Monday, September 4, 2017

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.

potomac spinnerbait
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.

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