A look back on this year, I have learned a lot whether hiring a guide or just by absorbing information watching fishing shows on TV or reading forums. Fishing has replaced (at least temporarily ... maybe?) my hobby of autocrossing, so I dove into it this year. I have lived near the Potomac River for almost 20 years, but this is the first time I decided to hit the river to try to hook into one of my favorite fish, the smallmouth bass.
At the end of 2014, I caught a handful of smallmouth bass on the Potomac River using a Heddon Zara Puppy. Other than that, I was pretty clueless on what lures and presentations to use.
In early April, I went out with Jeff Green at Shallow Water Fishing Adventures on the Potomac River. Looking back, it probably wasn't a good idea because the river was still pretty high and cloudy because of the melting of winter snow. Karen went, too, but the only fish caught by the three of us was one 10-inch smallmouth. By me. But Jeff showed us how to bounce tube baits off the bottom when searching for smallmouth.
A couple weeks later, what I learned paid off as I caught eight smallmouth bass on Antietam Creek, mostly using a tube bait on the bottom. This was just fishing from shore -- no boat and not even wading. The biggest was 14 inches with a few other in the 12-inch range.
A few weeks after that, I discovered the Little Patuxent River near my house. No wasn't the first person to find the river. It has been there for several years. But I found that it contained smallmouth bass, too. And it was by accident that it happened. The Maryland DNR stocks the river with trout, and that's what I was fishing for when I went to the river armed with Rooster Tails. I caught three rainbow trout before I caught sub-10-inch smallmouth. Hmmm, if there are little smallmouth here, then there should be bigger ones, right?
I must have hit the river about 10 times over two months and caught a smallmouth bass every time. I caught a 15-incher near a spot on the river where I parked in a strip mall by the "easy" access point. Personal best day was catching six, including one measuring 15 inches and another at 12 inches.
From July onward, my only luck was on the Potomac. The Little Patuxent ran clear, and the water was really shallow in most places. While I love fishing the Potomac, it's at least an hour drive to the closest spot.
But the drive was worth it most of the time, whether just fishing for a few hours or spending the night on one of the campgrounds along the C&O Canal.
One Saturday-Sunday camping expedition at Paw Paw, I caught 19 smallmouth. Then the following week, I caught 10 smallmouth upriver from the Antietam Creek Campground fishing for a few hours. Of those 10 was my personal best smallmouth-- 16 inches.
I had some luck using Rapala Shadow Raps and various topwaters, but most of the fish were caught using some kind of plastic bait rigged weedless and bouncing it off the bottom. Three- and four-inch Stik-O Worms from Bass Pro Shops, Gulp! Killer Crawlers, three inch tube baits in varying flavors.
I ended up catching more than 150 fish for the year. Of those, 106 were smallmouth, and around 30 of them were perch when Karen and I went fishing on Lake Erie. The rest: 14 sunfish (mostly redbreast sunfish), eight fallfish, five walleye, five rainbow trout, three channel catfish, two largemouth bass (one being about five pounds when I went fishing earlier in the year in Florida) and one crappie.
So it was definitely my most successful year fishing. Ever. My previous best was maybe 30 fish when I was a kid living across the street from Hanscom Park in Omaha, Neb.
For this year, while it would be nice to catch more than 150 fish again, I'm going to focus more on finding bigger fish. While it's fun to catch a lot of fish in the 10-12 range, as I found last night reeling in all those little walleye, it will be more of a challenge to catch bigger fish. Maybe a 20-inch smallmouth? Or a big walleye? Or hooking into an elusive muskie?
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| 14-inch Antietam smallmouth. |
In early April, I went out with Jeff Green at Shallow Water Fishing Adventures on the Potomac River. Looking back, it probably wasn't a good idea because the river was still pretty high and cloudy because of the melting of winter snow. Karen went, too, but the only fish caught by the three of us was one 10-inch smallmouth. By me. But Jeff showed us how to bounce tube baits off the bottom when searching for smallmouth.
A couple weeks later, what I learned paid off as I caught eight smallmouth bass on Antietam Creek, mostly using a tube bait on the bottom. This was just fishing from shore -- no boat and not even wading. The biggest was 14 inches with a few other in the 12-inch range.
A few weeks after that, I discovered the Little Patuxent River near my house. No wasn't the first person to find the river. It has been there for several years. But I found that it contained smallmouth bass, too. And it was by accident that it happened. The Maryland DNR stocks the river with trout, and that's what I was fishing for when I went to the river armed with Rooster Tails. I caught three rainbow trout before I caught sub-10-inch smallmouth. Hmmm, if there are little smallmouth here, then there should be bigger ones, right?
 |
| Something bigger on the Little Patuxent -- 15" smallmouth. |
From July onward, my only luck was on the Potomac. The Little Patuxent ran clear, and the water was really shallow in most places. While I love fishing the Potomac, it's at least an hour drive to the closest spot.
But the drive was worth it most of the time, whether just fishing for a few hours or spending the night on one of the campgrounds along the C&O Canal.
 |
| My biggest of the year -- 16 inches. |
I had some luck using Rapala Shadow Raps and various topwaters, but most of the fish were caught using some kind of plastic bait rigged weedless and bouncing it off the bottom. Three- and four-inch Stik-O Worms from Bass Pro Shops, Gulp! Killer Crawlers, three inch tube baits in varying flavors.
I ended up catching more than 150 fish for the year. Of those, 106 were smallmouth, and around 30 of them were perch when Karen and I went fishing on Lake Erie. The rest: 14 sunfish (mostly redbreast sunfish), eight fallfish, five walleye, five rainbow trout, three channel catfish, two largemouth bass (one being about five pounds when I went fishing earlier in the year in Florida) and one crappie.
So it was definitely my most successful year fishing. Ever. My previous best was maybe 30 fish when I was a kid living across the street from Hanscom Park in Omaha, Neb.
For this year, while it would be nice to catch more than 150 fish again, I'm going to focus more on finding bigger fish. While it's fun to catch a lot of fish in the 10-12 range, as I found last night reeling in all those little walleye, it will be more of a challenge to catch bigger fish. Maybe a 20-inch smallmouth? Or a big walleye? Or hooking into an elusive muskie?
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