- Get up with the family on Friday, let the dogs out for their daily morning business festivities, and feed the dogs.
- Help the family get packed for their 3 day trip.
- Kiss the wife and kids and wish them god speed on their trip north.
- Hook up the James River Jet, be on the river by 0930AM on Friday
- Saturday all day and Sunday morning fishing
- Sunday afternoon, clean up the house, ensure the dogs are still alive, do the laundry and anxiously await the families return.
So, with a basic plan in place, I shot a couple PMs out to some of the other fishing nuts I know. I got responses from my Pennsylvania brother-in-law, SPOTHOGG and SMALLJAW.
- The brother-in-law says Saturday and Sunday morning on the river sounds great.
- SMALLJAW stated he didn’t have a kitchen pass.
- SPOTHOGG says he can fish Saturday.
What a plan, three days on the river with no worries cept ensuring the dogs don’t tear up the house. Friday came with much anticipation, the plan was working perfectly. The wife and kids headed north around 0900. A quick check on the dogs. The dog door was functioning, the gate to the yard closed, the water bowl filled. Off to the garage, hooking up the JRJ, I was heading west around 0915. I was on the water by 1000. I checked some water that had been productive for the past two weeks. I noted that the river was running “ugly low” with no appreciable current. The water also was super clear. Tough conditions. The fish seemed to be in a summer state of mind. I tried a couple spots out for good luck and found some willing smallies. Thinking that I needed a couple more options, I headed back to the ramp, loaded the boat and headed upriver to another ramp. I found similar conditions upriver. Clear, clear water, low with no appreciable current. Working my way upriver, I ran up from the ramp about 6 miles.
The fish were spread out everywhere. At one point, I thought I was in Florida bonefishing because several times throughout the afternoon I caught myself sight fishing and throwing plastic at cruising smallies. I ran into MUSKALUNGEE around 4PM. He was just starting his evening fish. I was back at the ramp around 5PM, heading for the ranch to take care of the dogs. I got home to a clean house and happy dogs. No problem with the plan so far.
The brother-in-law arrived at my house around 9PM. We swapped stories and readied ourselves for the morning fish. SPOTHOGG informed me that he was going to fish in the morning and I told him where we would be fishing if he wanted to join us. Saturday morning’s alarm was set for 6AM. A quick task was taking care of the dogs and get them ready for their day alone. Off to the river we went! We got to the ramp before 7AM and SPOTHOGG had just finished unloading his Porche river runner. The morning was spectacular, fog encapsulated the river and with the low water conditions, idling was in order as we headed upriver to our appointed fishing holes. OGBUDHA would have been proud of me as I ran aground on some mid-river goonies twice in the fog. Thankfully, I was at a crawl instead of at full throttle. This winter’s chore will be to have Jim Starkey put some poly on the bottom of my boat! Up the river we went. I was leading, SPOTHOGG following. Did I say that SPOTHOGG has a great boat??? We fished through the morning in tough conditions. The morning started at 46 degrees. The sun burned off the fog by 8AM and we had blue-bird skies and a high pressure barometer. We caught several fish, with one almost 17 inches. I got a great picture of SPOTHOGG with a nice 16 incher.
We decided to try some new water around lunch time. Off we went upriver. The conditions were still tough. We managed several dinks and a couple respectable fish. We even caught some greenies on some laydowns! CATFISH and suckers were everywhere in the clear water. The smallies were lethargic to say the least. We even saw several marble eyes sitting on the bottom sunning themselves. We pulled around 6:30PM and headed home to check on the dogs.
Sunday morning dawned clear and chilly. Same foggy conditions on the river and we idled north carefully. We saw a boatload of geese, a bald eagle and 3 deer wading quietly in the water. Just a beautiful morning. The smallies on Sunday treated us better than on Saturday. We caught several good ones with the biggest being a fat 18.5 inches.
All in all a great weekend of fishing on the river! My brother-in-law really enjoyed the trip. He spends most of his smallie time on the Susky or on the Yough. He now plans to fish the Potomac more often!
The wife and kids arrived safely home around 2:30PM. Momma got home to two happy dogs, a clean house and clean laundry. She thanked me for keeping the house clean, doing the laundry and taking care of the dogs. She ended her greeting by saying, "I figured you'd be fishing all weekend and I would come home to a mess".
Sure is easy to clean the house when you aren’t at home to mess it up!!!!!!!
See you guys on the water! Pray for rain. The river is ugly low………..
Did I mention that SPOTHOGG drives a Porsche on the river?
REB9
