Christmas Eve walleye

Walleye with my 1959 Mitchell 300.

Since the weather had been abnormally warm Christmas week, I thought it would be a great oppurtunity to hit the Potomac River before Karen and I went to her mom's house in Sharpsburg on Christmas Eve.  One more time (again) before the cold weather hits.  Since I caught a walleye two weeks ago below Dam 4, it sounded like a good plan to hit the same spot again.

We got there around 3 p.m., and I made my way down to the water below the dam while Karen went up the C&O Canal trail.  It was overcast with the sun peeking through small pockets, and it was nearly 70 degrees!  On Christmas Eve!  This time, for some reason, I felt the walleye would be biting.

Or not.  Sometimes my gut instinct doesn't pan out.  This time it did.

First walleye, happy it's
too small for Christmas dinner.

I decided to try the secret weapon first since that's what I caught the walleye on last time.  I waded out (later measured the water temperature right at 40 degrees) and fired the jig upriver and ... snagged the lure on the bottom on rocks.  I was about knee deep in water and stood on a "ledge" before the bottom dropped sharply further toward the middle of the river -- probably at least four feet, but I couldn't see the bottom.  Whenever I'm wading, if I can't see the bottom, I don't venture further out.

After snagging the jig, I tied on a silver Rapala Shadow Rap.  I hadn't really used the Shadow Raps since the early summer because I had so much luck fishing the bottom with jigs for smallmouth bass. Plus most sections I have been fishing are fairly shallow where the Shadow Rap might get snagged.  But I had caught a few smallmouth with them (including a 15-incher in the Little Patuxent) as well as a catfish and a few failfish, and I figured they might do the trick enticing a walleye.  Or two.  Or three.  Or four.

I cast upriver and worked the Shadow Rap down like a jerkbait (which is basically what it is).  Jerk-jerk-pause, jerk-jerk-pause. On my second cast, I felt a hit on the other end.  I set the hook and had a fish on!  It didn't feel really big but not small.  Got it within sight and it was a walleye!  Looked to be about 12 inches, maybe a touch bigger.

The first walleye, hooked
with a Shadow Rap.

A few minutes later, I had another strike.  This fish felt a little smaller, but was another walleye -- about 10 inches.  They are really skinny fish compared to bass that are the same length.

I had a couple hits but no fish to show for it after a half hour or so, and I moved down river to the same spot I caught the walleye two weeks ago.

I started off with a Berkley Gulp! Minnow on a weedless jighead and bounced it off the bottom.  No interest after several casts.  I went back to the Shadow Rap for a little while and still nothing.  Finally went back to the secret weapon and had a couple hits in the same exact location but couldn't get the fish to get on the hook.  Probably just nibblers, but at one point I reeled in a jig with a half a worm remaining.

Walleye selfie!

The sun was almost down behind the trees above the dam, so I decided to head back to the spot where I started.  I fished with the secret weapon again with no luck after about 10 casts.  Then it was back to the Shadow Rap, and I had a hit on the first cast.  The fish stayed on, and it was yet another walleye.  This one looked to be the same size as the first one of the day -- another 12 incher (the one pictured at the very beginning with the Mitchell 300 reel).

A little while later, I caught my fourth and final walleye, this one about 10 inches.

The one thing that was interesting about the fish is that they felt cold when handling them out of the water, which shouldn't be surprising.  But after catching smallmouth in the warmer water earlier in the year, it was notable contrast.  The walleye were also pretty active -- fought pretty good and swam away quickly when I put them back in the water.

So after not catching a walleye for more than 20 years, I caught five within two weeks.  While the fish weren't that big, I'm sure there are bigger ones beneath the depths of the Potomac.  Next year, I may start targeting them more at least early in the year when the water is still cold.  Maybe before then, I can wade out a bit further closer to the dam in this area with insulated waders.  With the hip waders I had, I could only tolerate being about knee deep for about 10 minutes at a time because of the 40-degree water.

First Potomac walleye

I just started taking up fishing again late last year after doing it sporadically for the past 20 years. The last time I was semi-serious, I lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan when I was in the Air Force. One of my favorite fish along with smallmouth bass is walleye but I have only caught a handful of them and none since at least 1994, my last year in the U.P. I know the Upper Potomac has walleye, but I had yet to catch one since first hitting McCoy's Ferry last October -- and then quite a few more trips on the Upper Potomac between then and now. Granted, I've been fishing primarily for smallmouth, but I figured I would have accidentally caught one.

That finally changed today!

I dropped Karen off so she could do some Kritmas shopping at the little shops in Harpers Ferry and headed up to Dam 4. When I got there, a couple guys were in a boat right below the dam, so I meandered down a little ways to a small pool of still water just off some faster water. I've never caught anything in this spot even though it looks really "fishy." I've always seen some panfish and small largemouth bass in this section but never hooked anything.

I started off using a Berkley minnow underneath a bobber, but really didn't like the action. The fake minnow was just on a hook (didn't have any small jigheads), and it really didn't sink too fast. I was hoping to slowly reel it in but the minnow still trailed close to the surface when doing so. I switched to my "secret weapon" -- a Berkley Gulp! Killer Crawler on a Charlie Brewer Spider Jighead.

Finally, a Potomac River walleye!

First cast, started working the jig s-l-o-w-l-y on the bottom.  Reeled it in maybe 10 feet and felt a tap-tap-tap on the other end.  The "nibbler" panfish like to nip at the tails of the worms and jigs, but this felt ... different.  A couple taps then a bigger tap and I set the hook -- fish on!  I could feel the fish shaking its head as I reeled it in.  Not the behavior of a smallmouth, which seem to just tug back with all their might.  "Not a sunfish, but probably a catfish," I thought.

I reeled some more and finally got a glimpse of it a few feet away from shore.

"A walleye!!"

Looked to be close to 12 inches (keeper size on the Potomac is 15 inches).  I got it out of the water and took a quick picture.  The hook was in the corner of its mouth, so it was easy to remove -- didn't need the pliers to reach past the fish's toothy grin.

And that was it for the day.  Fished for close to two hours and that was the only fish.  I had a couple hits -- one felt pretty good -- but couldn't hook anything else.

Who's your crawdaddy?

Last week I predicted my last smallmouth.  Today I tried to prove that wrong and failed at proving that wrong.  I fished on the Potomac area between Brunswick and Harpers Ferry and didn't catch a thing.  No bites.  No nibbles No thing.

An old structure along the C&O Canal.

The first thing noticeable when wading into the water was that it was colder than last week.  I threw my thermometer into the water for a couple minutes, and it read 50 degrees!  Eight degrees lower than last week.

Last time I was here, I caught one smallmouth and a catfish.  This time I started further downriver, and I think the river was just too fast this time of year.  At least for smallmouth.  Cold, fast flowing water over rapids.  Lots of small pockets of slow water, but I think with the temperature swing in the water, the fish are tough to come by.  Next year, though, this might be my "go to" spot on the Potomac.  The river is really wide here, and there are a ton of different, challenging areas with big rocks and slow pools.

When I decided to call it quits, wading back upriver, I stumbled (almost literally) on this crayfish:

Potomac crayfish

I thought it was dead and poked it with the end of my rod, but it maneuvered away slightly -- didn't run away.  Chill-laxing in the shallow water looking for little bits of stuff to eat, safely away from any predatory smallmouth. This thing was 4- to 5-inches long, so most of the smallmouth probably wouldn't attempt to eat it!

The most noticeable thing was the coloration.  Brown with some orange, a lot like some of the tube baits I used earlier in the day.  Also, the color was very camouflaged to the color of the rocks on the bottom.

Note: Come back here next year, throw tube baits similar in color to the rocky bottom.

Stay tuned for my year in review!

The last smallmouth?

The colors are a changing.

With the temperatures going down, I have to wonder with each fishing trip if it will be my last until winter comes and goes, and the temperatures start to go back up next year.  I went to the Little Patuxent River last week and caught one failfish, and no smallmouth.  This weekend, the temperatures were higher than normal, and I decided to hit the Potomac River near Antietam Creek where I caught 10 smallmouth in a few hours in July.

I got there around 11 a.m. with air temps just above 50.  I checked the water temp, and it was around 58.  I figured with my non-insulated waders I would be freezing, but it wasn't that bad.  If I was in a deeper section for awhile, I'd wade back to a shallower section to warm up.

I started off with a topwater and didn't get any action.  Earlier in the year, I had a ton of action in this same area on some topwater lures, and I always hope to duplicate the frenzy of smallmouth bass hitting bait on the surface. But nothing.

This area where I was in is a plateau of a rock formation (very few loose rocks).  It's only a couple feet deep and then it gets deeper when you step off the plateau.  You can't see anything from shore but it's very noticeable when wading out.  When I fished the area in April when the water was more stained, I thought it was much deeper.

14.5" smallmouth on the secret weapon

After nothing with the topwater lure, I decided to try the "secret weapon" -- three inch Berkley Gulp! Killer Crawler worms on a slider jighead.  These always seem to be good at finding fish, no matter the size.  If I find "nibbler" sunfish, I move on.  But those same small worms that attract small sunfish also catch smallmouth.  If they're out there.

After about 20 minutes and no action, I finally felt a tap on the other end of the line.  It felt like a nibbler but when I tugged on the rod, it felt like something was pulling back.  I set the hook and there WAS something on the end of the line!  The line as it entered the water started moving upriver and I pulled back -- it was a decent fish, better than 12 inches.  The fish tried to jump a few times, but I kept things under control (while it's awesome to see a smallmouth leap out of the water, that's when they also shake free from the hook).

After about a minute, I landed the fish -- easily 14 inches, maybe 15 ... and pretty chunky.  Also, very nice coloration, with the dark brown splotches on the side and "war paint" pattern on the face.  Most of the fish I've caught this year are more of a plain brown/gold/white pattern laterally down the side.

A nice fish ... for a fallfish.

A few casts later, I snagged a huge leaf on the bottom.  It felt like there was a fish on the other end for a brief second but realized it wasn't a fish (tree limb or weed or leaf).

Why is this significant?  Because few minutes later, the same thing happened.  Felt like a snag, started reeling and reeling ... but hey, it was a fish!  But not a smallmouth.  Or even a catfish.  A failfish.  Although it was probably the biggest failfish I've caught this year, easily the same length of the smallmouth pulled out of the water about five minutes before.  But man, it didn't fight at all.

After an hour or so with no bites, it was time to move on.  I could see exposed rocks protruding from the water about a quarter mile upriver and decided to bike up the C&O Canal Trail to see if there was an easy access point.  I found a spot where I could easily get to the river, looked out on the water and saw nothing but fast water over shallow rocks and rock formations.  It looked like a really nice spot, but I didn't think the faster water would be ideal this time of year with the colder water.  I figured targeting the runs after the rocks and the pools of slow/slack water bordering the faster water might get something.

Started off at the edge of the faster water and didn't get anything.  Moved down some made some casts and nothing.  Moved down some and got a hit.  It fought back like a smallmouth but didn't feel like the same size as the first one from further down river.  Got it closer and it looked to be about 12 inches, and he was angry!  He had been tricked by the secret weapon Killer Crawler!

Angry Potomac smallmouth bass.

It was smaller than the first smallmouth, but I really liked the color on this one.  The dark splotches on the body were darker, as was the "war paint" around the eyes.

I didn't bring a tape measure so did a comparison to the size of the fish on the end of my fishing rod and noted where each fish sized up.  When I got home, I measured the first fish as 14.5 inches, and the second one as 11.5.  How long was the failfish?  Didn't care so I didn't measure it.

The two smallmouth hit like the smallmouth I caught earlier in the year.  Very light taps on the worm, while during the heat of the summer, the fish really attacked similar jigs presented the same way bouncing off the bottom.

If the weather stays like this for the next week or so, the Potomac might be worth a shot again.  Otherwise, I don't think I'll be fishing for smallmouth again.  The Little Patuxent River has been stocked with trout already, so I might try that with Rooster Tails.  Which actually provides an opportunity to accidentally catch smallmouth.

I'm talkin' about perch! Perch, perch, perch!

Karen and I went to the Sandusky, Ohio, area to try fishing on Lake Erie last weekend.  She made all the arrangements (it was her idea) after I found a charter service that would do smallmouth and walleye fishing on one trip.  After thistrip  I figured out there was difference between "charter" and "guide" services.  Charter = get as many fish in the boat as you can.  This time of year on Lake Erie, yellow perch are the easiest to catch.

Karen with the only walleye on the trip.

We showed up at the marina at 7 a.m. in the ominous shadow of the nuclear power plant.
Our friend Jay, who we know through autocrossing, was supposed to meet us.  We were waiting around for a little while and I heard the distinctive sound of a Subaru.  Had to be Jay.  He drove around aimlessly like we did and finally found us.

The boat captain said we were going to wait a little while before heading out because the water was too choppy.  Weird because the water in the marina was dead calm.  We would found out later about the condition of the water.

Eventually we got the nod to head out.  We loaded up our stuff and found a seat in the boat as the boat motored out of the marina.  It was fairly narrow with houses on each side, each house having a boat dock.  All of a sudden we reached "the end."  Two towers of rock marked the entrance to Lake Erie, and it was remarkably different than the calm of the boat docks.  Waves three- to four-feet high were crashing on the rock wall.  Small white caps everywhere on the open water.  The boat captain said we were going to head out eight miles into this stuff!

Crash, bang, holding on to the boat with a death grip.  I've been out on the Chesapeake Bay a few times, and it was NOTHING like this.  Capt. Tom seemed calm.  Although when he lit up a cigarette at one point, I wasn't sure if it was from habit or the end was nigh!

Finally we stopped and Capt. Tom threw out the anchor.  The seas were angry my friend!  It's all I could do to rig up bait (minnows) and grab the side of the boat with a death grip to throw the bait out.

About the rigs: spinning rods and reels, braided line connected to a fairly heavy weight with a rig with two hooks.  Both hooks with dead minnows.  We were in a flat area in 30 feet of water, and there was no casting or finesse.  Just drop the rigs over the side of the boat until they hit bottom.  Capt. Tom initially told me to keep everything hovering just above the bottom, but Karen and Jay started catching fish here and there.  Karen caught the first fish, a white perch.  Then she caught a walleye that measured 15-1/4", just over the legal limit.

After almost two hours, I didn't even have a bite.  I'd reel my minnows up, all still intact.  Did this several times.  Then Capt. Tom told me to drop the rig to the bottom and keep tension on the line, then gently lift the rig up about a foot and let it back down.

Jay with a double.

And the bite was on!  All of a sudden, I started catching fish as did everyone else!  We all had several "doubles" with a perch on each of the two hooks.  I would say from around 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the fishing was great.  We finally limited out with 25 fish per person (4+25=100) in the boat.  That's not counting the smaller ones we threw back, so I would guesstimate almost 40 perch reeled in per person.

When we got back to the dock, all our fish where golf-carted away to be cleaned.  Although it was $50 for ALL the fish, I would gladly pay for that again considering I wasn't looking forward to getting home Sunday night and cleaning 50 little panfish.

All told, it was fun but I don't think I would go out with a "charter" again to catch yellow perch.  I really, really, really want to go back to Lake Erie and target big smallmouth or walleye.

The last big fish, a 10-inch perch.

Back to the Little Patuxent

I've had one trip to the Patapsco River and another to the Juniata River in the past month and didn't catch a thing.  Nothing.  Lots of action from "nibblers," my word for small sunfish.  On worms and jigs, they grab the end of the lure but not the hook and take off with it.  And then drop it or it comes out of their mouth when I set the hook.

On Wednesday I decided to hit the Little Patuxent River behind Walking Fish Pond in Crofton.  This is the same area I went to at the end of May and caught a 15-inch smallmouth, catfish and failfish on a Rapala Shadow Rap, but it's the first time I had been back.  The river looked pretty much the same although a couple of downed trees -- where I had a few strikes from ambushing smallmouth -- had been washed away.

After going to Bass Pro Shops and listening to a guy talk about smallmouth at the usual 11 a.m. feeding time in their tank, I picked up a pack of pumpkin pepper chartreuse tubes and decided to try them.  Lots of action on them, but again, mostly from nibblers.  I had one nibbler chase it all the way as I reeled it in, grab it right at my feet (wading in about two feet of water) and try to take off with it.  Too funny.

Down river from "rip rap."

After a couple hours in various spots and not catching anything -- nothing on the tube, and nothing on various straight worms -- I went back upriver to where I started and waded out to a sandbar.  Made some casts and got nibblers.  I decided to switch to the Berkley Gulp! worms I had good success with last month on the Potomac below Dam 4. 

This section of the river definitely feels "fishy."  Fast flowing water over rip-rap, a nice pool of water after that and into downed trees.  I'm really surprised I didn't light things up.  But anyway ...

After a couple casts, I was surprised by an actual hit that didn't feel like a nibbler.  Set the hook and started reeling the fish in, and it jumped!  The sun was in my eyes and I couldn't tell what it was.  Probably a smallmouth?  Another jump!  And when I finally got the fish at my feet ... it was a smallmouth!  Albeit the high end of an "8-10" fish.  But, hey, it was my first fish in three weeks.

A smallmouth on the high end of the "8-10" scale.

I fished a little while longer but didn't get anything else.

I don't want to jinx anything and have bad weather roll in, but Karen and I are going some place next weekend outside of Maryland that has big smallmouth but is perhaps known more for walleye.  Hopefully bad/marginal weather stays away!

Rocks and a hard place

I tried the Taylor's Landing section of the Potomac River today.  Another new spot for me, the next access point down river from Dam 4.  Karen actually wanted to go fishing again, so we headed out and got there around 8:45 a.m.

The site has two boat ramps, one above a natural dam and another below it.  I decided to try upriver from the dam.  For some dam reason.  I started off with a Confidence Baits Battle Stance Craws on one of their Draggin' Head jig heads.  Just got the rubber "battle craws" earlier in the week, so I wanted to fling them around a little bit. Karen was using straight worms in some flavor.

Looking for the school in hard rocks.

When we showed up, there was a guy in a kayak on the boat ramp.  Karen and I walked by and found a spot about 50 yards upriver from the ramp.  I've been thinking about getting a kayak or maybe a small boat, and if/when I do, when I get in the water, I'm going to go as far away from people as soon as I get in the water.

Not this guy.

He paddled up and parked his dumbass maybe 40 feet in front of where Karen was fishing.  I had waded to a section a bit further upriver and watched this dumbass sit there and cuss while he was fiddling with one of his rods.  It's a good thing I wasn't trying to fish where Karen was because I would have started to plink lures off the side of his kayak.  Finally he moved a bit further out toward the middle of the river.

Anyway, back to fishing.  This section was very flat and didn't have a lot of features except weeds.  I didn't get any interest in the battle craw so I switched over to a three-inch green Stik-O worm on a weedless jighead.  Same thing I used on Friday down in the Edward's Ferry area.  I waded out into a field of weeds and actually saw something I had yet to see on the Potomac -- a largemouth bass!  It was just lurking among the weeds, and it was pretty small.  I know they are on the river, but I had yet to catch one, let alone see one.  I think they like the slower water (like this section with all the weeds) and the smallmouth hang out in faster water, behind rocks or in/near pools next to faster water.

Karen's fish.

I didn't have any luck at all with anything.  Karen, too, and she decided to head down below the natural dam.  I went down there, too, and realized as soon as we got there that this is where we should have started from in the first place.  Two-plus hours later.  There were more rocks, and natural rock trenches stretching across the river in this section.

After using the green three-inch worm for a little while, I decided to switch to a four-inch Stik-O worm in the red shad color on a weedless jighead.  The green worm seemed to blend into the surroundings, so I figured the red in the bigger worm would be more enticing.  No luck after several casts but then reeling the worm back after a cast, I had tension on the line and noticed the line moving UP the river.  I waited a couple seconds and set the hook ... nothing.  I let the jig sit on the bottom for a few seconds, and the fish didn't come back for it.

I cast beyond that spot and worked the jig back and ... the same thing!  My line moved upriver again.  I waited a few seconds, set the hook and the fish was hooked this time.  However, it felt small ... and it was small.  But at least it was a smallmouth bass, around eight inches.

Ten minutes latter, Karen yelled that she had a fish!  She got it on a purple Stik-O worm, and it looked to be around 11 inches and bigger than the two she caught a couple weeks ago below Dam 4.  At least neither of us was getting skunked this trip.

Smallmouth ambush spot.

I moved down river a bit and saw a big, square rock just below the surface.  It looked like a good place to fish from, so I waded out and stood on top of the rock.

I made a cast out and noticed a smallmouth bass swim away.

From the rock.

I was standing on.

Usually I cast out to the area I'm going to wade in but FAILED to do so this time.  It was a nice fish, easily legal size and maybe in the 14- to 15-inch range.

I snagged four or five Stik-O worms in this area, had one hit and nothing hooked.  After losing a lure on the first cast with a new lure, I decided to call it quits.  It was around noon, and for whatever reason, I don't catch anything around this time.

One-hundred-and-three smallmouths

I went out with Jeff Greene at Shallow Water Fishing Adventures on Friday.  This was the third time going out with him but this was going to be a little different -- we were going to fish for smallmouth bass (as usual) for three hours but then when the sun went down fish for catfish.  I figured it would be nice to try something different since I've never fished for catfish before -- caught my first three ever this year but hooked them while going for smallmouth.

Always take a picture of the first fish.

We got in the water around 4 p.m. at the Edward's Ferry boat ramp and headed up river about a half-mile north of White's Ferry.  Jeff had me start off with a three-inch Gary Yamamoto worm in a green/watermelon pattern on a slider jighead.  We used this setup for most of our fish the last time I went out with him, and I have had luck copying the presentation when fishing the Potomac on later visits, including 19 fish over two days at the Paw Paw area of the Potomac, and 10 (including a 16-incher) upriver from Antietam Creek.

The first spot we started from was about four feet deep and very clear -- the bottom of the river was easily visible.  As we were coasting to a stop, we saw schools of carp and failfish cruising the area as well as a couple catfish.

The first hour went pretty well as I landed five smallmouth with the biggest just shy of 12 inches.

My third smallmouth of the day but the 100th of the year!

More importantly, the third fish I got was the 100th smallmouth bass I've caught this year!  I have been keeping track of the number of fish I catch on each trip (even the failfish and sunfish) and knew before the day started that 97 smallmouth had somehow hooked themselves and allowed me to reel them in and then let me free them (not counting all those fish that worked their way off the hooks like magic).  I was hoping number 100 would have been a nice 20-incher but at least it wasn't a six-inch pest.

I'm sure there are more people who have caught more this year, even in Maryland.  But I think it's a pretty significant milestone since I've caught maybe 10 smallmouth in my life before this year.

After the first hour, things really slowed down.  I caught one more smallmouth but three redbreast sunfish before we switched to topwater lures.  We went back downriver to a spot Jeff had noted earlier.  Probably three feet of water with the tip of a rock barely protruding the surface.  Jeff had handed me a rod with a three-inch popper in a bluegill pattern.  He stopped the boat just upriver from the rock and he instructed me to start casting.  I slinged that popper about five feet short of the rock and let it sit a second and BAM!  A smallmouth jumped out of the water and slammed the popper.  It looked like a nice one, too.  Easily 12 inches, maybe in the 14-inch range.

With topwater lures, I've tried to not get too excited and set the hook as soon as a fish strikes the lure.  Most of the time, the fish don't get it on the first try, and if you yank back to set the hook, you're pulling the lure (without a fish) out of the strike zone.

So this time I waited a second.  I scanned the water, tough to see with the sun in my eyes, didn't see the popper in the boil of water and pulled back on the rod -- the fish was on!

I started reeling and there was good tension on the line.  The smallmouth was angry!

And just as quickly as everything happened, the fish came off.  I reeled in the line and there was no popper on the other end.  The reel was spooled with a nanofilament tied onto a fluorocarbon leader, and the leader had cleanly broken or slipped off from where it was tied to the nanofilament.  Similarly, this is how a couple weeks ago a Super Spook Jr. of mine went sailing through the air on a cast -- braided line on a spool tied to a monofilament leader, and the knot didn't hold up.

I was bummed.  Jeff may have been more bummed because he just lost a nice lure, and I'm sure he felt bummed for me losing the fish since he said he had just tied the rig up a couple days before and hadn't even used it yet.  He must have brought it up five times the rest of the night ... "Man, that fish just nailed that thing as soon as it hit the water!"

Oh well, that's fishing.

He tied on another small popper (I think a Rebel Pop-R, which I have a few of) and I had some strikes but couldn't get a fish to stay clamped onto the two trebles hooks.  Well there was one that was hooked, jumped, shook its head and the lure went flying one way and he landed about three feet away.

Meanwhile Jeff caught a few smallmouth on a buzzbait and a Spook Jr.

Catfish rods and reels.

Around 8 p.m. we headed upriver and started trying for catfish.  Very simple, nothing out of the ordinary here.  Big hook, chicken liver, fairly heavy weight, and throw it out and let it sit.  Jeff said this section of the Potomac is where the state record channel catfish was hauled in, which was close to 30 pounds.  He said his personal best was 15 pounds.

I had several bites but didn't hook anything.  Mr. Whiskers would nibble-nibble-nibble on the bait, then I'd reel in after a few minutes to find an empty hook.  Jeff said it was odd because the catfish usually don't mess around like that and just take the bait. 

He had fish nibbling on his chicken livers but managed to reel in two channel cats, albeit small ones.  We wrapped things up around 10.

Some random shots from along the river:

Looking toward the Maryland side of the river.

Cars waiting for White's Ferry on the Maryland side.

The northern tip of Harrison Island.

Two plus two

Karen's first smallmouth ever!

I went back to the same spot below Dam 4 on the Potomac River today.  Re-stocked the exact same Berkley worms and used them right off the bat ... and didn't catch a thing on them.  Not even a bite.  Even tried some that were more of an orange color.

So I started changing lures, going with three-inch worms and tube baits and still nothing.  Meanwhile, Karen decided she wanted to come with me to fish, too, and she quickly had two "8-10" smallmouth.  Which were her first smallmouth ever!  I let her use my old Shimano spinning reel with the "Quickfire II" bail mechanism for easy casting, and that was on one of my new Shakespeare Ugly Stik rods.

I waded further downriver and eventually had a fish hooked on a red four-inch worm, but it got off when I was about ready to pull it from the water.  It was a typical "8-10" smallmouth.  I must have been fishing for two hours at this point, and that was the first bite.

Another 12-inch smallie.

A little bit later, I had another fish on, and this one felt better.  And it was angry!  The fish fought really good going further out on the river then coming back to shallower water.  Finally wore him out some, got the fish close and pulled him out of the water -- a nice 12-inch smallmouth!

After starting off the year on the Potomac not catching anything measuring 12 inches, I've now caught at least one smallmouth 12-inches or bigger in seven of my last eight trips to the river.  The 16-inch fish I caught in July is still the biggest, though.

I fished for a little while longer, had one bite, and decided to switch to topwater since the sun was going down.  Like on Friday, I went to the Mitchell 300 with the Bass Pro Shops rod with cork handle and tied on a Super Spook Jr.  This time, I made sure the spool was seated properly.  First cast, and I had three strikes working the lure back in, but the Houdini fish didn't manage to get hooked on the two treble hooks.

Smallmouth on a topwater.

A couple casts later, I watched the Super Spook sail through the air as, for some reason, the knot tying the 8-pound monofilament to the 30-pound braided line let go.  At least a fish didn't hit the lure when it hit the water.

I had another spool with heavier braid and 12-pound monofilament and put that on the reel and tied on a silver/black Rebel Pop-R, which I'd never used before.  I've caught a few fish on the same lure in a frog pattern, but never even used this lure in this particular pattern.  One of those things where I was looking through the tackle box the other day and thought, "Hey, why not try this $7 lure I've had for six months!"  Like a lot of stuff that I haven't tried yet.

After a handful of casts, I got a strike and the fish somehow managed to get one of the two treble hooks in its mouth.  A couple jumps later, I had an "8-10" smallmouth.

Karen was trying her hand with the frog pattern Pop-R without much success.  I didn't get anything else either, and the sun had gone down behind the trees upriver.  This area is supposed to close at dusk, so we called it quits.  Four smallmouth between us, although I was hoping for more considering the eight I caught in the same section just two days before.

Karen's picture of me with the fish I caught on the Pop-R.

Karen's second fish.

Eight shouldn't have been enough

I headed back up to Dam 4 on the Potomac again.  I didn't cover a whole lot of water when I was there on Sunday, and I wanted to try a little further down river.  This area is also pretty easy to get close to the water.  There is a partial trail right along the water that goes down about a quarter mile below the dam, and the C&O Canal Towpath also runs fairly close to the water in a few sections with easy access points to the water.  I got there around 3:30 p.m., and the plan was to work jigs on the bottom then switch to topwater as the sun was going down.  I hate it when a plan doesn't come together.

It started off OK.  I caught three "8-10" smallmouth in a couple different sections of the river on a four-inch straight worm Texas rigged on a slider jig head.  Found a "fishy" section further downriver with a handful of large exposed rocks and somehow didn't get any action.  Although I did see a nice 15-16-inch smallmouth along the shore as I waded into his area.  He took off about the same time I saw him.  Probably  went out to warn all the other fish in the area.

Never tried these before ... I wonder how they'll fair?

13" smallmouth

I moved back upriver to about the same area I caught the first fish of the day and decided to try three-inch Berkley Gulp! worms I got earlier in the week.  They're supposed to be lifelike, scented and flavored and all that, and these were in a nightcrawler pattern.  When I was a kid there was the Chum'n Minnow that allegedly contained real fish parts, and there was the Chum'n Rub, which looked like Chapstick that you rubbed over lures.  And neither of them seemed to bring me more fish.

So I was skeptical of the Berkley worms since I never used them before.  I rigged them on the same slider jig heads I had been using and waded out a little ways.  Fired the jig out and started working it back ... and got a hit!  It didn't feel like that good of a fish and I figured it was a catfish.  But when it jumped, it looked like a smallmouth.  I reeled it in some more and it was a smallmouth, and not an "8-10" fish.  Hoisted it out of the water, took a picture and measured it --13 inches!  And on the first cast using the Berkley worms.

And the fish kept on coming!  At one point, I had three fish on three straight casts.  I caught five total on the Berkley worms including one that was 12.5 inches and another that was a little over 12 inches.  I also had another that I had reeled all the way and decided to let the fish "play" a little, and the fish happened to free himself.  It was a smaller one anyway.  But all this happened within 30 minutes.

12.5 inches of angry smallmouth

Unfortunately, the Berkley Gulp! worms aren't very durable.  I had a pack of 10 and ended the night with an empty plastic bag.  I think all five fish I caught, the jig was snagged in the fish's mouth with no more worm left.  One fish jumped out of the water, and the worm went flying off the hook (but the fish stayed on).  One worm fell off just as I picked the fish out of the water, a few minutes later, I saw baitfish picking at the worm on the bottom of the river.  Berkley has some other Gulp worms, so I might see if they look to be more durable next time I go to the Bass Pro Shops money pit.

I do have a container of Berkley Gulp! minnows, and they are a whole lot more durable.  In fact, I've never really used them because I don't think they could be rigged weedless because the hook won't cut through the plastic when a fish clamps on.  I've been thinking the minnows would be good with a floating jighead attached to a weight on the bottom for some other kind of fish -- maybe gold in color with sharp teeth.

12 inches of angry smallmouth

The sun was going down, and I headed back to the truck to get my "topwater rod."  It's another classic French-made Mitchell 300 reel on a Bass Pro Shops rod with a cork handle.  The reel was spooled with 30-pound test braided line with an 8-lb monofilament leader.  I hiked back down to the same spot and tied on a Super Spook Jr.  Fired that thing out and started working it back.  I had worked the lure most of the way back and looked down at my reel.  There was a nice bird's nest of braided line, and I guess the spool wasn't seated all the way because the line was also wrapped around the shaft of the reel.  So my night was done.  There was no way I could cut through the braided line with the little scissors I had, and I didn't feel like hiking all the way back up to the truck for another rod then hiking back down.

Still, it was a pretty good outing, my best day of fishing since catching 10 smallmouth (including a 16-incher) on the Potomac near Antietam Creek.  Eight fish total with three being legal size.

Also interesting to look at the three fish above, all three similar in size, but notice the subtle color differences that differentiate them.

New territories

Friday I hit the Potomac River downstream from Harpers Ferry.  It was a new area for me and was a whole lot different than what I've seen on other parts of the river.  Lots of big exposed rocks, a bunch of small pools and rough terrain on the river floor.  I hit the river around 3 p.m. and fished until around 7 p.m. when the sun started going down and masked the rocky terrain.

Earlier in the week, I received three packs of NetBait Mini B Bugs and was anxious to try them out.  They have a crawfish look to them and I read somewhere on the internet to cut off the bigger middle "flapper" so they looked a little more like crawfish.  I used the jigs with 1/8-ounce Confidence Baits Draggin' Heads and because of the strength of the current, switched to 1/4-ounce jig heads.

Ten-inch smallmouth on the NetBait Mini B.

It seemed like there was more action with the 1/4-ounce jig heads but I was only able to land one fish, a mighty 10-inch Potomac smallmouth.  Lots of hits, a couple on the hook that Houdini'ed their way off the hook when I had them within sight.

I also tried Charlie Brewer's Slider Jig Head with three-inch and four-inch straight worms.  With much switching, it seemed like the dark, three-inch worms with red flakes were getting the most action.  But I only landed an eight-inch smallmouth.  And a small channel catfish.  Hey, my career total catfish is now up to three!  Like the redear sunfish, if I was fishing for them and knew I would catch a mess of them, I would have kept it.

Today I tried another new area for me on the Potomac, just below Dam 4.  This area is further upriver from Antietam Creek but not quite as far upriver as McCoy's Ferry.  I know this area has walleye and muskies, too, from watching a video of the Maryland DNR electrofishing to sample the fish population.  But the video was taken in the early spring when the river is a bit higher, so I wasn't going to target those toothy fish.  But, hey, if Mr. Walleye picked up a jig off the bottom or Mr. Muskie snagged a topwater lure, I wouldn't mind.

Nice view ... except for the fish left to die.

When I got to Dam 4, I walked out to a spot overlooking the dam.  And got pissed off.  There were four or five dead catfish and a dead sunfish laying on the ground.  Obviously they didn't leap 15 feet over the dam wall to beach themselves.  The telltale sign was an empty chicken liver container, so whoever was here last night (early morning) had caught the fish and just left them to die.  Fucking people.  If you're not going to keep the fish, throw them back.  Anytime there was something other than a smallmouth on the end of my line this year, I was kind of disappointed.  But I'd never just leave the fish to die on shore.

I went back to the truck to get my waders and gear grumbling the whole way.  I was going to try the NetBait lures on one rod and a Heddon Spook Jr. on another rod.  Me being super smart, I had rigged up my designated topwater rod with six-pound monofilament thinking I could cast it further than the braid with about an eight-foot section of 10-pound mono as a leader.  First cast with that setup, and the lure might have gone 15 feet.  So unless I was standing right in front of a fish, it was pretty much useless.

The NetBait with six-pound fluorocarbon did cast like a dream as usual.  Zinged that lure all over the place in a section of rocks past the dam.  But after 30 to 45 minutes, I had only a single bite to show for it.

I moved down to a place where I could wade out about 15 feet from shore with no issue and switched over to a three-inch Stick-O worm "Texas rigged" on a Slider Jig Head.  I went with a black worm with red flakes because I had decent action with it two days ago.

A strong 12-inch smallmouth.

My favorite time to catch a fish is when I first show up and get a fish on the first cast.  My second favorite time to catch a fish is after switching lures and catching a fish on the first cast with that setup.  And that's what happened with the three-inch worm.  Started working the lure along a break of fast/slow water and got a hit!  It felt like a good fish, and I started reeling it in.  "Please don't be a catfish!"  Got it closer and it was a smallmouth.  Not as big as I thought it was, but I didn't tell the fish that.  It did measure at 12 inches, and this fish was strong!

I caught two more smallmouth in this section, one around eight inches and another that was 10 ... maybe 11.  The third fish was particularly angry once he got within sight of me.  "You tricked me!"

The fish seemed to hit as I let the jig drift in water, pop it once or twice and let it sit with tension on the line.  If I worked the lure fast, I didn't get anything.  But slowing it down seemed to work better.

I moved down to another section just above some small rapids looking to do the same thing with the jig.  Cast downstream and work it back slowly against the flow of water.  I must have made six casts in this section and lost five lures on snags.  Pretty disappointing.  At this point I was out of the black/red flake worms and was running out of the Slider Jig Heads!

Rather than snag more lures, I moved back up to the section I had been at before.  And lost my last black/red worm.  So I switched to a green "pumpkin" worm and managed to catch two sub 12-inch smallmouth.  Then I lost the last of the Slider Jig Heads.  I went back to the NetBait Mini B with no luck.  By this time it was after noon, and I hadn't anything to eat all day so I decided to call it quits.  I definitely want to try this area again, maybe try for walleye.  There were some deep areas -- a couple places the water was past my waist, and one section in particular where I couldn't see bottom.  And I didn't even go close to the dam.

Smallmouth number two.

Smallmouth number three was angry that I tricked him!

Number five (number four was shy).

Two and a Half Smallmouth

I decided to head to the Antietam area today but try downstream from the creek on the Potomac River.  I fished this area once last year but didn't catch anything, but back then, I didn't know what I was doing.  Now I'm an expert smallmouth bass fisherman!

I tried wading right near where the creek emptied into the river, and the water was too murky.  I hate wading when I can't see where I'm walking.  Plus there was deep mud where my leg went at least a foot deep into the mud.  Hate that too.

There was a bit of a trail next to the river, so I followed that and fished from the bank for a bit.  I was using a Heddon Super Spook Jr. -- about in the middle on size between a Zara Spook and a Zara Puppy -- that I had not really tried before.  Also on my other rod I had a three-inch crawdad-colored tube bait on a 1/4-ounce Draggin' Head.  I didn't get any action on the Spook but hooked into something with the tube bait, but the fish got off.  I didn't see what it was but it felt like all the 12-inch smallmouth I've caught the past few weeks.

Screenshot of the smallmouth on the Super Spook Jr.

I moved further down to a section that looked like a dam of rocks.  The rocks stretch almost all the way across to the West Virginia side.  There's slow moving water before the rocks and it looked like there were some deep pockets.  I was using the Super Spook and had a hit, but the fish didn't get hooked.  I twitched the lure, and the fish hit it again but didn't get hooked.  Twitched the lure again, and the fish hit it again and finally got hooked!  Reeled it in and it was a feisty 12-inch smallmouth.  It only took 90-plus minutes of fishing to get a fish.

Rock dam on the Potomac.

On the bottom, I tried grubs, straight worms and the tube bait with no luck.  Not a hit or anything.  I waded out to about the middle of the river on top of the rock dam and tried a green three-inch worm.  After a few casts down from the dam in a fast section of water, it felt like I had a hit so I set the hook.  Nothing.  It was going against the current so it felt like resistance from the water.  I let the worm drift and it again felt like I had something, set the hook and again felt like the strength of the water.  Again let the worm drift and again it felt like something.  Something was up, so I started reeling ... and there was a smallmouth on the other end.  Actually, it should only count as half a smallmouth because it was half the size of my first fish.

An angry Potomac smallmouth!

I upsized to a four-inch green worm and worked the same area after the "dam."  After a handful of casts, a fish hit the worm.  It felt like a decent fish and pulled hard.  It jumped and I saw it was a smallmouth but not as nice as I thought.  Go figure: a smallmouth that fights bigger than it actually is.  I pulled the fish out of the water, and it was around 11 inches.  Still better than half a smallmouth!

Fished for a little while longer with no luck and decided to call it quits since my drinking water bottle was empty. This section looks like it could be a hotbed near dusk or at night since there were a lot of baitfish (and a snake) hiding among the rocks.

A various variety

Karen and I tried a new campground on the Potomac, Spring Gap, which is the furthest north/west campground on the C&O Canal trail.  We got to the camp site around 3 p.m. Saturday, set up camp, and I went fishing.

Sandy bottom, a few small rocks, no fish.

I started off wading just upriver from the boat ramp and didn't have any luck.  The river in this section was pretty featureless -- just slow moving water over a sandy bottom with a few rocks here and there.  I should have recognized it wasn't very "fishy" but I tried it anyway.

On the furthest portion downriver of the campground, I found a trail that led to the river.  I climbed down and started wading.  This part of the river looked a little better, and I even saw a few smallmouth and sunfish cruising around.  Nothing seemed interested in what I was throwing at the time, a four-inch straight worm on a weedless 3/16-ounce jighead.

I saw a large ripple down river that looked interesting.  It was fairly straight and stretched across a good portion of the river.  It was a actually a rock formation that was maybe a foot or so in its deepest section.  So I walked across it right over to the West Virginia side!

At this point, I was using a brown, three-inch curly-tailed grub.  I had one little hit but decided to switch over to a pearl white grub.  Exactly the same lure, just a different color.  I checked my phone, and it was around 5:30 p.m.  Two-plus hours of fishing and not a single fish.

First fish of the day before we agreed to part on friendly terms.

About five minutes later, I had a fish -- a 10-inch smallmouth!  It did the quick release as I was pulling it out of the water.  Thanks, fish!

Five minutes later, I had another strike!  I started reeling in and could tell this was a nicer fish.  It jumped, and I saw it was a smallmouth, easily 12 inches.  But it was fighting like it was bigger.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I like these little brown fish!  They are angry because you tricked them!

When does a 12" fish feel like a hog?  When it's a smallmouth!

I got the fish out of the water, and it looked like he had almost swallowed the jighead.  Luckily, the tip of hook wasn't down the fish's throat.  Unhooked it easily and let it swim away.

Two-plus hours of no fish, then a small change and two smallmouth in five minutes.  I fished for a little bit longer then decided to head back to the campsite to get my "topwater setup" since the sun was going down.

Back in the same water, I started off with a chrome/black Chub's Hub.  I had never used, in fact, never even heard of these lures before I downloaded a book on smallmouth bass fishing to read on Kindle, "Topwater Smallmouth" by Mike Mladenik.  He raved about these lures and about how at one time, the lures were really hard to come by and almost out of production.  But H.C. Baits had started making them again, and I ordered a handful of lures after reading the book.  I haven't had huge success with them, but they have caught fish.

This time the Chub's Hub helped me land a really nice ... redear sunfish.  It was actually a pretty decent size, and if I was fishing for sunfish and hoping to catch a bunch of them, I would have kept it.

I got several hits on the Chub's Hub but for whatever reason, fish avoided getting any part of the TWO treble hooks into their mouths.  Two treble hooks.  Seriously.

I switched over to a Rebel Pop-R in a perch pattern.  Another lure I learned about reading the "Topwater Smallmouth" book.  First cast, just as the lure hit the water, fish on!  I mean, as soon as it hit the water, it got a hit!  Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the GoPro on after switching lures, so you're going to have to just believe me.  I did land the fish, though -- another 12-inch smallmouth.

That was it for the night.  The sun had gone down, and the rocky terrain didn't really lend itself to night wading.

Screenshot from the West Virginia side of the Potomac.

The next morning, I headed back to the same section and wanted to try topwaters again.  This time with a Zara Puppy in a frog pattern.  This is a three-inch version of the famous Zara Spook, and I have had pretty good luck with it.  Last year, it got me the first smallmouth I ever caught on the Potomac and started this addiction.  Plus a redear sunfish or two.  And a failfish.  Three different fish on one lure?  How is this possible?  Could I do it again 10 months later?  Read on and find out!

Today I ended up catching three fish on this Puppy -- a small redear sunfish, a 10-inch smallmouth and a failfish.  It happened again!  The failfish, while disappointing when reelizing what kind of fish was on the other end of the line, was kind of interesting to catch.  It created a boil going after the lure, then went after it again as I paused the lure.  As I reeled it in and caught sight of the fish, I saw a gold color and thought for a second I might have caught a walleye.  Nope.  No teeth.  Just fail.

I decided to head back to the campsite because Karen texted me that breakfast was ready.  But before that, I wanted to try a different lure.  For just one more cast.  Just one more.  Or two or three.  I tied on a 1/4-ounce Draggin' Head jighead with a three-inch tube bait in a crawfish pattern.  I didn't learn about the Draggin' Heads from Confidence Baits by reading a book.  I learned about them from watching videos on YouTube.  It is 2015 after all!

With the 1/4-ounce jighead on six-pound fluorocarbon, 40-plus-year-old Mitchell 300 spinning reel, modern seven-foot Shakespeare Ugly Stik rod, I could really zing this lure.  Almost hitting the shore on the West Virginia side.  After a few casts, I had a fish on!  It felt like the second fish I caught yesterday -- not huge but strong!  I landed it, and sure enough, it was a chunky 12-inch smallmouth.  My GoPro ran out of memory, so again, no video of a nice fish.

I had a few more hits, but that was it, so I decided to call it a day.

My arsenal

Looking back, it was a fairly interesting weekend.  No lure really "hot" like a few weeks ago at Paw Paw then the next weekend near Antietam.  If something wasn't working, I switched lures trying for something that worked.  I even tried a Rapala Shadow Rap and Skitter Pop with no luck.  But got action a few times when switching lures in the same section of water I had been fishing before.  Pictured to the right is the three-inch pearl grub on a 1/8-ounce Draggin' Head jig, the three-inch crawdad pattern tube bait with a 1/4-ounce Draggin' Head, the silver/black Chub's Hub, and the Zara Puppy.  And the obligatory shot of the Mitchell 300 reel I used that is older than me.

Eight fish total, five being smallmouth and three of them of the legal size.

Here's a video of me catching some of the fish: