Welcome back smallmouth

A monster 12-inch Potomac smallmouth bass!

Yeah it's been awhile. I haven't posted much here mainly because I've been trying to create content for this other blog. That and I haven't caught a single fish this year. I've been out three or four times and haven't landed a single thing. A couple times, I didn't even get a bite.

Plus the weather hasn't been cooperating on days I wanted to hit a river. Either the water was too high due to rain, or the temperature was too hot.

Finally this weekend, that all changed.

Karen and I camped at our go-to spot on the Potomac River (although not at the go-to camp site -- we settled for the one next to it).

Friday night fishing for a couple hours, I caught three smallmouth with the biggest being about 12 inches. Ned Rigs (TRD Finesse Worms) and Reaction Innovations Little Dippers worked tossing them in current.

First fish of 2025, a dink smallmouth. But it did all the smallmouth things -- jumping and getting into the current pretending it was a bigger fish.

The river was about two feet higher than normal, which wasn't terrible. This area of the river has what I call "trenches" that are good ambush spots. This time of year, I don't think the smallmouth are holed up in one area -- I think they travel around to find cooler water and baitfish.

Anyway, every fish did the typical smallmouth things -- jumping like an ICBM missile trying to get free. I had one really hard hit on a Little Dipper Friday night that felt like a really good fish, but I didn't even see it. It smashed the swimbait about 10 feet in front of me, tugged hard twice when I pulled back on the rod, and then it was gone. It was probably a catfish.

First fish from Saturday morning.

Here's a video releasing a couple of them. They disappear with a quickness!

Six in one, half dozen in the other

Loved watching people fishing up ahead of this ripple, and they weren't catching a thing.

This is a late writeup from fishing a couple weeks ago, but as they say, better late than never!

I mainly write this stuff so I can keep track of my fishing prowess not to generate single digits of views!

Anyway, Karen and I returned to 15 Mile Creek Campground. Last time I had some luck near the boat ramp, which had not really happened before.

First fish of the weekend, and they were all this size.

My preferred spot is tough to get through either by wading or venturing through thick vegetation (usually easier early or later in the year), so I decided to try again.

Also, I was pretty sure I saw a small muskie last time, so you never know.

I caught six fish over a couple hours each day, and every fish was about the same size -- around 10 inches -- and caught on Reaction Innovations Little Dippers. I should have taken a picture of every fish to see if I tricked the same one twice, that's how alike they were.

One from Sunday morning that may or may not have been caught before.

I cast the lure out and let it drift in the current, which was rolling pretty good. It was really shallow, but the speed kept the lures from snagging -- I don't think I lost a single one.

Sunset on the Potomac.

Black Friday? More like Good Friday!

A 20-inch Black Friday smallmouth!

Karen and I went camping along the C&O Canal for Thanksgiving, and I caught a good-sized walleye yesterday and a beast 20-inch smallmouth bass this morning!

She had made the reservations a couple weeks ago hoping the weather would be decent like it was a few years ago when we did the same thing during Covid. It looked like temperatures would be in the low 60s but high 30s overnight, so she bought a zero-degree sleeping bag a few days ago.

The only issue was we had two inches of rain go through the area Tuesday, so the level of the Potomac River was going to be up. How far? It looked like it got as high as six feet and was on a slow decline by the time we got to the campsite last night. The Shepherdstown gauge showed about five feet on weather.gov. 

I decided to leave the waders at home and fish from shore.

This time of year is iffy for smallmouth bass. With the colder water, they kind of go into a slumber and are difficult to entice. After catching that 22-inch walleye two weeks ago, I figured if I caught anything, it would again be walleye.

We got to the campsite around 5 p.m. and set things up. The sun was sinking below the trees, and I decided to hit the "easy button" and fish behind the campsite. I tied a Rapala Shadow Rap on one rod but instead of a swimbait on the other rod, I put on a Z-Man Finesse TRD Worm. My plan was to slowly drag or hop the worm on the bottom.

After some casts with the jerkbait, I switched to the rod with the TRD worm. 

And snagged leaves and debris on almost every cast. The Shadow Rap snagged some stuff, but it wasn't that bad. I gave up on the worm and switched to the ol' go-to Reaction Innovations Little Dipper.

Gobble gobble! A Thanksgiving walleye.

On the second cast, slowly reeling against the current, I had a hit! It felt like a good fish, and it was -- probably a keeper-sized (15-inch) walleye. Two walleye in two trips to the Potomac. I didn't have any way to measure it to confirm it was legal, so I threw it back.

Hoping there would be more, I cast fruitlessly for another 45 minutes or so and called it quits.

This morning, I reluctantly emerged from the zero-degree sleeping bag and fished the same spot behind our campsite with the Shadow Rap and Little Dipper swimbait. Nothing was doing, so I moved downstream near the confluence with Antietam Creek. No luck there either, so I moved downstream from the confluence to a spot where I caught the "battered bass" a few years ago. That was earlier in the season, but the river was also flowing higher than normal like today, so maybe a fish was waiting again.

I didn't get anything with either lure and decided to switch from the Little Dipper back to the TRD worm. This area has a point of rocks and vegetation that protrudes out into the river and breaks the flow. Lots of stuff gets caught up there, and I was guessing maybe there wouldn't be as much debris downstream.

On the second cast, I felt something scoop the worm up, and I yanked back on the rod. This felt like a nice fish, and I had walleye on my mind.

The fish jumped -- it was no walleye but instead was a smallmouth bass. It jumped again -- it was a BIG smallmouth! The fish was putting up a good tussle, then started pulling downstream. There was a tree and vegetation in the way, so I didn't have a clear path to get the fish to shore. Sure enough, the smallmouth got into the grass and weeds, and I thought for sure it was going to free itself. I was using my lighter Daiwa Tatula rod/reel setup with six-pound line.

Fortunately, I pulled the fish from the weeds and landed it. With my hands shaking, I took a couple pictures and then a video as I released it back into the water. 

I didn't have any way to measure the fish but took a picture next to the rod. On the photo at the top, you can see a solid black portion of the rod blank just in front of the foam. From where the black fades out to the criss-cross pattern to the rod butt is 20-1/4 inches. It's not hard to speculate that was a 20-inch fish.

The smallmouth briefly got hung up in these weeds.

I was hoping some of its buddies were in the area but if they were, they weren't interested in anything I had.

So while two fish over about four hours between two days doesn't seem like much, I think for the time of the year and that the smallmouth was likely bigger than my previous Potomac best, I'd say it was a win.

As for camping, there are 20 sites at Antietam Creek Campground. Karen and I were the only ones there. We had the whole place to ourselves. No squatters in our site, no bawling kids, no adults not acting their age. Definitely a win.

We had the whole campground to ourselves.

Fish don't care that it's raining because they are already wet

Personal best Potomac walleye, 22 inches!

Since I had the day off for Veterans Day (I'm a veteran so I should have the day off anyway), I was figuring out how to occupy myself during the day. The weather has been great the past few weeks -- around 70 degrees and sunny -- but as I was looking ahead the past few days at the forecast for today, it was projected to be mid-50s and rainy.

Not ideal conditions, but the fish don't care if it's raining because they're already wet.

I trekked up to Dam 4 on the Potomac River since I haven't been to that section in awhile. I was hoping for some smallmouth bass but this area sometimes surprises with walleye.

I got there around 9:15 a.m. and at first it didn't look like anybody was around. But after I waded into the water below the dam, I saw somebody else fishing on the small island just below the dam. It looked like he had come over from the West Virginia side with a kayak. Somebody else with the bright idea of fishing in the rain!

To start things off, I tied on a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper, basically my go-to lure. After one hit in about 10 casts, a shallow-running Rapala Shadow Rap went on my other rod. Speaking of "go-to" lures, Shadow Raps are my go-to jerkbait -- they have been great since the first time I used them, and enticed my first 20-inch smallmouth bass to bite one. I would fish with them more often, but in shallow waters, they are more of a danger to snag. At $10 a pop, I'm always tentative using them.

However this morning, the first cast with the Shadow Rap, I had a hit. This felt like a nice fish, but it was using the river current to its strength. Got the fish closer and saw it was a about a 13-inch smallmouth bass, although fairly chunky.

The first dam fish of the day.

A few casts later, another smallmouth bit the Shadow Rap just as I was pulling the lure out of the water. Although it was only pushing 12 inches, it also had some girth. The smallmouth are likely fattening themselves up before wearing their savage face of cold.

After landing two smallmouth bass in about 20 minutes, I didn't even have a hit for almost two hours afterward. I moved down river, tried a few areas below some protruding rocks that were creating small pools and breaks ... and nothing.

Fall is in full swing along the Potomac River.

That's why they call it "fishing" and not "catching."

At this point, I was thinking of leaving but decided to try below the dam again. I hiked up the C&O Canal Trail and waded to about the same spot where I caught the two smallmouth bass earlier. For some reason, I kept getting bird's nests on the spinning reel with the Shadow Rap and had to strip line and re-tie. Now I didn't have enough line on the spool to cast! So my only option was the other rod with the Little Dipper.

After a handful of casts, I had one hit on the swimbait. After that, I kept peppering the area with casts and was about ready to call it quits. Not quite, "Just one more cast," but it was close to that.

Then something slammed the swimbait. It felt like a nice fish, but the 13-inch smallmouth from earlier felt like it was bigger, so I was skeptical at first.

This fish kept tugging and tugging. Without my sunglasses and their assistance of polarized lenses to cut the glare off the water, it was hard to make out what kind of fish it was as it got into visual range. It wasn't football shaped like a smallmouth.

"Oh man, I hope it's not a catfish."

Then I saw the gold coloring and recognized it was a walleye, and a good-sized one at that! I cradled it out of the water and immediately saw it was big enough to keep (the minimum in Maryland is 15 inches), so I put it on a stringer and ended the day fishing right there.

In case you've stumbled across this blog for some reason -- maybe a fan of my Camaro autocross blog? -- and don't know anything about fish, walleye are one of the best tasting freshwater fish on the planet. 

Of course there wasn't nobody around to see me as I went back to my truck. When I get skunked, there are always people along the trail asking, "How'd ya do?" "Ya catch anything?" I usually keep my head down and try not to make eye contact in those cases. But here I was lugging a hefty walleye, and nobody was around to see it.

After getting home, I measured and weighed the fish -- 22 inches and 3.7 pounds! At least length wise, it was my biggest fish from the Potomac.

Although Karen and I caught a bunch of walleye on Rainy Lake a few months ago, this was my first Potomac walleye since 2020.

If you've stuck around this far, here's a bonus video releasing the first smallmouth.

Smallmouth bass free their oppressor (me) on the 4th of July

Sunrise on the Potomac River.

The Potomac River smallmouth bass declared their freedom today in the pursuit of life, liberty and crayfish!

Or something like that. 

Karen and I camped overnight at 15 Mile Creek Campground on the historic C&O Canal, and I hit the river around 6:15 a.m. this morning hoping to escape the oppressive humidity.

The sun was still trying to peak over the hills, and clouds would keep it mostly at bay for awhile.

First cast with a Heddon Super Spook (the middle brother between the Zara Puppy and Zara Spook) was greeted with a typical topwater blowup! That left the lure floating on the surface. I tried a couple more casts and couldn't get the fish -- any fish -- to bite.

I switched to my other rod with a Reaction Innovations Little Dipper and was zeroing in on "slick" water behind some barely protruding rocks. After five or so casts, there was ever-so-slight resistance on the other end. Either the lure bumped a rock or it was fish. I pulled back on the rod, and the resistance stayed there as I kept reeling.

Sometimes smallmouth hit subtly, and I don't think they realize they are hooked. They swim in the direction you're reeling (sometimes this could also be a stick!).

Until they realize the trickery. In this instance, I cast upstream, got the hit, this fish got a bit downstream from me then started fighting. It swam back upstream, made a couple jumps -- and looked to be about a 12-inch smallmouth -- before freeing itself from the hook.

This same scenario happened three more times over the next 90 minutes. Hook a fish after a light bite, reel frantically until the fish suspected something was up, a couple jumps, and then the fish was gone.

FOUR TIMES I had fish on, could identify the species and roughly the size after they breeched the water, and FOUR TIMES they declared their freedom. I couldn't even oppress them for a few seconds for a picture.

Bonus content: The trouble with trebles

I'll make this a two-parter going back a couple weeks ago just so I can post a picture of an actual fish. This was from the Little Patuxent and was the only fish I caught on a Sunday morning the day after autocrossing my Camaro.

The trouble with trebles. Even with removing the trailing treble hook
on a topwater lure, releasing a tiny smallmouth bass was a challenge.

I've mentioned removing the trailing trebles on "stick" lures because smallmouth bass always seem to get part of the leading treble hooked in the corner of their mouths. 

Not this little one. All three hooks from the front treble were in its tiny mouth. I struggled for about 45 seconds trying to get the treble free -- pushing the hooks further in its mouth, but it was so small there wasn't any room. 

I dropped the fish back in the water, and let it swim for a few seconds. Pulled it back up, and the part of the treble that was in its bottom lip was free! The other two parts of the treble were in its upper lip, but they were easy to remove now.

Fishing is like a box of chocolates and this weekend I found good chocolates

The Reaction Innovations Little Dippers
caught some fish, but would anything else entice
chocolate bass?

Another productive overnight stay on the Potomac River catching 10 smallmouth bass -- same tally as last time. Compared to then, the water level was a little lower and clearer. The weather hasn't reached the typical summertime heat, though, as I think we've only had a couple days near 90 and not much rain. It was about 75 degrees last night and cool temps this morning.

This time of year, it's hard for me to get a feel for how productive fishing will be. Since I'm not fishing every weekend at the same spot, it's like as Forest Gump would say, "Like a box of chocolates." Sometimes you get that fudge covered in milk chocolate. Sometimes you get that chocolate with that unidentifiable gooey mess inside that you spit up and toss in the trash.

Fortunately, I've had the good chocolates the last couple times on the Potomac River. Three weeks ago, it was catching 10 fish while camping overnight. And this weekend, it was again catching 10 chocolate-colored fish on another camping trip.

The only differences were at sundown last time, the fish weren't as active, but the next morning they heard it was fish-o'clock and went on a feeding spree. Last night as the sun getting real low, the fish were active chasing startled baitfish, but this morning there was almost zero activity. Weird how that works out.

I caught eight last night and had numerous other hits and near misses. Once again the Reaction Innovations Little Dipper was the weapon of choice. These aren't quite as lazy as tossing a bobber with a worm underneath, but they are close. Cast the rubbery lure out, real in steadily, wait for fish to bite. I also had some luck on a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm, but the bottom of the river had too many fraggly rocks, so they were getting hung up a lot.

Last fish from last night. Only about
12 inches but it punched above its weight class.
I really thought a 15- or 16-inch fish was
tugging on the other line.

With the TRD worms snagging and the sun tucking behind the West Virginia trees, I switched over to a Heddon Zara Puppy to pair with Little Dippers ("Dippers" is plural because I used many after they got battered easily) on my other rod. The Zara Puppy is more of a finesse topwater lure -- it has to be worked jerking the rod so the cigar-shaped lure does the "walk the dog" motion like its famous relative the Zara Spook. My technique is to jerk it a few times and pause. Jerk-jerk-jerk, pause. The pause seems to prod smallmouth bass to strike.

The fish were hugging really shallow water -- most were found wading further out in the river flinging lures toward shore. 

At one point, I saw baitfish breaching the surface fleeing from something. I made some casts with a swimbait and Zara Puppy and had some attacks but nothing hooked on. After things calmed down, I waded over to that area and was standing in ankle-deep water.

Two smallmouth snapped on the Zara Puppy had no business trying to eat something that size. Both fish might have measured six inches. I guess my expert presentation enticed them to bite more than they could chew -- ha ha!

Seriously, dude, what are you doing?

This morning, I didn't see as much activity from baitfish as last night, even though my "fish watch" indicated it was time for fish. 

I kept scanning in all directions looking for surface activity, but baitfish and other surface disturbances were virtually non existent. I managed to catch one 10-inchish smallmouth, and after breakfast fished behind the campground. Instead of the Zara Puppy, I switched to another topwater lure, a River2Sea Whopper Plopper. It has zero finesse compared to the Zara Puppy. It's bigger and louder with a rotating tail that bubbles and churns the surface. The Whopper Plopper hits the surface and chugs through the water like that obnoxious friend you really didn't want to invite to your quiet Sunday brunch party.

One smallmouth was enticed by the Whopper Plopper's ruckus but it didn't hit with an explosive strike. The fish barely slurped the lure, and if I wasn't watching, I might have thought the lure bumped a stick or a rock and missed setting the hook. It was like the fish was trying to steal something it shouldn't have. But I could tell it wasn't a dink. I got the fish within lipping range, and it was the biggest of the weekend -- about 14 inches.

The "big fish" from the weekend, about
14 inches. Notice the Whopper Plopper
doesn't have OEM treble hooks.

Whopper Ploppers are equipped with treble hooks out of the box, but if you'll notice in the picture, I've replaced them with single hooks. The OEM treble hooks are big and are a pain when trying to fish them out of small mouths (see what I did there). This was really my first experiment seeing if it would actually work, and that fish didn't shake the hook.

I've even removed the trailing trebles on a lot of my stick lures. The front hook is almost always in a corner jaw while the trailing treble flails around. More likely to get caught in a finger or the fish's eye.

Usually a finger.

Some bonus coverage, releasing the 14-inch smallmouth.

Miscellaneous pics:

Swooped into a neighboring campsite
this morning ... hawk or juvenile bald eagle?

Botched attempt to video releasing a smallmouth
bass, but you can see it toward the center-right.

.
As always don't forget to read how I chronicle my misadventures autocrossing my 1982 LS-swapped Chevy Camaro.