Cloudy with a chance of flatheads

George driving with Kirk on his phone searching
Harrisburg Craigslist for used jet-prop fishing boats.

Karen and I were planning on fishing the Susquehanna River last Friday, but rain earlier in the week raised the water level too high, and the trip was postponed until today.

Except Karen couldn't get away from work today, so my friend Kirk took the seat.  You might remember him from my first time fishing on the Susquehanna.  He has barely dipped his toe into the smallmouth waters but threatens to give up our other mutual hobby -- autocrossing -- and buy a jet-prop boat for river fishing.  I'm doing all I can to discourage him.

The guide we have gone out with before, Jason Shay, was booked up for all of April when Karen checked availability back in February, so I went searching for another guide.  Someone on a fishing forum mentioned Joe Raymond with Susquehanna Smallmouth Guides, and I contacted him.  He was booked, too, but put me in touch with one of his "overflow" guides, George DeFrehn.  We set a date for April 20 since it was my birthday, and I anxiously awaited the day.

And then Mother Nature had other ideas, and the trip got pushed back.  There was a slight sense of urgency because the river closes for smallmouth bass fishing in this section from May 1 to June 15, so if we couldn't get a date in, there wouldn't be any opportunity for awhile because I'm sure it would be really difficult to find an available guide at such short notice.

Luckily the river had gone down from almost 10 feet to below six.  Weather today called for some rain, but not nearly as much as from the previous week when the water level ballooned up.  Talking with George on Tuesday, he said we would be using tubes and -- surprise! -- Z-Man Finesse TRD Worms.

Just your run-of-the-mill 16-inch Susquehanna smallmouth.

Kirk and I got to the boat ramp, and lo and behold our old buddy Jason Shay was there with his boat in the water awaiting his client for the day.  He must have had a quick moment of panic thinking he mistakenly scheduled us for the day, too.

George showed up a few minutes later, put his boat in the water, and we were off.

The first stop, Kirk and and I each caught four or five fish -- the usual Susquehanna smallmouth in the 14-17 range. But after that it was really slow going.  Places George said he had success just a few days before weren't yielding much.  It was like a switch had turned the fish off.

The TRD worms hugging the bottom of the river were getting the most interest, and Kirk caught a few on some jerk baits.  George was throwing all kinds of lures trying to find something else that worked.

Roly-poly flathead.

I decided to change things up and tie on my Rebel Wee R, the same one I used two weeks ago to catch my personal best Little Patuxent smallmouth.  About five minutes later, a fish slammed the little crankbait.  I knew it was something good, but then I started to realize it probably wasn't a smallmouth.

It felt bigger than a smallmouth.

My hopes for a muskie peaked.

Then I caught a glimpse of the back half of the fish, it was no smallmouth!  It looked like a muskie!

Then George, who had come to the back of the boat with the net peered over the side, and said, "It's a catfish."  Then I saw the fish's head.

Yup, a catfish.  Mr. Whiskers had appeared again.  But this was no ordinary cat -- it was a flathead catfish.

George netted the fish, and it was quite big.  While it was no ordinary catfish, it was an ordinary size for a flathead -- 30 inches long and roughly 12 pounds.  Forty pounders have been caught in the Susquehanna!

Still, the fish was a beast to try and pull in, and it was probably my biggest fish of any kind ever.  It was also the first type of fish other than a smallmouth that I've caught on the Susquehanna.

Kirk with a smallmouth.

I did catch a couple smallmouth after that on the Wee R, but then I went through a dry spell of almost two hours without hooking anything.  I had 10 fish, and Kirk started yanking smallmouth in the boat and was up to about 17.  Fishing the same lures and in the same location.

We moved around quite a bit trying to find eager fish ... somewhere ... but couldn't narrow down a pattern.  Finally, I caught a smallmouth here and another there on a TRD worm, and another on a Reaction Innovations swimbait.

Then we moved to another section and floated down the river.  For the last hour of the day, even as it started pouring rain, the bite was on.  Like a switch had been flipped.

We were fishing an area that looked like four or five other sections George had taken us earlier in the day, but now the fish were showing some interest.  I started to have really good luck just dragging the TRD Worm slowly on the bottom and waiting.  Then dragging again.  I used the same orange worm from last Sunday on the Potomac to land almost 10 smallmouth.

I ended up with 22 smallmouth for the day while Kirk held on with the advantage by just two fish.  We caught the same number of flathead catfish -- one apiece -- but his was a whole lot smaller.

Most of the smallmouth were 14-plus inches.  Kirk got one that was almost 19 inches, and my best was about 17.  No matter the size, though, all the fish were chunky and had the typical smallmouth bass attitude and anger for getting tricked.  We jokingly speculated that maybe the fish weren't biting because they were full from gorging themselves.

Kirk and I ended the day at the new tradition for a Susquehanna fishing trip, Al's of Hampden.

Finessing the smallmouth bite

Karen only had one fish, but it was a big 'un!

The weather became seasonably warm, so Karen and I went camping on the Upper Potomac.

Monitoring the river gauges, it looked like the Potomac had gone way down but still flowed about two to three feet above normal summer levels.  It was also fairly stained, maybe max three feet of visibility.

First fish and biggest
of the weekend
for me.

We got to our camp site around 3 p.m. yesterday, and I went to a couple of my usual spots.  At the first one, the water was definitely higher than normal as there were no exposed rocks visible.  Starting off with what was successful on Wednesday on the Little Patuxent, I tied on a Z-Man Finesse TRD Worm on a medium-light rod with a 1964 Mitchell 300 reel, and Rebel Wee R on a medium-heavy St. Croix rod with a Pflueger Patriarch.

The TRD worm got the first fish of the day, a smallmouth bass about 15 inches.  Very subtle bite -- just a tap and then it felt like nothing on the other end.  But instinctively set the hook, and the fight was on.  The fish fought harder than the ones on Wednesday (water temp was about seven degrees higher than the Little Patuxent, so maybe the fish were more energized).

The Wee R wasn't hooking anything except dead foliage from the bottom of the river.

With nothing but that one fish for an hour plus, I moved to another "hotspot" in the area, a place I call The Plateau.  Still slow, but after awhile, another tap on the end of the line on the Z-Man worm, and another smallmouth, this one 14 inches.

The presentation was reeeaaallllyyy slow. Cast, let the lure sink to the bottom, slowly pull back on the rod tip to hop the lure across the bottom a foot or two, wait about five seconds, pull back again, wait five seconds, repeat.

A little bit later, Mr. Whiskers decided he wanted to snack on the Z-Man worm.  You never find Mr. Whiskers -- Mr. Whiskers finds you!

This smallmouth wanted a sample from The Jerk Store.

That was it for awhile, and I switched to a Rapala Shadow Rap on my other rod, ditching the Wee R.  The Rapala peaked the interest of a 12-inch smallmouth very close to the shore.  This fish actually hit pretty hard making me initially think it was something bigger.

That was it for the day.  I headed back to the campsite, where Karen had also returned but said she didn't catch anything.

This morning, I headed off to another spot hoping to catch a walleye, but nothing was even sniffing at the TRD Worm or Shadow Rap.  Shuffling to another spot, I caught a chunky 10-inch smallmouth on a TRD Worm, then a 12-inch smallmouth on the next cast.  Each fish just barely nipped at the lure but fought like a typical smallmouth thinking they were actually bigger than they were.

Back-to-back casts got a 10-inch smallmouth then this
one around 12 inches.

There was still some interest on the bottom-bouncing lure, and I had a few fish hooked but they came off. 

Then a fish hit the worm hard and started pulling the other way -- oh this felt like a good one!

Well it wasn't a smallmouth.  It was, again, Mr. Whiskers.  This one a bit bigger than the one yesterday.

Awhile later, I saw it was 8:40 a.m. and decided to go back to the camp site.  Just as I got on the trail, my phone buzzed with a notification.  Karen texted a picture of a 17-inch smallmouth she had just caught!  I found her a couple minutes later fishing an area I had skipped by.  She said she caught the big smallmouth on a Z-Man worm, too.  So definitely those were the ticket for the weekend.

We fished for a bit longer but without any luck, then headed back to our campsite for breakfast of scrambled eggs and Canadian bacon.

The weather looks "iffy" for the early part of the week with rain right now and extending into Monday.  After that, highs in the mid-50s.  But on Friday we are heading to the Susquehanna!

C&O Canal Trail.

Wee R catching fish

Rattling around the bottom of the tacklebox, the Rebel Wee R has risen.

It's been awhile, but I finally caught some fish!  After getting skunked the first few times out this year, I was beginning to wonder if them brown fish were ever going to awaken from their winter slumber. 

The weather had started to turn for the better, but not quite ideal with several warm days in a row.  The flakey weather kept having me put off side trips to the skinny rivers near my house, but I finally decided to venture to the Little Patuxent after work today.  Temps about 55 degrees and partly cloudy.  Water temp measured right at 50.  The river level was close to summer levels, but not quite as clear.

The plan was to start out with a Z-Man Finesse TRD Worm and a Rapala Shadow Rap and work them slowwww.  The first couple spots I tried produced nothing.  Not even a bite. 

First fish of the day
and 2018 -- a 12"
smallmouth.

Moving downriver, I decided to try a spot where I haven't caught anything in the past.  It's really slow moving current, very straight section of river, about three feet deep in the middle.  Lots of big rocks scattered on the bottom, though. 

After a couple casts with the TRD worm, there was a really subtle bite on the end.  I set the hook, and the fish fought back.  It came to the surface, and it was a decent smallmouth bass.  After hoisting the fish up the bank, it measured a nose over 12 inches!  Finally with the first fish on the board for 2018!

A few casts later, another fish loosely clamped onto the TRD worm, and it was another smallmouth bass, but only around 10 inches.

After trying the Rapala Shadow Rap without luck, I moved to another spot.  No bites on either lure here, and it was off to another spot.   And then no luck and off to another spot.  And another.

I decided to head back upriver but wanted to hit a few of those areas with other lures.  Looking through the little tackle box with me, I decided on the no-name spinnerbait and a small square-bill crankbait, a Rebel Wee-R.

A couple things here.  First, I've had this Rebel Wee-R for awhile, since before getting back into fishing in 2014.  So it's 10-15 years old at least (maybe not even made any more in this size?).  Second, all the kids these days say square-bill crankbaits work, and I have made a note to add them to my repertoire this year. They have a fat profile, and the bill supposedly helps skip the lure snag-free across rocks. I've bought a few on impulse buys at Susquehanna Fishing Tackle, but why not try the lure that's been rattling around in my possession for several years?  If I snag it or launch it into a tree, it's not a great loss.

It was a good decision.

Back upriver at another spot where the TRD worm and Shadow Rap had no interest, the Wee R had a a strong strike, but the fish didn't get hooked.  The no-name spinnerbait had some swipes, too, but also nothing.  I kept slow presentations with both lures -- the Wee R barely wobbling through the water, and the blade barely churning on the spinnerbait.

After a few more spots without any luck, I returned to the same section where I caught the two smallmouth bass earlier.  The spinnerbait had some interest ... from trout!  The Maryland DNR stocks trout in the Little Patuxent and many other rivers and streams during the offseason, and that includes golden trout, a variation of rainbow trout (but not to be confused with golden trout found in the western U.S.). They are easy to spot cruising the river because of their bright coloring.  And this one nibbled on the spinnerbait and actively followed it on subsequent casts.

Switching to the Wee R, the trout still showed interest but wouldn't bite.  After a few casts into another section to avoid the curious trout, I had a light hit on the little crankbait.  But when I set the hook, it felt like something good.  The fish rose to the surface (but didn't jump), and I could tell it wasn't any ordinary Little Patuxent smallmouth.  Not even a 12-incher.

I got the fish on the bank and measured it at 16 inches.  I've caught three 15 inchers prior on the Little/Middle Patuxents, so this was my biggest for those rivers.

Sixteen inches, a new best on the Little/Middle Patuxents!

My personal-best from the Potomac -- a 17-incher -- came in September, so maybe this bodes well for the trip Karen and I have next Friday on the Susquehanna.  The temps are supposed to be going back up the next few days, so who knows.  Smallmouth Season has started!