Black Friday? More like Good Friday!

A 20-inch Black Friday smallmouth!

Karen and I went camping along the C&O Canal for Thanksgiving, and I caught a good-sized walleye yesterday and a beast 20-inch smallmouth bass this morning!

She had made the reservations a couple weeks ago hoping the weather would be decent like it was a few years ago when we did the same thing during Covid. It looked like temperatures would be in the low 60s but high 30s overnight, so she bought a zero-degree sleeping bag a few days ago.

The only issue was we had two inches of rain go through the area Tuesday, so the level of the Potomac River was going to be up. How far? It looked like it got as high as six feet and was on a slow decline by the time we got to the campsite last night. The Shepherdstown gauge showed about five feet on weather.gov. 

I decided to leave the waders at home and fish from shore.

This time of year is iffy for smallmouth bass. With the colder water, they kind of go into a slumber and are difficult to entice. After catching that 22-inch walleye two weeks ago, I figured if I caught anything, it would again be walleye.

We got to the campsite around 5 p.m. and set things up. The sun was sinking below the trees, and I decided to hit the "easy button" and fish behind the campsite. I tied a Rapala Shadow Rap on one rod but instead of a swimbait on the other rod, I put on a Z-Man Finesse TRD Worm. My plan was to slowly drag or hop the worm on the bottom.

After some casts with the jerkbait, I switched to the rod with the TRD worm. 

And snagged leaves and debris on almost every cast. The Shadow Rap snagged some stuff, but it wasn't that bad. I gave up on the worm and switched to the ol' go-to Reaction Innovations Little Dipper.

Gobble gobble! A Thanksgiving walleye.

On the second cast, slowly reeling against the current, I had a hit! It felt like a good fish, and it was -- probably a keeper-sized (15-inch) walleye. Two walleye in two trips to the Potomac. I didn't have any way to measure it to confirm it was legal, so I threw it back.

Hoping there would be more, I cast fruitlessly for another 45 minutes or so and called it quits.

This morning, I reluctantly emerged from the zero-degree sleeping bag and fished the same spot behind our campsite with the Shadow Rap and Little Dipper swimbait. Nothing was doing, so I moved downstream near the confluence with Antietam Creek. No luck there either, so I moved downstream from the confluence to a spot where I caught the "battered bass" a few years ago. That was earlier in the season, but the river was also flowing higher than normal like today, so maybe a fish was waiting again.

I didn't get anything with either lure and decided to switch from the Little Dipper back to the TRD worm. This area has a point of rocks and vegetation that protrudes out into the river and breaks the flow. Lots of stuff gets caught up there, and I was guessing maybe there wouldn't be as much debris downstream.

On the second cast, I felt something scoop the worm up, and I yanked back on the rod. This felt like a nice fish, and I had walleye on my mind.

The fish jumped -- it was no walleye but instead was a smallmouth bass. It jumped again -- it was a BIG smallmouth! The fish was putting up a good tussle, then started pulling downstream. There was a tree and vegetation in the way, so I didn't have a clear path to get the fish to shore. Sure enough, the smallmouth got into the grass and weeds, and I thought for sure it was going to free itself. I was using my lighter Daiwa Tatula rod/reel setup with six-pound line.

Fortunately, I pulled the fish from the weeds and landed it. With my hands shaking, I took a couple pictures and then a video as I released it back into the water. 

I didn't have any way to measure the fish but took a picture next to the rod. On the photo at the top, you can see a solid black portion of the rod blank just in front of the foam. From where the black fades out to the criss-cross pattern to the rod butt is 20-1/4 inches. It's not hard to speculate that was a 20-inch fish.

The smallmouth briefly got hung up in these weeds.

I was hoping some of its buddies were in the area but if they were, they weren't interested in anything I had.

So while two fish over about four hours between two days doesn't seem like much, I think for the time of the year and that the smallmouth was likely bigger than my previous Potomac best, I'd say it was a win.

As for camping, there are 20 sites at Antietam Creek Campground. Karen and I were the only ones there. We had the whole place to ourselves. No squatters in our site, no bawling kids, no adults not acting their age. Definitely a win.

We had the whole campground to ourselves.

Fish don't care that it's raining because they are already wet

Personal best Potomac walleye, 22 inches!

Since I had the day off for Veterans Day (I'm a veteran so I should have the day off anyway), I was figuring out how to occupy myself during the day. The weather has been great the past few weeks -- around 70 degrees and sunny -- but as I was looking ahead the past few days at the forecast for today, it was projected to be mid-50s and rainy.

Not ideal conditions, but the fish don't care if it's raining because they're already wet.

I trekked up to Dam 4 on the Potomac River since I haven't been to that section in awhile. I was hoping for some smallmouth bass but this area sometimes surprises with walleye.

I got there around 9:15 a.m. and at first it didn't look like anybody was around. But after I waded into the water below the dam, I saw somebody else fishing on the small island just below the dam. It looked like he had come over from the West Virginia side with a kayak. Somebody else with the bright idea of fishing in the rain!

To start things off, I tied on a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper, basically my go-to lure. After one hit in about 10 casts, a shallow-running Rapala Shadow Rap went on my other rod. Speaking of "go-to" lures, Shadow Raps are my go-to jerkbait -- they have been great since the first time I used them, and enticed my first 20-inch smallmouth bass to bite one. I would fish with them more often, but in shallow waters, they are more of a danger to snag. At $10 a pop, I'm always tentative using them.

However this morning, the first cast with the Shadow Rap, I had a hit. This felt like a nice fish, but it was using the river current to its strength. Got the fish closer and saw it was a about a 13-inch smallmouth bass, although fairly chunky.

The first dam fish of the day.

A few casts later, another smallmouth bit the Shadow Rap just as I was pulling the lure out of the water. Although it was only pushing 12 inches, it also had some girth. The smallmouth are likely fattening themselves up before wearing their savage face of cold.

After landing two smallmouth bass in about 20 minutes, I didn't even have a hit for almost two hours afterward. I moved down river, tried a few areas below some protruding rocks that were creating small pools and breaks ... and nothing.

Fall is in full swing along the Potomac River.

That's why they call it "fishing" and not "catching."

At this point, I was thinking of leaving but decided to try below the dam again. I hiked up the C&O Canal Trail and waded to about the same spot where I caught the two smallmouth bass earlier. For some reason, I kept getting bird's nests on the spinning reel with the Shadow Rap and had to strip line and re-tie. Now I didn't have enough line on the spool to cast! So my only option was the other rod with the Little Dipper.

After a handful of casts, I had one hit on the swimbait. After that, I kept peppering the area with casts and was about ready to call it quits. Not quite, "Just one more cast," but it was close to that.

Then something slammed the swimbait. It felt like a nice fish, but the 13-inch smallmouth from earlier felt like it was bigger, so I was skeptical at first.

This fish kept tugging and tugging. Without my sunglasses and their assistance of polarized lenses to cut the glare off the water, it was hard to make out what kind of fish it was as it got into visual range. It wasn't football shaped like a smallmouth.

"Oh man, I hope it's not a catfish."

Then I saw the gold coloring and recognized it was a walleye, and a good-sized one at that! I cradled it out of the water and immediately saw it was big enough to keep (the minimum in Maryland is 15 inches), so I put it on a stringer and ended the day fishing right there.

In case you've stumbled across this blog for some reason -- maybe a fan of my Camaro autocross blog? -- and don't know anything about fish, walleye are one of the best tasting freshwater fish on the planet. 

Of course there wasn't nobody around to see me as I went back to my truck. When I get skunked, there are always people along the trail asking, "How'd ya do?" "Ya catch anything?" I usually keep my head down and try not to make eye contact in those cases. But here I was lugging a hefty walleye, and nobody was around to see it.

After getting home, I measured and weighed the fish -- 22 inches and 3.7 pounds! At least length wise, it was my biggest fish from the Potomac.

Although Karen and I caught a bunch of walleye on Rainy Lake a few months ago, this was my first Potomac walleye since 2020.

If you've stuck around this far, here's a bonus video releasing the first smallmouth.

All walleye, all the time: A return to Rainy Lake

Karen with her biggest walleye. Notice the greenish coloring on the bottom of the gill plate.

Karen and I returned to Rainy Lake on the Minnesota-Canada border as part of the fishing trip portion of our annual "road trip" vacation.  We came here in 2019 and then again two years ago and caught a variety each time including walleye, northern pike, smallmouth bass and crappie.

This time it was all walleye, all the time.

As in the previous two trips, I again reached out to RainyDaze Guide Service. Due to the massiveness of open water, renting a boat or fishing from shore would be a futile attempt to find fish. Hiring a guide to put us on the good spots is a no-brainer.

This year, Jeff Plath would be our guide. He actually has his own guiding business -- J.P.E.P Guide Service -- but since he lives in the same 'hood as the owner of RainyDaze, he fills in from time to time.

Like in 2021, we made reservations to stay at the Thunderbird Lodge on the Minnesota side in International Falls. It has an old-school lodge feel with real room keys instead of key cards, four cable channels, dining for all three meals, and a bar. Guides can also slip into the the lodge's docks to meet clients. Meeting guides at the dock makes for sleeping in an extra half hour instead of driving somewhere to another part of the lake!

Jeff was waiting for us around 7:30 a.m., and after hopping in the boat, we skimmed across the water. Forecast called for 20mph+ winds, and I was worried it was going to be like 2021 where the surface was almost unbearably choppy.  

In 2021, it was almost impossible for guides to get work visas to work the Canadian side of Rainy Lake. This time, there was more of the same Canadian bureaucracy. Jeff said he sent in a request for a work visa in December, paid all the fees along the way, yet still Canada was slow-boating putting an actual work visa in his hands. Maybe they are bitter at the U.S. run of winning NHL Stanley Cups?

The lake has extremely deep sections reaching over 90 feet. However, the walleye (and some northern pike) favor humps and plateaus in 30-foot depths. This was the strategy for the last two trips -- find one of those spots and jig minnows or leaches off the bottom -- and it was the same this time. We "anchored" letting the trolling motor keep the boat hovering as we dropped bait over the side of the boat.

I was first on the board with a monster walleye.

First fish of the day, a micro walleye!

"Get the net!" Strangely, this would be the theme of the day -- super dink walleye that we should have let swim around to entice big northern pike.

I caught a bigger fish -- measuring 21-3/4" -- right after that, so that gave us hope bigger fish would follow.

First non-keeper size walleye, just under 22 inches.

But the micro-walleye brigade mounted a parade, mostly finding their way to the end of my line. Meanwhile, Karen was putting food on the table catching a few ideal eater-size 12- to 16-inch walleye.

The winds eventually died down, as did the bite. We trekked to a few locations, spotting tons of fish hovering in 30-feet of water, but mainly enticing the dinks and a few eaters.

Even though we missed an elusive trophy or even a bonus northern pike, it was still a fantastic experience. Karen and I must have boated 50-plus walleye between us. We caught a handful over the 18-inch maximum -- I had the two biggest fish (one just shy of 24 inches) and Karen got a couple in the 19- to 20-inch range. The day flew by, and 2:30 p.m. snuck up fast!

The sub-24-inch fish I caught might have been the hardest fighting walleye I had ever caught. Pulling on the rod, made a few dives underneath the boat. I thought it was a pike at first feeling how it was resisting.

It turned out, the kitchen staff at Thunderbird Lodge offers to cook the fish guests catch, so Karen and I hunkered up to the bar later and dined on a few of our walleye fingers, while the rest of our (or maybe all her) fish went into the lodge's freezer.

Thunderbird Lodge kitchen staff cooked our walleye.

Since Rainy Lake is now reserved for odd-numbered years, I'm brainstorming where to fish next year. I've always wanted fly-fish a western trout stream or try for beast smallmouth bass. Not going to lie, when we pulled up to the dock on Thursday, the RainyDaze guide from our 2019 trip, Chris Zahn, was just leaving. He said he and his clients hooked into topwater smallmouth all day with fish in the three- and four-pound range. 

Let me say that again, topwater smallmouth all day.

Bonus pictures:

One of Karen's too beaucoup walleye.

Jeff's boat docked at Thunderbird Lodge. Meeting the guide at the lodge's boat dock means sleeping in a little extra!

Meet Stephen the seagull. This opportunistic and aggressive flying rat shadowed us between at least three spots hoping to steal discarded baitfish. At one point, he swiped one of Karen's minnows while it was still on the hook!

For more photos from our road trip, click on the Badlands' bighorns:

Mr. Whiskers returns and you will never guess what happened to him

"oh hai! my name iz mr wiskers!"

Sitting by the campfire on Saturday night at along Potomac River, Karen said, "You haven't caught a catfish in awhile."

Pondering that for a bit, I couldn't remember the last time Mr. Whiskers found me. Probably our 2020 road trip where we fished Lewis and Clark Lake (Missouri River) on the Nebraska-South Dakota border. (I don't write this blog for its tens of views -- I write it so I can "remember" stuff like this.)

This is foreshadowing.

Sunday morning, waking bright and early, ambling down from our campsite to wade in the Potomac River, before I even stepped foot in the water, I spotted a wee catfish cruising around a rock.

More foreshadowing.

After about 45 minutes casting a Cabela's swimbait and a River2Sea Whopper Plopper, I didn't have a bite. But my persistence rewarded me with a hard strike after firing the swimbait toward a dark formation of submerged rocks in the middle of the river. This was an actual smallmouth bass that looked to be around 12 inches.

Smallmouth bass clearing the area before Mr. Whiskers showed up.

With only one other bite the entire time, I glanced at the fish watch and saw it had been almost two hours since dipping my toes in the river. Figuring maybe only another five or 10 minutes before heading back to the campsite, I made a few more casts. Again making long casts with the swimbait near the middle of the river, something grabbed on. The fish wallowed on the surface, and I could see that distinctive dorsal fin -- catfish.

It was a good "eatin' size" so I decided to do just that -- keep it for fileting! Catfish is among my favorite freshwater fish to eat. Walleye > perch > catfish. Although I haven't had crappie or sunfish for a long, long time.

This was also in the general area where a catfish stole a Whopper Plopper a few years ago. Who needs chicken livers when you can use swimbaits and topwater lures?!

That catfish and the smallmouth weren't the only fish I caught over the weekend. 

After arriving at the campsite on Saturday, I went upriver and caught a 12-inch smallmouth on the same flavor of Cabela's swimbait that would land Mr. Whiskers and another 12-inch smallmouth the next day. However, a smallmouth that was around 16 inches missed a picture-taking opportunity when the line snapped just as I was about ready to "lip" the fish. The fish put up a good tussle and had briefly burrowed into the rocky bottom, and the line frayed at the knot. "Snap!" and the fish was gone.

First fish of the weekend, a 12-inch smallmouth bass.

I also had a few more misses Saturday, but those fish merely unhooked themselves.

The Whopper Plopper yielded a couple blowups (which I think was the same fish) Saturday at dusk. My gut told me topwaters would be killing it since the river was so low and clear, but the fish thought otherwise.

Next up is our annual roadtrip with a date set again with RainyDaze Guide Service on Rainy Lake bordering Minnesota and Canada. We fished with them first in 2019 and then again in 2021. They have been posting pictures on their Facebook page of beast walleye and northern pike, so hopefully there are some left when we get there!

Bonus content:

Nah, you guys can have that spot.

Mr. Whiskers was rewarded as dinner.

Sunrise on the Potomac.

Smallmouth bass free their oppressor (me) on the 4th of July

Sunrise on the Potomac River.

The Potomac River smallmouth bass declared their freedom today in the pursuit of life, liberty and crayfish!

Or something like that. 

Karen and I camped overnight at 15 Mile Creek Campground on the historic C&O Canal, and I hit the river around 6:15 a.m. this morning hoping to escape the oppressive humidity.

The sun was still trying to peak over the hills, and clouds would keep it mostly at bay for awhile.

First cast with a Heddon Super Spook (the middle brother between the Zara Puppy and Zara Spook) was greeted with a typical topwater blowup! That left the lure floating on the surface. I tried a couple more casts and couldn't get the fish -- any fish -- to bite.

I switched to my other rod with a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper and was zeroing in on "slick" water behind some barely protruding rocks. After five or so casts, there was ever-so-slight resistance on the other end. Either the lure bumped a rock or it was fish. I pulled back on the rod, and the resistance stayed there as I kept reeling.

Sometimes smallmouth hit subtly, and I don't think they realize they are hooked. They swim in the direction you're reeling (sometimes this could also be a stick!).

Until they realize the trickery. In this instance, I cast upstream, got the hit, this fish got a bit downstream from me then started fighting. It swam back upstream, made a couple jumps -- and looked to be about a 12-inch smallmouth -- before freeing itself from the hook.

This same scenario happened three more times over the next 90 minutes. Hook a fish after a light bite, reel frantically until the fish suspected something was up, a couple jumps, and then the fish was gone.

FOUR TIMES I had fish on, could identify the species and roughly the size after they breeched the water, and FOUR TIMES they declared their freedom. I couldn't even oppress them for a few seconds for a picture.

Bonus content: The trouble with trebles

I'll make this a two-parter going back a couple weeks ago just so I can post a picture of an actual fish. This was from the Little Patuxent and was the only fish I caught on a Sunday morning the day after autocrossing my Camaro.

The trouble with trebles. Even with removing the trailing treble hook
on a topwater lure, releasing a tiny smallmouth bass was a challenge.

I've mentioned removing the trailing trebles on "stick" lures because smallmouth bass always seem to get part of the leading treble hooked in the corner of their mouths. 

Not this little one. All three hooks from the front treble were in its tiny mouth. I struggled for about 45 seconds trying to get the treble free -- pushing the hooks further in its mouth, but it was so small there wasn't any room. 

I dropped the fish back in the water, and let it swim for a few seconds. Pulled it back up, and the part of the treble that was in its bottom lip was free! The other two parts of the treble were in its upper lip, but they were easy to remove now.

Fishing is like a box of chocolates and this weekend I found good chocolates

The Reaction Innovations Little Dippers
caught some fish, but would anything else entice
chocolate bass?

Another productive overnight stay on the Potomac River catching 10 smallmouth bass -- same tally as last time. Compared to then, the water level was a little lower and clearer. The weather hasn't reached the typical summertime heat, though, as I think we've only had a couple days near 90 and not much rain. It was about 75 degrees last night and cool temps this morning.

This time of year, it's hard for me to get a feel for how productive fishing will be. Since I'm not fishing every weekend at the same spot, it's like as Forest Gump would say, "Like a box of chocolates." Sometimes you get that fudge covered in milk chocolate. Sometimes you get that chocolate with that unidentifiable gooey mess inside that you spit up and toss in the trash.

Fortunately, I've had the good chocolates the last couple times on the Potomac River. Three weeks ago, it was catching 10 fish while camping overnight. And this weekend, it was again catching 10 chocolate-colored fish on another camping trip.

The only differences were at sundown last time, the fish weren't as active, but the next morning they heard it was fish-o'clock and went on a feeding spree. Last night as the sun getting real low, the fish were active chasing startled baitfish, but this morning there was almost zero activity. Weird how that works out.

I caught eight last night and had numerous other hits and near misses. Once again the Reaction Innovations Little Dipper was the weapon of choice. These aren't quite as lazy as tossing a bobber with a worm underneath, but they are close. Cast the rubbery lure out, real in steadily, wait for fish to bite. I also had some luck on a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm, but the bottom of the river had too many fraggly rocks, so they were getting hung up a lot.

Last fish from last night. Only about
12 inches but it punched above its weight class.
I really thought a 15- or 16-inch fish was
tugging on the other line.

With the TRD worms snagging and the sun tucking behind the West Virginia trees, I switched over to a Heddon Zara Puppy to pair with Little Dippers ("Dippers" is plural because I used many after they got battered easily) on my other rod. The Zara Puppy is more of a finesse topwater lure -- it has to be worked jerking the rod so the cigar-shaped lure does the "walk the dog" motion like its famous relative the Zara Spook. My technique is to jerk it a few times and pause. Jerk-jerk-jerk, pause. The pause seems to prod smallmouth bass to strike.

The fish were hugging really shallow water -- most were found wading further out in the river flinging lures toward shore. 

At one point, I saw baitfish breaching the surface fleeing from something. I made some casts with a swimbait and Zara Puppy and had some attacks but nothing hooked on. After things calmed down, I waded over to that area and was standing in ankle-deep water.

Two smallmouth snapped on the Zara Puppy had no business trying to eat something that size. Both fish might have measured six inches. I guess my expert presentation enticed them to bite more than they could chew -- ha ha!

Seriously, dude, what are you doing?

This morning, I didn't see as much activity from baitfish as last night, even though my "fish watch" indicated it was time for fish. 

I kept scanning in all directions looking for surface activity, but baitfish and other surface disturbances were virtually non existent. I managed to catch one 10-inchish smallmouth, and after breakfast fished behind the campground. Instead of the Zara Puppy, I switched to another topwater lure, a River2Sea Whopper Plopper. It has zero finesse compared to the Zara Puppy. It's bigger and louder with a rotating tail that bubbles and churns the surface. The Whopper Plopper hits the surface and chugs through the water like that obnoxious friend you really didn't want to invite to your quiet Sunday brunch party.

One smallmouth was enticed by the Whopper Plopper's ruckus but it didn't hit with an explosive strike. The fish barely slurped the lure, and if I wasn't watching, I might have thought the lure bumped a stick or a rock and missed setting the hook. It was like the fish was trying to steal something it shouldn't have. But I could tell it wasn't a dink. I got the fish within lipping range, and it was the biggest of the weekend -- about 14 inches.

The "big fish" from the weekend, about
14 inches. Notice the Whopper Plopper
doesn't have OEM treble hooks.

Whopper Ploppers are equipped with treble hooks out of the box, but if you'll notice in the picture, I've replaced them with single hooks. The OEM treble hooks are big and are a pain when trying to fish them out of small mouths (see what I did there). This was really my first experiment seeing if it would actually work, and that fish didn't shake the hook.

I've even removed the trailing trebles on a lot of my stick lures. The front hook is almost always in a corner jaw while the trailing treble flails around. More likely to get caught in a finger or the fish's eye.

Usually a finger.

Some bonus coverage, releasing the 14-inch smallmouth.

Miscellaneous pics:

Swooped into a neighboring campsite
this morning ... hawk or juvenile bald eagle?

Botched attempt to video releasing a smallmouth
bass, but you can see it toward the center-right.

.
As always don't forget to read how I chronicle my misadventures autocrossing my 1982 LS-swapped Chevy Camaro.

What's the time? It's time to catch fish!

My Casio "fish watch" had two fish icons lit,
indicating it was time to catch smallmouth.

Whether by dumb luck or actually utilizing experience, I stumbled across smallmouth bass in a frenzy this morning where I induced seven fish to bite lures in about 30 minutes after Karen and I camped along the Potomac River.

Air temp was brisk after I rolled out the tent -- around 55 and climbing -- and water temp was 65 degrees. Overcast skies. 

After starting off the morning wading a secret spot on the river where I caught a 20-inch smallmouth last year (only caught one dink at the same location this morning), I moved down off a point that created a seam between fast and slow water. I cast a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper a couple feet into the faster water and slowly reeled as the swimbait drifted into the slower section. And nabbed a smallmouth (another dink) just as it crossed the seam.

I switched rods to one with a Heddon Zara Puppy tied on, cast to about the same area, and the lure disappeared in a small whirlpool of disturbance! Another hungry smallmouth, but this one seemed a little bigger. The fish submitted and sure enough, it was about about 14 inches.

The 14-inch smallmouth that nailed the Zara Puppy.
And my blood on my thumb after the fish weaponized the
treble hook to stab me.

While holding the fish and fumbling for my camera, four or five baitfish jumped within a couple feet of me. The spooked baitfish, I think, were trying to evade another smallmouth that was trailing the one I caught (fairly common for them to chase a hooked fish either to snatch whatever "food" is in their mouth or to say, "Hey man, don't worry, everything is going to be alright.").

Figuring there was at least one more smallmouth bass on the prowl, I snapped a picture of my fish, released it and cast the topwater lure again. Another fish attacked but used the Zara Puppy like an orca uses a beach ball at Sea World. The fish nosed the lure through the air a couple times but didn't actually chomp it.

The action went off and on for about 10 minutes with swimbaits (nothing else with the topwater lure), and I landed two more fish -- the tally was up to five at that point.

Then there was a lull for a little while, but it picked up again about 10 minutes later after shuffling a few feet downriver along that seam of fast/slow water. Again casting barely into the fast water and "drifting" the lure across to the sluggish water, I caught three more smallmouth bass -- one was in the 13-inch range, and the other two were dinks. I had another fish on that felt really good, but it freed itself before I could get a look at it.

The Reaction Innovations Little Dippers are really lively and oscillate wildly even drifting through current.

Then the frenzy was officially over -- no more fish were enticed after that.

I wandered back down the C&O tow path to our campsite, and Karen and I had a breakfast of eggs and sausage.

Itching to try again, I waded in the river behind our campsite. I caught a 12-inch smallmouth last night on a Little Dipper, and this area usually yields fish anyway. Peppering the water with casts even up past the last site on the campground, nothing was interested. I returned to the area directly behind our site, cast a Little Dipper and got smallmouth No. 9 for the day. This one was about 12 inches, and I pulled it out of the water just as Karen was coming down the bank with her fishing rods.

Karen gets a picture of me just
after landing a 12-inch smallmouth
behind our camp site.

A few casts later, No. 10 found its way to the end of my line. Nothing else after that, and Karen didn't catch anything (although she caught four smallmouth yesterday). I'm pretty sure it was my best day on the Potomac since 2016 when trying "Ned Rig" Z-Man Finesse TRD worms for the first time. 

That made it ten this morning plus one last night. 

The casualties of war: The tattered Little Dippers.
Notice two that are missing tails.

The spoils of war: A knife, a rod holder and
a hammer. No doubt from catfishers because
they leave EVERYTHING behind.

Also, for others fishing for smallmouth on the Potomac, don't forget to fill out the Maryland DNR survey specific to the river and smallmouth bass. DNR also has a general fisheries survey.

The only fish from yesterday -- a smallmouth bass
about 12 inches -- just before being released.
Picture taken with my Olympus Tough TG-6
submerged.

Karen had spotted these dragon flies emerging
like cicadas from their shells.

Two-foot long rainbows are actually pretty big

 

First fish of the year, a monster rainbow trout!

I was not expecting my first fishing trip of the year involving a monster rainbow trout, but here we are.

I decided to hit the Little Patuxent River this morning in the usual stretch and try out Bass Pro Shops Mean-Eye Swimmers (2-1/4") for the first time as well as a new two-piece Daiwa Tatula XT spinning rod (maybe the best $100 rod on the market).

First time using BPS Mean-Eye Swimmers.

As I was wandering down the river, a little movement to my right near the water caught my eye. It was a large, dark animal that I thought for a split second was a dog. As I turned my head to get a better look, the creature ambled down to the water, and I could clearly see a flat tail -- a beaver! I saw what I am sure was a mink a few years ago on the Little Patuxent, but never a beaver.

The black blob in the center is the beaver paddling
away to mess around at Metzger's Field

I made a stop upriver from my usual hot spot and made some casts with the Mean Eye Swimmer. It has a more subtle action compared to the Reaction Innovations Little Dipper I usually use for swimbaits. Just the rear tail paddled in the water as opposed to the oscillations Little Dippers produce.

On the fifth or sixth cast, I tossed the Mean Eye (shad pattern) near a rock protruding from the surface, turned the handle on the reel two or three times and WHAM! Wake me up before you go go, a big fish was on! It thrashed to the surface, and I could tell it was too long to be a smallmouth bass. Maybe a carp?

As I reeled in some more and the fish again came to the surface, I saw the horizontal pink band running down the fish's side -- a rainbow trout! This wasn't a little dink; this fish was BIG.

I was standing on the river bank about two to three feet above the water and came to a realization -- what was I going to do? This fish was probably five pounds, and I couldn't just heave it from the water. So I slid down the bank into the water. I didn't have a net, and the trout was a little too big to scoop with one hand while holding my rod in the other.

I held the rod tip up so the fish's head was out of the water, took a picture, then removed the swimbait -- thankfully it wasn't deeply embedded in the top of its mouth. The fish then rolled belly up, so I grabbed the fish's tail and turned it over. After pulling and pushing the fish a few times to get water flowing through the gills, I released my grip, and the trout slowly swam away.

I was stoked/shocked/whatever for about five minutes just trying to process what happened. I didn't measure the fish but eye-balled it with the Daiwa rod next to it as I was trying to revive it. When I got home, I pulled out a tape measurer -- the trout was 24 inches at least. Easily the biggest fish I'd caught on this river eclipsing the 16-inch smallmouth from five years ago.

This trout likely didn't grow this size in the Little Patuxent. When Maryland DNR stocks trout around the state early in the year, they release trout in varying sizes with a few trophy sized fish in the mix. So this rainbow likely grew up in a hatchery before being released to the wild. It feels a little like cheating -- I'd rather catch another 16-inch smallmouth again from its legit home turf.

After colleting myself, I moved down through a couple more spots. Finally caught a run-of-the-mill Little Patuxent smallmouth on the same Mean Eye swimbait that tricked the trout. A few casts later, had another one hooked -- likely in the 10- to 12-inch range -- that clamped the lure just as it hit the water.  Then it did an SDR (short distance release) just before I could pull it out of the river. Both smallmouth were in the same general area, tailwaters behind a rather fast flow through a rocky section.

Now that's more like it -- a cookie cutter smallmouth.

My other rod had a Heddon Zara Puppy tied on, and it wasn't getting any action.

Nothing other than a couple nibbles on the Mean Eyes before I donated them to the river. Switched over to the usual Reaction Innovations Little Dipper and had a couple sniffs at that, but I think they were timid sunfish.

The Mean Eyes are $3.50, so it sucks to lose them, as opposed to a Little Dipper swimbait, which comes in a pack of 10 for $7 or so. The Mean Eyes are a little more durable plastic, though, so as long as you don't snag them, they'd last longer than a Little Dipper. They each behave differently, so it's almost an apples-to-oranges comparison anyway.

The Daiwa Tatula XT rod seemed to do the trick. It's fairly light and had good sensitivity through the rod as the swimbaits skimmed rocks or the river bottom. Or hooked fish! Definitely a bargain at $99 (and I used a $25 gift card from Susquehanna Fishing Tackle that Karen got me for Christmas, so the rod was even less).

In addition to the beaver, I also saw three separate hatchling turtles -- that appeared to be snappers based on their long tails and knobby shells -- swimming in the water. I had never seen turtles in the Little Patuxent either.

Little Little Patuxent turtle.