More Spring Fishing Tips From The Potomac River

After making two passes down the bank, I decided to go crank baiting some rock banks on the same side of the river where the warmer water was. I went here because historically after a cold front, the hard cover banks hold more fish that are more likely to bite where as often times, grass fishing after a cold front can be very difficult. Within the first 5 casts, I caught a fish on a Jackall Aska in the color Purple Chartreuse. This has always been a tidal water go to for me, because of the wide wobble and its unique ability to catch fish in dirty water. This bait has a circuit board lip which is incredibly durable and does not break. A lot of people throw the Luckycraft 1.5 square bill  but I like the Jackall Aska because not as many people throw it. We then pulled out into some deeper water along the rock bank and caught a few on a Norman Deep Little N. I had to go to this crank bait due to the deeper water and the fish being further down in the water column.

Sunday Morning we were all excited to go fishing. We knew this was going to be a great day with the temperature forecasted to get into the 70's and sunny skies. We started off fishing a rock bank in the early morning on the Virginia side of the river. Water Temperatures were around 53 degrees and we caught 4 fish pretty quickly on a Spro Aruku Rattle Trap in Mudbug Red and Red Crawfish. We also caught one on a Jackall Aska. The way that we had to fish the rattle trap was making a long cast, paralleling the bank at a 45 degree angle and slowly retrieving the bait back to the boat. As soon as the sun came up and warmed up we started running around. 

As the tides shifted and the water warmed up, a mudline became very clear. What became even clearer was that there was a very lengthy clean water line on the Maryland side of the main river. As we started fishing up the river, we noticed beautiful green grass beds. We caught many fish out of these grass beds. The reason that I went to the grass beds was because the grass had been filtering out the dirty water and the sun was beating on this bank so it was very warm. By the end of the day, we were pulling 62 degree water temperatures in these pockets. I caught several fish on a Mizmo black and blue tube on the transition line at high tide. VERY IMPORTANT- I HAD A RATTLE IN THE TUBE. I also had to let the tube set on the bottom for up to 15 seconds without moving it to get bites. I was using a 1/4 oz Eco Pro Tungsten bullet weight with a 4/0 Trokar Tube Hook on 15 lb fluorocarbon on a 7'1'' G Loomis 854GLX casting rod with a 7:6:1: Shimano Chronarch reel.  I also caught some fish sight fishing with a Green Pumpkin NetBait Baby Paca Craw on a 5/16 oz Eco Pro Tungsten bullet weight with a Gamakatsu 4/0 Superline hook. For the Baby Paca Craw, I elected to go with 20 lb Seaguar Invisx fluorocarbon, because we were around some giant largemouth bass. And a 4 inch green pumpkin senko: the senko I fished wacky rigged with 8 lb fluorocarbon. Ironically, these fish were up super shallow, and having a Jetboat was a huge advantage due to them being on the inside edge of the grass.

When the tide came ripping back in, this messed up the sight fishing pattern. By now the wind had picked up to 5-10 mph out of the south, so i went right to the hard cover banks and continued to cover water. We ended up catching 10-15 fish while running hard cover banks by throwing a Z-Man original chatter-bait with a gold blade in chartreuse and white color. The key adjustment that I made was I threw a Zoom Pearl White Superfluke on the back. This was a much more subtle approach on my chatterbait and the fish preferred this over the swimbait. When fishing the original chatterbait, make sure you superglue your trailer to the hook to maximize fishing efficiency. The chatterbait gear I used was the 7'2 Medium Shimano Zodias with a Shimano Citica 6:2:1 reel with 15lb Seguar Invisx. With the sun beating down and it being super warm, I cannot say enough about the Aftco Ninja sun protection, as it was vital to the success of blocking those harmful UV rays. This Easter weekend, I will be back on the Susquehanna River for two days. Stay tuned for more tackle techniques, fishing reports, and updates next week. ALSO FEEL FREE TO REACH OUT TO US IF THERE IS A SPECIFIC TECHNIQUE/QUESTION THAT YOU WANT US TO BLOG ABOUT; WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Tight Lines,

Corbin Gotwalt