From home waters
space inwaders 05/11/2010 - 20:35 Trip Reports
I haven't had much luck at my usual go-to places this spring on the bigger river. After too many long trips, a seriously limited budget has made me do something I should have done sooner- fish my home river. I fish it from time to time, i've caught good smallies, a few decent cats, an occassional LMB or crappie. DNR says musky are present but haven't seen any in my neighborhood stretch of the river. I got a tip from a friend last year that walleye were present, and i've been going after them for a few weeks. I've been fishing an area on this river not too far from home and i'm really impressed with what i've found. This area features strong flow, a channel toward mid-river with 6 foot depths or so, the bottom is rubble and gravel, and small piles and pockets are scattered throughout the area.
Here are the highlights from the last few weeks.
This fish was about 22 inches and took a gold flake saltwater assassin 2 seconds after it hit the water in deep current.
This one was caught on the very next cast to the same spot with the same lure, about 21 inches. I couldn't beleive it, the day before my birthday, definitely a treat.
When i arrived this day there were tons of people fishing, after an hour i moved downstream to find quieter water, this 21 incher took a 3" black powergrub on a 1/4 oz jig bouncing bottom. After this one i quickly lost that last remaining black grub. I tried a 3" dk green powergrub, and 4 more 10-12 inch smallies were hanging out with the wally in that hole as well as a couple smaller ones that jumped free. I had to cast far to reach this spot, then pull them through a bunch of heavy current, so they all felt really good.
This 19-20 incher surprised me when it nailed a 4" brown curly tail 10' from my toes, it fought so well i thought it was a big smallie for a minute.
This is the best smallie i've found in this area so far, 19 inches and fat, too bad the picture sucks. Bit about 1 hour after the previous wally, on the same grub in the same spot.
After dark i got out of the water, walked down the bank, fished another likely area and this nice 22.5 incher was the last fish of this evening. Probably the best evening all year for me, with the previous 2 fish and a couple smaller bass on grubs, and then this one took a small XPS minnow.
Most recently, Annie went with me and quickly got 2 smallies in the 10-12 inch range on a brown mister twister grub, i managed to miss a few nibbles and lost a bunch of jigs to snags, but im glad she caught some. My luck turned after a couple hours when this 23 incher nailed my lure.
I'm really surprised to find so many eyes, although the area has some good features, for the most part its surprisingly shallow and there are no large features that stand out. DNR says there isn't a significant population of walleye and thats why they dont mention them living in the river(this isn't the patapsco or the monocacy). I dont know about that one. It's very cool to get out and find a little known and under-exposed resource like this, you just never know what you might find when you get out there and give it a go!
-steve
Here are the highlights from the last few weeks.
This fish was about 22 inches and took a gold flake saltwater assassin 2 seconds after it hit the water in deep current.
This one was caught on the very next cast to the same spot with the same lure, about 21 inches. I couldn't beleive it, the day before my birthday, definitely a treat.
When i arrived this day there were tons of people fishing, after an hour i moved downstream to find quieter water, this 21 incher took a 3" black powergrub on a 1/4 oz jig bouncing bottom. After this one i quickly lost that last remaining black grub. I tried a 3" dk green powergrub, and 4 more 10-12 inch smallies were hanging out with the wally in that hole as well as a couple smaller ones that jumped free. I had to cast far to reach this spot, then pull them through a bunch of heavy current, so they all felt really good.
This 19-20 incher surprised me when it nailed a 4" brown curly tail 10' from my toes, it fought so well i thought it was a big smallie for a minute.
This is the best smallie i've found in this area so far, 19 inches and fat, too bad the picture sucks. Bit about 1 hour after the previous wally, on the same grub in the same spot.
After dark i got out of the water, walked down the bank, fished another likely area and this nice 22.5 incher was the last fish of this evening. Probably the best evening all year for me, with the previous 2 fish and a couple smaller bass on grubs, and then this one took a small XPS minnow.
Most recently, Annie went with me and quickly got 2 smallies in the 10-12 inch range on a brown mister twister grub, i managed to miss a few nibbles and lost a bunch of jigs to snags, but im glad she caught some. My luck turned after a couple hours when this 23 incher nailed my lure.
I'm really surprised to find so many eyes, although the area has some good features, for the most part its surprisingly shallow and there are no large features that stand out. DNR says there isn't a significant population of walleye and thats why they dont mention them living in the river(this isn't the patapsco or the monocacy). I dont know about that one. It's very cool to get out and find a little known and under-exposed resource like this, you just never know what you might find when you get out there and give it a go!
-steve
