Fat Boy

Mabye it's not too bad of a price if everyone pitches in. I'd be willing to. Sean, did you find anything out?

Kewl vid David, and nice fish. Ken, I think that my buddy and I drove by that evening and saw you fishing with your buddy. We were driving around checking out the deer population and decided to drive to the ramp and take a look around. It's always hard driving to a lake without fishing gear, LOL! I was going to say something, but then thought that it would be best not to hassle the anglers during the magic hour! Next time I'll say hey.

Do we want to get a pavilion? Or, just get on the water and fish?

Potomac mixed bag 08/16/11 I got out after work yesterday for a couple hours. My buddy Howard was going to meet me but something came up and he couldn’t make it. The river is in good shape, up a bit, and with a little stain to it. The biggest problem though, was that there’s a lot of star grass pieces floating everywhere, and it’s a buzzbait nightmare, clogging the blades and ruining the action. I made a lot of good casts that were ruined by that stuff. And, on top of that, the water had some stain to it, otherwise I'd have used a rage toad. Now the results: I had one hog explode on my lure but missed it. I tried a couple more casts and it wouldn’t hit again, and followed with a worm without any luck. I stuck with the buzzer though and managed to catch three keeper sized bass (two largemouth and a smallmouth) all between 12” and 14”. I did get one other dink smallie on a worm. All of the fish hit at dusk. The highlight of the trip was just after dark, when I had another explosion in the out at the end of my cast. As I fought the fish in the dark, I thought it was a decent bass but to my surprise, it was a 21” channel catfish. I tried to get a picture but my camera couldn’t pick it up. No pics this time, I took some but they didn’t turn out. My camera is broken and I need a new one once I get my daughter moved back into school. I want a waterproof digital Sony…

I should be OK for October 2nd.

I'd like to join y'all too, so count me in. I don't have a boat, but my buddy has a crawdad, so he may want to come too. The only problem day for me is 9/24. It's National Hunting and Fishing Day, and the Rockville IWL has it's open house that day to celebrate, and I'm working there that day.

Sorry for not posting much lately. I'd be interested in a get together too. I'm just now getting back into the swing of things after a beach vacation without fishing. I did get out the day before we left for the beach, and again on Sunday, here is a brief write up and some pics: I haven't posted many pics lately, so I thought that I'd add a few. My buddy Howard and I been catching a lot of bass like these this year. I had one up against the bank a couple weeks ago that was huge, between 8 and 10 pounds most likely. I was climbing down the bank to lip it and it rolled over, the hook came out, and it flopped into the water. I was night fishing when it hit a buzzbait and went ballistic for several minutes. My personal best ever bass was over 7 pounds and 24" long. This one was easily that length, but much fatter, and by far the biggest largemouth that I've ever hooked. It would have been a nice picture for y'all, but alas, it wasn't to be. I know where she hangs out, so one year I'll get her, maybe this year. Still, that night wasn't bad, I got one that was about four pounds and several fish in the 18" range that night. Here are a few pics of our fish from that trip: Anyway, here are some from Sunday as we fished in torrential rain all morning long. We were soaked to the bone, but the fish were biting. I got 18 total largemouth Sunday, 12 were keeper sized, and 5 were this size and my buddy Howard did about the same including a few nice smallmouth.

My plans fell through, so I'm stayin in the AC. I had to work later than I wanted also which didn't help. I considered tomorrow but they're calling for temps tomorrow to be 106 F (and that's not the heat index either).

I'm going to get out also, but I'm getting in the water somewhere

It's been a weird but pretty good year for me. My numbers are way up but my big fish numbers are down. My biggest largemouth so far is 4 lbs. 14 oz. and my biggest smallie was 3 lb. 8 oz. I've got more smallies over three. A day good day on the Susquehanna can really boost your big fish count I'm confident that as long as I keep putting the time in the big fish numbers will pick up. I'm thinkin' that some summer buzzin' could improve my odds.

Beautiful fish David! What a monster! Upper Potomac Report 7/17/11: My fishing buddy Howard and I fished the Upper Potomac on Sunday. It was a nice drive out to the river. Here's a scenery shot from on top of a mountain: As you can see, this place looked really promising. The water was low and fairly clear. Plus, the view up and down the river was beautiful, and we had it pretty much to ourselves except for a group of 8 friendly tubers and a few canoes, and only 2 of those people were fishing. Here are a couple fish caught: This river smallie nailed a 4" plastic worm. One that Howard landed. Another bronzeback, not big, but the size that I don't mind catching all day long. I finished with 58 smallies, 2 red breast sunnies, 2 rock bass, and a green sunfish, with about a dozen of the bass being between 12” and 14”. This was a new spot and I think that I'd go back. It has a lot of potential. It’s not the Susky and the fish could be a bit bigger, but it was a ton of fun. My buddy guessed that he finished with 40 something bass and a rock bass on the day. His numbers between 12” and 14” were comparable to mine. Buzzbaits seemed to not get the dinks and caught mostly good sized ones for him. I caught mine while jigging soft plastics. Nothin' like a wet wade when fishing on a hot day.

Congrats on the boat 301!

Nice summary of the Washington County ramps Sean. I was going to post the same info but I couldn't have said it any better. Taylors this time of year is really tricky and you need a jet. When the river is up you will be OK. You can put in at Seneca Creek along the Potomac and have about 3 miles to run when the river is up, but learn where the shallow rocks are first before you go too far up river. My buddy tore up his lower unit that way on his Tracker years ago. Basically, the water past the first island gets tricky in the summer... Also, you may want to consider Raystown in PA. No HP limit and the fishing can be good. The Lower Potomac has a lot of room to run and good fishing...worth the permit fees for sure. The upper tidal Patuxent and the Eastern Shore rivers are good too.

Nice hog of a bass there David! Here's my report from Saturday... My buddy Howard and I got out on Saturday with the intention of hitting a pickerel/largemouth spot in a Western Maryland first, then wade for smallies somewhere in MD or PA. Our trip didn't quite start off as planned... Strike One - On the way to the first spot, this happened: Strike Two - Our largemouth/pickerel spot was a bust. The water was about 2' too low, and the entire place was choked with weeds. I managed to catch four 12" largemouth. Strike Three - We decided to hit the Potomac and do some wading for smallmouth. We wanted to try a new place, so we checked out a couple and decided to give one place a try. At first it looked promising, but when we actually tried to wade it moving around was kind of tough, plus, that spot lacked that nice rocky ledge or chunk rock structure that you'd like to see. Anf finally, the smallmouth just weren't hitting. Usually, three strikes and we're out... ..Now, that might be enough for many to call it quits, but we decided to head North into PA and try wading a small stream. Rather than prospect for a new spot, we decided to head to a known location that has been productive for us in the past. We finished with pretty comparable numbers. I landed 20 smallmouth, mostly small but spunky, but some in the 13 to 15" range, and 30 rock bass. I lost a lot of fish too, so the fish were fairly agressive. Not bad for about 4 hours of fishing time and it saved our day. Here are some pics from our day on the stream: Scenery Shot My "rocky" in the foreground, Howard's humpback smallie in the background: Howard's humpback smallmouth...this fish had a weird humped back: Another scenery shot with Howard landing a fish:

Who's fishing where this weekend? I heard hot weather is coming back, mid 90's on Saturday. Might be a good time to get in the water and do some wading.

I haven't been down there lately, but I can give you some advice from past years down there. First, here's last weeks fishing report from Gene Mueller from the Washington Times. I'd pay attention to his reports because they can be helpful at least to give you ideas to start with: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/22/blue-cat-may-be-a-record/ From my past experiences during end of June/early July, it really depends on the water temperature and how much weed growth is out there. if the weeds haven't matted up yet, lipless and shallow diving crankbaits could be productive over and around the grass beds. Mann's one minus cranks work pretty well. If you hook some weeds, rip it away then stop cranking and often you'll draw a strike. Spinnerbaits also are good around the weeds. Topwater could give you some good early morning and evening bite strikes too. If it's hot and the hydrilla has matted up, try pitching the pockets and holes (or punching them if you have that tackle at the ready). Early morning and late evening frogging works good over the mats too, as do super flukes, senkos, etc. Soft plastics work well around wood all year long. Isolated logs often hold a fish. If it's hot, think shade. If you have a little depth, shady cover, and a moving tide, you should get fish. Spinnerbaits also work well in these areas. If you like to flip and pitch, try that too. Some of the creeks have boat docks, pitch to them. Spatterdock fields also produce especially during tide changes. Frogs and weedless plastics are effective. Also, check out some deep water spots. Bridge pilings and deep diving crankbaits are worth trying. Weed beds can be found at the mouths of most of the creeks and inside the creeks. There are also some along the main stem. Flats with weeds near deep water can be hot spots. Finally, pay attention to the tides. The fish don't move far, but you have to adjust and find them when the water levels change. Hope this helps. Good luck.

I haven't been there in a while, but I enjoyed the bass fishing there. The water these days is a bit lower than it was years ago, but the fish are still there. Most of the fish are on the small side, but once in awhile you can find some decent ones. I imagine there are some big ones to be found when conditions are right. The good thing about the water being low is that there is more access to shore anglers. The bad thing is that there is a lot less woody cover than there used to be. Small cartopper type boats can get around pretty well. We used to use a Coleman Crawdad in there. It also has crappie and bluegills if you like to catch panfish.

...continued... Anyway, I had a great time today, not just because the fishing was good, but the company was much better.

I had the pleasure of fishing with Dave Roberts today at Black Hills. We got an early start and it seemed like we might have a good topwater bite. Muskies were chasing panfish and bass were chasing bait along the shorelines. I started with a buzzer with no luck on that. Dave had a nice start after nailing a nice one on a topwater popping plug: The early morning wildlife gave us a treat: I tried a jerkbait without any hits and then fished a skirted bass jig with no hits. So, I decided it was time to finesse these bass and put some fish in the boat. It wasn't hot action, but the fishing was pretty steady all day. We found fish around weeds and wood along primary and secondary drop offs. My first decent bass spit up a crawdad: I finished with 21 bass but 13 of them were dinks. No real big fish this time but the keepers that we caught (and released) were pretty chunky. Dave also caught a good many bass. We did boat several nice fish mixed in though, the following pics depict some of the fun we had: Here we had some fun with this fish and the camera. The first pic is magazine style ;D But here's a more realistic pic of how big this fish really was...only a 14 incher: to be continued in the next post...

Thanks Brian. I'm fishing Black Hills tomorrow...maybe I'll see some y'all out there. I can't wait as I haven't fished in over a week now and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms. You can only practice pitching and flipping in your back yard so many times...especially when the neighbor's cat isn't biting

Thanks HBM. It was late the other night and I was tired, perhaps cranky and fussy too. I should have just got some rest and should have stopped trying to be analytical. I guess I turned out to be anal without the ytical. Congratulations on your tournament win!

Huge! I bet it ate scuba divers...might see an episode on River Monsters!

big bait theory or fish heavy cover

OK, thanks for clarifying. Maybe I did take it the wrong way. I actually took it differently the first time, but the more I read it the more it seemed like it was directed at my actions Normally, I take pics and post a report. But since I haven't been posting reports, I figured the pics would tell the story for the most (just that I've been out there fishing). I left out the reports because any info would be outdated and not useful to anyone. In my opinion, pictures improve the on line experience. I enjoy reading other peoples reports and seeing pics of their experiences so I thought that I could return the favor and post some of mine. Also, I practice CP&R on almost everything I catch, and always for bass and stripers. I occasionally keep a few panfish on ice fishing trips in the winter for the table. I feel that I had to say that because of my own filet knife sarcastic remark. HBM, if that's the way you meant it, as described above, then I apologize.

At first I thought that this was a friendly site. Sorry to offend anyone. All fish pictured were, well, pretty ordinary and not worthy. That said, all were carefully released and not eaten (because I left my filet knife at home that night). And, I only honked my horn on I270 because a bumper sticker told me to.