Fat Boy

Been a while since I've been on here, sorry 'bout that. I'll post my latest fishing outing and after that a few pics from my trip with Rodger (Monocacy). Sorry to hear about your leg Kevin, any updates on your condition? Sounds like you guys had been doing pretty well up until Sandy hit. I lost power for four days and had some basement flooding to contend with, not fun. Now that clean up is over, I've been able to get out. My buddy Howard and I decided to hit a Maryland Eastern Shore lake. My buddy Bob, who I bought my boat from, brought his son, to fish out of his Riverpro and me out of my boat. Our quarry, Esox niger, the chain pickerel (along with largemouth bass and crappie, or anything else that wanted to play). A beautiful bluebird sky chilly day on Maryland's Eastern Shore: The water temps were 44 degrees early in the morning, and the fish, which normally hold on woody or weedy cover, were not holding there. NNE winds blowing down the lake were pushing the warmer water toward the dam, and that's where the bait would be. Where there is bait, there are predators. So, after an hour of trying the usual blowdowns with some minor hits, we opted for a change. Last year around this time, we found the same conditions and situation. Near mid afternoon after limited panfish success, we moved down lake to the deepest water and I tried to imitate a golden shiner with a gold Rat-L-Trap and wound up catching a 4 1/2 pound bass. We caught several bass and chainsides doing that the rest of the day, so I figured it would work again. So, we moved down lake today and after a couple casts, I caught a 19 1/2" and 17" bass on back to back casts on my Rat-L-Trap. That would be the pattern for the day, crankbaits for the most part. Success came the trap, and a shallow diving Lure Jensen Speed Trap, and my trusty plastic worm. But my biggest fish came on the crankbaits. In addition to the two above, I finished with 18 bass, a chain pickerel and a crappie. My biggest fish after the ones above were 19 3/4", 18 1/2", 18", 17 3/4", and two 17" bass. The rest were between 12 and 15" long. My chain pickerel wasn't that big, but it did add me another species for the day. Bob and his sone left early because his son, who is only 8 years old and a heckuva fisherman, got tuckered out around 2 PM. But, he managed to get his personal best bass (19") and big chain pickerel, another personal best. That boy was workin' that Rat-L-Trap to perfection, and did a great job fighting the fish. The only thing he doesn't do yet is hold the fish. But not too shabby for 6 years old. Bob caught a few nice pickerel too before leaving. My first two: Not long after that, another one: Bob and Carson out of his Riverpro: Bob holding Carson's nice sized chainside for him: Bob holding Carson's bass: Bob with a nice pickerel: Another Rat-L-Trap fall bass:

Yep, they put 3,000 of them in last week, all 4" fingerlings.

Also BMBass, don't overlook the smallie fishing in the rivers this time of year. You can rack up some good numbers and stay cool at th same time by wading...just watch the river levels. Lot's of good water, the Upper Potomac has the most access. But any tributary has smallmouth too, and the other rivers too. For lakes, BH is hard to beat, the best shore access of the lakes IMHO, but others are good too...Piney Run, Clopper Lake, Needwood, Frank, and the Baltimore Reservoirs. When Liberty is low, you can really get around and cover some water, and there are some pig smallies and largemouth in there for sure. Fishing isn't easy there, but when they are active, you can do well and maybe get yourself a PB!

Yep, those big ones are there for a reason!

Nice fish Ken!!! Congrats! BMBass, I recommend reading this entire thread from start to finish. There's a ton of info on here about spots, what to use, and a lot of us shore fish too. Good luck and most of all, welcome aboard!

Thanks guys...hopefully I can reduce the honeydo list and get some use out of it this weekend.

My fishing life has changed. Last week I purchased a 16' Alumaweld stick steer boat with a 60/40 hp jet drive outboard teamed with an 80 lb. Minn Kota trolling motor from a buddy of mine (who is splurging to buy a RiverPro LoPro and is on his way home trailering it as I type this). I picked it up on Saturday and after a few Fat Boy customizations and tackle loading, I took it out for a few hours yesterday on the Upper Potomac. Even though it's a '93 boat with a 2001 motor, it's still new to me, and at least I'll be able to be on the water. I've caught a lot of fish out of the back of this boat, so it's about time I turn the tables and catch me a few from the front!!!! Here are the first pics of the boat trailered behind my truck The next issue was getting the boat into my driveway after a 90 degree turn with a tree in my neighbors yard making it tight, then, up the steep hill in reverse and into the carport. I made it! So, my new boat sits in the carport, fits perfectly I told my wife to come outside and meet her son, and my daughter to meet her baby brother LOL Those statements didn't go over very well... I'm so stoked! So anyway, I took it out yesterday for a few hours, caught 12 smallies and 4 largemouth, biggest smallie was 15" or so. I lost a pig at the boat side, coming unbuttoned after running under the boat toward my trolling motor. My buddy caught 9 smallies and five largemouth, with one of the greenies pushing three pounds or more. I spent a lot of time goofing around and running through some skinny water, had a great time and even caught a few fish. I picked an easy location to run the first time out on the Upper Potomac...I was actually surprised that the fishing was as good as it was. I can't wait to put some extra time and do some spot explorin' I was really happy with the way that the boat handled and ran! We also did some old fashion drifting tossing super flukes with quite a few of our fish coming on them. I love that bite...can't wait to get out and do it on some better water. Here are some pics of some "firsts" since I took ownership: First fish on the boat under my ownership, from the back of the boat, Howard with a dink smallie photographed "In-Fisherman" style My first fish caught a few minutes later, another dink First Potomac "keeper" smallie: First decent largemouth caught again by Howard from the back:

Not only that, but you ain't allowed in the water either, not exactly a jet ski plus. At least you got some keeper fish, those hot conditions make it tough to catch anything. How much weight took first?

Welcome to the Maryland thread Sean and Greg. Bill, congrats on your PB smallie, nice fish! I waded the Monocacy on Wednesday for a half day and caught 31 smallies and two largemouth, nothing big, and a bunch of pesky but beautifully colored red-breast sunfish. But man those little smallies are pugnacious. My buddy Rodger (Monocacy on this board) caught a bunch too. Small plastic worms were the ticket. I also spent half the day yesterday on the Potomac wading, but when it got hot we decided to hit a cooler shadier small stream for the late afternoon. On the river, I caught 37 smallies and one largemouth, again nothing big with the biggest smallie going about 16" long or so. In the creek, the average size was better but to my surprise, even though the water was much cooler the fish weren't biting as well as they normally do. My buddy Howard got similar numbers in the river and caught 10 fat smallies out of the creek. I managed 6 bass in the creek and a surpise, a small rainbow trout! The biggest creek bass was 16". Probably the best thing about the creek fishing was to take all our gear off and lay in the rapids, man was that ever refreshing on a hot day. Here are some pics: Monocacy: Monocacy (Rodger) with a Monocacy smallie: Howard with a spunky Potomac smallie: Here's a creek smallie, nice size for a creek fish

Ken, it sounds to me like he was frustrated by not catching fish and taking it out on you, maybe even getting more out of a confrontation with you than the joy of fishing itself. For cryin' out loud, he's in a boat and there are so many good spots that shore anglers can't get to that he could fish...assuming he's talented enough to find them LOL You did OK. A man can only take so much! Plus, it sounds to me that you were more than accomodating.

Sean, maybe you should pack some huge musky lures and toss his way...maybe he'll think twice before and "errant" cast with #7 trebles on an 8 oz. lure smack him upside his head!!!! Actually, the best justice is catching a fish in front of them while they beat the water with nothing to show for it.

Nice work Ken! Gotta love that topwater bite!

Bill, BPS and Cabelas has some nice wading boots. They help on slippery rocks especially if you get the studded ones. Felt soles are banned in Maryland, so don't buy those. They also help you from bashing your toes and give you good ankle support. I was at Black Hills today and fished out of the back of my buddy's boat. Finesse plastic worms and creature baits caught all of our fish, Texas rigged, drop shot, and Carolina rigs all worked. Fish were deep as you'd expect this time of year. We worked hard for them, fishing until noon. I finished with nine bass nothing big but some nice chunky ones, and my buddy's biggest was about three pounds. I think he caught about the same number.

I'll be on BH tomorrow AM out of my buddy's boat. Hopefully they'll be bitin'!

After spending a week at Capitol Hill for a training seminar (which was really cool by the way), I was ready for a good trip this weekend. Howard and I planned to plop the ol’ Crawdad into a lake on Maryland's Eastern Shore for a change. Plus, we knew that Black Hills would be a zoo. Temperatures were predicted to be in the upper 80’s to low 90’s, so we knew it would be hot. But, would the fishing be hot? Our goal on this trip was to get into a good largemouth and chain pickerel bite. In the past, chatterbaits and lipless crankbaits have been hot on both species, and I had hoped for a similar bite. After arriving at the ramp and putting in, it wasn’t long that I tied into this chainside on a white chatterbait…it wasn’t a big pickerel, but man do they ever hit hard. Not long after that, I tossed my chatterbait around a big deadfall and hooked into a big largemouth. I’d say it was 3 to 4 pounds or so, but I can’t prove it, because after leaping twice despite my efforts to keep that from happening, the green bass threw my chatterbait back at me in defiance. Yep, that big bass tore me a new one… After that, I tossed hard baits for quite a while without another bite while Howard experimented with various soft plastics and chatterbaits. Neither of us got into them much along the main lake, so we decided to head up the lake into the skinny water. I really like it up there as it’s like the Maryland Bayou with cypress trees everywhere. Sometimes the fishing can be good, and with the temperatures increasing quickly as the sun became higher in the sky, the shady cover of those cypress trees felt pretty good to us. And we thought that the fish would like that as well. So, with the prospect of cooler water and perhaps a little current, we hoped to get into them up there. After tossing chatterbaits all the way up, we both switched to finesse plastics. Well, we found the chain pickerel. I think that I landed about 10 percent of the ones that bit, the rest bit me off or jumped and threw the hook. Meanwhile, Howard got into a zone and began systematically thumping my butt catching one nice largemouth after another, as I kept getting bitten off or catching dinky bass. During that time frame, Howard also lost a big bass that lept a few times and finally took to the cover and broke Howard off. We estimated that bass to be in the 20”+ range, maybe 5 pounds or so. Howard put on a clinic up there on finesse bassin’ After spending some time in the skinny water, we moved back out to the main lake again and worked soft plastics around the cover that we worked with the hard baits earlier. We managed some more bass and pickerel, and eventually I was able to make a comeback. We fished the shady woody cover and the bass were willing once again, chewing on our plastic worms like candy. We didn’t catch a lot, we caught some quality fish. We saw a critter swimming across the lake and determined that it was a raccoon. We caught up to it and I tried to get a picture, but my Droid picked an inopportune moment to act up and prevent my camera from operating properly. I cursed so danged loud when that raccoon got away that the zillion turtles nearby all ducked under the water’s surface all at the same time. Now I was really ticked off about the way the day was going. At least you’d think that the camera would permit me to record something! NOT! Meanwhile, Howard was getting quite a kick out my moment of rage, cracking up at me in the back of the boat… …kind of like earlier up in the Maryland bayou when I tied on a new Zoom Baby Brush Hog and snagged a branch on my backcast, then after peeling that off the limb proceeded to do it again above my head followed by some foul language on my part. As if that wasn’t enough, my next cast to a cypress tree base promptly zoomed right for the middle of the tree 10’ above my projected target, and wrapping around a tree limb. I went ballistic. Thank goodness that St. Croix makes stout rods because I think that I nearly ripped the tree down in my fit of cursing rage. The lure came out at lightning speed and thumped me right in the chest. Howard was in tears laughing, I think. Here’s the first fish of my comeback, not big by any means, but he thought he was a 5 pounder and fought that way…which brought a measure of happiness and calmed me down a bit. Two casts later I tied into this nice one, my biggest largemouth of the day. This fish made me forget all about the raccoon incident. Well, we caught some nice quality bass after that, but nothing picture worthy. I had one more decent bass hit a chatterbait and a nice chain pickerel do the same, nearly ripping the rod from my hand. In summary, we finished a beautiful day with some pretty decent numbers, but we worked our butt off for them. Each of us caught a dozen bass and our share of chainsides. I think that I finished with nine pickerel (out of a zillion bites and bite offs), and we each caught a couple big bull bluegills. I’m not sure how many chain pickerel that Howard caught, but I believe that he caught a few more than I did. I know that he also had a huge one bite him off at the upper end of the lake. I tried to fish my panfish set up a few times, but the pickerel kept biting me off, so I gave up on that. I might as well have dumped my jigs into the lake. The bluegills were feeding on the surface all day across the lake. It probably would have been a grand time with a fly rod and a small popper or dragonfly imitation.

According to the FOB website: Boater: 18 lbs. 10 oz.; lunker 4 lbs. 7 oz. Co-Angler: 14 lbs. 5 oz.; lunker 5 lbs. 9 oz.

Sean, I have a Powell flipping/pitching rod and I love it. Great quality. Glad to see you getting out again. Great report guys, and nice kitty Ken! I was at BH for the afternoon on Saturday, above the tubes looked like coffee and there were spots on the main lake that looked murky, but considering that everything within 20 miles was chocolate, that wasn't too bad. I actually like that water color. Alas, I wasn't bass fishing though. My buddy and I spent the entire afternoon/evening targeting tiger muskies. No hits and no follows tossing musky baits. We each caught a nice bass, me with a 19" largemouth on a 10" Grandma lure (musky crankbait) and my buddy with a 17-18" bass caught on a musky sized spinner. Other than a few largemouth follows and attempted strikes on the musky lures, that was it for the action. My buddy Dave caught 10 bass that day but worked hard for them with his biggest going 19" even. Half were dinks, the rest decent size, all on plastic worms and creature baits. Anyone seeing any tiger muskies this year, by the way? I had one nearly take a dink bass from me a couple weeks ago.

LOL, now that's funny! I'm hoping to wet a line this evening but the weather outlook doesn't look too good. I plan to get out as much as possible this weekend though as long as my wife lets me (or maybe I'll just sneak out)

Yep, I agree with Allen, there are some good deals on Craigslist. Check multiple cities in VA, MD, WV and PA. Bill, nice fish anywhere, much less downtown Frederick! I also wonder about the creek if it has largemouth in it running through the center of town

micorps, Great colors for any plastics that you buy: green pumpkin(s), watermelon(s), black/blue, black, black/chartreuse, blue fleck, smoke purple, chartreuse, white, shad colors...try to imitate the forage (mostly shad, bluegills, crawfish, frogs). Basically, natural colors when the water is clear to murky, dark or bright when it's stained to muddy. You can't go wrong with green pumpkin anything. Plastic worms (from 4" finesse to larger sizes), tubes, soft stick baits (Senko style), flukes/sluggo style baits, crawfish imitations, creature baits, grubs I have my favorite brands, but who doesn't? Have confidence in your favorites. I like Zoom, Kalins, Yamamoto, Mizmo, Case and a few other brands...but they all work. About your boat choices: you should be able to find plenty of water to fish with either of those boats, lakes or rivers.

micorps, there is a lot of variety in Maryland, so this is a tough question. It all depends on what you want to target. In Southern Maryland, a deep-V prop boat or a full sized glass bass boat on the Upper Tidal Potomac (targeting bass, stripers, catfish, perch, etc.) would do well with standard electronics (trolling motor, etc.). There are some walleyes to be had above DC in the Potomac or at Deep Creek Lake (about 3-4 hours away) where these boats would be OK too. However, in the Lower Tidal Potomac and the Cheseapeake Bay if you're after stripers, bluefish, sea trout, flounder, etc., the water is brackish to salt, and you'd need to be equipped with a trolling motor and electronics that can handle salt water. I have a buddy that likes to bass fish but also enjoys the saltwater species on the bay, and recently purchased a 22' Mako that has a deck like a bass boat, a 200 hp outboard, but a walk around center console, and he teamed it with a 36V 101 lb. thrust salt water trolling motor. It's a beast on the tidal waters and he can fish for stripers in the bay, or bass in the Upper Tidal Potomac. He just can't fish much of the upper Potomac where it's too rocky and shallow except for maybe two or three small sections. The lakes in Southern Maryland (St. Mary's Lake, Wheatley) have varying regulations, and are best suited for bass boats or semi-v boats. If you prefer to fish moving shallow, rocky sections of the rivers for smallmouth and walleye, an aluminum jet boat is a good thing to have. Yet, there are sections of the Upper Potomac that you can run a prop boat with some care. The Eastern jet boat models are quite different than those out West, and are set up for drifting rocky ledges, drafting inches of water on the float (not just while on plane). Also, regarding the Tidal Potomac and the Bay, it's big water, so keep that in mind. That said, there is no perfect boat for Maryland. It all depends where you'd spend most of your time. Figure out where you'd want to fish the most, and then decide on the boat.

Bill, very cool video, thanks!!!

Also, it could be that there are bass bedding, but too deep to see. I've heard that clearer water and heavy fishing pressure will do that...and we all know that those conditions occur at Black Hills ! I meant to say for all you guys new to fishing BH, Allen's advice here couldn't be more true. It's a golden rule at that lake, and many other reservoirs in the area too. Find the thermocline, and you'll find fish especially if there's a weed line, structure, cover, or all three. Another way to do that is if you catch a good fish, remember how deep it was or where it was, and duplicate that everywhere else that you go on the lake, look for similar spots.

Allen, I think that they're done now for the most part and in post spawn mode, and we're finding willing bass closer to areas where we usually find them in early summer. I didn't see any on beds at all last time out. It's possible that there could be some still bedding along the deep SC channel or toward the dam though, we didn't venture over there.

3Ya know, that's also what happened to me. It's annoying. The green sunfish, perch and crappie will drive you nuts. What I found is that if put it right on the bank, then the panfish would peck at your lure like crazy. If I placed my cast deeper on the drop off, it happened less. Not to say that some bass weren't high on the bank, some were, but most were deeper.