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| A smallmouth bass that hit a Hubs Chub topwater lure. |
Karen and I went camping at the Antietam Creek Campground along the C&O Canal trail. Usually by this time of year, we've camped next to the Potomac a handful of times, but this is only the second time for me (she went once the day Kirk and I went fishing on the Susquehanna). The rain storms have been unusually frequent this year, which has caused the Potomac to flow high -- not ideal for fishing.
I wasn't sure what to expect yesterday. The river gauges showed the water level was down to almost normal summer levels -- probably the lowest it has been all year -- but with all the rain blowing out the river, how would that affect the smallmouth? Would they be in their usual spots?
Well they weren't in the first usual spot I tried after we got to the campsite yesterday afternoon. While Karen called the park ranger to deal with squatters on our campsite, I made a beeline to where I caught my biggest smallmouth on the Potomac last year and one of two 16-inch fish. This time, the honey hole produced nothing. It might have had something to do with people "fishing" when I showed up. Four or five people, carrying on in the water yelling at each other. As I assembled into the waders, looking on from down river and knotting up lures on my two rods, they finally left.
Still after moving into the vacated area -- my personal hot spot -- I had nothing after an hour plus. I tried a Reaction Innovations swimbait, Z-Man TRD worm and a spinnerbait in this section which featured faster water.
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| Right corner of the weedbed is where the smallmouth ambushed the Whopper Plopper. |
One cast put the lure close to shore, and I buzzed it back to the corner or a weedbed.
Just before reaching the weeds, small baitfish/fry started leaping from the water, and a dark mass just beneath the surface made a beeline for the Whopper Plopper. The fish pummeled the lure! All this happened in maybe a half second. The fish jumped trying to shake the dual trebles of the Plopper, and I could see it was a smallmouth. It jumped again -- "Stop that!" -- but couldn't shake the hooks. It wasn't big -- about 14 inches -- but fought like a typical smallmouth that doesn't know its size.
And that was it for awhile. I went back down to the campsite and tried the river there. Karen said she hadn't caught anything but had a couple swipes at her Whopper Plopper.
I brought along a Rapala X-Rap Prop, which I had not used before, and decided to throw that behind the campsite. The body looks like the famous Rapala minnow, but it's a topwater lure with a propeller on each end. After a few casts, I liked what I saw. It buzzed through the water, but wasn't as noisy as a Whopper Plopper because of the slender shape.
On one cast, a fish struck the Rapala about a second after it hit the water -- didn't even start reeling, just a boil on the surface from the fish. It was another smallmouth (jumped a few times catching the eyes of some guys swimming down river -- "Oh look at that!"). This one was about 12 inches.
But that was it for the night. Peppered the river and couldn't find any takers on the topwater lure.
This morning, I got up around 6:30 a.m. and headed downriver. I started at the Antietam Creek confluence and waded downriver staying close to the bank. Got another smallmouth on the Whopper Plopper then one more on a three-inch Hubs Chub. The latter hit the lure just as it hit the water, like the fish hitting the Rapala prop lure last night.
Yes, the topwater bite is so intoxicating that I had both my rods rigged with surface lures. At one point, a fish took a run at the Whopper Plopper and missed, then I switched rods and threw the Hubs Chub to the same spot. The fish nailed it -- and jumped -- but unhooked itself from the trebles a few feet away. Definitely a smallmouth in the 12-14 range.
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| Achievement unlocked -- baitcasting without a bird's nest! |
I didn't catch any bass with that reel. With no clue how baitcasters worked (this was long before YouTube), I created many bird's nests and backlashes. Eventually the frustration overcame my dreams of being a pro bass angler, and I traded the reel to a friend for baseball cards. He then gave the reel to his dad for a birthday present.
So fast forward to about 10 years ago, I briefly decided to get back into fishing again and bought a used Shimano Curado reel off eBay. Not something from 1985 like I had as a kid, but more modern with brakes and other fancy things. I made casts practicing in the back yard and did OK, but couldn't make very long casts. Then when taking off brakes (the brakes are kind of like a clutch on a car) trying to lengthen casts, the result was a tangled mess of fishing line.
Now going back in time to just one month ago, when I picked up Kirk the morning of our trip to the Susquehanna, he handed me a box and said, "Merry Christmas!" Inside was a Quantam Smoke S3 baitcasting reel. He mistakenly bought a left-hand retrieve reel and couldn't return it, so he gave it to me. Great! Now I had to get a new rod (settled on a seven-foot, two piece Johnny Morris rod on sale at Bass Pro Shops) and try and figure this thing out.
Which I did this morning. The Quantam reel had more fancy brake settings and eventually got it tuned so it would launch the Whopper Plopper a good distance without making a bird's nest. In fact, ZERO problems with backlashes, and I even caught one fish.
Also when fishing with Jason Shay earlier this month, he mentioned that baitcasting reels need thicker diameter line. I rigged the Quantam reel with 17-pound monofilament -- I had tried 10- and even eight-pound line before on the Shimano Curado. Now I have a hang of it, maybe it's time to find a muskie guide!
