Welcome back smallmouth

A monster 12-inch Potomac smallmouth bass!

Yeah it's been awhile. I haven't posted much here mainly because I've been trying to create content for this other blog. That and I haven't caught a single fish this year. I've been out three or four times and haven't landed a single thing. A couple times, I didn't even get a bite.

Plus the weather hasn't been cooperating on days I wanted to hit a river. Either the water was too high due to rain, or the temperature was too hot.

Finally this weekend, that all changed.

Karen and I camped at our go-to spot on the Potomac River (although not at the go-to camp site -- we settled for the one next to it).

Friday night fishing for a couple hours, I caught three smallmouth with the biggest being about 12 inches. Ned Rigs (TRD Finesse Worms) and Reaction Innovations Little Dippers worked tossing them in current.

First fish of 2025, a dink smallmouth. But it did all the smallmouth things -- jumping and getting into the current pretending it was a bigger fish.

The river was about two feet higher than normal, which wasn't terrible. This area of the river has what I call "trenches" that are good ambush spots. This time of year, I don't think the smallmouth are holed up in one area -- I think they travel around to find cooler water and baitfish.

Anyway, every fish did the typical smallmouth things -- jumping like an ICBM missile trying to get free. I had one really hard hit on a Little Dipper Friday night that felt like a really good fish, but I didn't even see it. It smashed the swimbait about 10 feet in front of me, tugged hard twice when I pulled back on the rod, and then it was gone. It was probably a catfish.

First fish from Saturday morning.

Here's a video releasing a couple of them. They disappear with a quickness!

Sweaty smallmouth: Beating the heat on the Potomac

This rocky area was teeming with life. Crayfish, clams and toe-nibbling baitfish.

On a rare two-night camping trip along the Potomac River over the weekend, I caught five smallmouth bass on a Zoom Swimmin Super Fluke Jr., and one on a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm. I did not land a single fish on a topwater lure despite it seeming like ideal topwater conditions.

So what am I absolutely tying on a rod on my next river fishing adventure?

A topwater lure!

Despite the miserably hot weather, Karen and I camped over the weekend along the Potomac River at one of the Chesapeake and Ohio National Historical Park sites. I fished for eight to nine hours over that time, and Karen even tossed a line in the river for a few hours.

The first fish of the weekend caught on a Z-Man worm.

There was about an hour on Saturday morning where the smallmouth bass were in a frenzy over the ol' Heddon Zara Puppy. Two fish hooked and at least eight blowups.

But I didn't land a single fish. Billy Westmoreland titled his book on smallmouth bass "Them Ol' Brown Fish." I've called them the Roy Jones Jr. of fish. I've also called them the Houdini fish because they can magically escape tough situations.

It's frustrating to a point but still topwater action is still heart stopping and adrenaline pumping all at the same time!

The best stretch of actually catching fish was Saturday afternoon. I figured the fish might feel like I felt and wanted to hang out in the shade. So I waded near the bank and cast toward the edge of the shadows of the trees. The Super Fluke Jr. was the ticket -- landing four fish, albeit only one was in the 12-inch range.

First fish from Saturday after the morning topwater frenzy.

Sunday morning, hoping to duplicate the feeling from the morning before, only one fish sniffed the Zara Puppy, and I managed to land one leaping 10-incher on the Zoom swimbait.

It's weird how that works. The topwater lure brings the most excitement, and the other fish I actually caught are almost forgettable.

It was mostly sunny all weekend with a few patches of puffy clouds. Temps were 95-plus, and water was a tick over 80 degrees.

Next up is likely fishing again with Rainydaze Guide Service. I might sneak in something locally between now and then. But the sister site will have more updates with autocrosses over the next three weekends, punctuated by the UMI Autocross Challenge July 25 to 27.

Sunset on the Potomac River.

The campfire looked like the eyes of a monster trying to rise from the ground.

Karen's first fish from the weekend, caught on a Whopper Plopper.

This was clinging to my hat on Saturday morning -- a grapevine beetle. I named it Paul. It clung to the hat after I put it on and then fled somewhere along the line.

This however wasn't allowed to flee. It's an invasive spotted lantern fly, and we killed a dozen or so this weekend.

No shutout on Super Bowl Sunday!

Smallmouth No. 2 for 2024 caught on a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm.

Karen and I went camping for her birthday this weekend, and I managed to catch one smallmouth bass -- about 12 inches. Got it this morning just behind our campsite on a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm bouncing it on the bottom.

Skies were overcast, and it in fact started to rain lightly before I caught the fish. The water temp was around 50, and the Shepardstown gauge was just under four feet.

I tried a swimbait, too, with no luck. I think I might have had a sunfish nibble, so other than that, the smallmouth bass was the only action of the day.

I fished a little last night but we got to the campground just after the sun had gone down. I can barely see anything in daylight, so I only fished for 10 to 15 minutes.

Looking back on my blog posts (other than for the tens of viewers, I write stuff so I can remember shit), the earliest smallmouth bass I've caught looks like Feb. 25 back in 2017. And this year, I've already caught two. The smallmouth action usually doesn't start until late March.

Here's a short video I captured using my Olympus Tough TG-6 while releasing the fish:

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.

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.