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."