Island hopping

Next spring and summer, I'm predicting this will be my new favorite area on the Potomac.

Only one fish landed today, but with this time of year, anything's a bonus.

The sun's going down early this
time of year.  As is the smallmouth
bite.

Let's talk about the weather.  Temps were unseasonably in the low 70s and water temp was around 65.  But I think the smallmouth are instinctively migrating toward their winter burrows.  Wherever that may be.

I decided to hit The Community Pool but a bit downriver, a section I had not fished in almost two years.  Lots of pools behind big rocks, but the river was really low and flowing fast in most places.  I think I'll keep this area in mind for next year when the water/air temps are warmer.

Anyway, peppering shallow pools with a Whopper Plopper and Reaction Innovations Little Dipper, I didn't have any bites.  Finally wading between the shore and a small island, I saw small sunfish scurrying away.  I threw the swimbait downriver and had a fish hooked.  But the fish escaped, but it flashed just below the surface and didn't look a smallmouth.  Maybe a largemouth bass?

On the next cast into a different area, another hit.  This time the fish stayed on until it was right at my feet.  This one was definitely a green largemouth.  But it also escaped.

The one fish that wanted
its picture taken.

A couple hours later with absolutely nothing, I switched to the frog-flavored Heddon Zara Puppy and a Campground tube.  This time, I was wading among some big rocks off shore from another island.  On the third cast with the Zara Puppy, working it back, I wasn't paying attention for a brief second because I was looking for a good place to make a step between some rocks.

I didn't hear the fish.  I didn't see the fish.  I just felt the fish tugging on the other end.  Despite this, I instinctively set the hook, and it felt like a decent fish on the other end.  Not huge but not a cookie cutter.  The fish started to rise to the surface -- a typical smallmouth bass behavior -- and it made a boil ... and it managed to unhook itself.

A little bit later with the Campground tube working the bottom, I felt a peck on the other end and set the hook.  This fish, this cookie-cutter fish, stayed on.  At least it was something.

A couple other fish tried to slurp the Zara Puppy, but I think they were sunfish.  Then I had what I thought was a hit on the tube, but it broke off.  It was one of those things were it happened so fast, I wasn't sure if it was a fish or just the line wrapping around a rock.

Interesting discovery mashed between a big rock.

 

Winding down

As the leaves start to turn colors and fall, and the temperatures drop, river smallmouth bass go somewhere.  I'm not sure where, but they can't be found for the most part in their usual warm-weather spots.  Some say they find deep holes to chillax during the cold weather, some say they migrate somewhere else.  If they can be found, it usually takes a slow, slow presentation to entice a bite.

I don't think the weather is there quite yet, but it sure feels close.  A couple weeks ago, I fished the Little Patuxent River and didn't catch a thing.  Had a quite a few bites and even had a nice 12-incher hooked up, but none of those fish found the shore.

Today it was really similar on the Middle Patuxent.  I would see a fish grab a lure, take off with it, but then the lure came out right away when setting the hook.

But unlike two weeks ago when I got skunked, I managed to catch something.  The first fish was a failfish on a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper.  Then I moved upriver to a spot where I always have some kind of action, and it was more of the same this time.  Three cookie-cutter smallmouth and a redbreast sunfish, and a lot of bites and follows.

This was one of those weird situations where I cast upriver and worked the lures down -- the Little Dipper and also a Z-Man TRD Finesse Worm -- and didn't get anything.  Then I moved to a sandbar and cast straight across the river to the same area and caught the fish.  It's interesting how using the same lures but casting them at a different angle can sometimes entice a bite.

The water as clear here, too, and I counted almost 10 fish resting on the bottom at one point secluding themselves away from the current.  Most looked like smallmouth bass but I think a couple were failfish.  There was also a nice smallmouth (for the Middle Patuxent -- probably 14 inches) in the mix, but it didn't sniff at any lure.

Maybe I'll make a couple more trips to the Upper Potomac, but it feels like things are winding down for the little rivers near my house.

It's still hot because the sunfish are still out

A pretty slow evening on the Little Patuxent.  I only managed a small largemouth bass and two green sunfish, all on some flavor of Reaction Innovations Little Dipper.  At least I didn't try and bleed to death.

One of two green sunfish.

I started off where I was last week and had at least five hits on a Heddon Zara Puppy within the first eight or 10 casts.  But after that, nothing sniffed at any topwater.

After casting into trees for a couple hours and catching the two sunfish, I moved downriver to a couple sections I really hadn't fished before.  The second spot, I cast a Little Dipper while standing high up on a bank, and a smallmouth came out of nowhere and attacked it.  It looked like at least a 12-inch fish, but it shook angrily on the surface and got away.

The next cast produced another hit, but this time it was the largemouth bass.  Probably around 10 inches.  I hoisted it up on the bank, it shook its head, got off, tumbled down the bank and into the water.  No picture for you!

All the largemouth I've seen on the Little and Middle Patuxent rivers are the cookie-cutter variety.  Wondering if there any bigger ones of legal 12-inch size.

I also saw a good sized (at least for the Little Patuxent) cruising, but it got spooked as soon as I cast a lure near it.

Temps were probably around 90 today, so I wonder if the fish will stay active for awhile.

There will be blood

Hit the Little Patuxent today for the first time in awhile.  I caught four fish -- two smallmouth, a sunfish and a failfish, but I walked away licking my wounds.

The water was really low and clear.  It seems this year has been plagued by bouts of rainstorms and raised water levels (especially the Potomac).  Now the river water is steady like it's customary to see in early July.

The first fish of the evening was a redbreast sunfish on the trusty Heddon Zara Puppy.  The fish managed to get its mouth around all three treble hooks on the tail of the lure.  It took awhile to get it out with me putting the fish in the water three or four times, but I finally managed to get it free.

The sunfish were especially feisty with packs of them chasing lures on several occasions throughout this venture.  After the first sunfish, I threatened them by saying, "I'm going to keep every single one of you."

A little while later while tossing a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper, I saw a fish that looked like a smallmouth, and I cast the swimbait in the fish's general direction.  It was moving slowly upriver hugging the bottom and ignored the lure.  I cast again and had a hit!  Woohoo, caught a smallmouth!

Nope, it wasn't a smallmouth.  It was a failfish.  And that's why I call them failfish.  I still think I saw a bass but the failfish got in the way.

A little bit later, I had a decent strike on the swimbait, and as I reeled the fish in, I could see the telltale lateral line of a largemouth bass.  Not very big, but a little bonus considering they are much rarer to find in the river.  But the fish managed to get off the hook.  The fish sat there brooding on the bottom of the river and actually went after the swimbait on two more casts but didn't get hooked.

Can't ever resist this section.  Never caught a fish
here, though.

On to another spot where I was standing on a steep bank and could see fish chasing my lures, I was getting the fish to go after the Zara Puppy and the swimbait with equal interest.  Nothing could clamp on though.  Twice it looked like a bass had inhaled the swimbait, but when I set the hook, the lure popped out each time.

Finally on one cast, I saw a smallmouth come out of nowhere and slam the swimbait.  It stayed on, and I reeled it in and hoisted it up the bank.  It was an easy 12 inches.  No picture, though, because when I removed the hook, the fish wiggled and freed itself ... into a thicket of weeds and thorny vines at my feet.  I tried grabbing the fish, but it wiggled itself further into the green mess.  Finally I got a hold of the fish and just tossed it back in the water.

I was hitting the trees pretty good
today. This time, it turned out OK
freeing the lure.  The next time,
though ...

A couple other spots downriver, I had one bite.  Then I moved to another spot that I had only fished once before.  On the first cast straight out, I had a bite.  Again, this was up on a steep bank where I could see pretty clearly into the water.

After a few more casts back to that area with nothing, I cast downriver and brought the swimbait parallel to the bank.  As the lure was wobbling through the water, I saw a smallmouth bass come out from a downed log and swim a few feet in front of me.  And it was a NICE fish.  It paid no attention to the Little Dipper, but then I cast it out again so the lure was more in front of the fish.  And it hammered it!  It was a good fight because the fish tried to head back under the log.  This was on my medium-light St. Croix Avid X rod, so even smaller fish can give an impressive tug.

I hoisted the fish out of the water, and it was easily 14 inches, maybe more.  But then it thrashed, unhooked itself and barrel-rolled down the bank into the water.  I guess when the fish finds his buddy from upriver, they will have interesting stories to tell.

I moved on to some rocks just below this section and made a cast upriver.  What I didn't see was a tree branch way up high over the water, and swimbait went sailing through and landed in the water.  I tried to get the fishing line free, but it wasn't happening.  So I reeled the lure in and yanked the fishing rod.  The lure was stuck.  I kept pulling and pulling and finally gave a big tug, and the lure came free.

Cleanup on aisle three!

I use small "darter" jigheads for the Reaction Innovations swimbaits.  The head looks like a small bullet.  When the lure came off the branch, that bullet shape found my left index finger.  Instant pain and blood everywhere.  Lots of blood -- my hand was half red.  It reminded me of when I cut my hand when I was about 17 -- coincidentally, while fishing.  That time I was walking down a rocky bank, reached over with my left hand to steady myself, then wondered why my hand was wet.  I looked down, and it was covered in blood.  A rock or something had cut three of my fingers, and I needed stitches.

This didn't look quite that bad -- just one slice on my finger, but I gathered my stuff and headed back to the truck.  Thankfully, I had waded/hiked/ambled far enough where I was parked, and there is a first aid kit inside the truck.  Alcohol pad, then a band-aid, but it still hurt really good for awhile.

The inches we need are everywhere around us

I know they're out there.  I've seen pictures of them.  Big smallmouth bass on the Potomac.

Since I started fishing again three years ago and chasing smallmouth, I've only caught two 16-inch fish -- nothing bigger -- on the Potomac.  On the Susquehanna River, I've caught one 20-inch fish and two 18 inchers.

The bees were hungry.  Tried to get a good picture
of three or four bees buzzing around in each
patch of flowers, but they were too quick.

But I know those big fish are out there on the Potomac.

Somewhere.

Yesterday I finally inched closer to those Susquehanna fish with a 17-inch smallmouth on the Upper Potomac.  It was actually my first bite of the day after NOTHING for almost two hours.

Karen and I set up camp at Antietam Creek Campground, and I headed to my "secret spot" while she went to "walleye central."  Usually ... OK, always, I catch something at the secret spot.  But yesterday was a big fat zero.  Nothing even sniffing at any lure I threw.  After an hour plus in that area, I decided to head to another section.  I hit the trail thinking this other area was a good hike but it was only a five-minute walk away.  Usually when I've fished here, I've parked at another location other than the Antietam campground, so that's why I was thinking it was further away.

No sweat after the short walk, and I waded into a fast section of water running over a string of rocky formations.  My plan was to cast down from the rocks into the slower tailwaters or target laterally against the current and working lures across.

I started off with a Z-Man Finesse Worm for a few casts.  Then I switched to my medium St. Croix Rod Avid rod with a Pflueger Patriarch spinning reel rigged with 10-pound Hi Seas Triple Fish Camoescent line and a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper swimbait.  That's a lot of name dropping!

Unleash the fury -- new personal Potomac best!

Anyway, I spotted a small, slow-moving pocket between the bank and fast current.  I zipped the swimbait there, and it splashed down a couple feet from the bank.  A second or so after I started reeling in, there was a hit on the other end.  Oh wait, it's a snag.  No wait, something is taking the line away from the bank!  Set the hook, and the fish did a half-jump on the surface, and I could see it was a good-sized smallmouth!

Another little jump, and the swimbait went flying, but the fish was still hooked.  After a brief battle trying to keep the fish from jumping while also trying to keep it from burrowing down in the rocks, I got the fish next to me.  The hook was firm in it's upper jaw, and the fish finally calmed enough where I could grab it.

It's PB&J time for this sub-12 smallmouth bass.

With the adrenaline flowing, I pulled the camera from the front pocket of the waders, shakily took a picture, put the camera back, unfolded my measuring board to measure the fish, then let the fish go.  All this going on while holding the fish with my rod tucked under my arm in fairly fast flowing water..  It seemed to take forever but probably took 30 seconds.

The fish was a tick over 17 inches, my biggest from the Potomac!  It probably took me 10 minutes to calm down, rig up a replacement swimbait and make the next cast.

I caught two more smallmouth the rest of the day as the sun was setting.  None were close to 17 inches, though.  They were each a bit under 12 (actually, I think they might have been the same fish) and caught on a "PB&J" Z-Man worm.

Topwater time!

This morning, I hiked back to the same general area but a little bit further downstream.  Temps were in the mid-60s with a fog blanketing the river, and the conditions just screamed "topwater."

My new favorite topwater lure is a Heddon Zara Puppy in a "bull frog" pattern.  This is actually the lure that started my obsession for smallmouth three years ago when Karen dragged me camping at McCoy's Ferry and I lost a nice smallmouth.

The first cast with the Puppy had a fish take a swipe at the lure twice, but it managed to evade the two treble hooks.  I had one more similar strike then another where a fish caused a huge ruckus on the surface, but again, nothing tugging back on the other end.

Subsurface view of a smallmouth that hit a surface lure.

Finally I had a good strike on the little Puppy, but this time the lure wasn't floating on the surface anymore.  I started reeling in frantically and then the fish must have thought something was up and started pulling back.  The fish surfaced and I saw it was a nice smallmouth -- maybe not 17 inches but not a dink or a barely legal fish.  It was a similar battle with the 17-incher from yesterday as I tried to keep it from breaching the surface and slicing the line on the rocky bottom.  I successfully landed it, and it measured just over 15 inches by the length of a caudal spine.

The Zara Puppy is a scaled down version of the more famous Zara Spook.  Both lures have the same action and require more of a finesse approach.  Each twitch of the the rod has the lure sliding side-to-side across the surface.  With fall looming, underwater weeds are starting to die off in the river, and strands are now floating on the surface.  Each time the lure snagged a piece of grass, the Zara Puppy stopped its enticing side-to-side movement.  Reel in fast, remove the grass, cast again.

That was it for the morning, and I headed back to the camp site for breakfast with Karen and to deal with an invasive species -- Jesus-Christ-Sandal Man and his son "trespassing" through our camp site because they were too lazy to use the canal trail to travel between camp sites.

It's interesting that the 17-inch smallmouth was caught maybe 20 yards from the 16-inch fish from last year.  And it's about a quarter mile from the "secret spot" where my first "big" smallmouth came from.

Ten for Fifteen

Use your illusion.

No rain or hurricane remnants were supposed to be passing through the area, so Karen and I went camping at Fifteen Mile Creek Campground along the C&O Canal Trail.  We hadn't been here for more than two years -- I don't remember having much fishing luck then, but it was where I saw my first live muskie!  I actually saw two  right near where the creek runs into the Potomac River.

It started off really slow for me on Saturday afternoon.  I must have gone two hours without catching a fish.  There were a few sunfish nibbles, but I had nothing to show for it.

My "big" smallmouth.  Couldn't even keep it in the frame!

The water was really shallow and fast moving.  There were also lots of weeds and moss growing on the rocky bottom, which made fishing difficult because lures came back caked with green stuff.

I kept wading on and finally came to an area that seemed to open up.  There wasn't much green on the bottom, and it had deeper (two to four feet) pools.

Finally success casting a small spinnerbait when I saw a fish come out of nowhere and attack the lure.  Reeling in, it initially felt like the fish wasn't hooked on the other end, but there was still some tension on the line.  It turned out to be small sunfish, which explained why it didn't fight much.

A little bit later, a tiny smallmouth bass got hooked on the spinnerbait.  If the fish was eight inches, I was being generous.

Targeting exposed rocks and slow water along the shore, I ended up with four more smallmouth -- the biggest measuring 11.5 inches -- in this section.  Two were caught on a Z-Man Finesse TRD Worm and two on a Campground Special Teaser Tube.  With the bottom-bouncing plastics, the sunfish would nip-nip at the tail of the lure.  Each smallmouth I caught, the fish grabbed it and headed in another direction.

Sunlight started to fade, but so did the bite.

As soon as the sun ducked below the trees, the action fizzled.  It was like a switch was turned, and I didn't get a single bite after that.

Back at the campground, I went up to the aqueduct spanning Fifteen Mile Creek to see if I could spot "The Muskie" like when we here two years ago.  No muskie but I saw a nice sized smallmouth bass cruising the depths.

Karen came back and said she ended up a couple miles upriver at a dilapidated railroad bridge that crossed the Potomac from Maryland into West Virginia.  She said she caught 14 inches of smallmouth -- three fish that probably totaled 14 inches.

One of Karen's fish.

It got really cold once the sun went down. We burned some stuff and grilled some stuff, not necessarily in that order.

In the morning, it sounded like raindrops were falling, which discouraged me from fishing.  Finally when I got out of the tent, it wasn't raining but there was a lot of condensation, which I think made it sound like rain with the wet buildup dripping from the leaves of overhanging trees.  It was still cold, too, and I didn't feel like getting into wet, leaky waders.

We had to head out early so I packed my fishing gear up.  Karen got up, and we made breakfast of sausage with eggs from a box.  She offered one of her fishing rods for me to go fishing while she started breaking down the camp site, and I took off to the end of the boat ramp.

I kind of explored this area yesterday, and it was chock full o' weeds.  The TRD worm on her rod almost got snagged twice, so I figured a topwater lure might be better to skim across the surface.  I switched to a bullfrog-flavored Heddon Zara Puppy and had a fish (probably a sunfish) peck at the lure.

Sometime in March, 48 degrees will seem warm.

Two casts later, something HIT the lure.  I waited half a second looking for the lure on the top of the fog-encrusted water and didn't see it, so I set the hook.  The fish was hooked but it wasn't very big.  It fought OK, and I reeled it in with no drama -- another dink smallmouth.   That made it six smallmouth and one sunfish for the weekend, and along with Karen's three smallmouth, 10 total fish.

The cold weather last night and this morning was a slap-in-the-face reminder that good fishing is almost over.  The water felt a few degrees cooler than last week downriver at Brunswick, so soon the smallies will have disappeared to their mysterious wintering holes.

Tech Tip Tuesday: Holding your rods

Wading for fish definitely has its drawbacks when comparing to fishing from a boat or kayak.  But for now, I'm stuck out of the boat.

The biggest advantage to fishing from a watercraft -- other than being able to cover more water -- is having multiple rods and more gear.  Earlier this year I somewhat satisfied the dilemma of multiple rods with a rod holder that can be strapped around the waist.

A holster for your weapons.

Before this, I had been bringing two rods with me anyway whenever I went fishing basically since I started fishing for smallmouth bass a few years ago.  One rod would be rigged for finesse lures working the bottom (jigs and tubes), and the other rod would be for basically everything else (jerkbaits, swimbaits, topwater, spinnerbaits, etc).  But usually -- especially with the case of wading on the Upper Potomac -- I would leave one rod on shore.  So if I wanted to switch presentations, I would have to wade back to the shore and switch rods.

So if I found a hot spot and just wanted to switch things up, I'd have to go to shore and get the other rod.  Or waste time tying on another lure.

Earlier this year, I found Kim's Rod Holders on Etsy and purchased one of his dual rod holders for around the cost of a Megabass Vision jerkbait.  It's basically a piece of rugged foam with two plastic rod holders riveted on, and the ensemble can be strapped around the waist.

I haven't used it on the Little/Middle Patuxents since I'm basically fishing from shore or on a sandbar in most spots, but it has been a valuable tool on the Potomac.  I don't feel like I'm chained to one location since I have to keep an eye on the rod on shore.  Plus, more importantly, I can switch rods within a few seconds.

The best example of this was just yesterday when I was using a bottom bouncing jig in one section and not getting much action.  Then I switched to a spinnerbait and had two fish and one miss within a handful of casts.

Heck you can even be daring and carry three rods wading in the river of your choice.  Two secured on your back, one in hand, then juggling one out for the other.

Bummer Brunswick

Karen and I went to the Brunswick section of the Upper Potomac.  It was my first time there and it will probably be my last.  There must have been 20 watercraft that passed me while I was wading in the river.  They didn't do the typical thing and encroach on my fishing, but it was just too much traffic.  I guess a lot of people put in at the ramp here and floated down to Lander or Point of Rocks?

If I would have caught a ton of fish or some bigger ones, I would probably be back, but that wasn't the case.  I ended up with three dink smallmouth and a small sunfish.

I caught the first smallmouth on one of my first casts with a Z-Man TRD Finesse Worm, but it was tough going after that.  There was some topwater activity downriver, so I tied on a Hubs Chubs.  There were a few swipes at it, but I think they were sunfish.

This spinnerbait was working until the blade disappeared.

Down river past a current break, I switched to a small spinnerbait and caught two smallmouth within a handful of casts.  In between those two fish, I had one on the hook that took the lure as soon as it hit the water.  But after landing the last smallmouth, I noticed the blade on the spinnerbait disappeared!  Just gone.

This is the second time this has happened with this same spinnerbait.  The last time was a couple weeks ago when I bounced it off a rock on the Middle Patuxent.  I assumed at that time the blade cracked.  No idea what caused it this time.

Switching to a bigger spinnerbait didn't produce any results, so I switched to a buzzbait and a fish on the first cast, but that was it.  I got to thinking that I haven't caught a fish on a buzzbait in about 30 years.  But they sure are fun to churn across the surface.  Other people swear by them for river smallmouth.

On my other rod, I tied on a campground tube and hooked what looked like a 12-inch smallmouth (that was very angry) but the fish got off.

Karen went up the C&O Canal Trail but wasn't having much luck except for finding asshats who, despite the broadness of the river, think they are entitled to other people's space.

At least the weather was nice, and the river was flowing really clear.

When a cloud obscures the sunfish

A nice redbreast sunfish.

The original secret spot on the Little Patuxent.  It was still there, but access to the trail was hindered by a fallen tree.  The only way to the river was muddling through marshy areas or find another trail.  Or make my own.

Which is what I did -- make my own trail.  Through the brush and thorns and along the fence of a storage facility, and I finally made it to the river.

The action was pretty good as soon as I hit the water.  I tried a Hubs Chub and had several rises, but nothing managed to snag the two treble hooks on the lure.  It looked like sunfish pecking at the lure, but you never know what lies beneath.

After no hookups on the topwater, I switched to a Z-Man TRD Finesse Worm, and the frenzy was on.  At least for the sunfish.  Within about 15 minutes, I caught three redbreast sunfish and a little smallmouth bass.  One of the sunfish was bigger than the normal ones I always catch -- hand sized.

Chocolate milk tastes great, but fish don't think so.

Then the cloud came.  Not a fluffy white cloud in the sky but a cloud of chocolate milk flowing down river.  The water in this section isn't really clear but it was actually the clearest I have ever seen it.  Two feet of clarity at least.  But then this muddy water just ... appeared.  It's not like it was raining and stirring up the muck.  I was standing in water just below my knees when I noticed it. As soon as the chocolate milk water flowed past, the bite stopped.  Nothing.

The water kept on flowing like this with no end in sight.  Soon, the whole river was a cloudy mess.

Instead of two or three feet of clarity, it became zero feet.

After I left, I drove over a couple bridges spanning the Little Patuxent upriver, and the water looked normal.  I have no idea what caused this.

When the going gets tough, it's time to go somewhere else

Monocacy Aqueduct viewing from the middle of the
Potomac River.

Karen and I started off the morning fishing on the Potomac at Point of Rocks.  I had only fished here twice and not yet this year, so I figured it might be nice to try something different.

Because of the nice weather, the parking lot was almost full by the time we showed up around 8 a.m.  Mostly bikers, hikers and non-fishing kayakers.

I found a spot below the Route 15 bridge that looked rather fishy with a dam of rocks stretching almost the entire river.  The only fish here were sunfish, though.  I caught two redbreast sunfish and had numerous pesky nibbles on a Z-Man Finesse TRD Worm.  Nothing on a Whopper Plopper, swimbait or spinnerbait.

Karen had moved somewhere upriver, and about 20 minutes after she left, the creepers showed up.  Creepers are other fishermen who creep into your fishing space.  One of them started fishing from shore, and his buddy went upriver about equally as far away from me.  Then downriver creeper started making his way into the water.  A little while later, he was easily within casting distance.  I couldn't go further out into the river because it looked to be too deep, and I couldn't wade upriver because creeper buddy was holding station.

I don't understand this shit.  Gigantic river and you start fishing where somebody else is already.

It was time to move on.  I waded back to shore and got up to the C&O Canal Trail to, um, empty my waders after a, um, swimming incident caused by a slippery rock.

Karen texted me and said she as about done because she couldn't find a good place to fish from shore.

It as only around 11 a.m., so since the weather was nice, I wanted to continue fishing.  Since I picked Point of Rocks, she had to choose the next spot.  She picked the Monocacy Aqueduct, and we were off in the back roads of Maryland farm country.

Thankfully when we got to the Monocacy, nobody else was fishing.  Just a few boats in the distance.

This was the same area I fished in early June where I caught eight fish near downed trees along shore.  As luck would have it, that tree formation was still there, so I headed in that direction.

The smallmouth trees as they appeared last time I was
here.  It looked really similar today, just not as
many leaves.

After three casts, I had three smallmouth bass on a Z-Man worm.  Nothing big, though, but they were behaving like typical river smallmouth -- fighting above their weight class.

I decided to scale up the lure to a spinnerbait -- you know, maybe get a bigger fish?  Of course the first fish to clamp on was another redbreast sunfish.  So much for sizing up. 

After that, the bite slowed way down.  Switching between the Z-Man worm and spinnerbait for the next couple hours, I caught three more smallmouth and two more sunfish.  One smallmouth measured just a tick above 12 inches.

The fish weren't found as close to the trees as they were in June, but it appears they use the trees as ... I don't know, maybe just a point of reference?  My opinion is river smallmouth cruise between hot spots looking for food, especially a bigger river like the Potomac.

And what has been going on lately, I had a fish that probably would have been the biggest of the day unhook itself.  Wading out to a large rock formation protruding from the water in the middle of the river, I cast a TRD worm up against the rock.  Felt a hit and set the hook -- fish on!  Trying to keep the fish from jumping and trying to keep it from burrowing down in the shallow, rock-laden bottom as a struggle.  Finally the fish jumped, and it looked like an easy 14-inch smallmouth.  Probably a little bigger.  But the hook flew out of the fish's mouth at the peak of the jump.

Karen caught a smallmouth and two sunfish that she figured were actually the same fish.  So it was nice to salvage the day after not having much luck at Point of Rocks.

Sorry, no fish pictures.  I tried to take a couple but the fish were having none of it.

Friday funday

A little Middle Patuxent largemouth bass.

With the fantastic weather that moved out the humidity, I hit the Middle Patuxent for a few hours today.

Did I mention the weather was fantastic?  I took two bottles of water with me, and usually that's my gauge on when I stop fishing -- once they're empty, I'm done.  By 6 p.m., I still had a full bottle of water.

One of three green sunfish.

Speaking of water, the river was crystal clear in most places.  When casting a lure, I could follow it all the way back and watch the fish hit it.  Which was kind of frustrating because there were a ton of bites, but the fish didn't really clamp on most of the time.  The fish would take a lure and head in another direction, and the lure would pop out of the fish's mouth after setting the hook.

The clear water also enabled me to spot several nice smallmouth in the 12- to 14-inch range, which are beasts on this skinny little river.  But when casting to them, they would either take off when the lure hit the water, or a handful of dink fish would swarm and peck at the lure.  There must have been a half-dozen nice smallmouth that put me on ignore mode.

Largemouth Rock.

I managed to land four smallmouth (one of those nicer ones was hooked but freed itself within feet of me), two largemouth bass and three green sunfish.  Nothing big at all, but it's always fun to catch a variety, unless it includes failfish.

Also, the largemouth were the first I've caught on the Middle Patuxent.  I had one hooked on a spinnerbait on the downriver side from a rock protruding out of the water, but the fish got away.  I moved up and cast the small spinnerbait to the upriver side of the rock and caught the first largemouth of the day.

Other than the spinnerbait, the rest of the fish were caught on Z-Man Finesse TRD Worms, Reaction Innovations Little Dippers, a little yellow curly-tailed grub and a "campground special" tube.

With the Z-Man worm and tube, it didn't seem the fish showed much interest in bouncing the lures off the bottom, so I tried dragging the plastic baits slowly through the mud.  It seemed to trigger a few more strikes, so something to keep in mind as an alternate tactic.

The topwater action was nonexistent -- only had one rise from a fish sniffing at a Heddon Zara Puppy.  The fish ignored everything on top otherwise.  The fish would be crusing, I'd toss a topwater, and they wouldn't even sniff at it.  Then I would throw a plastic bait, and it was party time.

How many hogs could a hogsucker suck if a hogsucker
could suck hogs?

Also, thanks to someone on a fishing forum, I was able to identify this fish to the right.  Nearly every trip to the Middle and Little Patuxent Rivers since last year, I've noticed these fish lurking around.   Initially, I thought they were yellow perch, but they had more of a carp-like body.  They weren't very big, but internet searches on the fish's description produced nothing.  Finally, I spotted one that hid under a couple leaves and was able to get a good picture.

It's a northern hogsucker.  Wikipedia makes no mention of it being edible or even if it's a good sport fish.

Launched out of the water like an ICBM

Good morning Potomac River!

It wasn't quite "one more cast" time, but it was getting close.  Karen was fishing about a mile downriver, and she texted me asking when I wanted to leave.  It was close to noon, so I figured I'd start wading back toward the shore.

It was a cloudless sky over the Upper Potomac, with the water flowing as low and clear as I've seen it all year.  I caught four smallmouth bass already -- one about 12 inches -- but it was a fairly slow morning after three-plus hours in the water.

I started firing a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper back toward shore, near the exact spot where I caught a chunky smallmouth just under 13 inches at the beginning of July.  One cast, two casts ... nothing.

First fish of the day, a skinny smallmouth
almost 12 inches.

Then the third cast, there was a hit on the other end.  It didn't feel like a big fish, so I started to quickly crank on my Pfluegger Patriarch mated to a 6'8" medium St. Croix Avid rod.

Sometimes, when smallmouth bass hit a swimbait, they don't attack it with ferocity.  They clamp on and just casually keep moving the same direction the swimbait is moving.  I could see the fish, and it was doing exactly that -- just swimming in the same direction as the lure.  It didn't look very big.

But then it must have noticed me or just figured something wasn't right.  It launched out of the water like an ICBM, but it wasn't a dink smallmouth!  It was pushing 16 inches easily!  It jumped again maybe 10 feet in front of me, and I wrestled it closer.  It shook it's head, and the swimbait went flying through the air about five feet to my left.  I thought the fish had spit the lure, but then I saw the jighead was still in its lower jaw.

The outer edge of The Plateau.  It's knee deep almost
to the middle of the river until this point, then it drops
off gradually to waist deep.

Now the fish was in full angry smallmouth mode thrashing at the surface of the water next to my knees.  Tried grabbing it, and the fish wasn't going to let that happen.  Finally I grabbed the line just above the jighead and hoisted the fish out of the water.  It gave one more shake, and that's what let the fish go to freedom.  "Splash" and the fish was gone.

It would have been nice to measure the smallmouth since my personal best on the Potomac is 16 inches (twice).  I think it was right there with those other two fish.

So leading up that, as I mentioned before, I caught four smallmouth.  Two on a "Rat Ta Tat" Whopper Plopper, one on a campground tube, and one on a Z-Man Finesse TRD Worm.  Interesting to use four different lures to hook five fish.

The smallmouth on the Z-Man worm was funny.  I saw some smallmouth bass cruising in front of me and cast the worm out a little ways and bounced it along the bottom.  I saw one of the bass turning toward the worm, and then I lost sight of him.  Then there was tension on the line.  It wasn't a big fish, but it was still fascinating to watch.

Karen was about a mile downriver trying to catch legal-sized walleye but only caught one smallmouth on a swimbait, but had a few hookups on a Whopper Plopper.

The Potomac Five

Chunky 12+ smallmouth.

The weather seemed kind of iffy for today with calls for "afternoon" thunderstorms, but I was able to put in a few hours of fishing below Dam 4 on the Upper Potomac. It's sometimes a crap-shoot going here because it's one of few places on the river where I always seem to encounter other fishermen.  Today wasn't any different, but it wasn't crowded.  Just a catfisherman at the dam, a guy with two kids bobber fishing below the dam, then somebody else further down who looked like he was wading for smallmouth bass, too.

Starting at the dam and working down with a Whopper Plopper (follow the link -- they have some funny color names) and Reaction Innovations Little Dipper, the fish weren't interested.  The water was slightly stained but wasn't flowing too high.

After an hour without anything, I decided to switch to a spinnerbait and a Z-Man TRD Finesse Worm.  Those lures weren't working either until I got way below the dam in water downstream from a small grouping of rocks.  First cast with the "White Lighting" Z-Man worm in this section, one dink smallmouth clamped on.

After I re-tied the lure because it felt there were a couple nicks in the line, the next cast produced a chunky 12-plus-inch smallmouth.  With the medium-light St. Croix Avid X spinning rod and Pflueger Supreme reel, it was a pretty good battle.  The fish jumped initially and I could see it wasn't anything huge, but with the rod/reel combo, the fish made it a tussle.

Two casts later, another dink smallmouth.  And then the switch turned off -- no more bites.  I was kind of trapped here because the guy wading was 100 yards or so downriver.  I wish strangers would keep their space, so I always try and do the same.

To change things up, I switched back to a Little Dipper on the Avid X rod and caught a tiny smallmouth on the first cast.  Then nothing for awhile.  I hadn't noticed it before, but there was a lot of floating grass coasting downriver, and it seemed I snagged something on every cast.  So I switched back to a Z-Man worm and lost several of those snagging them on the bottom.

Moving back up the river, I made some casts with a Z-Man worm.  After a few casts, it got snagged again!  Ugh.  I managed to work the lure free, but then there was something on the other end of the line.

When we went fishing in April on the Susquehanna, our guide said if you free a snagged lure, it sometimes entices a strike because the fish see something suddenly darting through the water.

And that's what I think happened here.  Reeling in the fish, I saw another fish following it.  The smallmouth on the end of the line wasn't very big, but it was a really dark brown -- an unusual pattern from what's found in the Potomac.  I wanted to take a picture, but the hook was underneath the front of its tongue.  It took a minute or so to remove the hook, and I wanted to free the fish as quickly as possible.

A pair of smallmouth

The first smallmouth getting released.

Hit the Upper Potomac today in an area that I am now calling The Community Swimming Pool.  It was a great morning with temperatures in the upper 60s then low 70s and partly cloudy skies.

The second smallmouth.  I was hoping there would be
a muskie trying to photobomb.

Unfortunately, the fish didn't agree with the weather.  I caught two smallmouth -- a skinny one 10-11 inches on a spinnerbait and one around 12 inches on a Whopper Plopper.  At least one was on a topwater, so it counts as five fish.

I also had a hit on the Whopper Plopper when I wasn't even looking.  Just heard a splash, felt tension on the rod, and instinctively set the hook, but the fish didn't stay on.

Other than those three encounters, there wasn't a whole lot going on.  Nothing biting at all no matter what I tried -- wasn't at all like on Tuesday on the Middle Patuxent where there was a ton of activity.

I managed to remember my Nikon Coolpix (I think W100) camera that Karen got me for Christmas.  I had been using a Canon S90 (or a phone) but was always afraid of dropping it or it getting wet.  Or dropping my phone.  The touchscreen on the phone can also act funny (or not act at all) if it's wet or my fingers are wet.

The Coolpix camera is slightly larger than the S90, but it's waterproof down to 33 feet.  I hadn't used it yet for underwater shots until today with the two pictures here.  Obviously, my underwater photo skills need some work.

The photo quality of the S90 is better, but again, it's not waterproof.

A better picture of the first smallmouth.

Because topwater

I hit the Middle Patuxent for a few hours today and only caught one fish.  A failfish.  Usually I detest catching failfish, so how could this be considered a good day?

Two words.

Top.  Water.

Big rains over the weekend left the river with
odd formations.  This area had been really flat.

The saying goes, it is better to catch one fish on a topwater lure than it is to catch 10 fish below the surface.

Today was overcast and in the low 80s.  The river -- going by the gauges for the Little Patuxent -- was probably running about 10 feet higher than normal over the weekend because of excessive rain, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  Today, the river was flowing clear and looked to be at normal height.

I decided to try a three-inch Hubs Chub in a bone shad color.  "Bone shad" is a fancy way of saying "white."  And this lure caused a frenzy in almost every area.  But I still only landed the one failfish.

She be all like, "What are you doing here?"
I be all like, "What are you doing here?"

The smallmouth and sunfish showed great interest in the white lure, but nothing stayed hooked.  In one area, I had a 10-inch smallmouth on the other end, but it got off.  Then there was a huge splash as something attacked the lure on the surface -- I waited a second to see if the fish was hooked, but the lure remained floating on top of the river.

Another cast to the same spot, and there was a dark shadow below the water that made a bee-line for the Hubs Chub.  Another big splash, but this time the fish was hooked, and I tried muscling it away from a sunken log.  This was on my medium-weight St. Croix rod with a Pflueger Patriarch reel and 10-pound line, but it was still a struggle trying to keep the fish from getting entangled.

I say "brief" because it lasted five seconds.  The lure came flying out of the water, and the fish swam away.  It was at least a 12-inch smallmouth.  Or maybe it was bigger?  The "what if" estimation always increases the fish's size because topwater.

It might have been 16 inches.

Later on in another section down river, I caught the failfish.  It actually hit the Hubs Chub pretty hard, and I thought it was a good smallmouth, but then it stopped fighting like all failfish do.

I also had good luck enticing fish with swimbaits from Reaction Innovations.  Again like the Hubs Chub, lots of hits and hookups, but nothing stayed on.

One dink

Karen's walleye.  Is it real?

Karen and I went to the Antietam Creek area of the Upper Potomac on Saturday.  Instead of the secret spot (AKA, The Plateau), I decided to try another spot that has a natural dam of rocks and rock formations that span almost the entire river.

The last time I fished this area was almost an entire year ago, and that day was pretty successful.

Not on Saturday.  I only landed one dink smallmouth on a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm.  Other than a 12-inch smallmouth that launched out of the water and shook a Heddon Zara Puppy, I had no other action at all the rest of the morning.  No bites or nibbles other than those two fish.

The river was down to normal running level and fairly clear, especially above Antietam Creek.  It looked right and really "fishy" but only two hits in four hours.

Karen claimed she caught a 17.5-inch walleye and two smallmouth.

Busted! Again!!

A Potomac trophy -- 15-inch
smallmouth bass!

Not sure why I'm suddenly having this bad luck, but I lost another fish because the line broke today.  This time, I know exactly what happened -- the fish shredded the line on rocks.  

Before that, I wasn't having much success at hooking anything except rocks.  Karen and I went to Taylor's Landing on the Potomac River.  I started out upriver from the boat ramps and had a smallmouth on my second cast using a spinnerbait.  It hit within a few feet of me, and I reeled in until the fish was right in front of me.  It was in the 11-12 range and was thrashing around on the surface. I let it do that for a few seconds before trying to grab it because I figured I'd get a handful of dorsal fin.  Then the fish got off the hook.

After that -- for about three hours -- I had nothing at all.  Even exploring a few areas further upriver that were new to me, neither a spinnerbait, swimbait nor Z-Man TRD Finesse worm could induce a bite.  The river looked to be a foot higher than normal and a chocolate milk color, so there must have been some rain a few days ago.  Not a cloud in the sky today, though.

I went back downriver and found Karen, and she reported similar (not good) luck, too.  The flow of the chocolate water scattered the bass, similar to what we found on the Susquehanna on Friday.

Karen's smallmouth.

Heading further downriver and trudging through the brush, I found a spot where I knew there was a group of rocks along the shore, although they weren't visible today because of the higher water.  Casting a "green pumpkin orange" Z-Man worm downriver parallel to the shore and working back, there was finally something on the other end of the line.  It felt like a decent fish, and then it launched a foot out of the water -- the big reveal was a smallmouth bass easily over 12 inches.  I was using a rod with a light setup -- six-pound P-Line fluorocarbon on a medium-light Abu Garcia Vendetta rod matched with a "classic" Garcia Mitchell 300 reel -- so the fight was on to keep the fish from burrowing into the rocks on the bottom of the river.

Luckily I won this round and hoisted the smallmouth out of the water -- it measured right at 15 inches!  It was really angry because after being released back in the water, it splashed on the surface for a couple seconds then disappeared.

The very next cast into the exact same spot -- downriver parallel to the shore -- something was pulling back on the end of the line.  I set the hook and had another fish.  This one didn't feel as big, though, but you never know with smallmouth bass.  The fight lasted another five seconds, and then the line broke.  Flashback to Friday.  At least it wasn't a beast smallmouth bass on the other end, unlike Friday.

Karen's rock bass.

Reeling in what was left, and I discovered the line was in rough shape and frayed about ten inches up from the end where the lure broke off.  The kicker is that after I caught the first fish, I checked the line above the lure, and it felt perfect.

The next battle, I was determined to win.  I snipped the spinnerbait off my other rod -- a medium St. Croix Avid paired with a Pflueger Patriarch reel spun with the 10-pound Triple Fish "camo" purchased yesterday at Susquehanna Fishing Tackle -- and tied on another "green pumpkin orange" Z-Man worm.

Let me tell you, the "feel" between the two setups was completely different.  The medium setup did not lend well for bottom-bouncing jigs.  Where with the lighter setup I could feel almost every rock along the bottom, the medium setup was numbing.  At least it was comforting to know I likely wouldn't lose a fish.

And I didn't -- caught two cookie-cutter smallmouth until calling it quits around 11:30 a.m.

Karen managed to catch a cookie-cutter smallmouth and a rock bass.  So we both went three hours without catching a thing to catching five fish between us in about a half hour.