Captwalleye  03/10/2010 - 06:02  Trip Reports  Farm Pond    I finally got a chance to drag my carcass out and go fishin'.I slipped up to my sure thing pond and managed five Crappie and one very skinny six inch largemouth.They all fell to a 1/16 oz.craft hair jig fished staight up and also suspended one foot under a float.
I did get out earlier to the same pond before the snow,and got one Crappie and one Largemouth.The water was a whole lot colder than it is now.I saw one little turtle climb out and sun itself in the last rays of the day.That's a good sign.With the rain coming and moderate temps fishin' everywhere should take off.
So.....quit talkin

space inwaders  03/06/2010 - 11:12  Trip Reports  River    I'd been trying all winter when the snow allowed. The rivers are pretty high now, but not muddy. I haven't had luck cept for a 12" sucker on monday evening, caught on a 4" mister twister smoke/flake curly tail bouncing bottom.

I went down to my neighborhood spot on a major tributary to the potomac thursday evening. This place is 8-15' deep and had a pretty strong back-flow going. Once i switched to a 1/4 oz jig head and a gulp emerald shiner, twitching along bottom, it didnt take long to get my first bass of the year. First one was about 13 inches, about 10 mins later a nice fat 17 incher.

ogbudha  01/17/2010 - 10:40  Trip Reports  Potomac  Roll Your Own    Got out New Years Day for some feeshn.
We hooked up with a few smallies 14-17 and a near 20lb carp.
Fish were in a favorite mid river spot I hit during winter months. It doesnt look like a winter hole but for some reason the fish like it. Enough protection and right bottom composition for them I guess..so it is a winter hole. Just not what youd expect to fish for smallies in the middle of frigid temps as its only 3 ft deep.
Carp hit a small tube on 6lb test...took quite a while to get in. The lucky angler who caught it was extremely pleased w/ the fight and complained of his arm being sore.

REB9  01/09/2010 - 18:03  Trip Reports  Essays  Impoundments    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....

space inwaders  12/05/2009 - 15:58  Trip Reports    I went out just about every weekend this november. Like last year, the minnow imitating hard plastics were working best.

In the last two weeks fishing has tapered for me, even though the water wasn't too cold. i always have trouble when the rivers up a little.

Here are highlights from a few november trips on the upper river.


19 inches, at an area i rarely hike to, nov 1st. A good bite this night, 8 fish hooked lost or landed. all smaller ones 17-19 inches.

REB9  11/24/2009 - 19:23  Trip Reports  Essays  River    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.

space inwaders  10/31/2009 - 10:00  Trip Reports    The weather hasn't quite been cooperative during the past few weekends, but we got out in the rain on 10-17, the water was rising fast and the currents were very strong. Toward the end of this evening the back flows were so strong it was hard to feel our lures. Still 2 fish were kind enough to bite, and the first on the very first cast, about a 21" walleye. It was raining too hard to measure or photo this one.

Next evening we got out to a closer to home place where we have luck sometimes. After about 30 mins they started biting pretty well. Annie got her first walleye since the springtime- a really hard fighting 19"er.

Steve826  10/10/2009 - 13:36  Trip Reports  Farm Pond  Roll Your Own    My dad and I fished a Frederick County farm pond today from 8-12. Cloudy morning with off and on rain showers. The wind was pretty strong for the first 2 hours which made casting parallel to the shore pretty tough. I caught a total of 7 fish, 6 LM and a bluegill. My first 2 came on a 1/4 ounce red/white buzzbait burned parallel to the grass that was growing close to shore. I had a an additional 2 or 3 strikes on the buzzbait that didn't get hooked because I was fishing it pretty fast.

First fish of the day (around 1.5-2 lbs):

space inwaders  10/08/2009 - 19:00  Trip Reports    No I haven't quit, but i've gotten quite a few skunk trips lately.

I had a day off work tuesday and made the most of it. I went down to a smaller river near my house. The water was very low which gave me the chance to wade with my hip boots and check out the structure in the area. I found a really nice ledge going along shoreline that dropped straight down to 7-10' of water, pretty deep for this river. Rumor has it there are 30' deep spots around there, which is very rare for this particular river.

I arrived around sunrise and the smallies were feeding. Of course i was hoping for a rare walleye, so i wasn't fishing the surface. Ended up with about 12 smallies, always fun, but they were pretty small 6-10"ers. I waded, moved, explored, and eventually stumbled onto a sweet spot. Deeper water off of that shoreline ledge, slow current, some fallen timber in the area. After a couple casts with a 1/16 oz jig, gulp saltwater 4" minnow, a nice crappie took the bait. I rarely catch em in the flowing rivers, so that was a treat, it was 10-11" or so.

Captwalleye  09/30/2009 - 06:27  Trip Reports  River    Took the day off on 9/25 and hit a river not so near.I knew the wind was going to be a factor,and knew that the water level was down.
I've never been to the particular area I fished when the water was down so low.Whoa! What a surprise.

The wind was suppose to be 5-10 mph well....I think it was more like 10-20.It overpowered the current easily and made for a very frustrating trip.

I threw a buzzbait and had a total of five blowups with two fish landed.Both were right around 10" long.I also threw a wacky jack on a circle hook.I caught my best fish of 14.25" on the first cast with it,and only had one other hit.The wind just got too bad.