If you want to get good at something, talk to the experts" -- Lefty Kreh

Thanks for visiting 52 Week Season!

52 Week Season is a project to explore a hunting or fishing opportunity each week of the year in the mid-Atlantic. When I started, my intention was to interview various hunting and fishing guides on their approaches throughout the seasons, but I increasingly became more interested in the seasonal patterns of the species themselves and the yearly rituals we build around them. 

Some of these traditions are based on seasonal cues such as migrations or reproduction, while others are purely institutionalized by the DNR. 

For example, we don’t know exactly when the conditions will be perfect for the green drake hatch, whitetail rut, or canvasback migrations, but we have a pretty good idea from years of trial and error and perhaps some data (Memorial Day, mid-November, and “Canuary,” respectively). We itch for a warming trend for yellow perch in the spring and a northwest cold front for Canada geese at the fall but are at the mercy of mother nature. 

Yet we do know that the best opportunity for dove is high noon on September 1, that White Marlin Open is the first full week of August, and that schools are closed the Monday after Thanksgiving for whitetail opener in Pennsylvania. 

Many of these yearly traditions revolve around food -- springtime means shad plankings and fall means oyster roasts -- while others are strictly for sport. Some rituals aren’t based on science or calendar at all but just feel right. Mid-summer is the not the best time for largemouth bass, but there’s something about throwing poppers on a glassy lake before a July thunderstorm.

 Could you possibly hit each of these experiences in 52 weeks? Of course not. It’s absurd to you think you would have the time, but it’s also crazy to assume that a shark fisherman cares to throw flies at brook trout or that a duck hunter has any interest in coyotes. Plus, a jack of all trades is usually a master of none. 

But if you’re lucky, you can start to make connections. A hunter of diving ducks will know to return to the “hard bottom” during rockfish season, and a pheasant hunter can always use those tail feathers for a steelhead fly. And what is more satisfying than a cast-and-blast day targeting speckled trout and blue-wing teal in a September marsh? 

Some of the critters on this list are native and some are non-native, and many times it’s not clear. Largemouth bass are a familiar non-native species while snakehead are a non-native monster in many people’s eyes. Brown trout are non-native but long-established; sika deer are imported but at the same time unique to Maryland; and elk are native but reestablished. Tarpon and coyotes seem way out of place but are adapting to changing environments. 

So what is the "Mid-Atlantic"?  

One of my favorite descriptions is the boundaries of the Chesapeake Bay watershed featured in William Warner's Beautiful Swimmers: 

"The Bay’s entire watershed extends north through Pennsylvania to the Finger Lakes and Mohawk Valley country of New York, by virtue of the Susquehanna, the mother river that created the Bay. To the west it traces far back into the furrowed heartland of Appalachia, but one mountain ridge short of the Ohio-Mississippi drainage, by agency of the Potomac. To the east the flatland rivers of the Eastern Shore rise from gum and oak thickets almost within hearing distance of the pounding surf of the Atlantic barrier islands. To the south, Bay waters seep through wooded swamps to the North Carolina sounds, where palmettos, alligators and great stands of bald cypress first appear." 

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-- Patrick Ottenhoff, Washington, DC

 

Week 2. Shawn Kimbro: Chesapeake Light Tackle

Week 2. Shawn Kimbro: Chesapeake Light Tackle

Patrick Ottenhoff
Saltwater

Ask Shawn Kimbro about any spot in the Chesapeake, and he’ll likely tell you tell you how the water moves there, its structure, how fish move in and out and feed, and other unique characteristics — oh, and of course, usually a good story about the time he caught a lunker there. 

Shawn writes Chesapeake Light Tackle about fishing the Bay and specifically about bringing light-tackle largemouth-style techniques to big water. He also has written two books, Chesapeake Light Tackle, An Introduction to Light Tackle Fishing on the Chesapeake Bay and more recently a follow-up, The Right Stuff, Gear and Attitudes for Trophy Light Tackle Fishing.

His expertise originally came from fishing the TVA lakes of East Tennessee and adapting the techniques he learned there for stripers on the Bay. My Dad and I have heard him speak before, and smart anglers habitually check his fishing reports. 

Shawn and I traded emails in early August when he was gracious enough to take some time away from catching fish to share some of his favorite tips, techniques, and traditions for all four seasons. 

Below are my questions in bold about his approach for all four seasons, followed by his answers. 

You've fished all over the region and country. What would you say are some of your “home waters”?

I'll always consider my "home waters" Cherokee Lake in East Tennessee.  I grew up working at docks there and it's where I learned to fish for striped bass and other species. I always look forward to going back.  

Currently, I feel most at home when I'm fishing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  I dedicated an entire chapter in my first book about fishing there and I almost always mention the area of the bridge I nicknamed "Light Tackle University" in my talks and seminars because it's one of the best places on the Bay to refine the craft of light tackle fishing.

How do your fishing techniques change by season?

Spring

Since we are targeting trophy stripers in the Bay in the colder months, I'm usually casting larger lures, specifically ten-inch soft plastic baits. During the winter, the big fish are usually chasing big bait like perch and shad, so I want to show them what they're looking for. I'll cast big baits up until after the spawn in April.  

After the spawn, I'll size down my plastics to six or seven-inch and I typically use lighter jig heads like three quarter or one ounce.  

Since I work in Washington DC, I like to fish for shad in the Potomac River in the spring.  When the redbuds start to bloom, the shad are usually running and by the time the Cherry Blossom Festival starts, the bite is very good.  

Summer

When the bluefish arrive in the summer, I'll switch over to new-generation polymer lures like the Z-Man brand because they can't bite them in two as easily.  

I always look forward to the arrival of Spanish Mackerel around Kent Island and Eastern Bay. That usually happens in late August and it's water temperature related.  When temps get into the high 80s, it's time to start ripping a metal lure through schools of breakers for the fast-swimming macs. 

Fall

In fall there are bigger fish cruising the shorelines looking for needlefish and other larger baitfish. Fall is topwater time for me and I'm almost always working a grassy shoreline somewhere in an Eastern Shore river for big fish in shallow water. 

Winter

I'm either fishing shallow flats where the water is warmer, or looking for trophy stripers around the warm water discharges of the Mid-Bay, Potomac, or Patapsco rivers. As I mentioned earlier, I'm casting bigger baits in the winter because that's when the trophy fish are looking for bigger bait.

This is also the time of year when my sons and I spend a lot of time in my shop pouring jig heads and making lures.

What are some of your favorite annual fishing traditions?

The first yellow-perch meal of the spring is always a favorite.  I also love smoking bluefish.  A lot of fishermen wait for breaking blues in mid-summer before they start catching them, but I target them earlier on structure because I really enjoy the summer tradition of taking my time out on my back deck and smoking them low and slow. 

I guess my favorite tradition is fishing with my family and especially my sons and grandkids.  Since they live in Tennessee, they don't get to the Chesapeake very often, and we always spend a great deal of our time fishing, talking about fishing, or making lures and preparing for our next fishing trip.  

~ Patrick Ottenhoff, 52 Week Season ~

Week 3. White Marlin Open: World's Largest Billfish Tournament

Week 3. White Marlin Open: World's Largest Billfish Tournament
Week 1. Beau Beasley: Fly Fishing the Mid Atlantic

Week 1. Beau Beasley: Fly Fishing the Mid Atlantic