Chesapeake on the Upper Potomac

Catin' around on the Potomac was a lot of fun but the 5:30 start with my buddy Bill on Saturday was what I was really looking forward to. I knew my excitement was high when I woke up in my car at the boat ramp nearly an hour before Bill arrival. Instead of fighting it I pulled my Whisperlite Shaker Stove out and cooked me some Peaches and Cream Quaker Oatmeal in preparation to fighting those huge smallmouth bass I knew we were going to catch.

Bill arrived right on time and we hit the river in his awesome Xpress Jet boat. Though sleep had escaped me, I was stoked to be motoring up the Potomac to our favorite section. Surprisingly the river was quite stained with only about a 8" of visibility even though the level was quite low. I also noticed the water was a little choppy for being on a flowing river.

As Bill dropped the trolling motor and we started throwing our 3 1/2" tubes we discussed the condition of the river and concluded the Shenandoah River upstream must have caught some heavy rain in Virginia. I picked up the first average sized bronze back that was more white than bronze on my black with red fleck tube. After and hour we realized this was not going to be the easiest day to catch those fish we could write home about. The current carried us down river, we casting like mad men, and threw our normal verbal jabs back and forth. We noticed the wind was picking up and the weather radio was only predicting 10 mph winds or less.  As we looked down river we saw a lot of white caps.  It really did look like we were fishing on the wide open Chesapeake Bay.  Needless to say we were giving the weather channel some of those verbal jabs with their inaccurate predictions. Catching more stick and rocks than fish we were still having a blast with our continual banter with some meaningful conversation.

We caught a couple smallies when I hooked into what I thought was a hog. Bringing the big guy to the boat built the adrenaline and hope for a better day. To my surprise as he broke the water at the boat it was a decent sized whisker face bass, more commonly known as a cat fish. I asked him when I pulled him out of the water where he might have been when I was fishing for him nearly seven hour before. By this time we had thrown about everything in the tackle box at what we hoped would be the nose of a nice bass. Bill was fishing with what I now call the cat clacker because even though I've seen him drag some nice smallies to the boat with it he managed to drag three whisker face bass over the bow with that crazy lure. Yet another experience with cat fish I had not had in my 30 years of fishing.

Snakehead Adventure

My neighbor John from Profish had been bending my ear about these snakeheads prowling around in the waters of the Potomac. The more he talked the more excited I got. This is an invasive species that was first found in a pond in Crofton Maryland around 2002. There was a lot of talk about how much of a predator they are and a lot of concern of them getting into the larger waterways in Maryland. Well, they have done exactly that, and we decided to get out and try and reduce the herd a bit. Yeah I know fish travel in schools.

Having some insider information from a friend of his at the DNR we headed down to Piscataway Creek to try our luck. We had also been informed of some nice largemouth in those waters as well so we came prepared with our spinner baits, frogs, and buzz baits. We maneuvered my creek company pontoon raft into the area we'd been informed about. We were fishing the rising tide and the water was clear and only a foot or two over a huge grass bed. Having only fished grass beds a few times I was a little apprehensive about our approach. My apprehension was erased quite quickly by John when he hooked up with a nice Largemouth within the first few casts on a buzz bait. Not long after I had a couple swirling pops on that rattling contraption at the end of my line. Let me tell you there is nothing more exciting than an oversized gullet breaking the surface of the water to suck down the lure your ripping toward the boat.

We had a blast all evening with our largemouth friends. We even had some channel cats get in on the action. John and I both caught one on the buzzer and I caught another on a spinner bait. I have to say that's a first. The first that we were shooting for never happened. We weren't able to snag any snakeheads but it was a great time trying.

On the drive home I got a text from my buddy Austin at www.whackfactoroutdoors.com with a picture of an awesome snakehead he had taken bow fishing. My turn is coming Austin, my turn is coming.

Catin' Around on the Potomac

Friday night I rolled into my favorite catfish spot on the Potomac with aspirations of grand results. The anticipation of rain on Saturday had me giddy as this timing couldn't have been better. With barometer moving the fish were bound to be up looking for a late night snack. I was ready for a long night of chasing rods into the water. I didn't have my 4 year old fishing buddy with me so I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me. After a long day of work and giving my wonderful wife the proper sendoff to a weekend at the beach the drive to the river couldn't have been better. Arriving at 6:30 I knew I'd have some time to buzz the shorelines for some smallies as well.

The heat of the sun conjured up the sweat dripping from my nose and finger tips as it crept toward the lower portion of the skyline. I rigged my whisker gettin' rods with #4 long shank eagle claws and 3/4oz bullet weights. I decided to bait each differently to see if one of my three options for the evening were going to catch the nose of the big scavengers. Shrimp on one, beef liver with a hot dog on one, and chicken liver with a hot dog on the third. I was ready! I even managed to cast them out to the end of the shallows on the edge of a very deep hole without throwing my bait off my hooks. Impressive as I normally do that at least once when trying to get a 50 yard cast.

My whisker gettin' rigs were wet and it was time to buzz some bronze backs as the sun was a bit closer to the tops of the trees. Nearly having to beat the Blue Heron’s off with a stick I worked my way up the bank with my white buzz bait in hand. I had plenty of logs and debris to target. I heaved my bait making the blade buzz loudly as it carried the line through my guides. It wasn't in the water for more than two cranks before I had hooked my first gluten of the evening. As dark approached over the next 20 minutes I brought 3 more to the bank with twice that many hits on the top water buzz bait. Oh what fun!

Rolling back to my other three rods I realized in all my excitement that I hadn't confirm with my buddy Bill that we were a go for a 5:30 a.m. rendezvous Saturday morning not too far down the river from my whisker gettin' spot. Not wanting to pull my rods out of the water while walking back to the car, I released the reels so that new state record cat wouldn't pull them into the water in my absence. When I got back from my 10 minute journey my shrimp rig was twitching and my broken stick indicator had been knocked from its perch. FISH ON!!!.. I run down the bank grab my rod, crank the handle once and set the hook (like I really needed to). Though it wasn't that new state record, I was a nice whiskered channel. I extracted the hook and released my new buddy. Before I could get it back in the water with a new piece of shrimp, the next rod in line with the beef liver was being tugged toward the water. This action went on for the next hour. About the time I'd get one out another would get a twitch in its tip. OH what fun.

After landing the 6th fish of the night I realized that we were planning a little cook out on Sunday and deep-fried catfish in the turkey fryer would be golden. So that 6th fish went onto the stringer. Well since I never carry a stringer I had to make one with some 550 cord. It worked well enough. I shouldn't have wasted my time as that was the last fish of the night. From then until 2:00 a.m, I got not another hit. I headed down stream for my smallmouth adventure with Bill just a few hours later.

A BIT CRABBY

I haven't been fishing since last Thursday!  While fishing last Thursday in Cape St. Claire we did a little crabbing for the big Maryland Blue Crab.  Given that we were going to be on the water right between high and low tide on nearly a full moon I was excited.  Riding cloud 9 at the end my work day; the fight with traffic to make my way down and hang with my buddy Nick, pour some beer down the gullet, Flip some flies, and fill my crab basket was nearly tolerable.  Near 11 bells with the moon high, the wind suddenly picked up to around 300 knots so we packed our 5 crabs and gear and headed to the house.  Though the 5 crabs made a tasty snack and hanging with Nick is always fun, I think we'd have been better off out hunting for some big whiskered fish.  Well maybe next time!

Thinks I learned:
1. Winds over 4 knots will blow a bag of Thingamaboobers away like a feather.
2.  Dipping Crabs is a lot like setting the hook, if you don't do it right they are going to get away.
3.  Bluefish love the glow in the dark crappie lures. (Well at least the part without the hook) They ate the tail off an entire bag.
4.  No matter where you go, you can find someone with a couple WV jokes.

The Start

I fish a lot! In the process there is a lot that I learn, get aggravated about, and repetitively fail to learn. I started this blog to share all my experiences. Many are fun and exciting, some are scary, and some are just plain humorous. I look forward to helping my followers become better fishermen or better yet fisherpeople.


So here's to the beginging of a great thing. Enjoy!


Clay