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.