Tech Tip Tuesday

Here's where I don't write about the fish I caught but how I caught fish.  It's been three years since I started chasing them brown fish in Maryland and Pennsylvania rivers and streams, so this might be a weekly column revealing some of my knowledge to the three or four people who actively read my blog.

The last few weeks on the Potomac, I fished different pools without success.  But then when I went back to the same area and threw lures at a different angle, the fish started biting.

Maybe it was just a different time and the angle of the moon and the solunar tables just aligned.

Probably not. After three years of chasing river smallmouth bass, maybe I'm starting to identify some patterns.

Exhibit A from The One That Got Away:

A typical river rock parting the water.

Parked downriver in the current below that rock, a plastic worm, swimbait and a topwater lure launched into the middle of the pool didn't catch a a thing.  Not even a bite.

I trudged upriver past the rock formation and landed one or two fish.  Then I waded down right where I took that picture -- and cast the lure to the top right and worked the worm parallel to the rock and slow water.

The action was hot for awhile.  There was the One That Got Away plus landing three or four smallmouth.  All because I think the presentation was different.

On Sunday, I fished a similar rock formation that split the current with fast water running along either side.  The water downriver from the rock created a slow, swirling pool.  Really fast water all around, but there was that enticing pool of water.

Again, casting a plastic worm toward the far side and working it parallel through the pool of water, I had a ton of action.  I only landed one fish but had several misses and hooked one briefly that looked to be in the 14- to 15-inch range.

So that's the tip for today: Sometimes when an area looks "fishy" but you can't entice anything, try a different presentation.

Fishing's fun until other people show up

Massive downed tree that looks like it fell several years ago.

Karen and I went to the Upper Potomac this morning to the same area where I missed The One That Got Away two weeks ago.  Monitoring the river gauges, the water had spiked at Paw Paw from rain on Thursday and Friday, so it would be a race to see if we could get to the river before the water was unfishable.

And we just made it.  Barely.  The depth was a foot higher than normal compared to two weeks ago, but the clarity was pretty good.

I fished for maybe an hour and didn't get a thing.  Not even a nibble. Then finally got a dink smallmouth.  And then nothing.

I abandoned Karen and hiked the C&O Trail to the spot where I lost The One That Got Away.  Seemed like a good idea -- caught some fish two weeks ago, missed a big one.

Second smallmouth, a chunky 11 inches.

And today in that exact same spot, what happened?

Nothing.  No fish or even a nibble.  Using the exact same lures.  That's why they call it "fishing" and not "catching."

I moved down to another spot that, when I was here two weeks ago, yielded nothing.

So what happened today?

Three hits on the first three casts up against a weedbed.  I landed one fish -- about 11 inches -- and had a 12-incher get off right before landing it.  Then a little while later, two more fish.

And then like an on/off switch, the bite switched off.

I went back down the trail where Karen was fishing.  This is an almost treacherous area for wading because of the large rocks and hidden trenches.  I've fished this area before when the water was lower but didn't feel comfortable today venturing too far out from shore.

I found a pool down from a partially submerged rock.  Casting a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper and dragging it back parallel to the rock didn't get ... anything.

Then I switched to my St. Croix Avid-X rod with a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm and had a hit.  Next cast, another hit.  Next cast, another hit and I saw the line going upriver and could see a nice smallmouth bass just below the surface.  It tugged back, and I fought it out of the current -- the fish jumped and easily was in the 14-to-15-inch range.  And then it got off the hook.

I stood in the flowing water for 30 minutes after that and had a few more hits but could only land a dink smallmouth.

Then the people who have no sense for personal space showed up to "party" on the river.  At least a casting distance away, they made their home on a rock.  Yay, let's go swimming in the bacteria-infested river!  Then more people armed with their buckets and fishing rods started making their way out to the river.  No place else for them to go but to where I was standing.  I deal with 300+ people a week, and now on a calm Sunday morning I would have to deal with more.  No thanks.

Karen managed to catch one smallmouth while I caught five.

Dinkfest

My entry into the tiniest smallmouth competition.

Last week, Karen dragged me to Boxerfest to mingle with vape-impaired Subaru drivers.  This weekend we camped fished at McCoys Ferry for Dinkfest where we caught the littlest smallmouth bass.

I managed to reel in three dink smallmouth and a rock bass yesterday, then one more dink smallmouth this morning.

Karen caught a handful -- literally! -- of smallmouth, too, and probably the same rock bass I landed.

Karen's entry into the tiniest smallmouth competition ...
I think she won.

All of my fish, except for one, were taken on Z-Man Finesse TRD worms* -- the other was tricked with a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper.

*If you have been following this blog at all, you know the Z-Man worms have been my primary lure the past month or so.  They are $3.99 for a pack of eight, and matched with an inexpensive Z-Man Shroomz jighead, the combo just plain catches fish.  And when snagging a lure, no tears are shed because you're only out a couple bucks.

The water at McCoys Ferry flowed two feet higher than normal with the clarity of watered-down chocolate milk.  Looking at the gauges from upriver, it appears a mild rain fell during the week that we didn't have 60-plus miles away at the house.

McCoy's Ferry also had a ton of (non-fishing) boat and jet ski activity when we got to the camp site yesterday afternoon, which helped kick up crud from waves lapping the shore from each passing pleasure craft.  Two years ago I fished by myself at McCoys Ferry and experienced the same thing with the non-fishing boats.  And left after an hour. Gotta remember that -- avoid this area until summer winds down.

The rock bass Karen caught that I think I caught.

Smallmouth bass grow in trees

Smallmouth bass don't grow on trees but they grow in trees

I tried a new spot today -- the confluence of the Monocacy River where it meets the Upper Potomac.  I drive across the Monocacy nearly every time I go to the Upper Potomac and always think about going to this spot.  So today was the day.

Three hours of fishing, and I caught eight fish -- six smallmouth, my first Potomac largemouth bass, and a sunfish.

First smallmouth of the day.
Love the really dark coloring.

This area is much different than where I waded last Sunday.  The water flowed slower, and there weren't as many rock formations.  In fact, the bottom of the river looked really flat.  Lots of small rocks and gravel on the bottom, but nothing really big or solid structure.

After an hour without any fish and ready to call it quits, I waded to a group of downed trees stacked against the bank.  It looked like if a big rainstorm would roll through raising the river, these trees would be swept away.  But with the slow current, they made a nice cover.  Or least I hoped so.

I caught the largemouth -- maybe six inches long, and that's being generous -- about 20 feet upriver from the trees.  Kept wading down and was a perfect distance away to make full casts next to the trees.

Caught a couple dinks with some misses, too.  The fish were only interested in some flavor of the Z-Man TRD Finesse Worm.  I tried a swimbait, spinnerbait, topwater, rubber crawfish -- and the fish didn't bother with any of those.  Just the worm, letting it sit for five seconds, jerking back on the rod, letting the lure sit for five seconds, rinse, repeat.

TRD stands for "The Real Deal" and it certainly lived up to that today.

Fifteen inches of fury.

And then casting to the back end of the trees, I felt a hard tug on my St. Croix Avid-X medium-light rod.  Pleasedon'tletitbeacatfish.  The fish jumped a foot out of the water, and it clearly wasn't a catfish but a nice smallmouth.  This fish was extra angry and fought hard, pulling drag, rod tip bending toward the water.  This fight I was determined to win unlike The One That Got Away on Sunday where that fish (whatever it was) bulldogged on the rocky bottom and broke the line.  Now I tried to get the upper hand and be a step ahead -- the fish would dive, and I would pull back.  Then the fish would try to break the surface, and I lowered the rod tip in the water to discourage the fish from jumping.

Finally landed it, and it measured right at 15 inches.

After that, I only managed one more dink smallmouth.  Then it started to rain, so that was it for the day.

Well, almost.

Backtrack to earlier in the day.  I parked, suited up and walked from the parking area to the trail that bordered the banks of the Monocacy to the Potomac.  Right when I reached the Monocacy and peered into the water, I thought I saw a smallmouth bass next to a submerged rock.  I tossed a Z-Man worm and hooked a smallmouth that set itself free right at the bank.  It was a little fish, though.

When I was walking back after wading the Potomac, I stopped at the same spot on the Monocacy and saw another fish.  But it was no smallmouth:

The Monocacy Monster.

A muskie.  Just a little fella, though, maybe 24 inches long.

A couple years ago when Karen and I camped at Fifteen Mile Creek Campground, I saw two muskies on the creek.  In a failed effort to catch one of those beasts, I tried a Zara Spook and worked that thing across the top of the water for 20 casts.  I actually had one of the muskies swim behind for a moment then decide it didn't want to bite on a fake lure.

It was the same situation today with the fish lazily cruising below an aqueduct.  This muskie wouldn't even give me that courtesy of sniffing at a lure.  I tied on a Whopper Plopper, went upriver a bit and scrambled down the bank like an idiot.  I made a fabulous cast through branches and placed the Whopper Plopper several feet behind the muskie and worked the lure back.

Muskie don't care.  When the lure was basically on top the fish, it appeared to give a huge, disintrested sigh and slowly swam away.

They say muskies are the fish of 1,000 casts, so between the toothy fish today and the two fish from a couple years ago, I have 972 cast to go before catching one.

The one that got away

The biggest fish today that obliged on getting its picture
taken.  Note the pattern below the dorsal fin.  This Z-Man
worm would later get stolen by another fish ... read on.

Waded the Upper Potomac for a few hours this morning and caught nine fish -- eight smallmouth and a redbreast sunfish.  One smallmouth was about 14" (and fled before I could get a picture) and another was just under 12.  The rest were cookie cutters in the 8-10 range.

First fish of the day -- typical cookie-cutter smallmouth.

Karen and I fished the Upper Potomac last Sunday, but today the river was down at least two feet and flowing a lot clearer.  And the conditions today were a lot better for wading.

This particular section wading today had a ton of protruding rocks and very fast water.  I caught mainly dinks on Z-Man TRD Finesse Worms and Reaction Innovations Little Dippers.  I was in the water by about 7:30 and started off with a Whopper Plopper hoping for a topwater bite but had no interest, but the plasticy rubbery baits were working OK.

I had one fish hit a Z-Man worm, jump out of the air and put up a great fight.  It was a really dark colored smallmouth and looked to be about 14 inches.  But when I lifted the fish out of the water, the line snapped.  It counts, though!  It counts!

The line was really frayed, and I think the fish was wallowing on the bottom among the sharp rocks. I rarely have the line break like that -- always checking the knot and re-tying if there's even one nick.

This was foreshadowing of what would happen later

Slow water just to the left of the weeds had a lot of fish.

Around 9:30 a.m., I stopped above this rock formation (picture on the right) that was barely out of the water like the tip of an iceberg.  It created a channel of water on either side like a V, but the water just behind created a slow circling pool -- just screamed for smallmouth.

I caught a few dinks from here casting toward the middle of the river and working a Z-Man worm back parallel to the rock.  The bite was really subtle on almost every hit.  Like the jig hit a rock or there was slight tension on the other end when lifting the worm off the bottom.  Finally caught the one under 12" to stand out among the cookie-cutters that were hiding here.

When I stopped here, I noted that if I caught anything of size, it was going to be a real tussle once the fish hit the current.  Since I started fishing on the Potomac three years ago, my personal best is 16" (twice) so I didn't think it was likely to hook anything like that or bigger anyway.

And then ...

Maybe 10 minutes after the 12-inch fish, exactly the same area where all the other fish were, I felt a small tap.  Again, almost like when a bottom-bouncing jig hits a rock.  I set the hook, and for a split second it felt like another cookie cutter but then it pulled back hard!  Soon the fish was in that current I was talking about.  I pulled on the rod and the fish pulled right back with superfish strength.  The Roy Jones Jr of fish!  Loosening the drag and the fish took line, and I tried to wade back closer to shore toward slightly slower current.  This fish was STRONG -- reminded me of the 18.5-inch smallmouth on the Susquehanna in April.

And then ... SNAP!  It was gone.  I reeled in the line, and it was frayed from the end to about eight inches up.  Another line break like that 14-inch smallmouth, but this time I didn't even see what was fighting on the other end. (Of note: This fish was hooked on the exact same rod/reel/line combo I used to catch that 18.5-inch Susquehanna smallmouth.)

Last year, about 200 yards down from where I lost this fish, I hooked into a fish that I thought was a beast smallmouth, but it was just Mr. Whiskers.  So maybe it was Mr. Whiskers again?

Or it was the elusive beast Potomac smallmouth.

I dejectedly fished that area for another 30 minutes and caught one dink smallmouth.  At least it was the most fish I've caught this year not counting that one Susquehanna trip.

A guy, a girl and some places for smallmouth

Karen's first fish today, an angry smallmouth probably close to 13 inches.

Two trips over the weekend and three dink smallmouth for me.

On Friday, I went back to the Middle Patuxent.  Was on the river for almost three hours and caught one dink smallmouth on a Z-Man TRD Finesse Worm.  The river was low and clear, and I could see fish chasing and taking swipes at most everything -- Heddon Zara Puppy, spinnerbait, Reaction Innovations Little Dipper -- but nothing except for that one fish clamped on.

Middle Patuxent smallmouth that looked like the dink
Potomac smallmouth.  Maybe they're related?

Most of the bass were found in really slow water, which I often overlook -- I mostly try and target tailwaters of ripples or pools next to fast water.  I sat on this one pool for an hour casting everything and getting chases and nibbles from smallmouth.  I could see the fish, which was frustrating since they didn't actually bite.  It's like they were casually looking for a snack but weren't in a feeding frenzy.

Today, Karen and I went to the Upper Potomac.  The water had gone down considerably since last week but was still about two feet above normal.  And visibility wasn't that great.

I managed two dink smallmouth -- again on a Z-Man worm -- but had two heavy hits on the worm and then right after that on a Little Dipper.  Probably Mr. Whiskers, though, just itching to make his first appearance of the year.

Karen took this picture of me with one of my yuge
Potomac fish.  YUGE!  TERRIFIC fish!

Karen caught a couple smallmouth, one easily over 12 inches (picture at top of post) on a Bass Pro Shops Sassy Sally, which is really close to a Little Dipper.

Hopefully the rain stays away so the river can get back down to normal and flowing clear.  It feels like it's a month behind in that regard compared to last year.