A nice morning drive to go fishing

The confluence of the Middle Patuxent and Little Patuxent Rivers.

This morning was a fishing trip a little closer to home -- the Little Patuxent River.  I had not been on the river since last month punctuating my quest of catching smallmouth bass on four rivers in five days.  This time instead of my usual "hot spots," I tried near Savage Mill.

A nice pool where I caught a trout last year ...
but nothing this time.

I fished this area once last year and caught a rainbow trout on a Rebel Wee-Craw, of all things.  What I discovered then was that while I rarely see anybody else fishing on the Little Patuxent in other spots, this place is pretty crowded.

Same thing today.  There's trail access in a park near Savage Mill (everybody parks on the bridge at Savage Mill) and as I wandered downriver, I saw two people fishing.  Then I got to the spot where I caught the trout last year and started fishing and saw two more people on the other side of the river armed with fishing rods.  So four people fishing even before I put a line in the water.

Like yesterday, I alternated between one rod with a Z-Man TRD Finesse worm and another with a Bass Pro Shops Sassy Sally swimbait.  But no luck in this section, not even a nibble.

I remembered there was another big pool just downriver, so I hoofed it that way.  And sure enough, there was somebody else already fishing there.  Figuring it would only get more crowded further downriver, I headed back upriver and found a nice pool below the confluence of the Little Patuxent and Middle Patuxent.

First fish -- a12-inch smallmouth.

First cast with the swimbait upriver, and there was a really hard tug on the end of the line -- fish on!  The fish jumped, and it looked like a decent smallmouth.  The fish stayed on so I could hoist it out of the water -- measured just above 12 inches.  Like I've said, it's always nice to catch a legal smallmouth, especially in this river.

It's worth noting that I had zero action until this point.  No bites or nibbles but then hooked into a legal-sized smallmouth on the first cast in this section of the river.

But that was here -- maybe that smallmouth bass was apex predator for this area -- and I wandered back upriver.

The river is kind of a misnomer, I think.  It's more like a creek.  Really shallow this time of year, and this area was a minefield of protruding rocks.  Most of it isn't ideal for fishing unless you want to toss a lure at each of the hundreds of rocks that scatter the river floor.

Moving on, I found another pool of water that looked decent.  I had a hit on the swimbait when I tossed it downriver, but couldn't get anything to clamp on.  After several casts and nothing, I threw the swimbait upriver and had a hit.  Kind of.  It was a smallmouth but maybe six inches.  Must have been hungry.

Rare for me to catch a green sunfish.

After that and no more action on the swimbait, the switch to the Z-Man worm got me something I don't think I've caught on the river before -- a green sunfish.  Usually, the sunfish I catch on the Little Patuxent and even the Potomac are redbreast sunfish.  A small fish but nice to see something different.

And that was it for this section.  I thought there was a big pool further upriver, and walked up scouting the river.  More of the same minefield of large, scattered rocks in close quarters.  It's really scenic but I don't think good areas for holding Mr. Smallmouth.

I finally found a section that looked OK.  Not great, but one of those things where I walked long enough and decided to settle on something.

I tried the swimbait first and felt a tap on the end of the line.  No fish, so I figured it was just the jig hitting a rock.  But then I saw a fish behind the lure, and it grabbed the swimbait.  The fish jumped once revealing it was a smallmouth.  It fought hard so it seemed like a decent fish, but when I hoisted it out of the water, it probably measured 10 inches.  But that's the thing with smallmouth bass -- they think they are bigger than they actually are!

I usually have two rods so it's easier to switch
between presentations.

That was it for the day, but not too shabby for a couple of hours on a little river that flows through D.C.-Baltimore gridlock.  One legal-sized smallmouth, two other smallmouth and a rare (for me) green sunfish.

Funny that as I was leaving and driving over the bridge at Savage Mill, I saw three more people heading to the river with fishing rods.  If you like people, this is the place for you.  But if you go fishing to get away from people, maybe not.