In the last installment, I wrote about how easy it seemed to catch fish with the "Ned Rig" Z-Man TRD Finesse worms, and the next trip to the Potomac wouldn't involve them.
That didn't happen. On the riversmallies.com forum, one of the posters there seems to use nothing but the Z-Man worms but rigs them on 1/32-ounce mushroom jigheads. His reasoning is that the lighter weight jigheads lessens the chance for snags. Sure, you will still lose lures but they won't get snagged as often, and they are easier to free.
Yesterday, Karen and I went to the Arundel Mills Bass Pro Shops and, lo and behold, they now stock the Z-Man worms and Shroomz jigheads. Z-Man doesn't offer 1/32-ounce jigs but their lightest is 1/10-ounce. I normally use 1/4-ounce and some 3/16th-ounce jigs, so I bought a five-pack of the 1/10th heads.
This morning, I started off at the Lander Road boat ramp on the Potomac and biked up the C&O Canal Trail. It took awhile to find a place that had easy access to the river. Put on the chest waders and hit the water. This area had a few good spots with riffles not too far from shore. Tied on a Z-man worm with the lighter jighead and started firing it below the riffles.
Nothing for 20 to 30 minutes. Then finally had a fish on -- a typical Potomac cookie-cutter smallmouth bass. A little while later, another fish but a bit smaller. While it wasn't noteworthy in size or appearance, it was my 100th smallmouth of the year! Last year, I didn't catch the 100th smallmouth until September, so maybe I'm getting better at tricking them little brown fish?
Wading upriver to another riffle, I caught three more smallmouth and a sunfish. I also had numerous hookups where the fish got off while reeling them in. Usually I don't miss many fish that way -- if they're on the hook, I land them. My quick take is that while the smaller jighead didn't get snagged as often (I only lost two), they enticed lighter strikes.
In about two hours, I caught five smallmouth and the sunfish. Around 11 a.m., the switch turned off. Nothing. No bites or nibbles.
I waded back down to where the bike was and switched to my other rod and tied on a swimbait. What kind of swimbait? That's a secret. Jason Shay introduced it to me when he guided me and Karen on the Susquehanna earlier month. It's about the same size as a Berkley Havoc but the action is a whole lot better. Reeling in just straight with no variation on the speed or action using the rod, the swimbait rolls and darts slightly from side-to-side.
After about 10 minutes using the swimbait, there was a hard hit on the other end of the line. I thought it was snagged but whatever was on the other end was pulling back -- certainly not a rock! The fish jumped once, and it looked like a decent smallmouth. The fish got within a few feet from me, and I saw it was at least a 12-inch bass. Then it jumped and freed itself from the hook. Right in front of me!
I cast out to the same general area and got another hard hit in the same area as the first fish. Started reeling, fish was close, a little smaller ... and that fish jumped, too, and got off. Right in front of me!
A few casts later wading upriver, I had another hit. This time I kept the rod tip low to prevent the fish from jumping and actually landed it -- a sub-10-inch smallmouth.
High noon was rolling around, and I only had one hit after that. Maybe next time I will just fish with the swimbait and leave the Z-Man worms at home.
Maybe.
And now I will leave you with something creepy:
That didn't happen. On the riversmallies.com forum, one of the posters there seems to use nothing but the Z-Man worms but rigs them on 1/32-ounce mushroom jigheads. His reasoning is that the lighter weight jigheads lessens the chance for snags. Sure, you will still lose lures but they won't get snagged as often, and they are easier to free.
Yesterday, Karen and I went to the Arundel Mills Bass Pro Shops and, lo and behold, they now stock the Z-Man worms and Shroomz jigheads. Z-Man doesn't offer 1/32-ounce jigs but their lightest is 1/10-ounce. I normally use 1/4-ounce and some 3/16th-ounce jigs, so I bought a five-pack of the 1/10th heads.
 |
| Fish-holding riffles. |
Nothing for 20 to 30 minutes. Then finally had a fish on -- a typical Potomac cookie-cutter smallmouth bass. A little while later, another fish but a bit smaller. While it wasn't noteworthy in size or appearance, it was my 100th smallmouth of the year! Last year, I didn't catch the 100th smallmouth until September, so maybe I'm getting better at tricking them little brown fish?
 |
| First fish of the day and smallmouth number 99 for the year. |
In about two hours, I caught five smallmouth and the sunfish. Around 11 a.m., the switch turned off. Nothing. No bites or nibbles.
I waded back down to where the bike was and switched to my other rod and tied on a swimbait. What kind of swimbait? That's a secret. Jason Shay introduced it to me when he guided me and Karen on the Susquehanna earlier month. It's about the same size as a Berkley Havoc but the action is a whole lot better. Reeling in just straight with no variation on the speed or action using the rod, the swimbait rolls and darts slightly from side-to-side.
 |
| A decent sunfish. |
I cast out to the same general area and got another hard hit in the same area as the first fish. Started reeling, fish was close, a little smaller ... and that fish jumped, too, and got off. Right in front of me!
A few casts later wading upriver, I had another hit. This time I kept the rod tip low to prevent the fish from jumping and actually landed it -- a sub-10-inch smallmouth.
High noon was rolling around, and I only had one hit after that. Maybe next time I will just fish with the swimbait and leave the Z-Man worms at home.
Maybe.
And now I will leave you with something creepy:
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