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So today was my "last day of summer". Tomorrow I go back to being a full time student, and I felt I had to spend my last day sitting in my kayak.
Didn't really feel like traveling so I figured I'd go fish the local stomping grounds. Put in on the Potomac below Dam 4 on the WV side. I had gotten really caught up in all the hocus pocus this year of chasing new and wild species. And while that's been great, I hadn't really done much smallmouth fishing (my bread and butter). So that's what I decided to go for. I knew conditions wouldn't be optimal as we're just now getting out of the sluggish days of August up here. But whatever, I had the day off, let's do it.
My brother gave me a tub of live works before I left. Im not much for using live worms, but I figured they'd present the level of finesse to entice what I THOUGHT would be a very finicky fish. So I tie up a drop shot rig and start bouncing it around the bottom. Right from the get-go it's not looking good. No hits for awhile. Finally I manage one smallmouth after about 30 minutes of fishing.....cool.
Then I put on a gulp minnow and start bouncing that along the bottom. A couple hits here and there, but nothing in the boat. Meh I figured I'd keep trying, that was until I saw a stud smallmouth hop about a foot in the air right at the bottom of the dam. I immediately scrambled for my tackle tray looking for a pop-r I wasn't sure I had. But lucky for me I had one lone silver pop-r in my tray. Sweet! What ensued after was epic.
First cast BAM! Annihilated. Get him into the boat no problem. After that it was one after another. I was averaging one about every third cast. I've never had much luck with topwaters for smallies. So this was an absolute ball for me. These guys were absolutely crushing the pop-r. Sometimes right by the boat. They weren't real big smallmouth, most were around 12", but I was using an ultra-lite setup so it was a good time.
I kind of got into a routine. I started to see that these fish weren't finicky. It didn't matter if I worked it slow, fast, subtle, or splashing all over the place. They'd hit it every which way. Sometimes they'd hit it immediately as it hit the water. If they were there, they'd hit it.
So if I casted to a spot and one didn't hit, on to the next spot. And I just kept doing a circular pattern at the bottom of the whole dam. Around 8:00 I was ready to call it a day. Paddled back to the WV side, loaded up and went home.
I know we have a couple Western Marylanders on here, but for those who haven't came up here to fish I'd really recommend it. It's a good time, and paddling right at the bottom of a huge dam with rushing water, while catching fish is just something ya gotta do once. The fishing is only gonna get better out this way
image.jpg!
image.jpg
Didn't really feel like traveling so I figured I'd go fish the local stomping grounds. Put in on the Potomac below Dam 4 on the WV side. I had gotten really caught up in all the hocus pocus this year of chasing new and wild species. And while that's been great, I hadn't really done much smallmouth fishing (my bread and butter). So that's what I decided to go for. I knew conditions wouldn't be optimal as we're just now getting out of the sluggish days of August up here. But whatever, I had the day off, let's do it.
My brother gave me a tub of live works before I left. Im not much for using live worms, but I figured they'd present the level of finesse to entice what I THOUGHT would be a very finicky fish. So I tie up a drop shot rig and start bouncing it around the bottom. Right from the get-go it's not looking good. No hits for awhile. Finally I manage one smallmouth after about 30 minutes of fishing.....cool.
Then I put on a gulp minnow and start bouncing that along the bottom. A couple hits here and there, but nothing in the boat. Meh I figured I'd keep trying, that was until I saw a stud smallmouth hop about a foot in the air right at the bottom of the dam. I immediately scrambled for my tackle tray looking for a pop-r I wasn't sure I had. But lucky for me I had one lone silver pop-r in my tray. Sweet! What ensued after was epic.
First cast BAM! Annihilated. Get him into the boat no problem. After that it was one after another. I was averaging one about every third cast. I've never had much luck with topwaters for smallies. So this was an absolute ball for me. These guys were absolutely crushing the pop-r. Sometimes right by the boat. They weren't real big smallmouth, most were around 12", but I was using an ultra-lite setup so it was a good time.
I kind of got into a routine. I started to see that these fish weren't finicky. It didn't matter if I worked it slow, fast, subtle, or splashing all over the place. They'd hit it every which way. Sometimes they'd hit it immediately as it hit the water. If they were there, they'd hit it.
So if I casted to a spot and one didn't hit, on to the next spot. And I just kept doing a circular pattern at the bottom of the whole dam. Around 8:00 I was ready to call it a day. Paddled back to the WV side, loaded up and went home.
I know we have a couple Western Marylanders on here, but for those who haven't came up here to fish I'd really recommend it. It's a good time, and paddling right at the bottom of a huge dam with rushing water, while catching fish is just something ya gotta do once. The fishing is only gonna get better out this way
image.jpg!
image.jpg
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