MDfishing.org - Trip Tools

snag removal trick

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:52:56 -0600

I was out fishing last week, first cast with one of my favorite lures snagged. "I'm NOT breaking this one off" I let line out, let the current drag it downstream, popped, pulled, walked to different vantage points. Still snagged. When wading or on shore, sometimes there's little else than can be done.

I acquire bobbers pretty frequently walking the shorelines, and on this trip I had picked one up to keep. The idea dawned on me that if i attach the bobber to my line, then toss the bobber into the strong current that was near me, the bobber might pull the lure from the snag.

It worked!

Columbia, MD - 8/20/11

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 22:18:54 -0500

Today I was able to hit a local lake for a 1.5 hours in the afternoon with my daughter. It was a great time. The lake seemed in nice shape. There was weed growth in the shallower areas, but I was glad to see that it wasn't choked with weeds everywhere. We were the only people "on" the water. Some folks were fishing from shore, but didn't see any of them catching anything.

My daughter caught this largemouth bass on a gulp alive minnow.

Eastern Shore River

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 10:41:56 -0500

Hit the Chickawicomico (Eastern Shore Dorchester Co.)this past Saturday with a buddy in his canoe.It was right windy and that made for some rather tough conditions.
We caught Crappie,Bluegill,Sunfish,Largemouth Bass,White Perch,Pickeral,and had what looked to be a Hickory Shad on for long enough to zing my drag and perform a aerial 360 flip just before coming unhooked.That woke me up for sure.
We enjoyed ourselves and caught fish,but that wind really cramped our style.Well...ya can't have it all,all the time now can you?

UPPER POTOMAC/CANAL RESCUE CONTINUED!!

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:14:01 -0500

CONCERNED RIVER USERS,

Yesterdays efforts went pretty well. We used both backpack and barge electrofishing equipment to remove two tanks of fish from the canal. We recovered mostly large carp, but also got bass, suckers, catfish, sunfish, and one large (~25”) female walleye. The guys worked hard as we removed probably 500 + lbs of carp!

We are planning to work the canal below Dam 5 tomorrow. Volunteers can meet us at the Dam 5 parking lot at 9:00 am. This area of the canal has really receded so we will be using backpack units. I think 5 or 6 guys would work for tomorrow.

APRIL on the big river.

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:04:31 -0500

Ive been getting out alot lately and the river has been fishing tough. Solid quality fish..but the numbers are WAY down. Very concerning as Im not seeing the quantity of bites and chunky 2.5-3.5lbrs I normally see. I have however already seen 2 sweet CHUNKY C classes. One went deep into the 5's and the other fish went just under 5 ( boga showed it at 5 but Ill call it 4.75 to be safe)

One fish came off a burned jerkbait and the other off a tube in HEAVY flood waters.

My jets in the shop so Ive been bumming rides off a buddies jet and rowing my raft when water levels allow it.

Ill get the pics up as soon as Muskalungee hooks me up.

Bad Omen? - First Cast of '09 & A C-Class

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:58:07 -0500

A little late on this report, but had a great trip last week on the big river with CannonExpress. The weatherman was calling for 50 degree temps with 20MPH sustained winds....and he was right for once. We launched at around 11AM and made the quick trip to the first spot. It looked like it was going to be calm(er), but it wasn't....the wind was ripping all day. My first cast of the year (for smallies) produced a hit....I almost didn't know what to do b/c I wasn't expecting it. I really wasn't ready at all, and poor Chris though I had a monster b/c my drag was so loose. :D It ended up being a chunk 14", I'm not complaining.

We fished for another 4 or 5 hours, and hit the usual pre-spawn spots. The wind made everything more difficult, but we ended up with 8 or so in the boat. The biggest of the day being Chris's 20.25" beast (which I almost knocked off with the net).

The pattern was simple. If you noticed the wind was dying down..CAST...count to 3...and set the hook! While the wind made for difficult fishing, the lack of fish certainly enabled us have some awesome conversations and fellowship. That was a trip I will probably remember for the rest of my life. Thanks for letting me tag along Chris, it was a blast.

-Mike

Who is heading out tomorrow to try their luck???

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:14:11 -0600

I am getting itchy to get out and try to catch a fish or two.... Anyone thinking about heading out tomorrow?

It is getting close.... Another couple weeks and we may be able to get serious!!!!

REB9

Like the post office - First trip of '09

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:08:00 -0600

Made it out for a few hours this afternoon with my buddy Joss. I canceled the trip last night b/c the weatherman said it was going to snow all night and I didn't want to get stuck at a slick ramp. I was a little disappointed when I woke up and saw we didn't get a drop of rain or snow. So, I called up Joss and off we went.

Of course as we approached the ramp it started to sleet. And it didn't let up pretty much the entire time. But we were there, and we were going to fish. We made the long trip up river, and fished for about an hour and a half before it it started to get dark. The river was HIGH and muddy, with debris all over the place. Tough conditions for sure, but I wouldn't trade it b/c it was just nice to get out. We didn't get a bite (except for some nice keeper logs), but that's OK. Good Times.

Muskalungeeee!

GMCO map and "fish traps"

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:20:12 -0600

I recently got a copy of GMCO upper potomac map from dam 4 to great falls. I noticed 2 places marked on the map called "fish traps". Has anyone seen these? What are they?

Noticed that this map also labels the old rubble dam at seneca breaks as "dam 2". I had read that it was built by Native Americans before European settlers arrived. I figured dam no 2 was the washington aqueduct dam-great falls dam, and dam 1 must be little falls dam. (?)

Many interesting features are marked, like old mills, canals, roadbeds, and some named holes, boatramps, wading areas (most not near roads or parking??), rapids, riffles, dams, historic sites, and roadways.

Mental Heath Trip: Saturday 23-August

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:05:15 -0500

Well, if you haven't noticed I haven't been around much the past month or so. Work has been crazy, and I've been averaging around 70 hours a week...and that doesn't leave much "spare" time. I haven't seen my family much, let alone even though about going fishing. But that was going to change this weekend.

Mrs. Muskalungee told me I could fish in the AM, so I planned on getting up and taking the boat out before sunrise....but not getting home until after midnight on Friday kind of put a dent into those plans and I slept right through my alarm.

I ended up getting to the river around 1130 or so, and met up with TheDuder and Doug as they were packing in it for the AM. They had a fairly productive AM, and gave me the pattern and off I went to see what I could do. First of all, it just felt great to get out. But it was also great to get out all by myself. I don't fish much by myself b/c I enjoy the fellowship part of fishing...but there really is something to be said for just being out there by yourself every once in a while.

All in all I ended up with 25 fish or so, with the biggest going 18" (and she was a fighter!). Most of the fish came on Jerks but some came topwater, jack's worms and a few on the grub (including my one walleye of the day, 18"). Oh yeah, I got a chance to see Dan's (Spotthogg's) new Synder rig....WOW. That is all I can say about that one. I have some more to right on my trip, but no time to do it today....so stay tuned.

-Mike

Dead Fish On The UP: Columnaris Bacteria

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:10:39 -0500

While fishing with OGbudha on Monday AM, we saw a sick fish bobbing up and floating down past his boat. Budha maneuvered the boat so I could get close enough to net it and we captured this video:

I sent the video to Jeff Kelbe (Shenandoah Riverkeeper) to take a look at, and he sent it on to the appropriate folks. He believes that it is probably Columnaris Bacteria, and in a converstation Budha had with some folks that fish the UP this is something that is seen when the water temp starts to rise. This was confirmed by a quick google search which returned this article from 2005: (http://www.fish.state.pa.us/newsreleases/2005/smb_skin.htm)

"The specific stress factors associated with the current smallmouth bass infections are hard to pinpoint, but most likely include high water temperatures and low dissolved oxygen levels. Columnaris mortalities are known to occur when water temperatures exceed 65 degrees"

Please keep an eye out, if you begin to observe sick or dieing fish, please contact the Shenandoah riverkeeper (Jeff Kelbe):
http://potomacriverkeeper.org/shenandoah/?cat=9

Muskalungeeeeeee!
-Mike

finally got my c class!

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:08:16 -0500

FINALLY GOT MY C CLASS!!!

Worked with Lyall8 today on the river. We got well over a dozen in the boat today. Sizes ranged from 12-20.5 inches. Got a decent largemouth to take a tube 16" and fat. BUT the BIG NEWS was a 20.5 " smallie that was just as fat as could be...it went 5pounds on the boga scale!! It was great to finally break over the 20" barrier. I have 12 fish this year over 18 but none over 20 until today.It was a great day. Pics will be posted by Muskalungee tommorow.

Does anybody know about the river conditions on the Monoc above Creagerstown?

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:53:51 -0500

I was thinking about going wading Saturday, and was wondering if the river had cleared up?

-TL

Saturday AM Pond Trip - A first on a Buzzbait

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:26:00 -0500

My brother and I had some work to do at my old house on Saturday AM, and only had a few hours before we had to get back home. We decided to get up at O-dark 30 and hit the pond near the old house before it warmed up. We got there just at sunrise and started throwing some topwater. We had a couple lookers, but weren't getting any hookups, so we switched to Case Big Jacks and Senkos. Within a couple minutes we had a few fish but we were switching on and off to buzzbaits and picking up a few on them as well.

I was standing about 15 feet from Steve on the other side of a tree so I couldn't see him (or his casts), but I heard the following as he casted his buzzbait: "Gurgle...Gurgle....Gurgle.....Gurgle.........KER-PLUNK!". I wasn't sure if he had fallen in or not (it was that loud), but the screaming drag made it clear that he had a huge fish on.

I dropped my rod and walked over to see him wrestling with a hug fish. I gave him some unsolicited advice not to horse it, and he obliged. Within a couple minutes we realized that this wasn't a bass at all, rather a monster cat. We got it to shore, measured it (27.5") and snapped a couple pics before releasing it and exchanging a quick "WOO HOO" and high fives.

I have caught (or have seen) hungry river cats on many types of artificial lures, but never on a topwater bait. It was truly something amazing, especially in a pond. Has anyone ever experienced something like that?

Nice work Steve!
Muskalungeeeeeeeee!
-Mike

Google Earth

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 07:55:14 -0500

Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.

* Fly to your house. Just type in an address, press Search, and you’ll zoom right in.
* Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions.
* Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings.
* Save and share your searches and favorites.