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.