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.