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:
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.
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.
Around 4:30 p.m., I called it quits.
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:
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Three-inch lure, five inch fish. |
Around 4:30 p.m., I called it quits.
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