Maryland's Who's who!

[Junger]

My buddy was visiting us from out of town for the weekend. Weather reports varied as Accuweather had rain/showers starting at 6AM throughout the whole morning, and WeatherUnderground had light rain starting at 9AM. Well, we took the risk and got to the ramp at 5:30AM and were fishing by sunrise. Cloudy, about 4mph winds, with a couple gusts here and there. It was picture perfect with lowtide at 7:45AM. But suprisingly, the fish weren't cooperating much. I was throwing a chatterbait and my friend was throwing the pompadour. We started along the left grass edge before the bike trail wall, and we had one hit on topwater. Two weeks ago I had 8 LMB under similar conditions along that wall...difference was about 6 degree water temp drop down to 72. Then we motored past the wall to the timber side. Past the first beaver hut, I threw the chatterbait and immediately felt resistance and saw the gold flash, snakehead on. My friend wanted to cook up snakehead bites so we harvested it.

I let my friend throw the chatterbait, figuring that they weren't that interested in topwater, so I put on the Spro Rat to get my topwater fix. I threw it over a sunken log and paused it and it got smashed. This was probably a 2+lb'er, but it had a treble hooked into the gill, not a lot of blood but I wanted to get her back into the water ASAP.

I switched up to a paddletail underspin as the wind picked up, and in a narrower stretch of the creek, I felt a bump, then a tug...thought I had another snakehead but it was this little guy....

The rain started to pick up at 10AM, so we decided to head back in. 
 

It was a fun, trip and I'm glad we took the chance and went out because it was a nice window before 10AM.

[fishwizzard]

That’s awesome dude, except for the part about running out of gas.  

 

Have you cooked the snakehead yet?

[Junger]

31 minutes ago, fishwizzard said:

That’s awesome dude, except for the part about running out of gas.  

 

Have you cooked the snakehead yet?

No, he took it home and was filet'ing it tonight. I've had it before, and it's a super dense fish. If I made nuggets out of them and fed it to my kids, I bet they would think it was chicken.

[Fried Lemons]

Nice report sounds like a good time. Those catfish are everywhere on the Potomac, I cannot seem to avoid them no matter what I throw. 

 

I went to Little Seneca for a short session. Air temps were pleasant for June at around 70 with overcast skies and a light drizzle. I started off Clarksburg Road and fished the surrounding coves. Shore access was kind of sketchy with thorns, poison ivy and tall grass to contend with. I noticed the occasional fish breaking around a cove. Figuring there would be a topwater bite I tied on a wake bait and slowly dragged it across. This fish hit just as the bait was nearing some wood.

Shortly after I had another hit by a beaver dam but didn't connect. The rain was coming down pretty fast at this point and I was getting soaked so I called it a day.

[microotter]

These are my last two fish. I somehow never caught catfish in moving lures until fishing the lower Potomac. 

 

[patred]

You don't find Mr. Whiskers.  Mr. Whiskers finds you.

 

Pat

[microotter]

Haha, I don’t mind catching them on lures. It beats raw chicken livers or stink-bait. 

[Fried Lemons]

Some Potomac Gorge fish. Caught on jerkbaits and paddletails.

 

 

I'll get out again soon and throw a glide. Seems like a good time.

[Junger]

Dude, I can't believe you walked all the way from the state park down there! 

 

My plan for father's day didn't quite pan out, the water at Great Falls park was way down and totally unfishable...just a few months ago it was fishable. Maybe they're moving the canal work down here now that they're done at Swains.

 

We hiked about a mile up and then back and then headed to Five Guys for shakes.

 

[Fried Lemons]

Ha yeah it takes some rock climbing and maybe a wade depending on the water levels. 

 

Swains has like 1/4 mile of fishable water but you need to walk for about 10 minutes to get there. I spotted a bass around 3lb following in a crappie I was reeling so there are some decent ones still in there. Widewater is also down another 1.5ft or so. You can actually see some of the offshore structure which would be cool to fish once they fill it back up. I need to get a kayak or something maybe next year.

[Choporoz]

Considering a trip up to put the yak in at Perryville park for a tourny.  I've read the regs, but won't admit that I'm positive about anything.  My interpretation is that I need a MD non-resident Tidal license.  Is that correct?  Also, I don't see a 'sportfishing', or 'combo' license.   I'll need both tidal and freshwater to fish Upper Bay and Conowingo or Black Hill Lake.  Correct?  Thanks for any/all info!

[Logan S]

MD doesn't offer a combo license unfortunately. 

 

Upper Bay will need the MD 'Bay & Coastal Sport' license -OR- a PRFC license (they cover the same waters in MD).  PRFC would save you a few bucks over MD non-resident prices and give you coverage on the entire VA part of the bay too...but you can't get them online (yes, it's 2019).  If you live near one of the shops that sells them it might be worth it though?

 

Wingo and Black Hill will need the MD 'Non-Tidal' license...No way around the non-resident cost there.  On Wingo if you go inside any of the creeks in PA (off the 'mainstem' of river) you are supposed to have a PA license...But in the main river the MD will work all the way up to Holtwood.  

 

[Deleted account]

The bay above the BB is one big dead zone right now. Shallow in the tribs might be ok. On the plus side, all the striped bass are clustered together in 2 places. Talk about fish in a barrel.

[microotter]

Anyone happen to know how the Potomac (upper or lower) looks after the recent heavy rains? The gauges seem pretty low, but was wondering about the color. Trying to decide where to fish this weekend. Thanks!

[Junger]

2 minutes ago, microotter said:

Anyone happen to know how the Potomac (upper or lower) looks after the recent heavy rains? The gauges seem pretty low, but was wondering about the color. Trying to decide where to fish this weekend. Thanks!

I'm going to walk the canal around Widewater tomorrow evening, I'll let you know how it looks from the towpath.

[Nai]

Looking to go out in my boat on the sassafras on Sunday. Ill let you guys know how I do. 

[Deleted account]

Had a meeting that kept getting postponed for an hour or two several times on Thursday, and had the frog rod in the car, so I hit a local spot for about 1/2 hour like 4 times. Only got 2 bites, only one came tight, but it ended up being just shy of 6, so that was ok. 

[fishwizzard]

Decided to go fish the former Bohde Dam site this morning only to discover they don’t open the gate until 9am!

 

Who is causing trouble at the river between sunup and nine?  

 

 

[microotter]

I waded the Upper Potomac for about three hours this morning. It took me awhile to find a decent spot. Ended up catching two smallmouth and missed two fish. I am not sure how I missed either fish, but wonder if the hook I was using was not sharp enough. Caught the two on a ned trd and missed two on a paddle tail. 

[Nai]

I went out on my boat this morning on the sassafras and caught a nice bass and lost one. I wasn't out there for too long. I was fishing a pretty bare bones dock with a lot of shade and casted a ned rig shallow and caught him. Ill post the picture tomorrow. Decent day though, the boat ran 11/10 and had a near death experience with a sandbar. Good day though

[fishwizzard]

Dispite the later then desired start, I had a good day on the Patapsco on Saturday.  The river is looking great and the even the long shallow runs have a good rocky bottom, almost no silty areas. 

The scar from the old dam site is still very prominent but they did a really good job building the channel and it is some very good looking water.

 

The river below the dam is much deeper and faster then I remember it, with some spots being easily 6' deep.  I didn't come prepared to fish water that deep or current that fast, but I still managed about a half dozen of the usual Patapsco 7-12" smallies and a few rock bass mixed in.  I didn't get any panfish, which is odd, very few machine-gun nibbles either.  

 

The high point of the day was catching a striper about 50y below the old dam.

 

I know there is nothing stopping one from getting this far upriver, but it was a huge shock.  I though I had a PB smallie on the line for most of the fight, I could not believe it when I saw it. 

[Fried Lemons]

Took an evening trip to Swains Lock. I hadn't been there in a while and the amount of grass growth threw me off a bit. The lures I brought were treble hooked so I went with the wake bait. I was steering it through some gaps in the grass when this bass struck with a vengeance. 

 

Feeling adventurous, I made my way to the river hoping to find a topwater bite. When I got to my spot I could see and hear fish busting through a foam mat. After a few casts I felt my wake get bumped, then nothing. I spent the next half hour making the same cast getting bumped and blown up on without hooking into a fish. Many casts and even more mosquito bites later, I get a huge blowup followed by a heavy weight. Felt like a nice striper but alas it was my old nemesis.

 

Overall not a bad night. I think I could have done some real damage if I had brought frogs.

[MskSlyr]

Have not posted on here in years but with my son fishing more and more thought would be good time to pop back on. Not sure if still goes by the name Basser89 but took my son Gavin to a pond he and I fished together in the past. Had a great evening and landed a good bass. No scale as this was a spur of the moment. With line we used to measure length and girth (25 7/8 x 19.5). Have few other pics as well as soon as I figure out the nuances to site now. 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is one more as I posted a dup prior. 

[patred]

On 6/25/2019 at 10:26 PM, fishwizzard said:

The high point of the day was catching a striper about 50y below the old dam.

 

I know there is nothing stopping one from getting this far upriver, but it was a huge shock.  I though I had a PB smallie on the line for most of the fight, I could not believe it when I saw it. 

I'm pretty sure I saw a couple snakeheads fishing the Patapsco last year a little down river from where you were.

 

Pat

[Junger]

I got a couple hours to fish last night and decided on Widewater, it's usually cleaner than other water after a good rain event but when I got there I was not expecting this.

 

It was basically a debris and duckweed field that went out 10-15 yards all along the bank. I was planning on paddletails, spinners, and maybe some topwater, but that totally changed and I pegged a 1/4oz t-rigged GY Cowboy on and basically used it to punch through the debris.

 

Nothing along the first stretch of bank where the debris was heavy, but past the walking bridge, the debris became more sporadic and I started to target nooks in the rock wall, and isolated debris cover.

 

This 2lber hit the Cowboy almost immediately and took the line sideways. I also lost a smaller one a few yards away while hoisting it up the embankment.

 

Water level is still down, even after all the rain and I'm not sure how all that debris is going to clear out with such low water level since there's not much flow. It's going to take some strong winds and a lot of time I think. I don't think I'm going to hit Widewater again for a while, unfortunately.