One time for smallmouths

With the weather being unusually warm and seemingly on an upward trend, it seemed like a good time to hit the Potomac River to see if the smallmouth bass were venturing out of their wintering holes.

On Monday, I fished below the Dickerson Substation.  First time here for me.  The internet told me that the power station's discharge is released into the Potomac, which leads to unusually warmer water temperatures this time of year.  I've wanted to hit this spot since the beginning of the year, but the water was always too high according to the gauge readings on americanwhitewater.org.

The water was going back to normal levels, so it seemed like a perfect time to shake off the cabin fever.

Venturing into new territory, I started off near the parking area downriver from the plant and worked my way up along the muddy bank.  The water was really murky -- visibility maybe a foot or two below the surface.  It didn't look very "fishy" at least for smallmouth bass -- no rocks or anything visible below the surface or protruding from the water.  Lots of mud and flat underwater terrain.  Tried plastics and Rapala Shadow Raps and only had one bite (on a Shadow Rap).

As I was leaving, a guy pulled in to the parking area and asked me the usual ("Whatcha fishing for?  Didja catch anything?").  He said the best spot is right at the warm water discharge, and that water holds both smallmouth and largemouth bass.  It was getting dark, and a hike up there didn't seem like a good idea.  Maybe another time.

Got off work a little early on Friday and headed back to the same spot.  This time I walked up to the plant along the C&O Canal Towpath and followed the chainlink fence from the towpath down to the river.  The river here looked like a good spot.  I tossed my thermometer in the water to check the temps -- 60 degrees as opposed to 40 degrees from just down river on Monday.

Unfortunately, there was no action.  Nothing.  Zero.  Zilch.  Everything I had with me was cast out in the water.  No hits or anything.

Nothing.  Zero.  Zilch.

When I got home, a search on the Maryland Angler's Log revealed that, yes, people had reported nice catches of smallmouth and largemouth.  At this time of year, too!  One photo showed a guy holding a 3+ pound smallmouth at the exact same spot where I fished from earlier in the day!

Karen and I had been planning to go camping this weekend at one of the C&O Canal campgrounds, but while the temps were going to be in the 60s, the forecast was calling for rain.  We decided to go fishing and then just stay at her mom's house in Sharpsburg on Saturday night.  I really wanted to go back to Dam 4 to try for some walleye, but a recent post on the bassresource.com forum indicated that it has been pretty crowded.  He called it "opening day of a kid's fishing derby."  Instead, I decided to fish near Antietam Creek because there were a few areas we could easily hit.

We started off where I caught 10 smallmouth bass in about three hours last year.  That day's catch included my biggest smallmouth so far.  The water was fairly clear and just a tick below 50 degrees.  But we had no luck at all.  We moved down to Antietam Creek, the same area I caught eight smallmouth last year over two days.  Again, nothing.

With the sunlight dwindling, we moved further downriver to a natural dam that stretched nearly the entire river.  Fishing once here last year, I had decent success.  This section of the Potomac has a good mix of rocks and deeper pools.  Karen said she was getting some action from nibblers, but I wasn't getting anything in a small pool downriver from the rocks.  I moved up to a spot near her and closer to the shore where the water looked to be deep (by "deep" I mean you couldn't see the bottom ... at least three to four feet).

I mentioned the Rapala Shadow Rap earlier.  Since tying one on last year for the first time, it has been one of my favorite lures.  They've hooked smallmouth, walleye, catfish and failfish.  You can vary the retrieve, and the lure doesn't seem to do the same thing twice.  It suspends in the water and has a nice flash of silver when moving it through the water.

A little chunky, but don't let her hear that.

With the deeper water, I threw out a Shadow Rap.  On the second cast, I got a hit!  Or maybe not?  As soon as I set the hook, it felt like there was a tug at the end of the line.  But then it felt like it got hung up.  Damnit!  I hate when you get that rush of a hit but then it turns out to be a snag.  I tried for 10 to 15 seconds to work the lure free, and it wasn't budging at all.  But finally it got loose.  Started reeling in ... no, wait ... there was a fish on the other end!!  Whatever was on the other end was making a beeline for the shore.  It briefly broke the surface, but I couldn't tell what it was.  It was tugging back pretty good, and then I saw why -- it was a smallmouth.

I landed the fish and unhooked the Shadow Rap.  The smallmouth was surprisingly only 12.5 inches.  It felt a little bigger than that, but I'm sure that has been said so many times after reeling in a smallmouth.

I'm pretty sure the fish got briefly wrapped in a log or something on the bottom, which is why I went from "Oh it's a fish!" to "Oh crap it's a snag!" within a couple seconds.

But that was it for either of us.  Karen said she continued to get nibbles on four-inch plastic worms, but no fish to show for it.

Flood levels at Point of Rocks.

Today after a short trip to Antietam Battlefield, we stopped by Point of Rocks.  I hadn't been there before, and I just wanted to scout it out.  I think this is the closest point of entry to the Potomac from my house.  The river looks really "fishy" in this area with rocks, a couple big islands and the supports for the Route 15 bridge.  Of course I couldn't scout it out without throwing something in the water.  I fished  right under the bridge for about 45 minutes and actually had a fish on.  It looked like a smallmouth, but it somehow didn't manage to stay clamped on any of the two treble hooks on a Shadow Rap.

While the week wasn't very productive, looking back to last year at this time, I didn't catch any fish at all until April (well other than a nice largemouth bass when I was in Florida).  Already, I've landed a handful of walleye and an angry smallmouth.