MDfishing.org - Essays

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.

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

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.

Cash Advance Loan - Collateral Free Fiscal Aid For Your Business

Sun, 19 Sep 2010 00:17:43 -0500

"Payday loans have turn out to be quite popular among employed Americans who are currently going through short term cashflow difficulties and desperately need money before next pay day. While these short-term payday loans bear a high interest rate with them, they are generally the best choice for consumers who need to pay other responsibilities like credit cards, rent/mortgages, vehicle payments, and bounced checks. All of these bills carry high late payment fees with them that can very easily be more costly than a finance charge on payday loans. Realizing where to find a legitimate payday loan company is very important as there are some lenders on the market who try to get advantages of worried customers.

Walking on Maryland Water!

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:03:54 -0600

I ventured out of the house yesterday and today looking for some hard water to drill some holes in. GREENBRIAR State Park was my first destination. I found the lake to be iced over with 6 inches of solid ice. Right near the State Park boat dock, open water was noted fed from the spring seep.

With my trusty ice flasher in tow, I drilled several holes and commenced to jiggin with maggots and a small tear-drop jig. The lake's bluegills were willing and I iced a dozen or so on Friday. Nothing big, but they were fun to catch. No trout.

Saturday around 1030A, I headed up to Greenbriar to find bluebird skies and 25 degrees. The fish were in a funk and hard to catch. I iced one greenie about 11 inches and a few bluegill. No trout again....

Late November Smallies- On a river north of you!

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:23:00 -0600

Started Thanksgiving vacation early this year. What to do, what to do? I know, head north to fish for some late fall smallies. I met Dave M. this morning and we headed north around 7:30AM. We were on the water around 9AM. Dreary, drizzle, low clouds, some rain mixed in. We started on the Western shore and Dave caught a nice 3 pound chunk. I plodded along and caught one on a teaser tube. We headed for the middle of the river working seam water in deeper areas. We kept picking up a fish here, a fish there, with no concentration of fish noted. We ended the day around 420PM with thirty nice fat smallies in the boat. Dave's first was the biggest of the day. We caught fish on jerkbaits, crankbaits and tubes.

More on the Vermont Trip (structure fishing)

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 10:52:50 -0500

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.

Rod Update - It's coming along...

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:31:19 -0500

I've been tossing ideas back and forth with DR all weekend. After some lengthy discussions, I've decided not to go with the marbling at all and I'm going to go with black thread with silver inlays. This is the exact same pattern I picked out for the thread around the guides. Man, I'm really excited at how this is coming together. DR has been absolutely awesome to work with. Check this out:

Muskalungeeeeee!
-Mike

Pulled The Trigger - My First Custom Rod

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:28:42 -0500

Well, I finally pulled the trigger. I ordered my first Custom Rod. I did a lot of research and I decided I wanted to have it built by someone that I knew would do it right. So I chose to go with Duane Richards, otherwise known as "DR".

Now, the next question was what do I want? I figured that if I was going to get a custom rod, I wanted it to be custom right down to the color and design. So I wanted it to be my favorite color...orange. :D Duane helped me locate exactly the blank I was looking for, and we were able to find it in the super bright orange I was looking for. Typically, it has to be custom painted by the rod manufacturer (CTS Rods) and shipped from New Zealand, but DR was able to find a buddy that had one and he worked out a trade. Here's some pics of what we have going so far. The first picture is what I put together to see what it would all look like, the others are the font we're using for the decals and photos DR took of the rod blank.

No doubt, this rod is going to be unique...I can't wait. Now I just need a name for it...and NO IT WILL NOT BE CARROT STICK!
Muskalungeeee!
-Mike

First River Trip of the New Year!

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:22:07 -0600

Saturday morning found me wondering how to occupy my time before I needed to spend quality time with the wife for V-Day.... What to do, what to do?? Oh yeah, I have a boat, she was tweaked and itching to hit the river..... Water temp was looking real good at 42 degrees. POR gauge said just north of 3 feet.

I hit a local ramp at 10AM. Couple boats out on the water. River color was a nice greenish brown. Dropped the boat in the water and headed upriver. Glad I had my winter clothes and goggles! Throughout the day, I watched the water temp drop. She ended at 40.9 degrees by 3PM. Ended up catching a couple fish and didn't have any troubles with the equipment... All in all, a great way to start the year on the river! I think I got a nice picture of my first 2009 river fish.... Hopefully, I will be able to see it when I get the camera out of the boat.

FOBA WINTER SEMINAR - FEBRUARY 7, 2008 - JOHN CREWS & STEVE CHACONAS - OPEN TO PUBLIC

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:11:11 -0600

FOBA JUST ANOUNCED OUR ANNUAL WINTER SEMINAR. SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS. IT IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

2009 FOBA BASS UNIVERSITY seminar
FEBUARY 7, 2009 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
GERMANTOWN, Maryland

http://www.fishonbassclub.com/2009seminarposter.pdf

SPEAKERS:

- JOHN CREWS - B.A.S.S. ELITE SERIES ANGLER & BASSMASTER CLASSIC QUALIFIER

- Capt. Steve Chaconas - Capt. Chaconas’s experience and knowledge and his ability to communicate make him a good instructor and also an excellent seminar speaker. A U.S. Coast Guard Captain, licensed by the Potomac River Fisheries Commission and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Steve has the opportunity to fish with anglers of all skill levels, including some of the biggest names in pro bass fishing.

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:07:46 -0600

There is water in the PO-TO-MAC!!!!

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:00:05 -0500

Hello fellow Potomac River runners.

Looks like we will get a good flushing out of this weekend's rain.

The Hancock river gauge is still climbing. She was steady at 3 feet on Friday and she is now climbing through 5 feet.

The Williamsport gauge was below 2 feet and she is climbing through 3.5

The Point of Rocks gauge was below 1.5 and she is climbing through 2.6 feet.

Hopefully, with the surge, the grass will flow downstream with it!. Now, not that I don't like grass, but.....

I think I will plan a feeshing trip for Friday..... Any guesses on where the reever will be at POR??

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

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.