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.