Canal Flatties

Canal Flatties

Monday, September 14, 2015

Virginia Junior State Qualifier 2015-2016 #1

    I have been fishing with the Orange County High School bass fishing team for almost a year now, and it has been a really great experience! This past weekend the first JSQ of the year was held on the Potomac River at Aquia Creek. 36 anglers in the 15-18 year old division fished the event, and boy was it a tough one...
     I started the day in Accokeek Creek, fishing an area that my boat  captain "had two nice fish hooked" the week before, that was the closest thing to an idea that I had. It was ridiculously windy, so I started out throwing a spinnerbait and alternated between that and a wacky rig if I came to a dock or wood. After 2 hours of nothing we ran up the creek further and I started pitching a Texas rigged baby brush hog at/in pads, at the edge of the grass, and around wood. I think I did that for an hour before I finally felt a couple light ticks on my line and swung into a nice fish that ended up weighing 3.37lbs. I fished around in the creek pitching a Texas rig for another hour before running back to Aquia Creek. There I threw a wacky senko on the edge of the grass and caught my second fish, which weighed 1.76lbs. The wind was so bad at this point that I had the trolling motor one notch away from full power and had to keep my foot on it the whole time to stay put. I fished docks and grass until we had to weigh in at 1:15.
    Two fish in 7 hours is pretty brutal, my only hope was that the conditions were as rough on everyone else as they were on us, and I was right. My two fish for 5.13lbs put me in 3rd place and secured a spot for me in the State Championship in the spring. First place had 5 fish for 11.8lbs, the only limit, and 2nd had 3 bass for 6 something. I'm hoping to catch a few more fish in the next qualifier on Anna in November but I guess it'll be okay if I don't! Thanks for reading!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Nolan. Conditions must have been awful.