MDfishing.org - River

Open Invitation - MDfishing.org Gathering, Columbus Day October 10, 2005

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 03:24:45 -0500

Every year on Columbus Day Jeff and I float the Upper Potomac from Bond's Landing to Little Orleans. This year the MDfishing.org membership has exploded and we've been trying to find a way to get everyone together to finally meet in person and do a little fishing. We've decided to open this trip up to all who are interested. No real details yet, we're just trying to gauge interest.

Here's what I need right now.
1 - If you're interested in the float
2 - If you have a boat to fish from (kayak or canoe)
3 - If you have room for another in your boat or an extra vessel to share with someone who doesn't have a boat

A Toothy Weekend: With The Capt & TheDuder

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:08:28 -0500

I'm a little late posting this b/c it's been a crazy week at work, but last weekend was the annual UP Fall Gatherodeo.

Friday:
I took off Friday and fished with the Captain. We met super early at the ramp (as is our tradition) and were on the water before the sun came up and what a beautiful morning it was:

We rolled up river and started at 'em. The bite was definitely slow, but I found the topwater bite was on if you worked things REAL slow. I had about 4 fish in the first 40 minutes on my go to L.C. Sammy...until I went to cast and it snapped off flying 50 yards downriver (I think). I was pretty upset, as that was the only one in that size I had. Anyway, that is the last time I was even keeping up with El Capitan as he proceeded to start whooping on me from that point forward. About 3 minutes after I snapped off my Sammy, the Capt hooked into a feisty little musky with his Jerk Bait and handled it like a champ. Turns out that was the first one he's ever caught in moving water! I was proud to be there for that monumental occasion. Anyway, we caught fish all through the day and ended up with with #'s in the mid 30's. Most fish caught on a small jerk bait, gold was the ticket.

Saturday:

Fished with TheDuder on Saturday. We started late as I was in no hurry to rush out and get soaked in the downpour. Well, that didn't matter much b/c we got soaked anyway. As I was getting ready to leave the house the Capt called and told me he had a present for me.....a replacement SAMMY! :D All I had to do was meet him at the river and he would give it to me. So we met the Capt, posed for a quick picture and we were on our way:

Not much to report on as far as fishing. It was cold and wet, and nasty. And Cold. And wet. Did I mention wet? I love fishing in the rain, but this was rediculous. It rained so hard that it soaked through my rain gear and I was freezing once the rain stopped. Well, I guess there was one thing worth reporting...TheDuder landed a nice 36" musky on a buzzbait! Not just any buzzbait, but a home grown buzzbait that he had lost the skirt and replaced with of a things...A JACK's worm!

I was literally in the process of making fun of him about it when KA-PLAAAAAAAAM the musky came up and hit it like it was going out of style. It was a real pretty fish too. Nice work duder, that's three muskies for him this year!

The only other item of note was that we fished all day Saturday w/o a trolling motor b/c I snapped off my shaft after hitting the side of the boat with my foot on the pedal. Fishing on a windy/rainy day with no trolling motor in a rediculously low river is quite the adventure! That's all I have for now, here are some more pics:

Muskalungeeeeeee!

-Mike

A night foray on a river near you...

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:10:27 -0500

I got my act together and hit the corner last night.I arrived about 6:45p and left at 10:45p.It was cool and clear with a bright moon shining.The river is low and gin clear.The leaves are starting to pop off pretty good along with the grass letting loose and drifting downstream too.That's just part of the game so you just handle it.
I cast about a kazillion times.I was campaigning a #8 Shallow shad rap,and a F11 Rapala.I only had to strikes and landed one fish.It was a fat 21".
I guess I'm getting lazy in my old age,and just stayed in one spot.
I usually will slip up and down the bank p

10/9 Rematch ? On a river near you....

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:16:01 -0500

I had off today and went for the gusto.I decided to go back and fish the same stretch as last time.

I arrived as it cracked daylight.Set up the cart (still needs refining)and loaded my yak.Diddy bopped down the tow path,and than down the path to the river.

Alright! Who left the plug out and let all the water out of the river? It's low.Where I was able to float out with a push here and there last time.I had to drag it.Wow,what a difference.

I actually got situated and pushed off about 6:45am and the Eastern sky was gorgeous.I was tempted to take a photo but I wanted to get going and get fishin'.

Back on the River with SPOTHOGG

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:25:20 -0500

I had the day off from work today. What to do, what to do?? How bout heading for the reever! SPOTHOGG decided to play hookie from work and offered to take his Porsche to a river near you. Being lazy, I told Dan to pick me up at 8AM. Dan was right on time this morning. I met him at my driveway with 4 rods, a tackle box full of goodies, a dry bag and my SOSPENDER life jacket. Down the road we go.

We arrived at a local boat ramp to find a local school field trip heading for a canoe excursion. 30 or more canoes were using the ramp, so we decided to head for another ramp. Down the road we go. We got there in a few and offloaded Dan's Snyder t find cloudy water and dropping fast. I was looking forward to fishing a higher flow, but no such luck. She will be summer low in a few days once again.

We drifted downriver and started fishing. 5 casts into the day, I got a funny feeling that the day would be slow as I watched the clouds float away fast and the barometer head north.

We watched the canoers head downriver as Dan caught a nice one on plastic.

The wind picked up and we decided to head north onto the four wheel drive trail that OGBUDHA banged up his arm at. SPOTHOGG did a nice job driving and we sailed through the big rapids and inched our way up the river. The grass is dying, but still thick as salad. We feeshed up that way for an hour and picked up a couple dinks. The wind she is really ripping and the water level dropping like a stone, so we decided to head south.

We fished downriver and picked up one here and there in the gale.

We ended the day around 4PM with Dan catching another nice fish.

A great day on the river with a solid feesherman! Thanks Dan for taking me for a boatride!

REB9

Once again...."On a river near you"

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:44:42 -0500

I went for it today.I built myself a yak cart and it worked too.Still needs refining but....that will get done later.
I actually launched into the fog at about 6:45am.The water has a slight tint to it,but nothing bad.I fished a buzzbait,Wacky jack,tube,Sammy,and an X-rap.The buzzbait was it! I landed 33 Smallies total from 5"-18.5".
I had at least that many more that threw the hook.All but four were on the buzzbait.Two on a tube,and two on the wacky jack.Had one GOOD (actually scary)hit on Sammy,and the X-rap was a dud.I also caught two Sunfish on the buzzbait too.
The Fish were everywhere.Rocks,weeds,wood,etc.. The water was still rising and came up three to four inches while I was out.I came off at 3:00p. Oh yeah...my first cast of the day was a stinker.I had one of those wind knots and had to cut it off and retie.My first real cast produced a 10" Smallie.That was more like it,and it just got better as the day progressed.
I'm one whupped pup here,but had to share what I accomplished.The grass is starting to go but we need more water to really scour it out.Their biting and if you can go than do so.

Three Days alone.. What to do, what to do....

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:27:48 -0500

Early last week, my better half informed me that she wanted me to stay at home this past weekend to baby-sit our dogs because she needed to go visit her sister in New York with my kids in tow for a Friday through Sunday trip. Since our two dogs are house broke, well behaved and need once a day feeding, I did what any self respecting fishing nut would do, I saluted smartly to CINC home and affirmed “Yes dear- you can count on me”. My mind quickly went into planning mode…

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

What did you do during Hurricane/Tropical Storm Hanna ?

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:56:12 -0500

Well...I did what any other self respecting not to be daunted by a little precipation fisherman would do.I went fishin'.That's right fishin' in a hurricane...Ha-HA!

I leap over the bank,hit the railroad tracks and went lunker hunting.I figured that since it was raining in various volumes.It would be ideal conditions to sneak up on the bigun I know inhabits a certain pool in a river near me.Also I've read that as the water rises the fish turn on and feed.Well...I did sneak and the water rose but to my dismay the fish did not realy bite very well at all,nor was I even treated to seeing that large fish.

Finally Back to the River!!!

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:21:29 -0500

Wow, can't believe it is September already. The monsters are back in school, work is going full bore, summer vacations are over. What to do, what to do... With Hanna heading for us real fast, I decided I needed to spend some quality time on the river before the deluge. I PM'd SMALLJAW, MUSKALUNGEE, SPOTHOGG and OGBUDHA to see if they had a kitchen pass today. No takers by 7AM, so off to the reever all by my lonesome. I launched the boat around 8AM and found the river running low, clear and full of salad! A beautiful morning to be alive. Found the fish to still be in summer patterns. Caught several dinks and a couple real nice fish. As I had to renew my drivers license and change the oil in the GMC, I pulled chocks before lunch and headed for the ranch. After I finished up my chores, I decided to head back out for the PM bite. Hooked the James River Jet back up to the truck and waited for my 8 year old son Patrick to get home from school. As soon as he noticed the boat connected to the truck he lit right up and said, "when we going"...... Now was the answer and off we went.

Labor Day: Fishing With Smalljaw

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:40:23 -0500

Smalljaw called me up Sunday night to see if I could fish on Monday. I was already planning on going out, but I had come down with the stomach "issue" that made it's way through my family on Sunday AM and wasn't sure I'd be able to spend any time on the boat without dropping a shore lunch. I told him I'd let him know in the AM...and sure enough I received a text at 0700 to see if I was going. (and another minutes later from OGbudha threatening my life if I didn't go out and fish)

I decided that I could probably make it through the AM, so I unloaded my gear from my boat, packed the truck and was on my way. We both would have liked to get out earlier before the sun got hot, but Jeff was patiently waiting for me at the ramp when I showed up...and off we went.

Low but not too low...on a river near you

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:53:01 -0500

Yesterday afternoon,I met up with Smalljaw on a river near you.To explore the possiblities of catching some fish from a low river.We first ran down stream and fished the side with shade.Figuring that since fish have no eye lids or ears for holding on sunglasses
that they would be attracted to a location easy on their eyes.Amazingly we were corrected too.

We fished buzzbaits,grubs,flukes,poppers,and Jack's worms catching fish on them all.This area has got some really nice structure,and will definetly be remember for future reference when the river gets back up to where it normally belongs.

Hot Summer Day, Early AM Is The Ticket

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:51:27 -0500

I've been telling Randy that I was going to take him to the river fishing for ages, and it was about time I came through on my promise. He's on "vacation" this week, so there was no better time than now to make it happen. I text'd him last night around 7PM and it turns out he was out on the river with Spotthogg, but he was still interested in going out in the AM anyway....at least until I told him that he needed to be at my house by 0400. :D

We got a slightly later start than we had planned...*cough*, but it was about time that someone else was late for once. I don't have a leg to stand on as far as being late, so I just had to roll with the punches. We arrived at the river about 0530 and away we went. We started by trolling a bit, but didn't have any luck so we headed up to another spot to start beating the water to a froth. Within a few minutes Randy had his first river walleye, a nice ~20"er that fought like a rabid dog. Good start for the day for sure.

Well, it got better for Randy but not so much for me. He ended up catching 9 more fish over the next few hours without me even getting as much as a nibble...and believe me he was enjoying every minute of it.

The I decided to switch up again (for like the 4th time) and go to the old reliable jerk bait, and things started to pick up. I landed a few fish, but not nearly enough to catch up to Randy's awesome display.
The highlight of my trip was a 22" Catfish that hammered my jerkbait about 5 feet from the boat and then took off like crazy...that was fun.

We ended up with 20+ fish in the boat in the couple hours we were out, with several 14"-15" fish in there. Not a huge numbers or size day, but a real good day. Can't beat fishing with good people, that is what it is all about. And I still got home to take care of couple things around the house before I had to settle in and do some work. Man, am I tired right now.

Muskalungeeee!
-Mike

On a river near me....

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:30:30 -0500

I broke down and decided to go fishing this morning.Now it's pretty bad when you don't have the get up and go to fish a river you have within two good casts distance (seriously that close)from where you live.Anyway...

I bailed over the bank and hit the railroad tracks.I figured I'd go upstream above the old mill and start right below a spot we call "The Fishin Hole".I had a L/C Sammy 65 in ghost minnow,and wound up landing between 15 and 20 Smallies,7 Sunfish,and 1 Redeye.Most fish were dinks from 5-7" and the best a tad bit over 12.Not a bad three hours of peace and quiet,no humans,just birds and a couple deer.

I was looking for a monster I know haunts a certain section,but was unable to even get that one hit that takes your breath it's so awesome.I've had it whack a buzzbait twice and I'd love to be able to just get a tape and photo of it.Definetly a trophy in my opinion.If I ever am able to land it I'll be sure to share that triumph right here.

Her First!!

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:29:01 -0500

Took Kaylie & Jacob out to a local stream to do little wet wading and hopefully for Kaylie to catch her first Smallmouth. It's nice when a plan comes together! After some instruction and practice she was soon casting the small crankbait as well as her little brother. Well enough in fact to target a medium sized rock I told her to cast to. As soon as she did her rod bowed and the fight was on! It's great to watch her face as she realized a fish is actually on her line. After a little drag tightening, a nice smallmouth was landed. After some high-fives, photos, Jacob tried to show Kaylie how to hold and release her fish. Jacob kept telling his big sister how proud he was of her! It was a good day.

Prepped the boat for summer storage!

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:53:11 -0500

Hit the local river this morning looking forward to pitching for smallies. I expected the bite to be better than fair as the POR gauge registered 2.1 feet and cresting. Water was cooler than last week, but I didn't probe it. Water color was murky. One boat trailer at the ramp and 1 remaining spot to park my trailer....

OGBUDHA needs to work the city seniors to build a separate parking lot for the bike riders..........

Out to the reever and started pitching plastics. Tubes, 5 inch grubs, and my secret plastic smallie killer were the recipe of the day. Caught 6 smallies over 12 inches. One nice catfish and one walleye. Pulled chocks at 12PM and trailered the boat. Ran the gas out of the engine and headed for the ranch.