Smallmouth, catfish and The White House

Below Dam 4 on the Potomac River.

Hit the Potomac River below Dam 4 last night and caught nine fish in about three hours.  Eight smallmouth and one specimen of Mr. Whiskers.

This might be one of my favorite sections on the Potomac because it has quite a few different types of water in such an easy accessible section of the river.  The water just below the dam is slow moving, and that leads into a fast section of rapids.  Then there's a very large point 50 yards below the dam that protrudes into the fast breaks to create a couple pools (one of the pools only seems to hold decent fish when water temps are in the 30s).  After the breaks, there's a slower section with a hidden rocky bottom.  A bit further down, a small point that's barely noticeable leads out into deeper (three to four feet) water.

First fish of the day.

I was in the water around 5 p.m., nice humid day with mostly a blue sky.  I started off with a Z-Man TRD Finesse worm and caught six cookie-cutter smallmouth targeting areas just in front of or behind shallow, rocky water.  Of note, the same worm caught all six fish.  The Z-Man stuff is made from "elaztech" which is definitely more durable than most plastic baits.  Any other plastic would have been torn up after a few hits.

While the Z-Man worms have been great, it has almost been too easy to catch fish with them. Next trip to the Potomac, I may leave them home.  On the Little Patuxent or more challenging waters, they will probably stay in the arsenal.

That being said, I switched to a BPS Teaser Tube in a red/blood color and had a nice strike on the first or second cast.  The fish was hooked briefly but Houdini'ed its' way free.  And that was it -- no action at all for 10 to 15 minutes.

Since the water was fairly deep at this point and snags shouldn't be a problem, I tied on a Rapala Shadow Rap.  These have also been really good at hooking fish, but I haven't used them much because the water has been low on my last several outings to the Potomac and Little Patuxent.

Smallmouth in the 12+ range.

First cast with the Rapala and there was a fish at the end of the line, and it felt better than a cookie-cutter.  It fought hard for about a minute, and it was a nice smallmouth measuring 12+ inches!  It's always nice to land a legal-size smallmouth on a Maryland river.

No action after that with the Shadow Rap and went to the surface with a topwater Arbogast Jitterbug in black.  This is one I haven't used much but caught a few largemouths with them as a kid fishing an Iowa sand pit.  No such luck this time, not even a strike.  Usually I get some action on topwaters, especially this time of day with the sun going down.

Like the Rapala Shadow Rap, I went back to another lure I have had success with in the past but haven't used recently.  Some say it's made with bits of other fish and sea-going creatures.  Others say it's sprinkled with the dust of 1,000 dead snakeheads.  To me, it's just called The Secret Weapon.

The Secret Weapon wasn't going so hot either until I moved upriver right below the dam.  After a few casts, there was a hit before a fast rocky section, and it was a cookie-cutter smallmouth.  This was fish number eight.

A few minutes later, there was another hit on the end of the line.  This felt different -- it wasn't a big fish, but it didn't feel like a smallmouth either.

It ...

... was ...

Mr. Whiskers!

... Mr. Whiskers!!  Mr. Whiskers likes jerkbaits as well as The Secret Weapon.

That was it for the day.

Today I went here:

The White House Green Room.

It was actually my second visit, the first time being almost 34 years ago to the day.  I have more pictures on Flickr. How many people get to see The Statue of Liberty and tour The White House within a week?