited about the fish that we were catching.  Other notable birds that were seen from the boat were wood ducks, grebes, coots, and canvasbacks.

This fishing trip kicked off my "official" start of spring.  Camera-traps, canoeing, and sunshine are now on my mind, and summer better come quick.

As for the camera-traps,  I've got them still out and taking photos.  Recent results from them have been more coyotes, red foxes mating, and the usuals (raccoons, deer, squirrels).

Fishing While Waiting for the Cameras

With all of the cameras out in full force this past week, I've had none to check for a few days (for once).  I'm letting them all sit out there for at least a few days so that my human scent gets washed away from them after a few rains.  Also, an army of volunteers has been helping me check them, so I'm waiting on a few emails with some great results from the cameras.

In the meantime, I've been on the water fishing a lot for work and play purposes.  Here are some of my best fishing pictures from the past week.

19-20 inch smallmouth bass caught on a tube-lure.

Striped bass caught on live-lined spot on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.