2019 is thankfully over (year in review)

Google Overlord Big Brother was kind enough
to track the fishing trip in August on Rainy Lake.

Last year was tough for fishing.  For whatever reason, the smallmouth bite on the Potomac and Susquehanna was pretty bleak.  I simply stopped fishing the Potomac.

However on the Little Patuxent, it was business as usual -- typical average of about one fish an hour after the weather warmed up.  I keep meaning to try winter fishing but usually chicken out.  Late winter or early fall trips have never been conducive for catching smallmouth.  And then trout stocking starts, so there are suddenly people fishing when I usually have water all to myself.

The good thing about poor fishing is that I didn't run out of fishing lures.  I'm still well stocked on Z-Man worms and Reaction Innovations swimbaits.  And one of these days I may do a review of the handful of different jerkbaits I've acquired.

2020 marked my first ever trip to Canada during our Wyoming-to-Maryland road trip.  Even though I spent four years stationed at K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base in da Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I had never been to Canada.  Karen and I fished on Rainy Lake with Rainydaze Guide Service and caught a few smallmouth bass and walleye.  We never actually set foot in Canada, just fished across the border after launching from Minnesota.

Google (AKA, Big Brother) e-mailed me a "Google Maps Timeline" for my activity a week ago covering my activity in 2020.  Kind of cool and creepy at the same time.  The map above shows the fishing trip on Rainy Lake.  I didn't realize at the time we had ventured that far north!

I actually keep a log in Excel, and last year I caught 66 smallmouth bass, 10 failfish, six walleye, six largemouth bass, five sunfish and two trout.  In past years, I've landed 100+ smallmouth.

Hopefully, smallmouth fishing is better this year on the Potomac and Susquehanna.  I've seen some information here and there of people already catching smallmouth on the Potomac even though winter is supposed to be tough going. 

Karen already booked my "birthday trip" with Susquehanna Smallmouth Solutions on April 11.  I'm also trying to figure out what to do for our "road trip" this year.  Smallmouth fishing in Oregon? Washington state? Idaho?  All three?  Stay tuned!