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.