FINALLY MADE A FISHING ADVENTURE ON LAKE ANNA

A typical fishing adventure on Lake Anna in September (25th) 2015.

 

Pete let me know that he would be launching at Christopher Run  about 3 PM on Friday. We corresponded that maybe he could meet me at High Point Marina, but never firmed the meet. So, I loafed along getting my stuff ready, what I didn't get done earlier.  I always forget something, age related?  By Noon, I was very anxious and at 1 PM, I had the boat hitched and was headed out of Rockland Creek community to meet Pete and crew at CR. 

 

The water at Rockland Creek is too low to risk trying to launch and load my boat solo, so I went to Christopher Run to launch.  The photo is of near normal water level earlier in the year when the water level was a foot low.  The water level  is now at least a foot lower and the distance between the pontoons and the float level for my boat coming off the trailer might be 50 feet.  The channel to the right is very narrow as the bottom is exposed along the entire sea wall.

Contrast the above and the below photo taken this September 28, 2015 with the above taken a month earlier.  The mud below the seawall is a bad sign.  Not the worst as in the past, the pontoons were sitting on the mud.

The below photo shows the terrible slope of the ramp that can hang a trailer  between the wheels and the  ball.  Normal water level is about 6 inches below the bottom of the dock.  The pontoons make loading and launching a boat nearly impossible.

 So, the decision was to launch at a commercial marina.  I hoped that Pete and crew (Ryan and TJ) would be at Christopher Run launch to help me.  I had lots of time so I took the scenic route to get there.  I thought I usually  passed Christopher Run launch along the planned route.  Bad choice as I ended up on the wrong road at Food Lion, about twice as far as if I'd headed to Route 208. 

 

Imagine my surprise when looked  back at the trailer  and notice that the 8X10X12 wood block I had strapped to the fender as a step was GONE!  The strap was flapping in the breeze.  A closer look in the mirror had a block at the back of the fender and?  Cars following close behind me and what if the block dropped.  No place to pull off as the road is narrow, twisty, and .  .  .  Food Lion gave me a chance to stop and take a look.  The block slid back and lodged behind the trailer tail light.  Why it stayed there, I don't know.

 

 

 

The red strap on the ground was almost melted clean through from rubbing on the tire.  Unfortunately, the grease hub cover went somewhere.

 

As it happened, last trip to Scottsburg, I brought some 2 inch aluminum angle to fabricate a step that I could anchor to the top of the fender to help my crotch over the rail.  Something I wanted to accomplish, but kept forgetting the aluminum angle.  I hadn't worried about the frequent trips from the house to the community launch ramp.  But, the necessary travel to a Lake Anna commercial boat launch hadn't given me concern that the block might come loose.  Oh yeah, but shit happens when Murphy is lurking.

 

Stand by for a photo of the finished step.

 

The block on the stern deck of the Sea Pro, trashed  the strap, and was back on the road.  Now getting late, but I could still make Christopher Run by 3 PM.  On Route 522 headed North and suddenly CR was .  .  .  yeah, I got stopped, but what a stop!  The power brakes on the Ford 250 diesel are designed not to lock.  Never adjusted to the design and it feels like the truck will never stop.  Especially with about 5000 pounds of boat/trailer behind me. 

 

Pulled into the CR launch/camp entry and then had to walk to the hill to the store for the parking/launch pass.  Off to the launch and I was making circles to decide how to launch my boat.  The ramps had what looked like stone/brick pillars well above water as a dock for the ramps.  How to launch solo from this facility.  A decision wasn't necessary as I got a text from Pete telling me that he was on the water.  On the water at High Point Marina! :(  OK, the CR office decided to refund my ten and I was off to High Point Marina. 

 

Paid the $8 High Point Marina fee and got the boat ready to launch solo.  Undo the winch, the safety chain, the boat tie downs, assure the bilge plug is installed, get the launch line attached to the trailer or truck.  I decided on the bow stop of the trailer.  OK, gave the truck one backward bounce and the boat slid off the trailer and came to a stop at the end of the line.  Wait, the wind is blowing hard and the boat line is inside the guide-on.  The boat is now doing circles in the launch area.  No way to get it back on the trailer and to difficult for me to get the boat?  Fortunately, the handy guys saw what was happening and came to my assistance.  I let the boat line  loose enough so the boat could butt up against the adjacent leeward dock.  The handy man was on the boat, tied it off with my lines and I loosed the launch line.  Another lesson learned, maybe.  Hey, hey, at least I got a lot for my launch/parking fee! 

 

Now back in the truck an off to the parking spot. 

 

Pete sent another text to say he was way past Stubbs and Dillard bridges in Terry's Run and bait was tough.  Took me a while to meet him past Day Bridge.  He'd tossed the cast net for quite a while and didn't have any baits.  Shortly after I arrived and watched Pete and crew boat filled net, Pete pointed out that flippers most everywhere.  Had only took a few tosses at this location to fill his bait tank.  I was gifted with two large gizzards and  several dozen small baits. I only used a half dozen of the smaller baits and one of the gizzards.

Pete suggest that I pull planers on one side of the channel and he would do the other as the flippers seemed everywhere and might be good to pull through them.  No luck, so Rose Valley was Pete's next choice.

 

I think the herring, if that's what they were, were a smaller baits.  Maybe 4 inches long I'd rather have at the larger shad, I think blue blocks.  Could be threadfins, alewife's, too.  If a reader knows, let me know.  Is it all in the nose? My fishing buddy Bill Fowler says the small baits are threadfin.  Threadfins won't live more than 2 minutes on the hook.  Bill advised that the gizzard is too large and the herring (bottom 2) are about right for striper baits.

 

I had my TM down and Pete finished his bait collecting and was off to try Rose Valley on the North Anna branch.  Took me a while to get my gear ready to travel.  The new post I installed on the fore deck in lieu of the seat was working well to keep me steady.  The line I tied to the TM head made retrieval somewhat simple as compared to trying to grab the TM head to lift it.  Typically, it would spin at the most inconvenient moment and drop back in the water.  Can't do that with the rope!

Pete texted that he wasn't doing anything at Rose Valley, so I decided to look at Marshall Creek for stripers.  Nothing to stop for, so I went on down river to look at the West side where the stripers were a few weeks earlier.  Nothing!

Getting dark, and the evening bite should have started when Pete texted to tell me that he boated a small striper.  By now, he was well up river just below Holladay Bridge near Tim's.  So, I was off again and still light enough to overview electronics all the way hoping for a striper school to stop on. The Splits starts a series of "S" turns up the North Anna River.  A tortuous path in low water, no cutting across.  But, there are flats and deep gorges to view along the way.  Rose Valley Island has one pine tree what seems to be a tree in the middle of the river!

Finally caught up with Pete just about dark.  He had his full array of planers, etc. and already boated stripers.  Earlier there wasn't a bite in the shallows, so I was working on getting a few down lines deployed.  Pete sent another text - get yer planners out!  OK!

 

My Sonar and structure were showing lots of marks.  Hard to get my planners on the water as compared to Pete's crew of three.  I was so intent on getting my planers out, getting the trolling motor going, that I almost over ran Pete's planner array.  So I didn't have a lot of baits in the water.  Might have been the reason I didn't get any hits.

 

Any way, I got to test electronics again in total darkness running all the way down North Anna River to the High Point Marina. Total cloud cover and not many shore/channel buoys.  I never been as far up river before when it was night, so it was a challenge. I was familiar with the area where the hazards were and made it all the way back to the High Point Marina dock.

 

The Lowrance screen shot below has structure on the right and charting (navigation) on the left.  The depth and shore is well defined and even though I couldn't see beyond the bow, I was pretty confident that I wouldn't run aground or into objects.  As a safeguard, I let a previous trail (blue-green) stay on the monitor and use it to return along the safe path when I headed out.

 

The display below using the medium chirp can be incredible when it's adjusted properly for color and gain and the targets are within the cone of the sonar.  I haven't got there yet.  However, contrast the Simrad chirp below with the above Lowrance structure that I tried to get the screen shots as near the same time as possible.  You can see the vertical dashes in the structure display at the same depth as in the chirp display.  The dashes out to the 15 feet on the bottom of the screen are what's below the boat to the bottom.  Beyond the 15 foot marks are large fish mixed in with lots of baits.  The stripers (?) shown on the chirp screen shot must be just outside the sonar cone.

Loading the boat on the trailer was pretty difficult because the lake is so low and I was alone and trying to get the trailer close enough to the dock so I could step from the boat to the dock,  didn't work.  I  didn't make it simple,  the dock  was just about 6 inches farther than I could step. Besides, I had to stand on the rail to step UP to the dock.  Considered climbing down into the water, but eventually decided to risk the long step to the dock. Well I made it because I'm here writing the blog again.
 

Pete boated several stripers, one was almost 24 inches.   I don't know about the others that he caught.  He may send photos later.

I'm exhausted this morning and the Sea Pro is sitting on the driveway now blocking access for all the cars. I was too tired last night too move one of the cars so I could park the boat out of the way. It's still raining today and I have to get out and back the trailer down to the culvert so I can empty the bait tank and toss the bait.  But was really pleased that I could actually get on the water and fish for a short period. The only thing that might have made the trip better was if Mel had met me at the dock and after loading the boat we could have stopped at Vito's for pizza.
 
So that's my story even if I do get the wrong names on the wrong places.  You can tell it's kind of typical for Joy fishing solo.

Jim Hemby posted another great description of how he interprets his electronics, blog.jimhemby.com Saturday September 26, 2015.  Well worth taking a look for those thinking to by electronics or how to use them.  Well, I always check Hemby's blog as he always tells what is essential for striper fishing on Lake Anna.  He also has dialog about how to keep the baits alive, but I'm more interested in how to tell what bait is the current best for stripers.  It changes throughout the year based on the striper metabolism.