finally caught some smallies!

[Kenny Yi]

Went to Goose Creek, it branches off the Potomac River, hoped to relax and wade for some panfish, ultralight style. 

 

I've always known that smallmouth, and largemouth, were in Goose Creek, but I could never seem to find/catch them.  The creek is tiny in width, not to mention that the water level is super low right now, so I usually don't expect to find bass as far as Kepheart Bridge Landing (where I started).

 

The bait of the day was a Mr. Crappie 2" Grub on a Mr. Crappie jig hook in a size 6.  Like I said, I was targeting panfish.  After 2 hours of wading and endless panfish fun, I hooked into a fish that peeled drag on my ultralight setup, jumped 3 feet out of the water, behold... my first ever smallmouth!  Twas a dink of a bass, maybe only twice as big as the sunfish I was catching but it was incredible to finally catch a bass.  Another hour of sunfish, then I catch another smallmouth, relatively the same size.  Right before I'm about to head in, I make a cast into some slack water behind some rocks (textbook cover), and a much bigger smallmouth destroys my bait.  After approx 2-3 min fight on 4lb test mono, I landed a 1lb 2oz smallie and ended my day. 

 

In total, 3 smallmouth, 2 baby largemouth, 2 bluegill, and endless sunfish

[TheBasslayer]

Congrats on your 1st smallmouth!

[gunsinger]

That’s a nice day of fishing there. Congrats.

[dovii]

Nice catch!