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).