One-hundred-and-two smallmouths

Me and my shadow.

Two years ago, my first full year of chasing smallmouth bass, I caught my 100th smallie in September.  Last year, my 100th smallmouth came on July 17.

For 2017, after Saturday, I was sitting at 97 smallmouth for the year.

This morning I ventured to the Middle Patuxent River in search of number 100.  Karen and I are going somewhere on Friday where it would be really easy to reach the milestone, but the challenge was too great on a skinny river 20 minutes from home.

Not sure what to name this section of the Middle Patuxent -- maybe just "The Bridge" since I usually start at an overpass spanning the river.  Right by the bridge is a great spot where a rock formation creates two pools.  Every time fishing these pools, I catch something.  On my second or third cast into pool number two, a cookie-cutter smallmouth clamped on a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm.

I had a few nibbles after that and decided to try topwater. This time I scaled down with a Heddon Zara Puppy -- a three-inch version of the famous Zara Spook.  The fish weren't interested, but when I moved to another pool upriver, the fish took swipes at the lure.  Nothing would get hooked, though.  Still, the heart rate gets going when fish are actively going after a topwater lure.  But you have to balance that out with patience because you have to wait until the lure has disappeared below the surface before setting the hook.

I caught another dink smallmouth on a TRD worm, so that made it two for the day and 99 for the year.

Up to another spot and activity was similar -- some action on the Zara Puppy but no bites.  Then it happened after switching back to the TRD worm, smallmouth number three for the day and 100 for the year!  And it was a beast:

Smallmouth number 100 for the year

The fish was maybe five inches.  Maybe the smallest bass I have ever caught.

A couple casts later, the first failfish fallfish of the day made its presence known.  About 10 minutes after that, another fallfish.  I'm not sure how many failfish I've caught this year.*  Nobody brags about catching fallfish.

Another move upriver to the best spot in this section.  I usually catch something here, and I first discovered it when I was hiking 10 feet above the bank and spied a few decent smallmouth bass and sunfish chilling in the water.  Since then, I've waded in the water on the other side of the river and approached the area with more stealth.

Now I peppered the area with the Zara Puppy and had a frenzy of activity on one of my first casts.  Something was creating a ruckus around the lure -- splash, splash, splash -- but nothing took it.  The topwater lure was just floating along like nothing had happened.

Lots of shallow pools below rocks and riff-raff in this area.

Then finally, I actually caught a fish on a topwater -- a redbreast sunfish.  These fish usually fight like wet socks, and this one was no different.  Switching back to the Z-Man worm, I caught another smallmouth, about 10 inches long.

Then I tried the Zara Puppy again and actually caught a smallmouth.  What followed next was hilarious -- just as I pulled the fish out of the water and wrapped my hand around it, the lure popped off.  Then the fish squirmed free and fell into the water.  I was standing in maybe two inches of water, and it was like that all around me.  The fish just sat there, and I reached down to grab the brown fish. It seemed like I had hold of it, but it wiggled and swam a few feet away.  So I chased it and got hold of it again -- briefly.  Another wiggling attempt to get free worked, and it swam a little further away and stopped.  When I said it was two inches of water, the fish was partially submerged but its back and dorsal fin were exposed.  I tried to grab it again but then it took off with more determination and kept going until it reached deeper water.

I swear I need to mount my GoPro on my head to capture stuff like this.  I was laughing my ass off.

After that fish got away, it was like a switch turned off.  Maybe it went to tell the other fish about the encounter with the idiot human, and all the other fish scattered.  Up the river and back down the river, the fish seemed to have disappeared.

Maybe an hour later, after switching to a Hubs Chub, a fish hit the lure about two seconds after landing in the water.  Check out this beast:

When using topwater lures, I usually go with a slightly
heavier setup.  You know, just in case.

A green sunfish, which is slightly rare for me.  Not sure what it was thinking -- maybe it didn't want another fish on his turf?  Or it was just that hungry.

A little while later with no more bites, I called it quits.  Five smallmouth on the day, two failfish, a redbreast sunfish and a green sunfish.

Reaching a milestone like 100 smallmouth in a year is probably

* Actually I do know -- it's 10 fallfish for the year.  Ten unmemorable fish.