smalljaw  07/04/2009 - 06:51  Trip Reports  Potomac    Got out onto the UP yesterday and had a pretty decent day. Quantity was real good quality was acceptable. Fish were hungry and taking just about anything that we threw.

Highlights:
Hat Trick: Smallies, Walleye, Cat
Unusual: One smallie had a broken off tube down its throat
Damage: Lost the back bolt on the jet grill
Conditions: Low clear water, skies were perfect
Encounters: Muskalungee and TheDuder
Tip: If you don't have a first aid kit then get one today

Update: Grill bolts are fixed now. Turns out both were broken. 3' of 1/4 20 SS all thread, some misc hardware and about an hour and she's good as new now.

spothogg  06/29/2009 - 19:58  Friends of MDfishing.org    Just got word that Riversmallies is shut down, looks like for good this time. Info said that it might come back as a forum only in the future. Sorry to see that happen. I met a lot of nice, good people through that web site. Looks like mdfishing gonna get a bump in traffic.


-Spot

Steve826  06/20/2009 - 12:50  Trip Reports  Farm Pond  Roll Your Own    This morning, my dad and I went fishing at a farm pond in Frederick County. Fished from 8:15-11:30 AM. In short, this was the best day of fishing I have ever had by far. The weather was great for fishing, not so much for being outside, but we dealt with it. Heavy rain showers, clouds, etc. I started out with a topwater and landed the first fish of the day within five minutes, a 13 inch largemouth. Soon after, my dad hooked up a decent one on a grub, and then another that was real nice, around 16-17 inches long and maybe 2.5 pounds. It didn't take long until I put down the topwater rod and got the soft plastics rod out, and the real fun began. Within the next hour and a half, I caught three nice largemouth on wacky-rigged Senkos and a fourth that released himself as I reached down to lip him. We took a short break from plastics for a bit and switched to Berkley Gulp Nightcrawlers. The citation bluegill I caught at the same pond a month ago was on the Gulp, so we thought we'd see if there were any takers this time. I casted next to an algae mat a few feet away from shore. All of a sudden, my bobber went straight down underwater, and stopped. I set the hook to feel a heavy weight, then it moved. Keep in mind I was using my light rod/reel with 6 pound test. After a great fight, with lots of thrashing around, I reached down into the pond and lipped my new personal best largemouth bass.

space inwaders  06/16/2009 - 09:36  Trip Reports    Fishing has been tough in May and June where i've been going. The river has been high, muddy, and inconsistent with thunderstorms popping up, but it hasn't stopped me from going out.

I've fished Lake Frederick a few times when the rivers were too high to fish, no luck there, although i saw a couple nice largies.

I love to fish the flowing rivers, thats where i think i know where to toss my lure, so i've decided recently to try and figure out what works, and where, during these higher flow times.

Obvious hints- bigger, brighter, more vibration, scent, and find clearer calmer water if possible. Many of the calm pockets i fished at first were larger calm areas that were shallow, flatter, with minimal structure and cover, and some of my favorite large back eddys where i had my luck in the fall. Annie did catch one evening wally on a shoreline flat using a orange floating bomber long-A, and had a follower musky upstream of a major obstruction, but i couldn't repeat this on many trips.

TightLine  06/14/2009 - 10:47  Basics of Fishing Articles  Essays  Impoundments    As Duane and I were trying to locate the big fish that had apparently dissapeared, it got me thinking about the situation with which we were faced. When the wind and sun cooperated, the big fish were pulling up on the shallow flat just sunning themeselves. Beleive it or not, the fish were pre-spawners. We only saw one bed at the trophy lake, and all of the fish we caught were still full of eggs, and had no evidence of fanning the beds with their tails. These shallow fish were caught on poppers or twitch baits. They were in little pods of three to five fish together.

When conditions weren't quite as good, they seemed to be relating to the first or second drop off. A suspending jerk bait was deadly on these fish. There was emerging grass beginning at the first drop (6 ft) and continuing down to probably 15 ft. One day of our trip saw fish running baitfish (smelt, most likely) up against the first drop, usually a top water or slowly sinking bait (fluke) would do the trick on these actively feeding critters.

TightLine  06/13/2009 - 20:03  Trip Reports  Roll Your Own    Hey All,

Duane and I went back up to Vermont for a few days. We started out from Maryland last Saturday night at midnight, and got to our motel at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday. After checking in, we got something to eat, and then headed to the lake. The water temp was around 61 degrees...it was a nice calm afternoon.

We headed right to our hotspot from last year, and fished back and forth a few times and I got one 14" smallie. Duane decided to try a popper, and he cast out, and then started to put his other lure back in the takle box. I heard a loud splash, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a commotion on the water. I hadn't been paying attention to what Duane was doing, so at first I didn't realize he was hooked up. The next thing you know, a 5 lber came leaping and cartwheeling out of the water...I saw Duane's popper in the corner of the fishes mouth, and knew what the deal was then. Duane had a time getting the slack line in, but he was winding away, and finally got the line taught. He had a heck of a time getting the fish to the boat, but managed well. That would be all for the evening, and we called it quits to get back and get some sleep.

space inwaders  06/01/2009 - 18:42  Trip Reports    Ben was nice enough to invite me out on the whitewater pontoon raft to float a nice stretch of river. It was great for me having never been on a boat in the up, and floating a section that i never fish. The reason i never fished this section is from the sky it looks fairly featureless, and access from shore is not easy. In reality this section had tons of great structure. We did a mid-day float, and hoping for some nice smallies, and you KNOW i was bottom bouncing the mid river depths for a chance at a wally in the daylight.

Its funny, on shore i fish one or two areas with dozens of casts, on the raft we fished dozens of spots with one or two casts at each one.

space inwaders  05/26/2009 - 20:54  Trip Reports    I haven't been posting so much lately, but i've been going twice a week. I have been thinking about where they should be, trying, trying, and trying some more. Varying the approach, breaking habits. May has been a tough month for me on shore with high water conditions, a few skunks, and a few dinks.

We decided to go after Annie's lost trophy blue cat from last summer, possibly run into a striper as well. Tidal river was the location, and after a 2 hour hellish commute we got there. And found every spot occupado! We sucked it up and fished a spot that would be underwater when the tide came in. After 1 small channel cat about 20" and 2 lost rigs, i checked the other spots, a quick jog and one spot is open, more jogging, THE OTHER ONE was OPEN!!!

ogbudha  05/23/2009 - 15:07  Friends of MDfishing.org  Roll Your Own    White Paper
Virginia’s Pending End-User Poultry Litter Regulation
Prepared By: Jeff Kelble –Shenandoah Riverkeeper

Virginia is about to take its biggest step ever in regulating the poultry industry. For anyone who uses the Shenandoah for drinking water and recreation, this also represents the greatest opportunity you may ever see to help improve the health of the Shenandoah River, Eastern Shore and the Chesapeake Bay. I urge you to take the time to read this paper, and then file comments on the pending regulation.

Please email me at: jeff@shenandoahriverkeeper.org and include:
1) Your Name

jackson  05/22/2009 - 04:32  Trip Reports  River    Finally got a chance to hit a "little river" yesterday. And it felt good! Water was about 3' which made it reasonable to paddle upstream to one of my better fishing "holes"! Seen lots of wildlife on way, deer, fox, muskrat, Bald eagle, all kinds waterfowl, and a heron rookery which was in full swing! The purpose of the trip, although short, was to catch a few smallmouth. However, it ended up being a slug-fest with whisker fish! As you will see in attached photos, there were specific baits which they liked! Ended up with at least 8 on these baits. On a secondary note did catch 6 brown fish, and 1 greeny!