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.

Ferris Bueller's Day Of Dinks

BFOD -- Big Fish of the Day! An 11" 
smallmouth bass!  OK, maybe it was 10.5 inches.
Or 10.  But it was HUGE!

I haven't been fishing much the last year or so because I'm trying to get my autocross Camaro running.  It actually runs and makes #Merica noises but hasn't been reliable, even failing while trying to load it on the trailer the Friday night before an autocross. Even routine maintenance on the tow vehicle has been a chore.  Work the past couple of months has been a huge grind stapled to a desk answering phones, so like Ferris Bueller, since life moves pretty fast, I took a "sick" day for fishing this Friday morning.  No phones.  No people.  No stupid cars.

FFOD: First fish of the day, a surprise
largemouth bass.  This seems to be
the ideal size on the little Maryland 
rivers -- nothing over 10 inches.

Weighing the options, I decided on the Patapsco River, which I haven't fished in [searches blog] five years.  Parking in this area on the weekend is usually sketchy, but since it was a Friday, I was hoping it wouldn't be a problem.

Sure enough, easy pickings.  And of course nobody else was fishing.  

It looked to be ideal topwater time, but the trusty Zara Puppy didn't get much attention at all today.  The other trusty lure -- Reaction Innovations Little Dipper*-- had the little smallies swing batter batter batter swing.  

The water was really clear and low.  I basically waded up the middle of the river casting to spots close to shore on both sides.  A protruding rock here, shaded area from over-hanging trees there, some fast ripples.  Fish to the left of me, fish to the right, here I am stuck in the middle.

One previous time I was in this section [searches blog, can't find a writeup], I had encounters with some meaty smallmouth, but not this time.  I landed six smallmouth bass and one largemouth, and they were all of the dink variety.  Really soft bite on the swimbait.  One smallmouth might have been 11 inches.  Maybe.  Didn't even see any big fish but a lot of small bass were cruising the water, and had three or four fish that got off before pulling them out of the water..

I'm pretty sure I haven't fished here since at least the last flood that devastated the area and since the Bloede Dam was removed, so I'm not sure if the smallmouth population is in a recovery mode or what.  The terrain seemed a lot like the Middle Patuxent River -- flat water and not many hiding areas -- so maybe it is what it is.

* Seriously, follow this link, choose whatever of the 31 flavors of swimbaits you like and fish them.

Skinny river with Little Dippers

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

Fished a section of river that I had not fished before.

In a river that I haven't had much luck at all before, either.

And I managed to catch six smallmouth bass in about two hours.

A few weeks ago, I "discovered" the Avalon Park section of the Patapsco River.  This area is probably the closest smallmouth bass habitat near my house, but I only found it after poking around on Google Earth.  Or maybe I overlooked it before because it was a "park" with ample parking, picnic tables and shelters, and I figured it would be over-fished.

It turned out a lot better than I figured.  Twenty minutes in, I got the first smallmouth -- around 12 inches -- on a Z-Man Finesse TRD Worm.  But things went cold after that, despite the 70-degree weather and cloud-less skies.  Just nothing on the TRD worm or the no-name spinnerbait.  Tried a few different spots and still nothing.

Then after one particular spot without anything, I tied on a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper, and on the second cast, a fish clamped on as soon as the lure hit the water.  A 13-inch smallmouth.  Then another a few casts later.  And another.  Five fish total -- one more in the 12-inch range -- and a few that got off in about 30 minutes.

There were indeed quite a few people fishing, but none of them seemed to be catching.  Tossing bobbers or doing whatever, maybe I'm just smarter than them now -- ha ha!  Seriously, it was satisfying to show up in a new-to-me area -- that had a lot of evidence of fishing pressure -- and catch decent smallmouth.

Also, I spotted what looked like snakeheads cruising the river in one section.  They're supposed to be all over the place from the lower Potomac to all the way up to the lower Susquehanna, but I haven't seen one.  And they are supposed to be ultra-aggressive, but these fish paid no mind to the lures I was throwing.  I would really like to catch one because they are supposed to be really tasty.

I sent Maryland DNR a message through Facebook wondering if I did indeed see a snakehead (they look really similar to bowfin), and this was their response:

"A biologist familiar with the current distribution of snakehead in Maryland said they have been caught at Savage Mill (Patuxent) and sections of the Patapsco as well. he wouldn’t be surprised if some were seen in the Avalon area, it’s possible.  Thank you."

The angriest smallmouth

First smallmouth of the day was really hungry.

Hit the Middle Patuxent again today, and it marked the third straight trip here catching a legal-size smallmouth bass, which is always good to find in a little skinny river that doesn't have much fishing pressure.  And that barely legal smallmouth thought it was much bigger!

I decided to try the same spot as Tuesday but ventured downriver past the bridge where I parked.  There are a few nice pools within the first 50 yards but after that it runs straight and feature-less -- a lot like what makes the Patapsco River above Daniels Dam so unappealing.

We had a cold front move in, and temps were in the low 70s.  Plus the sky was overcast, so it was a little different than Tuesday.

My game plan was to try the reliable Z-Man TRD Finesse Worm but -- to change things up a bit -- a white spinnerbait on my other rod.  If you remember my post from last month's trip to the Susquehanna, I've never had much luck with spinnerbaits.  But that day, I caught a handful when we ended the trip on the Juniata River.

The first fish of the day was a small failfish that put up a fight like a wet sock.  Actually, a wet sock might put up a better fight.  Ugh, hate catching these things.

First smallmouth of the day, on a spinnerbait.

While that fish was caught on a Z-Man worm, I was actually getting some attention with the spinnerbait.  Lots of little fish giving chase and taking swipes at it -- probably sunfish.  Finally, I got a smallmouth to clamp on -- a decent fish  about 11.5 inches.  It must have been hungry because there was a small fish in its mouth already (picture at top).

This was caught below the bridge as I had started to make my way back upriver.  Past the bridge, the fishing was more of the same with lots of little fish (probably not smallmouth) interested in the spinnerbait but nothing clamping on.  Then finally got one that was around 10 inches.

A little while later I caught another smallmouth in the funniest way.  I cast a Z-Man worm upriver, but it sailed through an overhanging tree branch -- but the fishing line stayed hung up in the tree.  The worm was suspended in midair about two feet above the water, so I let out some line, and the lure slowly descended to the surface.  And just as it entered the water, a fish took it!  It was like topwater worm fishing, if there is a thing.  I yanked the rod back, and the line came out of the tree, but the fish was still hooked.  It wasn't a big fish, but at least it was a smallmouth.

I fished this area for 20 minutes -- shaking my head and laughing the whole time at the fish that took the "topwater worm" -- and kept getting hits and misses but couldn't land a thing.

I explored upriver further than I went on Tuesday.  Lots of fast water but not many areas that looked like they held fish.  The bottom was really shallow and sandy -- but I'm thinking these areas might be better suited for the summer when it seems like the bass are looking for more turbulent water since the temperatures are higher.

I had been out for a couple hours at this point and started heading back to my point of entry. You know, low on water, not wanting to catch dysentery.

I stopped at the place I caught the third smallmouth and threw a Hubs Chub topwater lure.  No bass but I did catch a decent-sized redbreast sunfish.  It actually hit the Hubs Chub pretty hard, unlike most sunfish which timidly strike topwater stuff.

The angriest 12-inch smallmouth EVAR!

Finally I stopped at the pool where I caught the first smallmouth -- that was 12 inches -- on Tuesday.  Some interest in the Hubs Chub but nothing clamping on.  And then I snagged the Z-Man worm (orange color, I think it's "green pumpkin orange") on the bottom.  But it wasn't a snag, it was a fish.  It came to the surface pretty quickly -- it was a smallmouth bass, but it wasn't very big.

But this fish didn't know it wasn't very big.

After a brief battle where the fish managed to get into current and work against me, I landed it -- measured right at 12 inches.  It has to be the hardest-fighting 12-inch smallmouth I've ever caught.  If I didn't see the fish right after hooking into it, I would have thought a bigger fish was fighting on the other end of the line.

That made it six fish for the afternoon with four of them being smallmouth bass.  

Apex predators!

Back to the Patapsco River, and I don't know why.  Easy access?  Short drive?  Although this was The Best Trip Evar! on the Patapsco.  Two redbreast sunfish and a six-inch smallmouth.

The river below Daniels Dam looks pretty "fishy" but I didn't have much luck there last year.  This time I ventured well upriver from Daniels Dam.  The river just above the dam is low but with a flat, sandy bottom -- not a lot of rocky areas for smallmouth to hang out.  But as you get further up the trail from the dam, it looks a little better.

A nice "fishy" spot on the Patapsco River.

Redbreast sunfish.

I tried the Z-Man Ned Rig worm and a blue/silver Rebel Pop-R and had a lot of interest from the apex predators in the river.  Unfortunately, the apex predators are redbreast sunfish.  It would be nice if they were bigger.  Landed two sunfish -- one each on the worm and Pop-R -- and had four or five hooked up but they set themselves free.  It is kind of funny seeing small sunfish attack a 2-1/2" topwater lure.

A small smallmouth bass did manage to get hooked on the same worm pictures to the right with the sunfish, but it wasn't even decent size for the Little Patuxent River.

Maybe I'll try the river again, but it seems like a lot of effort with not a lot of fish when I can hit the Little Patuxent River and have better odds at catching fish, especially smallmouth.  The Maryland DNR web site says there is a decent population of smallmouth bass in the river, but I haven't come across many.

Back to the Little Patuxent

I've had one trip to the Patapsco River and another to the Juniata River in the past month and didn't catch a thing.  Nothing.  Lots of action from "nibblers," my word for small sunfish.  On worms and jigs, they grab the end of the lure but not the hook and take off with it.  And then drop it or it comes out of their mouth when I set the hook.

On Wednesday I decided to hit the Little Patuxent River behind Walking Fish Pond in Crofton.  This is the same area I went to at the end of May and caught a 15-inch smallmouth, catfish and failfish on a Rapala Shadow Rap, but it's the first time I had been back.  The river looked pretty much the same although a couple of downed trees -- where I had a few strikes from ambushing smallmouth -- had been washed away.

After going to Bass Pro Shops and listening to a guy talk about smallmouth at the usual 11 a.m. feeding time in their tank, I picked up a pack of pumpkin pepper chartreuse tubes and decided to try them.  Lots of action on them, but again, mostly from nibblers.  I had one nibbler chase it all the way as I reeled it in, grab it right at my feet (wading in about two feet of water) and try to take off with it.  Too funny.

Down river from "rip rap."

After a couple hours in various spots and not catching anything -- nothing on the tube, and nothing on various straight worms -- I went back upriver to where I started and waded out to a sandbar.  Made some casts and got nibblers.  I decided to switch to the Berkley Gulp! worms I had good success with last month on the Potomac below Dam 4. 

This section of the river definitely feels "fishy."  Fast flowing water over rip-rap, a nice pool of water after that and into downed trees.  I'm really surprised I didn't light things up.  But anyway ...

After a couple casts, I was surprised by an actual hit that didn't feel like a nibbler.  Set the hook and started reeling the fish in, and it jumped!  The sun was in my eyes and I couldn't tell what it was.  Probably a smallmouth?  Another jump!  And when I finally got the fish at my feet ... it was a smallmouth!  Albeit the high end of an "8-10" fish.  But, hey, it was my first fish in three weeks.

A smallmouth on the high end of the "8-10" scale.

I fished a little while longer but didn't get anything else.

I don't want to jinx anything and have bad weather roll in, but Karen and I are going some place next weekend outside of Maryland that has big smallmouth but is perhaps known more for walleye.  Hopefully bad/marginal weather stays away!

Double rivers

Time for my first reel-time, same day post! I wish it was a good one, but it's not.  Karen and I decided to go camping Saturday on the Potomac all the way up at the Paw Paw Campground, which was even further than Fifteenmile Creek.  But we didn't make it there because when I went to fill up the Lightning with gas, I noticed a sound coming from the right-front wheel. I checked it out when I got home and found the rotor was cracked and the pads were down to the backing plates.  We could have taken her Camaro but wouldn't have been able to get the bikes in the back with all the camping stuff.  Now that I was spoiled with the mountain bike, I didn't feel like going all the way up there not knowing the lay of the land in that area of the Potomac.

I decided to fish the Patapsco River near Daniels Dam on Sunday.  I had tried there in March but the river seemed too high and it didn't look like there was much cover (rocks, trees) for the fish.  Man, I should have remembered that.  Now the water was down and was much clearer.  Nearly everywhere the river looked to only be a couple feet deep at best with a flat sandy bottom.  I walked at least a mile upriver hoping for something that looked decent, but it was mainly a flat, barren river bottom. I found a couple small pools with no success.  The biggest drawback is that are well-worn trails close to the bank of the river, so I have a feeling it sees heavy fishing pressure.

The area below the dam looks good but there wasn't shore access past maybe 100 yards below the dam.

After an hour and a half, I decided to call it quits and head down to the Little Patuxent.  Instead of the usual spot downriver from the Guilford Road parking area, I went upriver a little ways.  There is lots of vegetation, so the water isn't as accessible as it is below the parking area.  But I made my way through and found a few "fishy" spots, but not a lot of fish.  I had one fish hooked on a Zara Puppy but didn't land it.  It looked like a typical Little Patuxent 10-inch or smaller smallmouth.

Then I finally caught a 10-inch smallmouth on the silver Shadow Rap.  And finally got the fish with people watching -- a mom and dad with their three kids were on the other side of the river.  It always seems like people ask, "Have you caught anything?" when getting skunked!  Too bad the smallmouth didn't make a nice show of it leaping out of the water.

May 1 to 10 recaps

I started this blog in June but had been keeping sort of a journal on my fishing expeditions since the early part of the year.  These are my fishing experiences from May 1 through 10.

May 1: South/North Branch of the Patapsco River. I went here a few weeks ago looking for smallmouth, and all I saw were trout.  All I had were tube baits so this time I brought a few Rooster Tails.  I walked from the parking area on Marriottsville Road all the way down to where the South Branch met up with the main Patapasco River.  Expecting an untouched fishing frenzy, I saw pretty much the same thing the whole way down -- some fast moving water, shallow pools.  I was hoping for smallmouth but all this looked like was trout waters.

There was a pool right where the two branches met that was really slow moving with some big rocks under the water, and I cast the yellow Rooster Tail out.  I had a couple hits and follows by small panfish.  I also had a follow from what looked like it might have been a yellow perch.  The water was fairly murky so I couldn't tell for sure.

I moved up the South Branch and found a nice "trout" section.  Fast moving water past a big rock protruding from the surface that created a small pocket of slow water.  My first cast, I landed a nice 12" rainbow trout!  

I'm talking about rainbows. I hate those friggin' things. You'll just be sitting there, minding your own business, and they'll come marching in, and crawl up your leg, and start biting the inside of your ass, and you'll be all like, "Hey. Get out of my ass you stupid rainbows."

But that was pretty much it.  The rest of the way back up river, I stopped and would get some hits but didn't land anything.  I did catch a smallmouth, around 8", so at least they are here.  But are there bigger ones?

I tried another patch of slow moving water just before the small waterfall where I saw a bunch of trout my last time here.  Again I saw a bunch of trout just lurking near the bottom, but nothing was really interested in the Rooster Tail or even the Confidence Baits Mini Tube.  Some follows from small panfish, a couple trout eye-balled the lures, but nothing bit.

I'm not sure what to think of this area.  There are fish but there's ample parking nearby so I think it might be over-fished or at least the fish have a high IQ and don't bite on everything.

May 2: Little Patuxent River.  Same section I went to last week but not as much luck.  I caught two smallmouth -- 8- and 10-inches -- and two small panfish, everything on a yellow, 1/8-inch Rooster Tail.  I tried a dark Confidence Bait "Little Tube" for a bit and didn't get anything, not even a nibble.  So then I tied on a small Rebel crankbait in a crayfish pattern and hooked one fish but he got off, then had two more strikes that I could see.  Looked to be bass but nothing big.

So there ARE smallmouth in this area but nothing appears to be big.  Maybe there are some nice ones ... somewhere.

A fallfish?  More like a failfish.

May 3: Antietam Creek.  I tried Antietam Creek from the Route 34 bridge down to the famous Burnside Bridge.  A lot of steep banks and not many places to cast from the bank.  I tried tube baits and a Zara Puppy with nothing.  After walking down on one side and walking back up the other side, I tied on a yellow 1/8-ounce Rooster Tail in one fast section by the bridge.  On my second cast, I hooked something that felt pretty sizable!  A trout?  A smallmouth?  Nope.  A carp-like fallfish, probably 14".  I took a picture, unhooked it and tossed it back in the creek.

After 45-minute ordeal trying to find gas, I decided to try the hot spot from a couple weeks ago on Antietam Creek.  The water was 6 to 8 inches higher and I didn't even get a nibble.  Weird how a small change in water level changes things entirely.

May 8: Little Patuxent River.  Just hit this area for about 45 minutes and caught a 12-inch smallmouth and a 6-inch beast of a smallmouth.  Both on about 2.5-inch Rebel crankbait in a crawfish pattern.  

There is a little pool with very slow moving water and a bunch of big rocks -- maybe four feet deep -- that I got some near misses the last time I was here.  I tried it again and had two near misses on one cast.  Nothing big but still gives me hope there are some bigger smallmouth lurking below.

May 9: Patapsco River.  Tried a section by Woodstock Road.  I hiked up river about a half mile (probably less ... it always seems like you travel further when you're climbing over rocks) and found a section that really looked promising.  Fast section of exposed rocks that led into some slow pools.  And I didn't catch anything.  I probably fished there for 45 minutes to an hour moving down 10 to 15 feet at a time.  Still nothing.  I did catch a little sub-8-inch smallmouth a little later, but so far I'm not impressed at all by any branch of the Patapsco.

May 10: Little Patuxent River.  Fished the usual section but decided to try some topwater, a Rapala Skitter Pop in a frog pattern.  First cast in a small pool and got a rise from something.  Probably just a nibbler.  I didn't catch anything, though, in this section that always looks promising, and I've always seen fish.  Just none have actually clamped down on a lure.

I did end up catching a 10-inch smallmouth on the Skitter Pop, then a bluegill, a small smallmouth and finally a failfish (on a Rooster Tail after I snagged the Skitter Pop on the other side of the river).  So this little river in the heart of Columbia where the section I fish goes through an industrial park, has been the best fishing I've had this year.  Well, after the first weekend on Antietam.