White men can't jump, and neither can walleye

Woody the Walleye can't jump.

Despite only catching two fish on the Upper Potomac this weekend, the fishing on the river might be better than last year?  I think.  We'll see.  The weather certainly has been less unpredictable with average rains and no sudden surges to the river level, unlike last year.

With that in mind, and me struggling to maintain focus on the LS swap in my 1982 Camaro (Fish?  Work on the car?  Fish?  Oh I can't fish for fun because of a pandemic.), the camping restrictions were lifted in Maryland, and Karen was back to her old SCCA Pro Solo self hitting F5 to reserve a spot on the C&O Canal Trail.

We got to our reserved spot yesterday around 3 p.m., and par for the course, found some squatters on our campsite.  They weren't around but had left their stuff on the site's picnic table.  Mmmmm, potato salad from Trader Joes that has been sun roasted while sitting on the picnic table for who knows how long ... I'm sure that will be great!

After unloading the car, Karen set up camp while I went fishing.  I hiked up to The Plateau, and wading into the water, the river looked murky -- visibility only a couple of feet -- and wasn't down yet to typical summer flow levels.  I made some casts with a Bio Bait DNA swimbait and had two hookups in the same spot.  Each fish jumped and shook the lure.  Both were smallmouth bass, maybe the same fish? They bit in the exact same spot.  It's rare for me to get a smallmouth on the line, get loose and have it hit again.

I tried a spinnerbait on my other rod but after some uneventful casts decided to switch lures to a Rebel Wee R shallow running crankbait.  The same lure I caught my biggest fish ever and my biggest smallmouth from the Little Patuxent River.  My spinning reel had a loop in the fishing line on the spool, and I basically cast the little crankbait out  to get the line straight.  But something tugged on the other end while reeling in.  I set the hook and -- thinking I had hooked another smallmouth, tried playing the fish to keep it from breaching and freeing itself like the previous two fish.

A tiny mushroom ... or a large maple seed.  Just behind our campsite.

The fish didn't jump, and as it got closer I saw why.  It was a walleye.  They are like Woody Harrelson from that 1990s movie -- they can't jump.

It was also far from legal size, so off it went to get bigger.  Good luck on learning how to jump.

After all that in 30 minutes or so, there was zero fish activity after that.  Nothing until I watched a smallmouth bass clamp down on a Bio Bait swimbait right in front of me and immediately spit it out.

Back at the campsite -- the same area where I first tried the Z-Man TRD finesse worm a few years ago -- another smallmouth hit the Bio Bait swimbait, jumped, and shook the lure.  After some casts, I moved a little upriver, then shuffled back down, and another smallmouth clamped on at the same spot as the earlier hookup.  It jumped and looked like the same fish!  Maybe 14 inches, a Potomac lunker for sure.  After the second jump, the line snapped.  That made it three smallmouth unhooking themselves, one spitting the lure out immediately, and one fish getting away because the fishing line snapped.  But there was that one Woody Walleye that couldn't jump.

Nothing after that, and I even tried after the sun dipped below the trees.

In the morning, the tweeting birds woke me up, and I fished behind the campsite again.

Nothing.

Hiking down to mile marker 69, this spot always has looked fishy.  It always does.  One of those things where it should be a prime spot, and it never is.  A fish or two here and there but no where close to prime fish real estate.

Three pictures of the natural dam, and damn if it would
only attract some fish.

Fast water into slack water, seemingly with multiple ambush points.   Several pools and eddies which look like spots where no smallmouth bass river fisherman should pass up.

This morning, more of the same.  Not one bite.

Finally, a smallmouth bass.

Back at the campsite, Karen and I heated maple sausage and scrambled eggs.  Afterwards, I decided to test out my patience with a baitcaster and a spinnerbait behind the campsite.  Not my favorite combination because I'm still trying to get the hang of baitcasting reels, and spinnerbaits don't seem to produce much for me.

So some casts.  Nothing.

A bird's nest, sorted out and some more casts.

Nothing.

OK, one more cast.

And a fish hit!  If I didn't see and land the fish, I would have sworn it was at least 14 inches, that's how much of a tug it was.  But it was maybe 11 inches, if that.  

That made it two fish for the weekend.  Looking back on my fishing log (not blog, an actual log I have been keeping the last few years), I made four trips to the Potomac at this point last year and only caught one smallmouth.  Now it's one trip with a smallmouth and a walleye.  Maybe it will better this time around.

While the fish didn't cooperate much this weekend, we saw lots of birds tweeting around our campsite.  Bluebirds, yellow finches, among others we don't usually see at the backyard bird feeder.

Smallmouth social distancing: Nobody hates rainbows

Double smallmouth, what's it mean?

Because of some virus thing, my birthday fishing trip on the Susquehanna River last month was pushed back.  Karen booked a trip with Jason Shay of Susquehanna Smallmouth Solutions, and the recreational fishing restrictions were lifted in Pennsylvania last week, and we hit the river yesterday.

Jason texted me teaser pics of fish he and his client had caught the day before.  Apparently, the smallmouth were hammering jerkbaits, and he said they "put on a show."

Unfortunately, the fish went on social distancing mode for us.  Karen and I got to the boat ramp and hopped right in Jason's AlumaRyder boat right away.  We jetted up to the same spot Jason was at yesterday, and there was another boat anchored in the area but not fishing the exact spot we wanted.  We started casting Lucky Craft Pointer jerkbaits and waited for the show to start.

And waited.

And waited.

Surprise rainbow!

Jason got the first fish, and I got one a little while later.  Then another boat showed up and basically parked right at the spot where we were casting.  It reminded me of "Dicks in a Lund," a phrase my friend and I used fishing in Minnesota when I was 15 or so.  We were using the campground's low-dollar rental boats, just a couple kids trying to catch some fish, and Dicks in a Lund would motor through like they were The Walleye Kings of the World.  These Smallmouth Kings of the Susquehanna didn't seem to mind us all but bouncing our lures off the side of their boat.  Even when Pete Holmes*, one of Susquehanna Smallmouth Solutions other guides, parked down river from us.

*Pete also has an AlumaRyder boat nearly identical to Jason's, but his is longer.

A little while later, I had a good hit on the Pointer jerkbait.  Started reeling as Jason went for the net.  I got the fish next to the boat and could tell it wasn't a smallmouth.  Just before netting the fish, it took us a second to realize what kind of fish was at the other end of the line.  And then when the fish was hoisted from the water, the silver and pink sparkled in the sunlight -- a rainbow trout, about 14 inches long.

That goes up there with the flathead catfish and northern map turtle as odd catches.  No walleyes, no muskies, not even sunfish.  Just smallmouth bass and something uncommon.

We weren't getting much action after that, and even more boats showed up or coasted through the area to hit Sherman's Creek. What works in one area one day sometimes doesn't work the very next day, and that's why they call it fishing and not catching. So we decided to move and hit some other spots.

Karen with a fish she called
Stripey McStripeface.

Alternating between spinnerbaits and River2Sea Whopper Ploppers, action was scarce.  Karen had a big topwater blowup on a Whopper Plopper, and I had a fish lunge at a spinnerbait just as I pulled the lure out of the water.  Both fish were easily 22 inches.  Easily.

Maybe.

I think I caught one smallmouth on the spinnerbait, and Jason had a couple more.  Otherwise, we would get to a "fishy" spot that had promise and not get anything.  Several places looked familiar where we caught fish in the past.

Jason got a text later that Pete and his clients had found some fish near where we started, so we headed there.  This area was packed!  At one point, I counted 14 other boats within sight.

It was a complete change of pace from before, though.  Instead of casting and reeling spinnerbaits and hardbaits, we were using Z-Man finesse lures and just dragging them slowly on the bottom.  The theory was that the bass would get angry at something sliding through their beds.  

Karen caught four or five fish and I caught two with three coming off right at the boat.  We even had a double! A couple of the fish had awesome patterns like iconic smallmouth pictures and paintings. The bite was very subtle, almost like the fish were picking the lures up just to move them.

We booked another trip for July, and hopefully with social distancing restrictions lessening in Maryland, Karen and I can go camping along the Potomac River and catch Maryland/Virginia/West Virginia smallmouth.

Our Subaru at the Fort Hunter boat ramp with a much more
common orange Crosstrek.

Sunrise on the Susquehanna and a hint of rain --
excellent formula for a rainbow.

Boat traffic -- there are at least six in this picture.

Karen's first fish of the day.

My first smallmouth of the day.