Apex predators!

Back to the Patapsco River, and I don't know why.  Easy access?  Short drive?  Although this was The Best Trip Evar! on the Patapsco.  Two redbreast sunfish and a six-inch smallmouth.

The river below Daniels Dam looks pretty "fishy" but I didn't have much luck there last year.  This time I ventured well upriver from Daniels Dam.  The river just above the dam is low but with a flat, sandy bottom -- not a lot of rocky areas for smallmouth to hang out.  But as you get further up the trail from the dam, it looks a little better.

A nice "fishy" spot on the Patapsco River.

Redbreast sunfish.

I tried the Z-Man Ned Rig worm and a blue/silver Rebel Pop-R and had a lot of interest from the apex predators in the river.  Unfortunately, the apex predators are redbreast sunfish.  It would be nice if they were bigger.  Landed two sunfish -- one each on the worm and Pop-R -- and had four or five hooked up but they set themselves free.  It is kind of funny seeing small sunfish attack a 2-1/2" topwater lure.

A small smallmouth bass did manage to get hooked on the same worm pictures to the right with the sunfish, but it wasn't even decent size for the Little Patuxent River.

Maybe I'll try the river again, but it seems like a lot of effort with not a lot of fish when I can hit the Little Patuxent River and have better odds at catching fish, especially smallmouth.  The Maryland DNR web site says there is a decent population of smallmouth bass in the river, but I haven't come across many.

The return of Mr. Whiskers

All this stuff has either never been used or used only a couple times.

In the past year or so after getting back into fishing, I have acquired a lot of lures.  It doesn't help living a five-minute drive from Bass Pro Shops.  "I'm just going to go and get this one thing" turns into a cart full of impulse buys.

Going through some of my stuff during the week, there was a nice collection of crankbaits and spinnerbaits and jigs that have had little to no use.  Mostly no use.

For a trip on the Potomac River today, I decided to try nothing but tackle I haven't used before.  No Z-Man TRD Finesse worms.  No Bass Pro Shops Stik-O worms.  No Rapala Shadow Raps.

Old, unused lures.

The photo on the right was what ended up in my traveling tackle box/bag.  (Yes there are some Stik-O worms in there but they weren't used.  This is my traveling tackle box, and there wasn't any room for those worms in my regular tackle box.  Can't have different colors occupying the same slot in a tackle box!)
  

No, I wasn't going to try everything!

The Zoom Baby Brush Hog, which is a plastic "creature bait," has been intriguing, so I tied that on an Abu Garcia Vendetta rod with a Pfleuger Supreme spinning reel.  The Brush Hog is a cross between a worm, a salamander and a crayfish. A pack of these went into my arsenal at Christmas as a gift from Karen's mom. Definitely had never tried anything like this before. 

On my other rod, I tied on a "football jig" in a brownish crayfish pattern.  Brand: unknown.

First fish of the day.

Two dink smallmouth liked the creature bait. There were also a few other hits on it.  The first fish I landed is to the left -- check out how the fish is barely hooked!

Nothing seemed interested in the football jig.  This is a typical "bass jig" with rubber band-like "legs."  There are probably six or seven in my tackle box, and I've tried some others in the past thinking I was Roland Martin pitchin' jigs on Lake Okeechobee.  Never caught anything on them.

I replaced that jig with a Luck-E-Strike Rick Clunn STX Jerkbait, which is a smaller profile than the Shadow Raps that have been successful for me.  The interesting thing is that one of my customers gave this particular lure to me.  He saw them at a Wal-Mart marked down to $1.99 and bought about 10 of them.  At Bass Pro Shops, they are around $8!

One dink smallmouth liked this jerkbait, then another one about 12 inches liked it, too.  I really wish I could have gotten a picture of this fish because it was a nice, dark color and it was chunky!  But the fish was trying to kill me with the treble hooks on the jerkbait, and as soon as I finally unhooked him, he wiggled free from my hand and splashed down in the water.

The Potomac River between Brunswick and Harpers Ferry.

A little while later, casting in front of a small point created by a tree with roots were protruding into the water, there was a big tug on the other end of the line.  Fish on!  And oh man, this fish was strong!  It was pulling drag, and the rod tip was bent over pretty good.  Finally, finally, FINALLY I had hooked into a beast Potomac smallmouth.  After getting nothing on the river over 16 inches, I latched onto something big!  Was it 18 inches?  Twenty?  Bigger??!!  Maybe it was a small musky?!

Spooled up was eight-pound monofilament on one of my Mitchell 300 spinning reels on a 6' 6" medium Bass Pro Shops Extreme rod, and this fish was giving everything a workout.  Same combo that I caught the 20-incher on the Susquehanna in April.  And this fish felt bigger. One of those situations where you pull on the rod a couple feet and the fish pulls everything back.

Nope, not a musky.  Not a smallmouth.  Finally got the fish within sight and was somewhat disappointed.  Ladies and gentlemen, the return of Mr. Whiskers:

Mr. Whiskers likes jerkbaits.

I had never caught a catfish before last year until I caught two within two days on ... Rapala jerkbaits.  At least Mr. Whiskers isn't finicky on what flavor jerkbait he likes to eat.  Later last year, I also caught another catfish on a bottom-bouncing plastic bait.  All of those catfish were around 12 inches, but this one was bigger.  Maybe 16 inches?  My fish ruler was at home so I couldn't measure it.

The trailing treble hook -- all three hooks! -- was buried in the fish's snout, and it was proving to be difficult to get out.  I've always heard it's better to cut your line if hooks are too deep.  On a fishing show I was watching during the week, they cut hooks from muskies reasoning that it was easier on the fish rather than struggling to work the hook free.  But I didn't want to let this fish go with a jerkbait swinging from his nose, and I didn't have anything sturdy enough to cut the hook.  So I freed the fish by taking the treble hook off the round eyelet.  Catfish are pretty stout fish, so I doubt it will do him any harm.

Still, while it was disappointing to catch a catfish instead of a smallmouth, the fish put up a good fight.  And I'm glad the fish didn't get off somehow because I would be lamenting a lost monster smallmouth.

I thought about keeping Mr. Whiskers but didn't want to be lugging it around with me for the rest of the day.  Writing this now, it would have been nice to try it on my new smoker.

In about 105 minutes, I caught four smallmouth and a catfish.  For the next 75 minutes, nothing.  No bites or hits or anything.  It was getting close to noon and we were in for another 90-degree day, and I was almost out of water.  So I called it quits.

Maybe next time I'll change lures after catching a fish to make it more of a challenge.

What worked and what didn't.

These are the lures I used today.  On the left is the Zoom creature bait and Rick Clunn jerkbait (notice no trailing treble hook).  On the right is the football jig and Confidence Baits crawfish.  But fishing is weird.  Next week the fish might go for the two on the right but not the stuff on the left.

A trifecta of Little Patuxent smallmouth

That big rock under water in the middle of the river ... I bet there's a smallmouth bass hiding there.

After a failed attempt* at fishing the Potomac River yesterday, I opted to hit the Little Patuxent River today.  I didn't hit the secret location but tried a section upriver that I tried once last year.  Worked out pretty good as I landed three smallmouth in about two hours with the biggest one (and the first fish) being just over 14 inches.

14.5" Little Patuxent smallmouth bass

In the photo at the top of the page, you can see a large rock submerged in the middle of the river.  I was using a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm and cast it just in front of the larger rock on shore on the other side of the river.  Hopping the worm back on the bottom of the river, I hopped it on top of the big rock in the river, and just as soon the jig fell down back to the bottom of the river, this smallmouth came charging from the left across the top of the rock and snatched the worm!   Apart from a topwater strike, there's nothing like seeing a fish screaming from out of nowhere to attack your lure!

'10-11' smallmouth

The two other smallmouth were in the "10-11" range but still feisty.  I had a nibbler hooked but it freed itself just before pulling it from the water.

I also tried a black Hubs Chub and was getting some interest, but I think they were nibblers -- one might have been a failfish -- who realized the lure wouldn't fit in their mouth right before nomming on the trailing treble hook.

Later, while climbing over some rocks in the middle of the river, I spotted a small smallmouth bass just upriver in front of this rocky section.  But it couldn't be tricked into biting anything.

But three smallmouth bass with one being decent size is a pretty good outing on the Little Patuxent.  I keep wondering if there's anything in the 18-inch range somewhere.  There's almost zero fishing pressure on the river -- today was another day where I didn't see anybody else fishing.  I've caught a handful more than 15 inches, and there was a post on the Maryland DNR Angler's Log of someone catching a 17-incher in the Odenton area.  So ... maybe ...

* About the aborted mission on the Potomac, I had been monitoring the gauges all week, and the water levels were going down.  First thing Saturday morning, checked the gauges and they were steady in Williamsport and Point of Rocks.  Figured I'd try the Lander Road boat ramp for the first time and headed out around noon.  When I got there, the river didn't look right.  Scouting the location on Google Earth showed rocks protruding from the water in the middle of the river, so I figured it was fairly shallow area ... only no rocks were visible when I ambled up to the top of the bank.  I whipped out my phone to check the gauge readings at americanwhitewater.org, and the river had gone up three feet since early this morning, about four to five hours before arriving on site!  I guess there had been rain in West Virginia and/or western Maryland over the past couple days while there had not been any precipitation for the past week or so where I lived.

Dog day afternoon

My secret location on the Little Patuxent where I've caught two 15-inch smallmouth.  I say "secret" because I've never seen anybody fishing here before.  There's a pond nearby with lots of sunfish and largemouth bass and a lot of fishing pressure, but nobody walks the extra 50 feet through the woods to fish the river.

Unfortunately, not much to report on this trip.  Four hours of fishing and all that was landed was a failfish and an 11.75" smallmouth.  The smallmouth came late in the day as I was about to give up.  Felt a tug on the end of the line with a Stik-O worm but couldn't hook the fish.  I thought it might have been a sunfish nibbler, which were prevalent throughout the day.  Then I cast the lure in about the same spot and got the smallmouth.

Just shy of 12 inches.

The failfish was typical -- felt a small hit and started reeling.  There was something on the other end of the line.  A fish?  A stick?  A paper towel?  What was interesting was that the fish hit a Finesse TRD worm working the bottom.  I usually catch them on reactive baits like spinners or Shadow Raps.

A funny story, this part of the Little Patuxent is off the beaten path.  There's a shack or house about 50 feet from the river.  It seems occupied but I haven't seen any people. Last time there, I heard a radio or a TV from inside the shack.  This time when I got to the river, there were two dogs laying on the sandbar who started barking as soon as they saw me.  They approached me but weren't in attack mode.  Kept their distance but still bark-bark-bark-bark-barked at me.  Watch dogs barking, do they bite?  I waded out a few feet in the river and started fishing.  After about 10 minutes, I guess they didn't consider me a threat anymore and disappeared.  The dogs are probably associated with whoever "lives" in the shack and are comfortable around people.  One of those things that maybe if I walked up to them they might be friendly?  Or they might bite.

Two-dozen-and-two smallmouth

For various reasons, it has been a few weeks since I went fishing.  (One of those things that has kept me from fishing won't be happening again until October.)  However, this week has had nothing but rain and cold weather, so it looked like fishing at least on the Potomac River wouldn't be an option.  Karen had been wanting to go camping, and I wasn't sure how high and fish-able (or non-fish-able) the river would be.  Closely monitoring the gauge readings at americanwhitewater.org, it looked like the river was higher than normal but not four or five feet which would definitely make the river un-fish-able!

So we loaded up the Lightning with all the camping and fishing stuff and headed out.  I figured the campground near Antietam Creek would be a good option since if the river didn't pan out for fishing, at least we could try fishing on the creek.

About 30 miles before we got to the campground, it started to rain.  Oh man this was starting off to be a fun weekend.

I should mention here that the Potomac River has been kicking my ass this year.  I've been out five or six times and have had one smallmouth bass to show for it (well, other than the 12 walleye right at the beginning of the year during that freak warm spell).  So this wasn't doing anything for my confidence.

We got to the campground, and picked a site (only a few sites were occupied), set up the tent and started unloading everything.  By the time we got everything set up, the rain stopped.  Karen said she was going put the registration fee in the box, and I rigged up a fishing rod.

On one of the fishing forums I'm on, there is a thread raving about the latest-and-greatest fishing sensation, The Ned Rig.  This rig is basically a small plastic worm on a jighead.  Wow!  Nobody has ever done that before!!!  The Ned Rig is just a new variation on an old trick.  I have been using Bass Pro Shops Stik-O worms on Charlie Brewer jigheads for the past year with pretty good success.  The biggest difference between these two presentations is in the plastic.  The Ned Rig uses a Finesse TRD worm that is a little thicker than a Stik-O worm, and it's also made with a plastic that is supposed to be more durable.  The weird thing about the TRD worm is that while the plastic is more durable, it's supposed to be more lifelike.  It's more spongy but a lot harder to tear.

What the heck, I'll try it.  I ordered a couple bags of the Finesse TRD worms and ShroomZ Weedless jigheads the week before.  Anxious to try it out, I tied on a Ned Rig and walked down to the river behind our camp site.

First cast -- FIRST CAST -- I had a bite but couldn't get the fish hooked.  Kept working the lure on the bottom though and had a fish clamp on.  Reeled it in and it was a "10-11" smallmouth.  First cast with a new lure, and I had a fish!

First cast of the day, first cast with a new lure!

After about five minutes, I had caught three fish!  Karen came back and found me down next to the river.

"Anything?"

"Three."

"Three??!!  Already??!!"

In about 10 minutes I ended up catching six total.  One of them was about 14 inches, too!

Potomac smallmouth that was angry because he got tricked!

Karen decided to take her fishing rod and try down near the mouth of Antietam Creek.  I decided to head upriver to my secret spot.  Normally, I can wade out pretty far along the rocky bottom in this location but with the water high and murky, I didn't want to risk it.  I know there is a nice flat area that's easy wading, but there are also two deep pools.  And if I can't see the bottom, I ain't walkin'!

With some downed trees, this left a narrow window for casting.  I actually twisted off a small branch from an over-hanging tree to give me some more room.

I started off with the Ned Rig Super Fantastic Worm Thingie and got a nibble after a few casts.  Since the water was deeper, I decided to switch to a Shadow Rap and got a fish on my first cast with it!

The "Susquehanna Special" Shadow Rap.

Not a big fish, though.  I caught two more including one that measured just over 11 inches.  But as I was reeling in that 11-inch fish, I could have sworn it was a much bigger fish.  He fought hard and was pulling drag, but then I saw him breach like an ICBM from a submarine ... and he wasn't that big.  He was just angry.  That Shadow Rap is the exact same lure that the 20-inch smallmouth hit on the Susquehanna although with replacements for the mangled hooks.

After a dry spell, I went back to the Ned Rig Super Fantastic Worm Thingie and it was like a switch turned on.  Six more smallmouth bass with several doing the ICBM jumps.  Now I was at 15 total for the day.

I forgot to bring water with me so I wandered back to the camp site.  Where was Karen?  Oh fishing in the spot I started at.

Karen with a fish!

She said she had caught a few fish including a "monster."  I was worried a bit thinking Susquehanna monster but it was more like a Potomac monster, about 15 inches.

Another one of Karen's smallmouth.

She caught a few more fish and all of them on the Stik-O worm with the Charlie Brewer weedless jighead.  So definitely some small plastic lure bouncing off the bottom was working.

I moved upriver a few dozen feet to try my hand at another spot, which was actually at the bottom of the path behind the neighboring (but unoccupied) camp site.  Ned Rig Magic Thingie again ... and more fish.  This time I caught four including this one just over 15 inches:

15 inches of fury!

My personal best on the Potomac is a 16-inch smallmouth, so this was close.  But my personal best on the Little Patuxent River is a 15-incher (twice!), so ....

Karen and I decided to cook something for dinner, and by this time it was past 7 p.m.  As we were eating, I started doing the count -- six fish here, nine fish up there and four more back here ... I had 19 fish total.  It sure would be nice to get one more for an even 20.

With the sun going down, I went back to the spot behind the camp site.  It took a few casts but I landed one, a nice usual Potomac 10-incher, to make it 20 for the day.

Today I woke up and decided to try topwater.  Yeah, topwater.  Even if the conditions aren't right for it, I still try it anyway.

And this morning it wasn't right.  Lots of wind, and the lure was just floating quickly downriver.  I think topwaters work OK in river fishing if you can find some slower water so the lure stays a bit longer in the strike zone.

First fish from this morning, also on a Ned Rig.

Went back to the Supercalifragalistic Ned Rig and caught four more.  One might have been 12 inches.  Maybe. He was camera shy and released himself as I reached for my phone. I also had two fish that got off as I was reeling in.  One of the fish jumped about 10 feet in front of me and as he went flying in the air so did the jig.

I also snagged some fishing line that had a lure on the end:

Hey, free lure!  Oh wait ... it's mine.

Yes, it was mine that got snagged earlier.  I tied it on later (more on that later).

It was around 8 a.m. so I headed back to the camp site for breakfast.  Eggs from a box and sausage!  Then I hit a couple other spots that I hadn't fished this weekend but with no luck.

Back to the spot on the river behind the camp site.  I had that jig on that I had lost but now had found and got a fish hooked!  Reeling the fish in and the line broke.  I'm usually pretty good at checking the line for frays and abrasions but didn't check before the line broke. The jig was snagged and freed at least once before hooking into the fish, so I think the line or knot was weak at that point. I did catch two more smallmouth (that I think were actually the same fish) to make it 26 for the weekend.

It was good to have such a successful trip, but a REALLY nice Potomac smallmouth bass seems elusive.  The 20-fish catch on the Susquehanna was definitely better because the majority of those fish were bigger than the one 15-incher I caught yesterday.

Still, the Ned Rig worked really well.  I was using the California Craw and June Bug patterns with equal success in the stained water.  I tried a tube jig a few times and had one nibble but received almost immediate action when switching back to the Finesse TRD worms.  Definitely adding them to the arsenal.

A Little Patuxent trophy smallmouth

Sandy bottom but no big rocks.  Flowing water cutting into
the bank with fallen timber.  Will this hold smallmouth bass?

Last year, I started fishing the Little Patuxent River for the first time.  My first trip was more to catch (stocked) trout, and I hooked into three rainbows.  But the last fish I caught that day was a small smallmouth bass.  Researching the river online, it appeared the waters held smallmouth bass, so maybe that little smallie was just the tip of the iceberg.  So them ol' brown fish is what I targeted for the next few months.

From the last week of April last year to the first week in June, I caught at least one smallmouth on every trip to the Little Patuxent.  This included two 15-inch fish, one around 14 and a handful in the 12-inch range.  Mostly they were the same size as what I found on the Potomac but in more compressed sections of water.

But from that first week in June through today, I caught one smallmouth.  One.  That was it.  No action or bites or nothing really hinting that there were smallmouth bass in the river.  They just [poof] disappeared.

My theory was that they used the Little Patuxent for spawning and migrated downstream after poplulating the waters with lil' smallies.  Or maybe they found better hiding places that weren't as accessible to wading or fishing from shore.  Or maybe they were too smart for me and didn't bite on any lure I threw.

15-inch smallmouth!

Whatever the case may be, fishing the river occasionally from the end of last year to start this year had the same results.  Still nothing.  No bites.  No sign of smallmouth.  Late April last year was when I first "found" them, but maybe it would happen again.

Today I went downstream past Columbia and a couple miles from the confluence of the Little Patuxent and the Patuxent.  This is the general area where I caught a 15" smallmouth as well as a catfish and failfish on a Rapala Shadow Rap last year.  It's right off a major highway but not easily accessible.

The plan was to fish tubes and Shadow Raps.  The water was slightly stained but visible down to at least two feet.  Bouncing a tube off the bottom got some nibbles, but it felt like sunfish.  Like they were nibbling at the end of the tube but couldn't get their mouths around the hook.  Nibble-nibble ... and then nothing.  This must have went on for 45 minutes casting to pockets of slow water around downed trees.

Finally a fish hit, and it felt like a good one.  Please no catfish. Or failfish.  Or carp.

It was a smallmouth, and a nice one at that, at least for this river!  Measured it right at 15 inches, which I think is trophy size on the Little Patuxent.

Let it go, let it goooooooo!

A couple casts later, another fish was on.  This time it was 10-inch smallmouth.  Small but better than catching a failfish!

Right after this fish, I snagged the tube I was using.  Which was my last one, so I switched over to a Confidence Baits Little Tube and had similar nibble-nibble action.  Had one fish hooked but it got off.  Then I lost that tube and tied on a three-inch Stik-O work in a minnow pattern.  Again, more nibble-nibble action but couldn't hook anything.

The sun started disappearing behind the trees, and the temps went down as well.  In about two hours of fishing, it felt satisfying to finally catch some smallmouth on the Little Patuxent after such a long dry spell.  Maybe this is the beginning of a narrow two- to three-month window to catch them on the best smallmouth-friendly body of water closest to my house.

My dream house?

Photo extra

Like the end of those Burt Reynolds movies where they show the outtakes, here are some extra pictures from last Friday.

Kirk looks on as I land my second smallmouth of the day.

I think this is the one Jason caught which caused us to adjust our technique with the Shadow Raps.

Getting jiggy with it along Highway 22 about a mile above The Statue of Liberty.

Trying not to get poked by treble hooks or spines in the dorsal fin!

A couple shots of the river.

We stopped here in Elizabethtown afterwards ... good beer!

Successquehanna or, "Yeah I need the net!"

Treble hooks, should be nine hooks total ... count them.

First time fishing the Susquehanna River yesterday, and it was everything I had hoped for.  Not monster smallmouth on every cast, but a good collection of fish that were a better class for the most part than anything I've found on the Potomac River.

Catching smallmouth bass on the Susquehanna is something that has been on my to-do list since getting back into fishing last year.  The river is less than two hours from where I live, but it didn't seem to have as many easy access points like the Potomac.  At least for wading or fishing from shore.  And the Susky is much wider than the Potomac in most places.  Everything I've read says the Susquehanna is a much better fishery for smallmouth bass than the Potomac despite the fact they are maybe 75 miles apart at their closest point.

Finally, I pulled the trigger and hired a guide.  Searching on the internet, I kept coming back to Ken Penrod's Live Outdoors Unlimited Guide Service.  Hey, it's a nice web site with pictures of big smallmouth, so it must be good!

After exchanging e-mails, Ken put me in contact with one of his guides, Jason Shay.  He had an opening for April 1, which was a Friday and one of my "light" work days.

There was another spot on the boat, and since Karen was going to be out of town, I went trolling (see what I did there?) on Facebook to see if any of my predominately motorsports friends wanted to go fishing.  After a few pleas, my closest friend in the world (Kirk lives five minutes away from me, so it's true!) said he would join me.

At this point, you're saying, "Just show us the pictures!"

OK, here's one.

Personal best smallmouth ... momentarily.

At this point in my life, it was my biggest smallmouth bass ever, around 18 inches.

Back to the story.  Kirk said he hadn't been fishing in about 20 years.  He didn't have a fishing rod, but I told him he could use one of my vintage Mitchell 300s with whatever rod.   We went to Bass Pro Shops and picked up a few lures.  Then he called a few days later informing me he went back to Bass Pro Shops and got a rod/reel of his own.

Bass Pro Shops should just be renamed to Crack Pro Shops.

Finally the day had arrived!  I showed up at 0'dark thirty at his house so we could trek up to Harrisburg.  An easy drive at that time of the morning making our way through Baltimore traffic.  

You want another fish picture now?  OK.

First cast of the day!

This is the first fish of the day.  On the first cast.  My first time on the Susquehanna.  Which really wasn't the Susquehanna.  Actually on the Juniata (not Juanita) River right near the confluence.

Kirk and I met up with Jason at Riverfront Campground in Duncannon, which is right at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers (it's pronouced JOO-nee-ah-ta ... Jason says most dumbass Marylanders pronounce it like it's a Mexican river).  Jason's boat was what I had expected, kind of small but with a jet-propulsion outboard -- perfect for cruising through a rocky, shallow river.

We loaded our gear on the boat and hit the water.  Jason took the boat to a spot maybe 200 yards from the boat ramp to a bridge that crossed the Juniata.  He instructed us to throw tube jigs at a break in the water below a bridge.  While he was explaining to Kirk how to work the jigs on the bottom, I tossed one out.  First cast.  First fucking cast!  And I had a fish on!

"You got one already!?"

It was a smallmouth around 15 inches.  First cast, a nice smallmouth!  There was something different about this place compared to the Potomac.

Kirk and I caught a few fish in this spot on tube jigs, but Jason wanted to move down to a known hotspot before other guides and fishermen hit the water.  We started just before 7 a.m., but he said others were supposed to be on the water an hour later.

At this new spot, Jason said jerkbaits had been hot the previous days.  Kirk had a Rapala X-Rap, and I had a Rapala Shadow Rap.  Jason pointed out some hot spots to throw at, and we started firing.

Unfortunately, the wind was against us.  The best spots were downriver, and the wind was blowing strongly upriver.  We would let a lure fly, it looked like a good cast, but it would die in the wind and plop down 20 feet from the boat.  At one point, Kirk had a Rapala sail into the top of the train bridge.

We were fishing the jerk baits with a jerk-jerk-pause cadence -- letting the lures sit for a few seconds on the pause.

Kirk has weird friends.

Nothing.  Nada.  No bueno.

Jason moved the boat down river to another hot spot behind a bunch of rocks.  We did the same jerk-jerk-pause with the Rapalas, and still nothing.  Just casting to a large break in the water where fast moving water met a slower pool.

Suddenly, Jason had a fish on, and it was a nice smallmouth.  He was retrieving the lure faster than normal when the fish hit, so that's what we started doing with the Rapala jerk baits.  Instead of jerk-jerk-pause, it was a faster retrieve with not much pausing.

And did it work!

Kirk caught four fish in that spot including an 18-incher, and I caught a few in the 15-16 range.  Water temps were around 55 degrees, which should call for a slower presentation.  But, hey, that's fishing.  What should work maybe sometimes doesn't.

After that spot dried up, we moved to another spot right next to Highway 22.  The road ran above the river on a man-made bank of rocks, which created a lot of pools and pockets in the flow of the river.  We went back to tubes, and Kirk was first to get a fish in this area.  We floated down and a little bit later I saw a tree creating a small point on the bank.  I fired the tube to the small pocket after the point, and a fish clamped on just as the lure hit the water.  And the fish felt strong!

Right behind the small point is where my 18" fish was hiding.

I had been a little jealous of Kirk's 18-inch fish, but now I had one that matched his. The first picture posted above is that 18-incher. Amazing that a 2.5" tube bait can catch such a wide range of fish.

Twinty!

After this, we moved down to a spot above an island that had a lot of exposed rocks.  Jason basically said, "Fish anywhere," and we went back to the Rapalas.

We were in the area maybe 15 minutes when I cast a Shadow Rap downriver in front of a group of bigger rocks.  Still using the faster retrieve we "discovered" earlier, I had a hit.  It felt like a decent fish, and I started reeling in.  The fish flashed just below the surface about 10 feet behind the boat, and Jason asked if I needed the net.

"Nah, it's not that big."

Reeled the fish in closer, and I got a better look.

"Uh, yeah I need the net."

Jason grabbed the net and scrambled to the back of the boat.  He netted the fish without much drama and brought it aboard.  It certainly looked big!  After freeing the fish from the treble hooks, Jason brought out a metal ruler to measure the fish.  Doing everything "by the book" (closing the fish's mouth, flattening the tail), it was right at 20 inches on the dot!

First time on the Susquehanna, and I had a 20-incher!

Measuring the fish.

We took a couple pictures, and I let it go.  Then Jason told us how people have been fishing with Ken on the Susquehanna for the last 10 years and had yet to land a 20-inch smallmouth.  Unfortunately, I got to thinking that this river had spoiled me, and I may never go back to the Potomac or the Little Patuxent.  (Just kidding!  I will.  But not this weekend.  It would feel like a big letdown.)

My 1958 Mitchell 300, serial# 2165625, had a workout!

We fished for couple more hours and floated down between an island and the bank.  Kirk expertly honed his "torpedo bomb" casting technique.  We found lots of big rocks and good hiding spots, but this was where the "Potomac sized" fish were hiding.  A few in the 15-16 range but mostly the 12-inchers that would leave us fist pumping if we were on the Potomac.

It was pretty cool, though, to catch two fish that I saw hit the lure.  One of the fish was nipping at the Rapala like a cat with a toy, maybe three feet below the surface just behind the boat.  I kept jerking the lure, and the fish finally clamped on.

A chunky smallie.

We moved to the other side of the island and caught a few more fish.  I had one that Jason called "an 18-inch fish on a 16-inch frame."  It was very fat and wide.

Around 2:30, we headed back upriver trying to beat a rain storm.  The rain never materialized, so we fished the same spot we started at in the morning right where the Juniata hit the Susquehanna.  No fish this time, so we called it a day.

I ended up with around 20 fish while Kirk caught 12.  I would say 75 percent of the fish were above 14 inches.  Nothing really smaller than that until later in the day.  Not bad for a couple of Susquehanna rookies!  And before the day began, I would have been satisfied with Kirk's haul of fish.  Jason was keeping in touch with the other guides throughout the day, and nobody else seemed to be doing as well.  The other guides didn't believe we were having so much success with the Rapalas.

Because of the 20-inch fish, I received a gift certificate to Under Armour for 40-percent off up to a $500 purchase.  Also, Riverfront Campground gave me a medallion to recognize my achievement.  First fishing trophy, I guess, to go along with all the autocross stuff.

One time for smallmouths

With the weather being unusually warm and seemingly on an upward trend, it seemed like a good time to hit the Potomac River to see if the smallmouth bass were venturing out of their wintering holes.

On Monday, I fished below the Dickerson Substation.  First time here for me.  The internet told me that the power station's discharge is released into the Potomac, which leads to unusually warmer water temperatures this time of year.  I've wanted to hit this spot since the beginning of the year, but the water was always too high according to the gauge readings on americanwhitewater.org.

The water was going back to normal levels, so it seemed like a perfect time to shake off the cabin fever.

Venturing into new territory, I started off near the parking area downriver from the plant and worked my way up along the muddy bank.  The water was really murky -- visibility maybe a foot or two below the surface.  It didn't look very "fishy" at least for smallmouth bass -- no rocks or anything visible below the surface or protruding from the water.  Lots of mud and flat underwater terrain.  Tried plastics and Rapala Shadow Raps and only had one bite (on a Shadow Rap).

As I was leaving, a guy pulled in to the parking area and asked me the usual ("Whatcha fishing for?  Didja catch anything?").  He said the best spot is right at the warm water discharge, and that water holds both smallmouth and largemouth bass.  It was getting dark, and a hike up there didn't seem like a good idea.  Maybe another time.

Got off work a little early on Friday and headed back to the same spot.  This time I walked up to the plant along the C&O Canal Towpath and followed the chainlink fence from the towpath down to the river.  The river here looked like a good spot.  I tossed my thermometer in the water to check the temps -- 60 degrees as opposed to 40 degrees from just down river on Monday.

Unfortunately, there was no action.  Nothing.  Zero.  Zilch.  Everything I had with me was cast out in the water.  No hits or anything.

Nothing.  Zero.  Zilch.

When I got home, a search on the Maryland Angler's Log revealed that, yes, people had reported nice catches of smallmouth and largemouth.  At this time of year, too!  One photo showed a guy holding a 3+ pound smallmouth at the exact same spot where I fished from earlier in the day!

Karen and I had been planning to go camping this weekend at one of the C&O Canal campgrounds, but while the temps were going to be in the 60s, the forecast was calling for rain.  We decided to go fishing and then just stay at her mom's house in Sharpsburg on Saturday night.  I really wanted to go back to Dam 4 to try for some walleye, but a recent post on the bassresource.com forum indicated that it has been pretty crowded.  He called it "opening day of a kid's fishing derby."  Instead, I decided to fish near Antietam Creek because there were a few areas we could easily hit.

We started off where I caught 10 smallmouth bass in about three hours last year.  That day's catch included my biggest smallmouth so far.  The water was fairly clear and just a tick below 50 degrees.  But we had no luck at all.  We moved down to Antietam Creek, the same area I caught eight smallmouth last year over two days.  Again, nothing.

With the sunlight dwindling, we moved further downriver to a natural dam that stretched nearly the entire river.  Fishing once here last year, I had decent success.  This section of the Potomac has a good mix of rocks and deeper pools.  Karen said she was getting some action from nibblers, but I wasn't getting anything in a small pool downriver from the rocks.  I moved up to a spot near her and closer to the shore where the water looked to be deep (by "deep" I mean you couldn't see the bottom ... at least three to four feet).

I mentioned the Rapala Shadow Rap earlier.  Since tying one on last year for the first time, it has been one of my favorite lures.  They've hooked smallmouth, walleye, catfish and failfish.  You can vary the retrieve, and the lure doesn't seem to do the same thing twice.  It suspends in the water and has a nice flash of silver when moving it through the water.

A little chunky, but don't let her hear that.

With the deeper water, I threw out a Shadow Rap.  On the second cast, I got a hit!  Or maybe not?  As soon as I set the hook, it felt like there was a tug at the end of the line.  But then it felt like it got hung up.  Damnit!  I hate when you get that rush of a hit but then it turns out to be a snag.  I tried for 10 to 15 seconds to work the lure free, and it wasn't budging at all.  But finally it got loose.  Started reeling in ... no, wait ... there was a fish on the other end!!  Whatever was on the other end was making a beeline for the shore.  It briefly broke the surface, but I couldn't tell what it was.  It was tugging back pretty good, and then I saw why -- it was a smallmouth.

I landed the fish and unhooked the Shadow Rap.  The smallmouth was surprisingly only 12.5 inches.  It felt a little bigger than that, but I'm sure that has been said so many times after reeling in a smallmouth.

I'm pretty sure the fish got briefly wrapped in a log or something on the bottom, which is why I went from "Oh it's a fish!" to "Oh crap it's a snag!" within a couple seconds.

But that was it for either of us.  Karen said she continued to get nibbles on four-inch plastic worms, but no fish to show for it.

Flood levels at Point of Rocks.

Today after a short trip to Antietam Battlefield, we stopped by Point of Rocks.  I hadn't been there before, and I just wanted to scout it out.  I think this is the closest point of entry to the Potomac from my house.  The river looks really "fishy" in this area with rocks, a couple big islands and the supports for the Route 15 bridge.  Of course I couldn't scout it out without throwing something in the water.  I fished  right under the bridge for about 45 minutes and actually had a fish on.  It looked like a smallmouth, but it somehow didn't manage to stay clamped on any of the two treble hooks on a Shadow Rap.

While the week wasn't very productive, looking back to last year at this time, I didn't catch any fish at all until April (well other than a nice largemouth bass when I was in Florida).  Already, I've landed a handful of walleye and an angry smallmouth.

2015 Year In Review

A look back on this year, I have learned a lot whether hiring a guide or just by absorbing information watching fishing shows on TV or reading forums.  Fishing has replaced (at least temporarily ... maybe?) my hobby of autocrossing, so I dove into it this year.  I have lived near the Potomac River for almost 20 years, but this is the first time I decided to hit the river to try to hook into one of my favorite fish, the smallmouth bass.

14-inch Antietam smallmouth.

At the end of 2014, I caught a handful of smallmouth bass on the Potomac River using a Heddon Zara Puppy.  Other than that, I was pretty clueless on what lures and presentations to use.

In early April, I went out with Jeff Green at Shallow Water Fishing Adventures on the Potomac River.  Looking back, it probably wasn't a good idea because the river was still pretty high and cloudy because of the melting of winter snow.  Karen went, too, but the only fish caught by the three of us was one 10-inch smallmouth.  By me.  But Jeff showed us how to bounce tube baits off the bottom when searching for smallmouth.

A couple weeks later, what I learned paid off as I caught eight smallmouth bass on Antietam Creek, mostly using a tube bait on the bottom.  This was just fishing from shore -- no boat and not even wading.  The biggest was 14 inches with a few other in the 12-inch range.

A few weeks after that, I discovered the Little Patuxent River near my house.  No wasn't the first person to find the river.  It has been there for several years.  But I found that it contained smallmouth bass, too.  And it was by accident that it happened.  The Maryland DNR stocks the river with trout, and that's what I was fishing for when I went to the river armed with Rooster Tails.  I caught three rainbow trout before I caught sub-10-inch smallmouth.  Hmmm, if there are little smallmouth here, then there should be bigger ones, right?

Something bigger on the Little Patuxent -- 15" smallmouth.

I must have hit the river about 10 times over two months and caught a smallmouth bass every time.  I caught a 15-incher near a spot on the river where I parked in a strip mall by the "easy" access point.  Personal best day was catching six, including one measuring 15 inches and another at 12 inches.

From July onward, my only luck was on the Potomac.  The Little Patuxent ran clear, and the water was really shallow in most places.  While I love fishing the Potomac, it's at least an hour drive to the closest spot.

But the drive was worth it most of the time, whether just fishing for a few hours or spending the night on one of the campgrounds along the C&O Canal.

My biggest of the year -- 16 inches.

One Saturday-Sunday camping expedition at Paw Paw, I caught 19 smallmouth.  Then the following week, I caught 10 smallmouth upriver from the Antietam Creek Campground fishing for a few hours.  Of those 10 was my personal best smallmouth-- 16 inches.

I had some luck using Rapala Shadow Raps and various topwaters, but most of the fish were caught using some kind of plastic bait rigged weedless and bouncing it off the bottom.  Three- and four-inch Stik-O Worms from Bass Pro Shops, Gulp! Killer Crawlers, three inch tube baits in varying flavors.

I ended up catching more than 150 fish for the year.  Of those, 106 were smallmouth, and around 30 of them were perch when Karen and I went fishing on Lake Erie.  The rest: 14 sunfish (mostly redbreast sunfish), eight fallfish, five walleye, five rainbow trout, three channel catfish, two largemouth bass (one being about five pounds when I went fishing earlier in the year in Florida) and one crappie.

So it was definitely my most successful year fishing.  Ever.  My previous best was maybe 30 fish when I was a kid living across the street from Hanscom Park in Omaha, Neb.

For this year, while it would be nice to catch more than 150 fish again, I'm going to focus more on finding bigger fish.  While it's fun to catch a lot of fish in the 10-12 range, as I found last night reeling in all those little walleye, it will be more of a challenge to catch bigger fish.  Maybe a 20-inch smallmouth?  Or a big walleye?  Or hooking into an elusive muskie?