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.