The sunfish also rises

Little sunfish love it on top.  Water lures.

Karen and I went camping at McCoys Ferry on the C&O Canal Saturday night. We had not been here in more than a year mainly because it's a bit further away than other stops like Antietam Creek.

A blurry picture of a dink smallmouth.

I always like coming back to this area because this is where the fishing bug restarted when camping in October 2014.  At that time, I caught a few decent smallmouth, and then the itch was scratched.  Two years ago, it started with a smallmouth exploding the surface going after a Zara Puppy, got hooked, jumped a couple times then charged like an angry bull right at me while I was standing on the shore ... and then the line broke.  It looked like 16-inch fish.

Since that time, I have not had much luck on this stretch of water.  Last time I was here, I didn't catch a thing.  This time, I caught some fish, but nothing of heft.

The river in this section is almost like a lake, so the water flows really slow unlike most areas of the Potomac.  On Saturday I started with a three-inch, black/silver Hubs Chub topwater lure.  Because of the flow -- or lack of flow -- the floating lure wouldn't drift downriver very fast.  Most areas on the Potomac require an almost frantic retrieve when using a topwater because it gets swept away so fast.  Like using the Zara Puppy two years ago, I would cast the Hubs Chub out, let it sit for a few seconds then work it back with a variation of jerk-jerk-pause.

Good morning Potomac River!

There is also thick vegetation right along the bank on the Maryland side, so working a jig on the bottom was almost impossible. Even using a swimbait running just below the surface only enticed one bite over Saturday and Sunday.  Otherwise the only action was from the Hubs Chub.  However, it's always a sight to see fish strike (or attempt to strike) topwater lures.

Saturday, I could only manage two redbreast sunfish on the Hubs Chub.  The first one was actually a decent size, and I thought about keeping it, but it freed itself from two treble hooks as I was pulling it out of the water.  Sunfish don't really attack topwater lures like smallmouth bass -- they kind of suck it down when the lure is paused.

Sunday morning around 6 a.m., it rained for a bit and woke me up.  The rain quickly subsided and since I was awake, it seemed like as good of time as any to hit the river.

Two smallmouth, albeit dinks, managed to get hooked on the Hubs Chub, and then another sunfish later.  Lots of action, too, with the topwater.  Maybe five hits on the lure for every fish I actually caught.  Nothing of size though from what I could tell.

I should also note that there is a special challenge to removing a sunfish from a treble hook when all three hooks are in the fish's tiny mouth.  Enough of a challenge that I want to snip two hooks off every single topwater/jerk/crank bait I own.