TAK and I had our PAs out for an evening trip on the Occoquan/Potomac River on Friday. We didn't hit the water until 7:30, but the huge full moon provided good visibility until we called it quits after 10:00. I caught a couple of nice bass on a plastic frog, the last coming after 9:30 pm. Our safety lights were essential as there is quite a bit of boat traffic in the area at night, especially on weekends. The suction cup for the light won't stick anywhere on the coarse PA surface, so I cut circles out of the smooth clear plastic packaging the lights came in and then we used silicone to attach the circles to the front hatch of the PA. This provided a nice smooth surface to attach the suction cup for the safety light. Worked great! You can see the plastic circle on the front hatch on the first picture below.
I went for an evening cruise last night and found the bass liking my spinnerbait! I boated four good bass. At the end of the evening I was slow rolling my spinner through a hole in the grass and hooked a good fish. I was surprised to pull in a 3 pound catfish! I cast again into the same spot and hooked into something substantial. I was only using 10 pound line, so I had to bring the fish to the boat carefully. To my surprise, it was another catfish, but this one was easily 7 or 8 pounds. I've never caught a catfish that big and definitely not on a spinnerbait! Unfortunately, the big cat spun at the boat and broke off my prized spinnerbait. I'll have to try to find another like it -- chartreuse with some black fleck and green foil mixed in the skirt. They were smashing it.
The Quantico Creek off the Potomac river has really filled in with grass. I was the only boat venturing into the creek as far as I could see. No bass boats were going to reach the spots I was fishing with my PA.
I'm just loving this craft. I've fished more this spring/early summer than I have in years. It's just so easy to get the PA on the water, there's no excuse for not getting out often. Easy loading on my Toyota Highlander with the Yakima system makes it easy to load up and get to the put in spot. http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=22283 Investing in an easy to use and convenient transport system is completely worth it.
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Looking up Quantico Creek
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Biggest bass of the night.
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A good way to start the trip.
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It's a keeper.
