Swimbait Sunday

First fish of the day, a 12-inch-plus smallmouth bass.

Got out for a few hours this morning and managed to catch five smallmouth bass, all on Reaction Innovations Little Dippers.  I think the fish might have been on at least four different flavors, too.  Catch a fish, snag the lure in a tree, switch to a new one.  Rinse, repeat.

The weather had been unbearable since Karen and I got back from our road trip, and I really didn't feel like sweating my ass off while fishing.  The last couple days have been much more pleasant, and I hoped the fish would be more active.

First spot I hit on the river (water temp: 70 degrees, a really good sign), I got a couple nibbles on the swimbait on my first cast, but nothing after that.  On my other rod was a Heddon Zara Puppy, and a few sunfish followed that lure, but they didn't fall for the trickery.

Right around this time, I heard a huge explosion.  It seemed like it was a mile or two away.  I didn't hear any sirens or see a mushroom cloud, so I filed it under, "Hmmm, I wonder what that was."

I moved upriver to my favorite spot where I almost always get something.  This was where I caught the smallmouth on July 4 that was under the tip of a protruding log, and also my second 15-inch smallmouth from this river four years ago.  On the second cast running parallel to the bank I was standing on, something bit the swimbait but didn't clamp on.  Reeling about 10 more feet, something actually did clamp on.  One of those where it feels briefly like a snag, but then the fishing line is headed toward the middle of the river.  Successfully landed it, and it was a smallmouth that was an easy 12 inches (first photo at top).

The swimbait was mangled, so I rigged up a new one and caught a tiny smallmouth on the next cast (above left).  That would be all the fish for this area.  Sunfish followed the swimbait on some casts, a few boils on the topwater lure (I think sunfish again), but nothing else.  It's like the fish that were caught alerted all the others of some human trying to trick them with fake food.

After moving downstream and getting the Zara Puppy entangled up in a tree, I got another 12+ smallmouth on a swimbait. (right).

Downriver at another one of my favorite spots (always seem to catch something here, but never anything of legal size), I caught a smallmouth even smaller than fish number two.  Again on a swimbait.  I was about to pull the lure out of the water, and this smallmouth appeared out of nowhere from the knee-high depths and attacked like a terrier on a squeaker toy.

A bit later after, I did a "one more cast" and had a smallmouth hammer the same swimbait.  This felt like a good fish, but it was only about 10 inches.  Unfortunately, the hook was embedded in the "gill" portion of it's throat (I don't know what the scientific term is).  The fish wasn't bleeding, but after a minute or so of trying to dislodge the hook, I felt it was better to cut the line and let the fish go.  These are cheap eBay jigheads that rust easily, so rather than hurt the fish trying to rip the hook out, I hoped rust would not sleep.  The fish swam away with a quickness, so I was happy to see that.

I'm really going to have to pack the Knipex "mini bolt cutters" in my gear.  It would have made dealing with that fish a whole lot easier by just snipping the top of the jighead.  I still may not have been able to remove the rest of the hook, but at least there would have been less metal in the fish's mouth

When I got back to the car and started it up, the radio was already tuned to WTOP, and I caught the end of the news report about a gas explosion which occurred about two miles away, so no doubt that was what I heard earlier.  Firefighters were already on site responding to a report of the leak, and they were able to evacuate the buildings before the explosion.