Perky nibbles

Nothing better than looing UP at I-95.

I went out early this morning on the Little Patuxent River to try and beat the heat humidity.  We have had some showers here and there during the week, but nothing major, so the river was low and fairly clear.

As usual, I tied on a Heddon Zara Puppy on one rod and a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper on the other.  They are usually my go-to lures so why not?

Well the Little Dipper was getting a ton of attention from what I think were small sunfish.  It was almost comical.  I could see the lure in the water, then it would go sideways with a fish grabbing it.  Then letting it go.  I'm sure there was one point where five casts in a row were like that.  Finally actually hooked one and it was a sunfish barely bigger than the swimbait.  Maybe some kind of scent to spray on the lure would entice the fish to stay clamped on longer, but considering the size of the fish, I'm not sure if it's worth the effort.

A dink smallmouth bass that hit the no-name
spinnerbait.  I think increasing reel speed may
have enticed the fish to be more aggressive.

The Zara Puppy had some interest but I think more of the same with little sunfish that should have been chasing a lure that size (and that Puppy is maybe three inches).

Hit my three usual spots with the perky nibbles but couldn't find a smallmouth.  When I got to the turnaround point, I did a 180 on lure selection, too.  Off went the swimbait on the lighter rod/reel (St. Croix Avid-X with a Daiwa Tatula 2500), and on went a hair jig that I had picked up ... somewhere.  On the medium rod/reel (BPS Extreme green with classic Mitchell 3-0-0), the Zara Puppy was replaced with some random small white spinnerbait that I got ... somewhere.

And wouldn't you know it, the spinnerbait enticed a legitimate smallmouth bass to bite.  And the hair jig enticed ... well ... a sunfish.

Lots of follows on those lures, too.  Even though the spinnerbait wasn't very big, the profile compared to a swimbait is bigger, and the sunfish thought better of actually trying to bite it.

On the way back to the car, a guy on a bike stopped to ask me if I was fishing for smallmouth bass.  He said his dad caught a 19-inch smallmouth on the Patapsco River a couple years ago.