Inlaws and Smallies!

Made the long drive up to Frederick, MD to visit the inlaws this past weekend.  In return for doing all the driving, my lovely wife granted me two half-days of time alone with my trusty Old Town 119. 

I fished this area last fall and landed one my biggest smallmouth ever (see previous posts), so I was anxious to get out and do a little more exploring.  The river conditions were prime.  No rain in weeks as the rivers were calming down from spring torrents. 

I set out in the evening on my first adventure on the Potomac near Tuscarora, MD.  I paddled my buns off against the current to get up to some promising looking shoals amidst the islands.  Within an hour or so, I landed my first smallie on on a chartruese strike king minibuzz.  I also threw a t-rigged purple Yum grub, which was a very hot lure for me last summer on one of the best smallie rivers in NC.  Landed the bigger one below on that Yum grub.

Keep going upstream, parked on a nice shoal, and threw the buzzer in a slow pool behind the rocks.  On the 3rd cast, I got a big strike by this guy below and landed him on my light action spinning rod.  Good fight with peeling drag.  This would be my best fish of the weekend.  Turns out I hooked him in the back, but he seemed to be no worse for wear.  Well worth the paddling.

I managed to get back to the launch just before sundown and loaded up.

My second outing took me back to the launch of my float last Fall just after daybreak on the Monocacy river, a Potomac tributary.  My plan was to paddle upstream a mile or so and explore.  I started in a nice shoal with rocks and pools.  This area gets plenty of pressure from waders with excellent access and I only managed one small bass here.

I paddled upstream and continued to get strikes on my buzzbait.  Landed a few small ones.  I also caught bass on my t-rigged grub, 4" lizard, and rapala J-9

The most interesting event of the entire weekend was a determined owl that made 6 attempts to swoop down and snatch my buzzbait from the surface.  I've never seen anything like this before.  This guy was hungry and no grown man in a canoe was going to scare him off a potential meal.  If only I had a camera mount!

 I didn't hook anything except smallies, which is a little rare considering I often catch sunfish with my mini buzzbait and rebel cranks.  In fact, the only other species I saw were carp and catfish on the surface.  Overall, the fish weren't huge, but I had a blast catching smallmouth in the Potomac basin and plan to fish it again when I'm back up in the area.