Sunny day sunfish

I fished the Little Patuxent for a few hours today and caught one smallmouth and my first sunfish of the year -- four of them in fact!

I went to the same area where I caught my biggest smallmouth ever on the Little Patuxent last month.  While the Wee R was the ticket that day, I only used it for a few minutes today because the water was a bit lower, and I figured it would get hung up a lot.

Temp was in the low 80s, not a cloud in the sky, and water temp was just a bit over 70.

Instead I tried the no-name spinnerbait and a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm.  The spinnerbait was sparking interest, but none of the fish could wrap their mouths around the hook.  At one point, I had two smallmouth bass chasing it on three straight casts.

The Z-Man worm could only get a few nibbles, so I switched to a Rapala Shadow Rap.  The little sunfish liked it -- they were doing banzai runs to try and grab the lure and run away with it.  One little -- and I mean little -- green sunfish did manage to get hooked:

Green sunfish, first one of the day.

After nothing but sunfish hit-and-runs for awhile, a smallmouth bass hit the no-name spinnerbait.  I saw the fish almost immediately after it was hooked and could tell it wasn't that big, but the tug on the other end definitely gave the impression of punching above its weight class.  A five-pound smallmouth stuffed in a one-pound body.

Smallmouth on the no-name spinnerbait and a Mitchell
300 reel, serial number 2165625 (made in 1958).

Eventually I decided it was time.  Time to break out a topwater lure for the first time this year.  I tied on a trusty Heddon Zara Puppy in a bull frog pattern, and the fish responded almost as soon as the lure hit the water!

Unfortunately, it was the banzai sunfish coming from the depths and trying to steal the lure, almost like they didn't want anyone to see them.  Three of the fishes did manage to chomp on a treble hook, all of them redbreast sunfish.

Three-inch lure, five inch fish.

Around 4:30 p.m., I called it quits.

Skinny river with Little Dippers

First fish of the day, a 12-inch smallmouth bass.

Fished a section of river that I had not fished before.

In a river that I haven't had much luck at all before, either.

And I managed to catch six smallmouth bass in about two hours.

A few weeks ago, I "discovered" the Avalon Park section of the Patapsco River.  This area is probably the closest smallmouth bass habitat near my house, but I only found it after poking around on Google Earth.  Or maybe I overlooked it before because it was a "park" with ample parking, picnic tables and shelters, and I figured it would be over-fished.

It turned out a lot better than I figured.  Twenty minutes in, I got the first smallmouth -- around 12 inches -- on a Z-Man Finesse TRD Worm.  But things went cold after that, despite the 70-degree weather and cloud-less skies.  Just nothing on the TRD worm or the no-name spinnerbait.  Tried a few different spots and still nothing.

Then after one particular spot without anything, I tied on a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper, and on the second cast, a fish clamped on as soon as the lure hit the water.  A 13-inch smallmouth.  Then another a few casts later.  And another.  Five fish total -- one more in the 12-inch range -- and a few that got off in about 30 minutes.

There were indeed quite a few people fishing, but none of them seemed to be catching.  Tossing bobbers or doing whatever, maybe I'm just smarter than them now -- ha ha!  Seriously, it was satisfying to show up in a new-to-me area -- that had a lot of evidence of fishing pressure -- and catch decent smallmouth.

Also, I spotted what looked like snakeheads cruising the river in one section.  They're supposed to be all over the place from the lower Potomac to all the way up to the lower Susquehanna, but I haven't seen one.  And they are supposed to be ultra-aggressive, but these fish paid no mind to the lures I was throwing.  I would really like to catch one because they are supposed to be really tasty.

I sent Maryland DNR a message through Facebook wondering if I did indeed see a snakehead (they look really similar to bowfin), and this was their response:

"A biologist familiar with the current distribution of snakehead in Maryland said they have been caught at Savage Mill (Patuxent) and sections of the Patapsco as well. he wouldn’t be surprised if some were seen in the Avalon area, it’s possible.  Thank you."