MDfishing.org - Trip Reports

62 degrees in January, but no bites.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:49:38 -0600

It was 62 degrees out this January day and I was off from work. After talking to CaptWalleye on the phone at lunch, I had the itch and hit a small river near my house. I had a particular hole in mind to fish from shore. I fished from 3:45PM until 5:00 PM. Nice day out. A little breezy. No takers on a small tube, gulp alive minnow, or 3 inch worm.
I'll give it a try again this afternoon, but at a different spot.

13

cool water trophies

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:35:55 -0600

I found higher water levels this year through the fall season, but put in far too much effort for any sane person. During October i had a few decent trips producing a few walleye from 22 to 24 1/2 inches, but couldn't get a decent picture. As November approaches I keep on fishing, but high water levels made things difficult and most trips were unproductive. Toward the end of November with only a few hard earned 18 month (15-16"ers) old fish so far from my usual fall areas, I realized I had to find new spots to fish. I put in a lot of thought, and some exploring, eventually found some new areas with new lures to try and soon found a few good fish.

A sucessful meeting at "The Honeyhole"

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 04:21:24 -0600

I finally got a chance to go fishin'.So...I got up this morning and went looking for trouble.I went to a place that has to be hit when conditions are just right.I got the there and it was actually a bit high for what I wanted to do and the place I wanted to stand.I managed to get to a spot to try casting from and worked a 3" Swimbait and a suspending jerkbait.I got one confirmed hit on the SBJ and hooked a 7" Yellow Perch.I got one other possible hit but no hookup.Put probably forty cast into that spot and decided to move on.
I moved to another place and walked and climbed on in.The "Honeyhole" as I call it.Is a place I preferr to fish before and into daybreak and before,into,and beyond dusk.I was late but just really wanted to see what was going on there.I cast some and also moved some brush and branches around to give myself some casting room.It is a spot on a spot.Steep rocky bank with deep water right up to the shore.This place has BIG FISH potential,and has produced in the past.

Potomac Smallie 11-20-11

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:47:23 -0600

I hit my usual portion of the Potomac in the jet. Air temps were very comfortable and water temps were 46-47 degrees.

I'm trying to learn where the smallies go in the fall and I tried to focus on deeper water.

I found this 14 inch smallie. He hit a beetle spin with a curly tail grub on it. I lost two other fish on a tube and a fish bit the tail of the grub off.

It started raining and getting dark, so I called it a day.

Upper Potomac - 11/5/11

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 07:33:58 -0600

I met up with a guy named BigPat100 and we fished the upper Potomac on Saturday morning. Pat's boat has a 40 HP jet and it ran much faster than mine with the 20 HP engine so it was fun and CHILLY. Water temp was 48 degrees. Pat caught his healthy 12 inch smallie on a tube. I caught my 14 incher on a spinner bait with a grub on it instead of a rubber skirt. Fishing was slow, but we were both surprised to see 2 other boats fishing as well. We fished for about 3.5 hours and called it a day. Pat also caught a largemouth on an in-line spinner. I almost caught the largest fish of my life. I decided to put a crank bait on and began throwing it along the river bank as we drifted along. I thought I got snagged on something, but then my line began to move and my fully tightened down drag began stripping away. I should have loosened the drag. Pat thought I had a muskie or a big smallie. I wasn't sure. Whatever it was pulled like a horse. I eventually made some ground and got the fish to the surface after what seemed like 5 minutes. My crank bait had snagged the tail end of a HUGE carp! It was around 3 feet long and it was very broad with huge scales. The thing was a horse and probably wouldn't have fit into the net. We got it within arms reach of the boat and it made a frantic get away attempt. Then the knot on my lure slipped and the fish was gone with my crank bait still in its tail. I was using braided line and it seemed like the end of the line just sorta came undone and slipped through the palomar knot. It was a fun experience and would have make a very cool photograph. I could definitely get into carp fishing!!!!! Had a great time fishing with BigPat.

Potomac River 10/8911...A Smallie Over 12 inches!!!!!!

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 08:18:18 -0500

I took my kayak out on the Potomac Saturday afternoon. This weather is fantastic for fishing! The river was coming down from last weekend's rain and the water was pretty brown. Not much visibility at all, so I threw a beetle spin with a curly tail grub on it. I put in and paddled up river to get to some rocks and ledges. I fished up there for a while and caught this fish. It ambushed my lure from behind a rock as the current went by. It was an old looking fish and around 16.5 inches.

Is anyone hitting the Potomac this weekend (10/8-10/11)?

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:15:55 -0500

I've got a 4 day weekend and the weather is looking splendid for a change!!!!

Is anyone planning to hit the Potomac this weekend (October 7-10)?

The river looks like it's coming down from being up from last weekend's rain.

13

a long day and a new personal best

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:05:24 -0500

we had debated going due to rough weather for most of the week and higher water levels. We gave it a go anyway, 10 hours and many miles covered.

In the end I had one miss early on, then 2 muskies in the boat around noon- a 35 1/2" and 40 1/8". The 40 was a new PB for me=)and the fish was tagged.

Several hours later my partner landed a 34 1/2" musky, his first in a while and he was overdue.

A meeting of old and new on a river near you

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 11:42:05 -0500

My enthusiam for fishin' which has dwindled a bit,has finally returned.I've been talking to DanMarino and we finally got it together and went for it today.Met about 530 or so tranferred his yak into my truck and up the road we went.
We went to a place I'm fairly familiar with and proceeded to have a pretty good day.Of course it was suppose to rain and it did.Started off as foggy to light drizzle,and finally plain old raining.Never got really bad,and when the wind finally started blowing it was upstream and as we wrapped the day up blew downstream.So weather wise we had it good it was warm enough to be comfortable even though we were wet.

Taylors Landing

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:35:18 -0500

I was inspired to drive out towards Hagerstown/Sharpsburg this morning in search of smallies. I read some info in Penrod's Potomac River book and Taylors Landing sounded interesting. Water was pretty clear with an overcast sky. I fished for about 2 hours and caught 3 smallies, a big rock bass, and a sunfish the size of my outstretched hand. All fish were caught on a beetlespin with a curly tailed grub. I tried fishing tubes, but kept getting hung up terribly on the underwater rocks and ledges. The smallies were around 12 inches and fought well. One possibly bigger smallie was on, but came off half way to the kayak.

another way to tie your fluoro leader

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:36:50 -0500

I'd been reading up on knots to use for 100# + fluoro/mono lines when i found this tip. i decided to give it a try with my bass/walleye rod, and it might be better suited to the lighter stuff.

That rod has 4/15 yellow power pro and when fishing clear water i like to use a 12# fluoro leader. I've always used a double uni knot, but i've tried blood knots for the braid to fluoro connection too. I've never been happy with these connections due to low breaking strength when tying very different lines together in this case. They're a pain to tie too.

1. cut your length of fluoro leader
2. tie a overhand knot at the leading end of your fluoro leader

pre-irene - musky fishing

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:19:54 -0500

We knew it was going to be tough fishing, a big cold front had just passed through the region the day before. A change in weather, clear blue skies, bright warm sun, Irene was on the way.

We launched at 6am and began fishing large lures through 4 pm. We spent a good amount of time casting and a good amount of time trolling.

My fishing partner had one aggressive musky follow, but the fish turned away and didnt come back.

In a different area I had a musky follow my crankbait to the boat. The fish was well over 40 inches and thick. I first spotted it about 4' below the boat near the end of my retreive as the fish took a swipe at the lure. I continued into a figure 8 and the fish followed. On the 2nd turn of the large figure 8 the fish struck again then turned away. That was pretty exciting even if it didnt connect.

Potomac Kayak Outing - 8/13/11

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:39:27 -0500

I hit the Potomac this morning above Great Falls. I got to the river at 8AM and left at 11AM. Overcast skies and a couple of light rain showers. Water clarity was green/brown and really less than a foot. Nothing like mid-August the past 4 years. Air temperatures were in the 70's and water temperatures felt refreshing. Some star grass growing in the shallower spots.

No smallies on the buzzbait I was throwing, so I switched over to a tube. I decided to rig the tube on the bottom and also put a circle hook about 18 inches up the line and put on a Gulp Minnow. Caught two smallies pretty quickly on the minnow. Began fishing the minnow alone, with no takers. Switched to a tube again and eventually got one more. Largest smallie was 14 inches. The other two were around 11 or 12.

Potomac Family Outing - 7/31/11

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:57:17 -0500

I got the whole family, dog included, out on the Potomac yesterday afternoon for some fun. We strapped the kayaks to our 16 ft. jon boat and headed out to our normal launch. Water levels were very low. Water temperatures felt extremely warm and there was a huge algae bloom going on in the river. No observed aquatic vegetation, something seems off compared to my knowledge of the river the last couple of years. We headed up river towing the kids in the kayaks. Boy do I need a bigger engine. My 20hp jet wasn't cutting it and my wife agreed that a bigger engine/boat and an additional kayak would be nice. Found some willing fish and we weren't even in a prime area to do so. Documented my daughter's first two kayak smallies. Daughter Marino caught 2 smallies that were around 9 inches. Son Marino caught 3 smallies with the largest being 13 inches. We only fished for about 40 minutes so we did fine considering the high water temps and that we were in a slow pool area with little water flow. No good pictures of Son Marino's fish because he decided to go Drew Gregory and paddle off and stand up and fish in the Manta Ray. He was too far away to get any good pics using my camera.

Patapsco Smallies

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 17:28:42 -0500

It was 100 degrees out so I hit the Patapsco for some wet wading to cool off.

I encountered 3 fish species and caught 12 fish total during 1.5 hours of sloshing around the crystal clear waters. All were small fish, but I ended the evening with the biggest fish of the night that was about 11 inches.