I hit the Middle Patuxent for a few hours today and only caught one fish. A failfish. Usually I detest catching failfish, so how could this be considered a good day?
Two words.
Top. Water.
The saying goes, it is better to catch one fish on a topwater lure than it is to catch 10 fish below the surface.
Today was overcast and in the low 80s. The river -- going by the gauges for the Little Patuxent -- was probably running about 10 feet higher than normal over the weekend because of excessive rain, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Today, the river was flowing clear and looked to be at normal height.
I decided to try a three-inch Hubs Chub in a bone shad color. "Bone shad" is a fancy way of saying "white." And this lure caused a frenzy in almost every area. But I still only landed the one failfish.
The smallmouth and sunfish showed great interest in the white lure, but nothing stayed hooked. In one area, I had a 10-inch smallmouth on the other end, but it got off. Then there was a huge splash as something attacked the lure on the surface -- I waited a second to see if the fish was hooked, but the lure remained floating on top of the river.
Another cast to the same spot, and there was a dark shadow below the water that made a bee-line for the Hubs Chub. Another big splash, but this time the fish was hooked, and I tried muscling it away from a sunken log. This was on my medium-weight St. Croix rod with a Pflueger Patriarch reel and 10-pound line, but it was still a struggle trying to keep the fish from getting entangled.
I say "brief" because it lasted five seconds. The lure came flying out of the water, and the fish swam away. It was at least a 12-inch smallmouth. Or maybe it was bigger? The "what if" estimation always increases the fish's size because topwater.
It might have been 16 inches.
Later on in another section down river, I caught the failfish. It actually hit the Hubs Chub pretty hard, and I thought it was a good smallmouth, but then it stopped fighting like all failfish do.
I also had good luck enticing fish with swimbaits from Reaction Innovations. Again like the Hubs Chub, lots of hits and hookups, but nothing stayed on.
Two words.
Top. Water.
 |
| Big rains over the weekend left the river with odd formations. This area had been really flat. |
Today was overcast and in the low 80s. The river -- going by the gauges for the Little Patuxent -- was probably running about 10 feet higher than normal over the weekend because of excessive rain, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Today, the river was flowing clear and looked to be at normal height.
I decided to try a three-inch Hubs Chub in a bone shad color. "Bone shad" is a fancy way of saying "white." And this lure caused a frenzy in almost every area. But I still only landed the one failfish.
 |
| She be all like, "What are you doing here?" I be all like, "What are you doing here?" |
Another cast to the same spot, and there was a dark shadow below the water that made a bee-line for the Hubs Chub. Another big splash, but this time the fish was hooked, and I tried muscling it away from a sunken log. This was on my medium-weight St. Croix rod with a Pflueger Patriarch reel and 10-pound line, but it was still a struggle trying to keep the fish from getting entangled.
I say "brief" because it lasted five seconds. The lure came flying out of the water, and the fish swam away. It was at least a 12-inch smallmouth. Or maybe it was bigger? The "what if" estimation always increases the fish's size because topwater.
It might have been 16 inches.
Later on in another section down river, I caught the failfish. It actually hit the Hubs Chub pretty hard, and I thought it was a good smallmouth, but then it stopped fighting like all failfish do.
I also had good luck enticing fish with swimbaits from Reaction Innovations. Again like the Hubs Chub, lots of hits and hookups, but nothing stayed on.
No comments:
Post a Comment