Eight For Eight: The rogues gallery of my most memorable smallmouth bass over the past eight years

Like how ESPN has been showing its "30 For 30" series, I bring you my "8 For 8."  

It's been eight years since I took up fishing again mainly trying to catch smallmouth bass.  With temperatures this weekend in the high 90s and not really feeling like fishing and dealing with the heat, I thought I would look back on the Top Eight smallmouth bass I have landed over the past eight years.

These aren't necessarily the eight biggest ranked by size but of most memorable (spoiler alert: a 16-incher is in the Top Three).

No. 8: First 15-inch smallmouth on the Little Patuxent, May 29, 2015.

First 15-inch smallmouth on the tiny Little Patuxent River. 
This is probably like catching a 20-inch smallmouth on Lake
Erie or the Susquehanna.

Since the Little and Middle Patuxent rivers were close to me, figured those rivers were home to smallmouth bass.  Everything in Maryland somehow connects to the Potomac it seems, so it shouldn't be too far fetched that them brown fish lurked in those skinny rivers.

Searching the internet, it appeared -- yes -- there were smallmouth bass, but I wasn't sure if they were plentiful or if they had any size.  The first one I caught on my first time fishing the Little Patuxent tipped a tape measure at maybe six inches.  And that fish was overshadowed by three rainbow trout.

Fishing near the shadow of an I-95 overpass in early 2015, it was confirmed these rivers had decent fish.  This was 15-incher jerked on a Rapala Shadow Rap.  A couple months later, I caught another smallmouth bass stretching 15 inches again on the Little Patuxent, and the game was on.

Oddly, I haven't caught any "big" smallmouth on the Middle Patuxent even though it feeds into the Little Patuxent.  I have seen a few nice fish, though, but they have been shy about their eating habits.

Next up, unlucky number seven ...

No. 7: The One That Got Away, October 2014.

No pictures exist of this fish.  

I've mentioned it before, but maybe fishing "doesn't take" if I don't hook this fish.  Camping overnight with Karen at McCoy's Ferry, had a few smallmouth and sunfish Saturday night.  

Sunday morning, I had not had that much luck and was about ready to call it a day around 11 a.m.  Working a Heddon Zara Puppy, I noticed the line was kind of frazzled where it was tied to the lure and didn't re-tie.

Kind of bored.  Karen should be about ready to go home.
Close to one of those "one last cast" moments, I let the Zara Puppy sail out, started working it side-to-side and a smallmouth bass EXPLODED out of the water -- it was hooked.  It jumped again, and I was desperately reeling.  The fish charged straight at me where I was standing on the bank.  Not even wading in the water, standing on the "safety" of the bank, and this smallmouth was coming right for me.

It jumped again and then it was gone.  

The line broke.

I've replayed this 100 times.  That smallmouth was easily 16 inches.  Maybe bigger?  The lesson was: Should have cut the frazzled line and re-tied the lure, and this has a better ending.

Up next, six is good.  I like six ...

  

Personal-best smallmouth bass at
that time.  Caught it wading literally
 in the middle of the Potomac River.

No. 6: First 16-inch smallmouth, July 25, 2015.

It was my little niece's first birthday, and I decided to go fishing early on the Potomac River with the plans of meeting up with the family later on to celebrate.  

I was wading in the area that I now call The Plateau.  The bottom of the river has rock formations that angle diagonally to how the water flows.  Easy to wade, and the water is low and clear this time of year.

I was mainly using a three-inch BPS plastic worm on a slider jighead.  Had not discovered the Z-Man worms yet.  

Casting as far as I could down river, this fish clamped on, and it was a battle.  Trying to keep my rod tip low so the fish wouldn't jump, I finally landed it -- 16 inches!

Up next, staying alive with number five ...

First 17-inch Potomac smallmouth bass.  

No. 5: First 17-inch Potomac smallmouth bass, Sept. 17, 2017.

This is a fish that solidified the Reaction Innovations Little Dipper in my arsenal.  They are cheap swimbaits (sub $6 for a pack of 10 from Susquehanna Fishing Tackle), so if one gets snagged, usually it's not worth crying about to lose one.  They are durable enough for two to three hookups.  Most importantly, fish like them.

I was wading about 20 feet from shore and spotted a slow eddy -- about two feet in diameter -- hugging the bank.  Not much room for error to hit this spot, but I made one of the best casts of my life.  Wouldn't you know it, this smallmouth was looking for something to eat and pounded the swimbait.

Up next, number four caught off the Susquehanna floor ...

My personal best smallmouth bass at that time. 
It would be surpassed just a couple hours later.

No. 4: Susquehanna 18-inch smallmouth, April 1, 2016.

My first fishing trip on the Susquehanna River with Jason Shay (he was guiding for another outfit -- Susquehanna Smallmouth Solutions was just a glimmer in his eye).  Searching through forums and sleuthing The Google, I read how the Susquehanna in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, area was prime smallmouth territory, and I wanted to experience it.

I coaxed my buddy Kirk to join me, and we trekked up to meet with Jason.

On my first cast as Jason was still helping Kirk get his gear ready, I caught a 14-inch smallmouth.  FIRST CAST and something worthy of a picture.  

Bigger ones were yet to come.

Later on, this one went for a small tube cast as we were drifting down the bank running next to Highway 15.  Precision casting to small pockets, and this fish slurped the tube.

This was my personal best smallmouth at the time, and that record would be broken only a couple hours later.  

Up next, though three was caught on a Wee, it was fierce ...

Personal-best smallmouth for the Little Patuxent River. 
After catching three 15-inchers, finally found one that
was bigger.

No. 3: Little Patuxent 16-inch smallmouth, April 11, 2018.

Like I wrote earlier, this isn't ranking the size of the fish but telling the whole overall story.  The Little Patuxent River is a trickle of water that flows through eastern Maryland.  Not suitable for kayaking or swimming in most places, but this is my home river.

Usually the smallmouth bass are in the 10-inch range, and I consider anything above 12 inches a trophy.  If I consider a 15-inch smallmouth bass a trophy from the Little Patuxent, what about something bigger?

I have identified three or four good spots on the Little Patuxent and hit those regularly.  For some reason on this day, I tried an area of the river that never produced a fish for me before.  On an old (actually the term is vintage) discontinued Rebel Wee-R square bill crankbait that had been rattling around my tackle assortment since even before I started fishing again in 2014.  If I remember correctly, it had never caught a fish before.

The Wee R had some interest that day from rainbows.  Casting to another section to avoid the trout, this smallmouth bass hit lightly.  At first, I thought it was another trout or a dink smallmouth, but then it started pulling.  I was standing on the bank about three or four feet above the water and had to heft this beast up hoping something bad didn't happen.

Three 15-inchers prior to this, so it was a great feeling to see there are bigger fish in the little river.  I swear I've had two hooked since then that were just as big.

Up next, number two reaches for twenty ...

No. 2: Susquehanna 20-inch smallmouth, April 1, 2016.

When I caught smallmouth bass No. 4 on this list, it measured 18 inches.  It was also my first time on the Susquehanna River, so the river had already lived up to my expectations.

But the river produced more.

I cast a Rapala Shadow Rap downriver behind the boat and started working the lure back.  Felt a light tap on the line and set the hook.  Jason Shay, the guide, saw me set the hook and asked if I needed the net.

"Nah, it's not that big."

Reeled some more and got a look at the fish.

"Uh, yeah I need the net."

That Shadow Rap got a work out that day.  It also enticed a fish that length wise wasn't even close but probably chunked out to the same weight as the 20-incher.  One treble was missing from the front hook, and the two rear hooks were bent.

Up next, number one ...

Biggest smallmouth I've caught on the
Potomac and matches my personal best.

No. 1: Potomac 20-inch smallmouth, June 25, 2022.

I had seen pictures of them.  Big smallmouth bass from the Potomac River.  So I knew they were out there, but up until this day, my efforts had only yielded a 17-inch smallmouth (No. 5 on the list, and it was caught five years prior to this).

This makes No. 1 because it was caught wading (not on a boat), it smashed my personal-best from this river, and it was caught on a TOPWATER lure.  This is the only fish on the list landed after hitting a topwater lure, a Rapala X-Rap Prop.

I just wish I had taken a couple more photos before releasing the fish.  This was taken on my phone, which isn't great under low-light conditions.

Honorable mentions:

My tube hanging out of this smallmouth's mouth. 
And if you enlarge and peer down the throat, there
is another tube AND a crayfish!

Karen and I with a double on the Susquehanna River.

Another double!  Earlier this year on Lake Erie.

Perky nibbles

Nothing better than looing UP at I-95.

I went out early this morning on the Little Patuxent River to try and beat the heat humidity.  We have had some showers here and there during the week, but nothing major, so the river was low and fairly clear.

As usual, I tied on a Heddon Zara Puppy on one rod and a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper on the other.  They are usually my go-to lures so why not?

Well the Little Dipper was getting a ton of attention from what I think were small sunfish.  It was almost comical.  I could see the lure in the water, then it would go sideways with a fish grabbing it.  Then letting it go.  I'm sure there was one point where five casts in a row were like that.  Finally actually hooked one and it was a sunfish barely bigger than the swimbait.  Maybe some kind of scent to spray on the lure would entice the fish to stay clamped on longer, but considering the size of the fish, I'm not sure if it's worth the effort.

A dink smallmouth bass that hit the no-name
spinnerbait.  I think increasing reel speed may
have enticed the fish to be more aggressive.

The Zara Puppy had some interest but I think more of the same with little sunfish that should have been chasing a lure that size (and that Puppy is maybe three inches).

Hit my three usual spots with the perky nibbles but couldn't find a smallmouth.  When I got to the turnaround point, I did a 180 on lure selection, too.  Off went the swimbait on the lighter rod/reel (St. Croix Avid-X with a Daiwa Tatula 2500), and on went a hair jig that I had picked up ... somewhere.  On the medium rod/reel (BPS Extreme green with classic Mitchell 3-0-0), the Zara Puppy was replaced with some random small white spinnerbait that I got ... somewhere.

And wouldn't you know it, the spinnerbait enticed a legitimate smallmouth bass to bite.  And the hair jig enticed ... well ... a sunfish.

Lots of follows on those lures, too.  Even though the spinnerbait wasn't very big, the profile compared to a swimbait is bigger, and the sunfish thought better of actually trying to bite it.

On the way back to the car, a guy on a bike stopped to ask me if I was fishing for smallmouth bass.  He said his dad caught a 19-inch smallmouth on the Patapsco River a couple years ago.