The Potomac Five

Chunky 12+ smallmouth.

The weather seemed kind of iffy for today with calls for "afternoon" thunderstorms, but I was able to put in a few hours of fishing below Dam 4 on the Upper Potomac. It's sometimes a crap-shoot going here because it's one of few places on the river where I always seem to encounter other fishermen.  Today wasn't any different, but it wasn't crowded.  Just a catfisherman at the dam, a guy with two kids bobber fishing below the dam, then somebody else further down who looked like he was wading for smallmouth bass, too.

Starting at the dam and working down with a Whopper Plopper (follow the link -- they have some funny color names) and Reaction Innovations Little Dipper, the fish weren't interested.  The water was slightly stained but wasn't flowing too high.

After an hour without anything, I decided to switch to a spinnerbait and a Z-Man TRD Finesse Worm.  Those lures weren't working either until I got way below the dam in water downstream from a small grouping of rocks.  First cast with the "White Lighting" Z-Man worm in this section, one dink smallmouth clamped on.

After I re-tied the lure because it felt there were a couple nicks in the line, the next cast produced a chunky 12-plus-inch smallmouth.  With the medium-light St. Croix Avid X spinning rod and Pflueger Supreme reel, it was a pretty good battle.  The fish jumped initially and I could see it wasn't anything huge, but with the rod/reel combo, the fish made it a tussle.

Two casts later, another dink smallmouth.  And then the switch turned off -- no more bites.  I was kind of trapped here because the guy wading was 100 yards or so downriver.  I wish strangers would keep their space, so I always try and do the same.

To change things up, I switched back to a Little Dipper on the Avid X rod and caught a tiny smallmouth on the first cast.  Then nothing for awhile.  I hadn't noticed it before, but there was a lot of floating grass coasting downriver, and it seemed I snagged something on every cast.  So I switched back to a Z-Man worm and lost several of those snagging them on the bottom.

Moving back up the river, I made some casts with a Z-Man worm.  After a few casts, it got snagged again!  Ugh.  I managed to work the lure free, but then there was something on the other end of the line.

When we went fishing in April on the Susquehanna, our guide said if you free a snagged lure, it sometimes entices a strike because the fish see something suddenly darting through the water.

And that's what I think happened here.  Reeling in the fish, I saw another fish following it.  The smallmouth on the end of the line wasn't very big, but it was a really dark brown -- an unusual pattern from what's found in the Potomac.  I wanted to take a picture, but the hook was underneath the front of its tongue.  It took a minute or so to remove the hook, and I wanted to free the fish as quickly as possible.