As a warm up to the 4th of July weekend, I grabbed the basswife and we headed out to the Breckinridge Reservoir at Quantico for a morning of bass fishing. Breckinridge is one of our favorite local lakes – it’s electric motor only and and an exceptionally shallow boat launch – so it’s only suitable for canoes and shallow draft Jon boats. All of this serves to control the pressure on the lake – we rarely see more than two other boats.
We launched the canoe and decided to fish the close approaches just beyond the hydrilla near the launch and immediately started to have some good luck on a red GULP Worm. Since the water was a bit stained with mud from the record levels of recent rain, the color and the response was consistent with the recommendation of Bassmaster that I discussed in this article. We worked the worms slowly across the structure and they would hit within the first several tweaks. Thankfully, the basswife broke her skunked streak and caught a nice one. Nothing was above 15″ (Quantico has a 12 – 15″ slot) so everything went back into the drink.
We were marking many more fish than the last time – so the doldrums must be over on this lake. The reliable spots produced reliably – it was a great day. The red worm was the bait of choice. I was trying my usual Scum Frogs and buzzbaits as well with no hits. I really need to figure how to leverage the rest of the stuff I have in my tackle box. In 30 years of bass fishing, I have never caught a fish on a crankbait (other than trout on rapalas). Next time I go out with a guide, I’ll have to get some mentoring.
The only challenge of the day was the dang trolling motor battery. Seems like this thing does not have the pep it used to have. After only using it for two hours, it was pretty much drained and we had to resort to paddles to get back to the truck. I looked at it later that afternoon and realize that this was an old style battery that actually needed to be replenished with distilled water. Got some and topped it off – we’ll see if that brings it back up to it’s original power level or whether I need to go to WalMart and get a new one.
We fished for several hours and then the basswife mentioned that we should go try in the shade. I immediately interpreted this as saying “let’s go home” so started working our way back the dock. Later than evening as we were discussing the day, she absolutely stunned me by complaining that we had left the lake too soon. Wow! Did I misread that! After 30+ years of marriage, the basswife is still a mystery in some respects. Guess I will finally accept her assertion that she actually likes to fish instead of my assumption that she does it to make me happy!
Getting there: Take the exit 148 off I95, go right. A few miles after the Marine checkpoint, turn right following the signs to Camp Upshur. A mile or so after the turn, you will see a marked road “New Breckinridge”. Turn right on that and follow it to the end
Typical small Breckinridge bass. Good day of action – but nothing worth keeping.
Picture perfect day on the lake. Absolutely alone.
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore