Maryland's Who's who!

[fishwizzard]

12 minutes ago, Fried Lemons said:

The weedless one is the Working Class Zero Citizen, line thru is 3:16 Rising Son.

Cool, thanks!  You have been super helpful in all things canal-related.  

[Fried Lemons]

Fished 9:30-1:15 at one of my usual spots, bluebird conditions. I hadn't caught anything over 3 from this spot in over a year so I wasn't feeling too confident. Caught a 3 and a 4.25 early on in 3 FOW, shaded timber. Feeling optimistic, I continued with the shallow cover pattern for about an hour with no success. I decided to saturate cast a particularly good laydown and on the 5th cast, I got smashed.

 

A few casts later at an isolated brush pile nearby I got smashed again.

 

I grinded my way back to the parking lot and managed to stick one more 2lber. I had a heron repeatedly follow me attempting to dive bomb my swimbait and decided to call it a day. There were a ton of people hiking the path today and more than once I got comments about fishing for turtles.

[microotter]

@Fried Lemons impressive!

[Junger]

My wife took the kids on a playdate, so that gave me a few hours to take a hike and fish Widewater. I headed out at 4PM when there was a light drizzle, but the forecast was to clear up. Got there, and all the duckweed was cleared out so all the banks were open with no debris. There was a slight breeze and some light rain so I went with a small spinnerbait at first. Casted parallel, and 40 degrees to the bank and got nothing. Then I got to the trail wall, and got smacked once. Then I came to the section of the walls where it casting was difficult because of trees so I put the jig and craw on and got nothing. I couldn't figure them out and I walked toward the lock. I saw sporadic duckweed, and flowing water from all the rain. It's shallower here so I look in my backpack and it was either a senko or a spare fluke that I sometime use as a trailer. Gut told me to go with the fluke, and it paid off. I got a good 2lber on maybe the third cast, then the next cast a good one that was over 3lbs. Both fish were still very warm and fought really hard. After the 2nd fish, the fluke was mangled and not salvageable. It was a good ways back to the parking lot, so I was satisfied and headed home just before sunset and rewarded myself with a barbacoa burrito from Chipotle.

 

Also saw about 20 of these birds roosting on one of the rock islands, and in the trees. I think they were black vultures, but I'm not 100% sure. They were large, and had white wing tips on the underside, and white dots on the top.

 

[Scoob13]

Not sure if this is allowed or not. If not, I will delete. 

 

Anyone looking for for some new gear?

 

Got a St. Croix Legend Tournament Medium 6’7” spinning rod with a Pflueger Patriarch 30 reel. Looking for $250

 

Also have a G Loomis Worm and Jig Medium 6’7” spinning rod with a Pflueger Patriarch 30 reel. Looking for $250

 

Located in Germantown, MD

[Deleted account]

So went on a group bike ride today in SoMD which included a few of the roads that lead to Smallwood, and made a stop there. FLW is there and there are guys pulling boats everywhere. Anyway, PSA: secure your rod socks better. I am now the proud owner of 4 found miles apart, and since I don't baby tackle, I have no use for them. None of the cyclists could guess what they were. 

[Junger]

Still got the rod socks? Got a Hoyo #2 Cuban with your name on it next time we meet up.

[Deleted account]

18 hours ago, Junger said:

Still got the rod socks? Got a Hoyo #2 Cuban with your name on it next time we meet up.

Done!

[Fried Lemons]

Fished Dickerson over the weekend. The plan was to start with a rat in the morning hitting shaded cover then transition to a soft bait as the sun got higher. I got a total of 4 blowups casting the rat tight to cover and deadsticking it with an occasional twitch. Later as the shade line receded I continued to catch by cranking it down and crashing it against limbs like a squarebill. 

 

Overall it was a blast to fish and was very effective at drawing fish of all sizes out of cover.

 

Best of the day at 5.25.

 

Dink of the day at <1lb.

[Junger]

I used to go clamming up there on the main river when I was a kid and always walked the towpath past those juicy canal holes. 

[Dave Valverde]

48 minutes ago, Junger said:

I used to go clamming up there on the main river when I was a kid and always walked the towpath past those juicy canal holes. 

I still do. Rain killed most of them this year

Also killed the great river grasses

 

 

Pennyfield smallmouth no more!

[fishwizzard]

@Fried Lemons, we could do a Goofus and Gallant comic about canal fishing, my friend and I were there last Monday and only managed to grind out a pair of dinks.  

 

We spent the morning wading at Harper’s Ferry and had no luck at all. We couldn’t find any grass and couldn’t even find any sunfish or baitfish activity.  The water level was great and the clarity was outstanding, but there were literally no fish to be seen. 

[Fried Lemons]

Yeah I’ve been wading a few times this year. It’s been really difficult for me at least, none of the spots I’ve had past success at produced anything, not even dinks.

[fishwizzard]

Yea, it’s really disappointing.  I am a lot more comfortable wading the Potomac with someone else but it’s hard to sell getting to anyone to come along with how poor the fishing has been of late. 

[microotter]

The very first time that I waded the Upper Potomac this year I got 4 bites, but only landed two smallies in a few hours. I went back to the same spot a half dozen times and got one additional bite total. Kind of glad to hear it isn’t only me. Did get to see some really cool wildlife on days that I was skunked. 

[Logan S]

I didn't get to fish it, but FOBA had another open derby on Black Hill last weekend...Winning weight was 19-0.  The winners were the only boat to get a limit though and everyone else reported pretty tough fishing - Which is to be expected in late August though.  4 fish for 11lbs was 2nd place.  

 

Good to see some big weights at BH again...Our June tournament had over 19lbs to win also.  Been a stretch of a couple seasons where the big weights weren't showing up like they used to.

[Dave Valverde]

I think a lot of the smallmouth died with the rains. Maybe I'm crazy.

[Joshua Vandamm]

On 8/26/2019 at 2:27 PM, Fried Lemons said:

Fished Dickerson over the weekend. The plan was to start with a rat in the morning hitting shaded cover then transition to a soft bait as the sun got higher. I got a total of 4 blowups casting the rat tight to cover and deadsticking it with an occasional twitch. Later as the shade line receded I continued to catch by cranking it down and crashing it against limbs like a squarebill. 

 

Overall it was a blast to fish and was very effective at drawing fish of all sizes out of cover.

 

Best of the day at 5.25.

 

 

Dink of the day at <1lb.

Canal?

[Steveo-1969]

I have not had much success catching smallmouth while wading the Upper Potomac this year either. Smallmouth numbers are declining in the U.P. and it's difficult to catch fish that aren't there.

 

The MD DNR is aware of the declining population and a report mentioned poor spawns the last several years due to flooding. They tried unsuccessfully to stock smallmouth in the river this spring.

 

https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Documents/Potomac_River_SMBass_Stocking.pdf

 

http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pages/smallmouth_bass_stocking.aspx

 

[Junger]

21 hours ago, Steveo-1969 said:

I have not had much success catching smallmouth while wading the Upper Potomac this year either. Smallmouth numbers are declining in the U.P. and it's difficult to catch fish that aren't there.

 

The MD DNR is aware of the declining population and a report mentioned poor spawns the last several years due to flooding. They tried unsuccessfully to stock smallmouth in the river this spring.

 

https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Documents/Potomac_River_SMBass_Stocking.pdf

 

http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pages/smallmouth_bass_stocking.aspx

 

Trump National clearing out all the trees on the VA side probably didn't help much either.

[MountainMan83]

Received my Tatula SV yesterday and couldn't find a better way to break her in!

[Fried Lemons]

Got a few this past Sunday. All fish ate the  citizen fished in heavy cover. 

upload image

[MountainMan83]

37 minutes ago, Fried Lemons said:

Got a few this past Sunday. All fish ate the  citizen fished in heavy cover. 

upload image

Nice fish!

[microotter]

Someone asked me if I caught any turtles while fishing the canal this morning, reminded me of what @Fried Lemons said haha. I caught one on a paddle tail and threw in the same spot and hooked into another one but I got hung up on timber instantly. Neither were too big. I also had a couple fish take my frog underwater but they didn’t hang on. I have been doing pretty well (for me) the past couple times out. 

[Fried Lemons]

Fished the Potomac looking for stripers today. I hit a couple of spots with just one missed bite on a pointer 78. I finally found the active fish in some white water rushing along a bluff wall. I was catching runts every cast on an easy shiner. I switched to a floating freestyle shad and got some vicious topwater strikes from the bigger fish in the school.