Apex predators!

Back to the Patapsco River, and I don't know why.  Easy access?  Short drive?  Although this was The Best Trip Evar! on the Patapsco.  Two redbreast sunfish and a six-inch smallmouth.

The river below Daniels Dam looks pretty "fishy" but I didn't have much luck there last year.  This time I ventured well upriver from Daniels Dam.  The river just above the dam is low but with a flat, sandy bottom -- not a lot of rocky areas for smallmouth to hang out.  But as you get further up the trail from the dam, it looks a little better.

A nice "fishy" spot on the Patapsco River.

Redbreast sunfish.

I tried the Z-Man Ned Rig worm and a blue/silver Rebel Pop-R and had a lot of interest from the apex predators in the river.  Unfortunately, the apex predators are redbreast sunfish.  It would be nice if they were bigger.  Landed two sunfish -- one each on the worm and Pop-R -- and had four or five hooked up but they set themselves free.  It is kind of funny seeing small sunfish attack a 2-1/2" topwater lure.

A small smallmouth bass did manage to get hooked on the same worm pictures to the right with the sunfish, but it wasn't even decent size for the Little Patuxent River.

Maybe I'll try the river again, but it seems like a lot of effort with not a lot of fish when I can hit the Little Patuxent River and have better odds at catching fish, especially smallmouth.  The Maryland DNR web site says there is a decent population of smallmouth bass in the river, but I haven't come across many.

The return of Mr. Whiskers

All this stuff has either never been used or used only a couple times.

In the past year or so after getting back into fishing, I have acquired a lot of lures.  It doesn't help living a five-minute drive from Bass Pro Shops.  "I'm just going to go and get this one thing" turns into a cart full of impulse buys.

Going through some of my stuff during the week, there was a nice collection of crankbaits and spinnerbaits and jigs that have had little to no use.  Mostly no use.

For a trip on the Potomac River today, I decided to try nothing but tackle I haven't used before.  No Z-Man TRD Finesse worms.  No Bass Pro Shops Stik-O worms.  No Rapala Shadow Raps.

Old, unused lures.

The photo on the right was what ended up in my traveling tackle box/bag.  (Yes there are some Stik-O worms in there but they weren't used.  This is my traveling tackle box, and there wasn't any room for those worms in my regular tackle box.  Can't have different colors occupying the same slot in a tackle box!)
  

No, I wasn't going to try everything!

The Zoom Baby Brush Hog, which is a plastic "creature bait," has been intriguing, so I tied that on an Abu Garcia Vendetta rod with a Pfleuger Supreme spinning reel.  The Brush Hog is a cross between a worm, a salamander and a crayfish. A pack of these went into my arsenal at Christmas as a gift from Karen's mom. Definitely had never tried anything like this before. 

On my other rod, I tied on a "football jig" in a brownish crayfish pattern.  Brand: unknown.

First fish of the day.

Two dink smallmouth liked the creature bait. There were also a few other hits on it.  The first fish I landed is to the left -- check out how the fish is barely hooked!

Nothing seemed interested in the football jig.  This is a typical "bass jig" with rubber band-like "legs."  There are probably six or seven in my tackle box, and I've tried some others in the past thinking I was Roland Martin pitchin' jigs on Lake Okeechobee.  Never caught anything on them.

I replaced that jig with a Luck-E-Strike Rick Clunn STX Jerkbait, which is a smaller profile than the Shadow Raps that have been successful for me.  The interesting thing is that one of my customers gave this particular lure to me.  He saw them at a Wal-Mart marked down to $1.99 and bought about 10 of them.  At Bass Pro Shops, they are around $8!

One dink smallmouth liked this jerkbait, then another one about 12 inches liked it, too.  I really wish I could have gotten a picture of this fish because it was a nice, dark color and it was chunky!  But the fish was trying to kill me with the treble hooks on the jerkbait, and as soon as I finally unhooked him, he wiggled free from my hand and splashed down in the water.

The Potomac River between Brunswick and Harpers Ferry.

A little while later, casting in front of a small point created by a tree with roots were protruding into the water, there was a big tug on the other end of the line.  Fish on!  And oh man, this fish was strong!  It was pulling drag, and the rod tip was bent over pretty good.  Finally, finally, FINALLY I had hooked into a beast Potomac smallmouth.  After getting nothing on the river over 16 inches, I latched onto something big!  Was it 18 inches?  Twenty?  Bigger??!!  Maybe it was a small musky?!

Spooled up was eight-pound monofilament on one of my Mitchell 300 spinning reels on a 6' 6" medium Bass Pro Shops Extreme rod, and this fish was giving everything a workout.  Same combo that I caught the 20-incher on the Susquehanna in April.  And this fish felt bigger. One of those situations where you pull on the rod a couple feet and the fish pulls everything back.

Nope, not a musky.  Not a smallmouth.  Finally got the fish within sight and was somewhat disappointed.  Ladies and gentlemen, the return of Mr. Whiskers:

Mr. Whiskers likes jerkbaits.

I had never caught a catfish before last year until I caught two within two days on ... Rapala jerkbaits.  At least Mr. Whiskers isn't finicky on what flavor jerkbait he likes to eat.  Later last year, I also caught another catfish on a bottom-bouncing plastic bait.  All of those catfish were around 12 inches, but this one was bigger.  Maybe 16 inches?  My fish ruler was at home so I couldn't measure it.

The trailing treble hook -- all three hooks! -- was buried in the fish's snout, and it was proving to be difficult to get out.  I've always heard it's better to cut your line if hooks are too deep.  On a fishing show I was watching during the week, they cut hooks from muskies reasoning that it was easier on the fish rather than struggling to work the hook free.  But I didn't want to let this fish go with a jerkbait swinging from his nose, and I didn't have anything sturdy enough to cut the hook.  So I freed the fish by taking the treble hook off the round eyelet.  Catfish are pretty stout fish, so I doubt it will do him any harm.

Still, while it was disappointing to catch a catfish instead of a smallmouth, the fish put up a good fight.  And I'm glad the fish didn't get off somehow because I would be lamenting a lost monster smallmouth.

I thought about keeping Mr. Whiskers but didn't want to be lugging it around with me for the rest of the day.  Writing this now, it would have been nice to try it on my new smoker.

In about 105 minutes, I caught four smallmouth and a catfish.  For the next 75 minutes, nothing.  No bites or hits or anything.  It was getting close to noon and we were in for another 90-degree day, and I was almost out of water.  So I called it quits.

Maybe next time I'll change lures after catching a fish to make it more of a challenge.

What worked and what didn't.

These are the lures I used today.  On the left is the Zoom creature bait and Rick Clunn jerkbait (notice no trailing treble hook).  On the right is the football jig and Confidence Baits crawfish.  But fishing is weird.  Next week the fish might go for the two on the right but not the stuff on the left.

A trifecta of Little Patuxent smallmouth

That big rock under water in the middle of the river ... I bet there's a smallmouth bass hiding there.

After a failed attempt* at fishing the Potomac River yesterday, I opted to hit the Little Patuxent River today.  I didn't hit the secret location but tried a section upriver that I tried once last year.  Worked out pretty good as I landed three smallmouth in about two hours with the biggest one (and the first fish) being just over 14 inches.

14.5" Little Patuxent smallmouth bass

In the photo at the top of the page, you can see a large rock submerged in the middle of the river.  I was using a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm and cast it just in front of the larger rock on shore on the other side of the river.  Hopping the worm back on the bottom of the river, I hopped it on top of the big rock in the river, and just as soon the jig fell down back to the bottom of the river, this smallmouth came charging from the left across the top of the rock and snatched the worm!   Apart from a topwater strike, there's nothing like seeing a fish screaming from out of nowhere to attack your lure!

'10-11' smallmouth

The two other smallmouth were in the "10-11" range but still feisty.  I had a nibbler hooked but it freed itself just before pulling it from the water.

I also tried a black Hubs Chub and was getting some interest, but I think they were nibblers -- one might have been a failfish -- who realized the lure wouldn't fit in their mouth right before nomming on the trailing treble hook.

Later, while climbing over some rocks in the middle of the river, I spotted a small smallmouth bass just upriver in front of this rocky section.  But it couldn't be tricked into biting anything.

But three smallmouth bass with one being decent size is a pretty good outing on the Little Patuxent.  I keep wondering if there's anything in the 18-inch range somewhere.  There's almost zero fishing pressure on the river -- today was another day where I didn't see anybody else fishing.  I've caught a handful more than 15 inches, and there was a post on the Maryland DNR Angler's Log of someone catching a 17-incher in the Odenton area.  So ... maybe ...

* About the aborted mission on the Potomac, I had been monitoring the gauges all week, and the water levels were going down.  First thing Saturday morning, checked the gauges and they were steady in Williamsport and Point of Rocks.  Figured I'd try the Lander Road boat ramp for the first time and headed out around noon.  When I got there, the river didn't look right.  Scouting the location on Google Earth showed rocks protruding from the water in the middle of the river, so I figured it was fairly shallow area ... only no rocks were visible when I ambled up to the top of the bank.  I whipped out my phone to check the gauge readings at americanwhitewater.org, and the river had gone up three feet since early this morning, about four to five hours before arriving on site!  I guess there had been rain in West Virginia and/or western Maryland over the past couple days while there had not been any precipitation for the past week or so where I lived.