Found some cookie cutters since the holiday season is around the corner

A cookie-cutter sub-12-inch smallmouth bass from the Upper Potomac River.  This picture was taken with my new Olympus TG-6 submerged underwater.  The river was really clear, and the clarity is really close to a picture I took out of the water of the same fish.

It was a return to Fifteenmile Creek Campground along the C&O Canal this weekend on the Upper Potomac River.  I finally tested out my new Olympus TG-6 camera with a couple fishy pictures with the camera submerged underwater.  The clarity of the river now barely affected the pictures -- they were almost as clear as the pictures taken of the fish out of the water (see below).

In just under two hours on Saturday, I caught two cookie-cutter (sub 12-inch) smallmouth bass each on the same Reaction Innovations Little Dipper.  Rando-casting into the middle of the river, both chomped on the swimbait and fought bravely despite their size limitations.  

Fish had no other interest in a River2Sea Whopper Plopper (I didn't think a topwater lure would entice them, but ya gotta try!  Because topwater.) or a shallow-running Rapala Shadow Rap.  

The clarity of the water made it deceptive for wading.  The bottom of the river with its rocky terrain looked to be extremely shallow -- maybe a foot or so deep, and I could walk across to the West Virginia side.  But a few places, I would take a step and plunge to my waist in water.  If the flow isn't as clear, it's easier to identify shallower water because the sunlight still can't penetrate murkier sediment.

Oh and the water was around 48 degrees.  I didn't have insulated waders, but it was tolerable thanks to the sun and air temps in the mid-60s.

What time is it?  It's fish o'clock!

Another new techno product I was trying was a Casio Active Dial Multi-Task Gear Sport Watch.  In layman's terms, a "fishing watch."  I don't wear watches but for some reason stumbled upon this one, and Karen got it for me for our anniversary.  It's water proof (can be used diving down to 200 meters) and has a fishing mode based on moon data (I think common solunar tables integrated with GPS).

It is fairly inexpensive, and I was intrigued by the functionality.  Plus I could check time the old fashioned way -- glance at my wrist instead of fumbling with a phone.  In the middle of a river.  Where I could drop the phone.

There are five LCD icons that indicate the ideal fishing conditions.  Basically no icons means fish aren't prone to feeding, and it progresses from one to five.  The four fish icons lit plus the "FISH" text blinking every second means you better stop what you're doing and cast a line in the water.  Which of course was happening as we were driving home on Sunday.

But whatever.  It tells time and is waterproof.  A small hindrance is the watch hands obscure the digital display, and nobody is going to mistake it for a Richard Mille.

Now here are pictures of smallmouth bass!

Smallmouth number one, picture taken out of the water ...

... and with the camera submerged.

Another photo comparison with the next smallmouth:

Smallmouth number two out of the water ...

... and about to be released.

Moar pics with the Olympus TG-6:

Landscape mode.

Underwater shot.

Setting sun.

River shot.

Sunrise on Fifteenmile Creek at the Potomac River confluence.

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One and a half fish

Under an I-95 overpass, the best view
as morning rush hour was winding down.

Not much doing on a Monday in October with water temps at 50 degrees.  A Columbus Day off directed me targeting non-indigenous fish of Maryland -- smallmouth bass!

After the remnants of Hurricane Ian stammered through the area last week -- just steady, moderate rain -- the Little Patuxent River was at its normal self this morning and actually wasn't very stained.  One cookie-cutter smallmouth slurped a Heddon Zara Puppy on my third or fourth cast and freed itself after a brief struggle.

Later another cookie-cutter smallmouth hit a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper and stayed on so I could take a picture.

Which didn't work out as planned.  I had purchased an Olympus Tough TG-6 to replace my aging (10 years old, LOL) Canon S90.  While replacing my Samsung Galaxy A6 with a newer variant might get me something that takes better pictures, I opted for the TG-6 because it's waterproof and a bit more rugged.  Duh, that's why "Tough" is in the name!  I can drop it in the water and even shoot pictures underwater of fish.  

I envisioned my first fishing expedition with the Olympus camera with me taking a picture with the camera submerged while setting a fish free.  But for some reason I got an error message because of the data card.  

So here are just some random underwater pictures taken with the new camera with no fish present:

Pictures seem better than the Nikon Coolpix I shot with a couple years ago.  I stopped using because of battery life and, well, the pictures weren't that good, although the little camera captured one of my top-five pictures of all time.

And here's a comparison of the Olympus TG-6 (first picture) versus the Galaxy A6 (second picture) at the same spot just seconds apart:

The Samsung phone isn't very good under low-light conditions and even the Canon S90 excelled there.  It looks like the Olympus is better for normal colors and not muddying things down.

Karen and I are scheduled to go camping on the Potomac in two weeks, then there's the first trip of the year with Susquehanna Smallmouth Solutions after that, but otherwise, I think the fishing season is winding to a close.