You can lead a child to water but can’t make them fish. Introducing youngsters to the outdoors is a road blocked by television, the internet, and video games. Education opens the outdoors.
Leading a team of wildlife research biologists and educators providing programs at the District of Columbia Aquatic Resources Education Center (AREC), Teresa Rodriguez brings decades of fishing experience and program development. As Wildlife Management Branch Chief, Rodriguez oversees programs expanding outdoor and environmental education, recreation, and conservation. The AREC campus aquarium is home to free programs to schools, community groups, and the public. There are lessons for pre-kindergarten through high school and customized lessons for colleges and adults.
Very few can truly claim to promote fishing’s future. Rodriguez successfully passes the fishing rod to the next generation without bass tournaments or flashy boats decked with cubic feet of electronics. She executes a proven plan to introduce kids to the outdoors with AREC field trips for pre-K-12 grade students. Kids become fascinated with the unseen underwater world and how they’re connected to it. Large well-lit aquariums display over 40 species of local fish, amphibians, reptiles, and aquatic plants. A children’s Discovery Room offers hands-on classroom lessons. Boat tour field trips encourage outdoors participation. AREC staff handoffs to teachers, providing them with a curriculum to continue to educate and excite the kids.
Aquatic education and exposure to the outdoors lead to fishing. Rodriquez participated as a fishing instruction on several National Fishing Day events where she taught thousands of kids to fish. She knows how to fish and, more importantly, how to teach kids to fish. All equipment and bait are provided. Expert instructors teach beginner anglers everything they need to know to catch their first fish, initiating kids into the lifetime sport of fishing. There are many fishing opportunities in the District including Anacostia Park, Diamond Teague Park, the Tidal Basin, Haines Point, Fletchers Cove, and Kingman and Heritage Islands.
Programs have evolved over the past 14 years. This includes renovations to AREC exhibit rooms and additional exhibits. Programs at AREC connect youth with community natural resources, while teaching them about the watersheds in the District merging into the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The connection is established that human activities affect plants and animals living in this watershed, including native, non-native, and invasive species. Partnering with Maryland DNR, the Reel Invasion Fishing Tournament increased awareness of invasive species such as blue catfish, flathead catfish and northern snakeheads and their effect on watersheds. A stocked fishing trailer from the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation conducts fishing clinics across the District. AREC has grown from 800-1,000 students reached in 2012 to over 8,000 in 2025.
The AREC programs hook kids up with fishing, but more importantly with a connection to the outdoors. Anyone in the DC Metro area can register for a free program but transportation is only provided for DCPS schools. Check out their current offerings at: www.doee.dc.gov/arec
Cooler temperatures are on the way. We should see a water temperature drop by month’s end to around 60! This opens the tacklebox for most moving baits and topwaters for sure. Buzzbaits, poppers, walkers, and wakers! Note, water warms in midday toward the evening providing a good topwater bite! Speed is key…Slower presentations in cooler mornings. Speed up as water warms to 70. Fish are crowding available hard cover like docks and laydowns in shallow water as what’s left of scattered grass. The Wilson Bridge barges and pilings are great. Target structure like drops and edges around the Spoils, and Smoots (National Harbor). Try the fish habitat planted by MD DNR in Smoots.
Topwater action is great early under low light or in the evening. Start with a continuous pop, pop, pop and throw in pauses, and smaller twitches. During colder conditions, wait 10 seconds between pops. Watch baits carefully to note bass movement under your bait. A pull is better than a pop! Feathered hooks give you a “second chance” if fish blow up and miss. Just reel to make feathers move slightly! Fish sometimes strike several times before they take the bait. For rods, use a medium 7-foot rod to gain distance and leverage. Cooler water, try walking lures. Wake baits are great fished at any speed. Use a med/heavy rod with 30-pound test GAMMA Torque braid for best results in clear water over grass.
Mud Puppy Boogie Buzz buzzbaits, with 2/0 Mustad Ultra Point stinger hooks, draw strikes from quality bass in cover over grass clumps as the tide falls, and after water warms through the day. Swim Toads on a weighted 5/0 swimbait hook are great over and around cover.
Cover depths with Carolina rigs with lizards on points or grass edges near deep water. Use a 3/4-ounce weight, 2/0-3/0 hooks, and an 18-inch leader…sometimes shorter. Move baits with rod, dragging slowly, stopping to let baits cover drops. Bump cover, stop and let sit a few seconds. When you get a bite, sweep set. For the tough bite, try splitshotting and drop shotting with smaller Mud Puppy Custom Lures DS (drop shot) worms, 3/16-ounce Water Gremlin Bullshot weights and 10-pound test Gamma Copoly line. Make short dropshot pitches to pilings along sides and leave on slightly slack line. Shake as needed. Feel pressure; set the hook with a reel and pull. Purple worms on shaky heads are also working.
Target grass remnants with lipless crankbaits in shad patterns and red craw in stained water. Because lipless crankbaits are notorious for big bass to throw, upgrade to wide gap short shank trebles…go up a size. Cover water on long casts with a 7-foot medium action composite rods with 12-pound test GAMMA EDGE Fluorocarbon line to rip baits free from grass.
Burning spinnerbaits, willow/Colorado combination and a white skirt, near cover produces hard strikes. When water warms, try double willow, faster retrieves. For clear water, use silver blades, gold for stained and a combo for in between. Bump cover and rip free from grass. At higher tides, it’s easier to work a 3/8-ounce and larger bait down to the grass. Use 12 pound test Gamma Edge fluorocarbon for longer casts and better hook sets.
As tides fall, work edges, clumps or isolated pieces of cover including docks with green pumpkin candy MIZMO tubes rigged on 3/0 hooks with 3/16 weights or with Mud Puppy Baits tube heads around bridge pilings and docks deeper than 5 feet on 10 pound test GAMMA Copoly, on spinning gear. The Mud Puppy head is weedless, easy to skip and glides on the drop. With cooler temperatures following cold fronts, hop smaller profile baits like Mud Puppy Custom Lures avocado stingray style grubs on 8-10 pound test GAMMA Copoly rigged on a 1/4-ounce ball head in ditches and in front of pads.
Get to the bottom fast with heavier 1/2 or 3/4 ounce Black/Blue jigs with chunks in bright blue. Pitch to cover, occasionally shaking to attract a bass. Watch line for bites! Higher tides and sun are better for dock fishing. As tides fall, move to deeper pilings. At lower tides, fish are moving to scattered grass in deeper water. Search baits, squarebill crankbaits and spinnerbaits are working in these spots. Remember, slow presentations in stained water! More speed in clearer water. Swim jigs around grass, wood cover and docks!
Crank South Point, Smoots, Spoils, Fox Ferry, Hogg Island, Fort Washington, barges in Broad, around barges near the Wilson Bridge, pilings, and all hard cover. Cover different depths on 12-pound test GAMMA EDGE Fluorocarbon. Sharp treble hooks are a must! Treble hooks are big in numbers, not big in bite, not holding in much of the fish. Line stretch and rod flexibility make it easier for fish to take baits and provide “give” needed to land fish hooked on trebles.
