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.