davefishj  06/18/2007 - 22:06  Trip Reports  Loch Raven    This past Saturday my wife and kids headed out to visit the Grandparents in Delaware. As part of my Father's Day gift I was directed to spend the day on the lake (driving up to spend Father's Day with everyone on Sunday). It was a most thoughtful and thoroughly appreciated gift. I made the most of the time, spending the morning on Loch Raven and the evening on Prettyboy. Loch Raven was, as expected, quite crowded but still rather nice (thankfully the electric motor requirements keep boat traffic noise to a minimum). I landed six largemouth on plastic worm in heavy grass, with only one of notable size (2lb 6oz). I left around noon and took a break for a few hours, eventually launching the boat on Prettyboy around 4pm. There were far fewer boats and a much more peaceful surrounding. I ended up landing eight smallmouth. Two out of the eight were rather nice fish, one going 2lb 11oz, the other 2lb 10oz. Both were caught near sunset off of points in ~6ft of water on a small, brown finesse worm. The fight that these two fish put up on 8lb-test light spinning tackle was incredible. Smallmouth are feisty, powerful fish that have few rivals in the sportfishing world and were the highlights of a wonderful day. Before landing the first of the sizable smallmouth I happened to notice a couple of river otters playing near the shoreline. With the sun low in the sky to my left and the otters playing to my right I took a moment to take in the picturesque surroundings. Baltimore is fortunate to have such a healthy, natural resource in such convenient proximity.

Pics at my blog: Dave's Fishing Journal

Dave