How 'bout six? Six is good.

First fish of the day for me.

Finally a day where it wasn't hot as balls, and no threat of a rain or hurricane, so Karen and I went this morning to the Upper Potomac.  We fished the same area where I caught a 16-inch smallmouth at the end of July.

The river was a little different this time -- maybe a foot lower and crystal clear.  It was a lot easier to wade with the water down.  Water temp was a tick below 80 degrees, and skies were pretty much clear.

Trench warfare.

Even though the water was different, I went with the same pattern as before, launching lures through the riffles and rapids.  Using a swimbait, I caught one smallmouth in the first 15 minutes then nothing for at least an hour.  I waded almost straight across the river navigating through a trench.  Some smaller smallmouth were nibbling at the swimbait in one section, but nothing clamped on the hook.

I waded back to the Maryland side and switched to my "finesse" rod and tied on a Z-Man TRD Finesse Worm.  Wading back across to where I had been, I caught three smallmouth that were even smaller than the first one.  Had a few hits and had one hooked briefly, but that was it.

A few nice, fairly deep pools in this area.  I wonder if these are
wintering holes?

Slimy green algae (or whatever) liked the Z-Man worms, though.  Every other cast, I had to pull the green slime off the jig.  So I decided to switch back to the swimbait because that didn't seem to attract the green stuff.

I use the swimbaits with 1/16-ounce Owner Darter jigheads.  With this combo, the swimbait can be fished fairly slow just below the surface of the water, and it's virtually snag-proof.

After I added these swimbaits to my arsenal after success with them on the Susquehanna, I tried slightly heavier Owner jigheads with the swimbaits, but I found they sank too quickly and were easier to get snagged.

Standing at the top of a group of riffles, I cast the swimbait almost directly straight toward the shore and reeled in slowly.  The lure ran just below the surface, and working partially against the current helped give the swimbait action with the slow retrieve.  The lure was visible to me almost the entire time, so it was cool seeing smallmouth emerge from nowhere and give chase.

Karen's smallmouth.

I caught two more smallmouth, had one free itself at my feet, and had a few more hits.  So six fish total landed for the day.

Karen didn't have much luck but did catch one, which she claimed was about 12 inches, on a Z-Man worm.

Since it was Labor Day weekend, I was worried the area would be crowded with people "floating" the water. One of the reasons we didn't go fishing Saturday or Sunday. But we didn't see any river traffic until about a half hour before we stopped fishing.

The trenches on the river floor created some deep pools.  While they didn't hold any fish, I am wondering if maybe these might be wintering holes for the smallmouth.  Or maybe walleye.  Going to have to try this area again when it gets colder.