June meet and greet upper potomac

[monocacykayak]

What a super day on the upper Potomac heavy cloud cover in Am but the storms held off until we were having lunch on my porch. I fished with Don and Charlie and we probably averaged 25 or so fish apiece mostly on Ned rigs . There was also a better class of bigger fish today . The other folks said they averaged a dozen or more on varied types of rigs . The drift was absolutely perfect . Could not ask for a more fun day with some great people looking forward to it again . Rich

[DonV]

Big thanks to Rich for putting it all together once again. Great fishing, great time and a great group of people to spend the day with. Rich and his better half(which I think does all the cooking) are gracious and wonderful hosts and put on a fine M&G every time. It's becoming a tradition I look forward to every year.

First of the four I have made that I consider a great success on the fishing side. This year I just got a much better size of fish than I have had in the past. Nothing super big but fat healthy and strong fighting fish and a lots of them. Did lose one that may well have been a personal best smallmouth for me. Ned rigs and a carolina rigged 5" worm were the tickets for me today. Tube baits and wacky rigged worms didn't want to bring in any fish today but both have worked well on previous trips. I tried a few Yamamoto Hula Grubs that I had high hopes of on the ned rig head and they also failed to produce fish when the stubby little Zman worm would. Caught fish in sections of the river that had not been productive for me on earlier trips. Fun time overall and once again the company was top notch.

I'm singing the praises of Ned rigs and after a year or so of fishing them I find they just produce fish when other lures are failing. Just about any species of freshwater fish will attack them with gusto.

[gkreps]

Rich,
Thanks for hosting this event, this was a great float, I caught fish on a variety of lures. You and your wife are great host.

[nhunter344]

I had a great time. It was nice meeting everyone. While my average length was a little lower than average, I still caught around 20 or so and lost about the same number. I forgot how hard SM fight. Every fish I hooked I thought was definitely a good sized fish only to turn out to be around 11 or 12 inches.

I'd be tempted to bring some carp bait next time. While floating down the river I saw some monster carp that would put up a heckuva fight!

I went all the way to Point of Rocks, locked up the kayak, went and got my car at Brunswick and back down to PoR and missed every major downpour. Everywhere I went was soaked but I never saw a drop of rain.

[DonV]

I had a great time. It was nice meeting everyone. While my average length was a little lower than average, I still caught around 20 or so and lost about the same number. I forgot how hard SM fight. Every fish I hooked I thought was definitely a good sized fish only to turn out to be around 11 or 12 inches.

I'd be tempted to bring some carp bait next time. While floating down the river I saw some monster carp that would put up a heckuva fight!

I went all the way to Point of Rocks, locked up the kayak, went and got my car at Brunswick and back down to PoR and missed every major downpour. Everywhere I went was soaked but I never saw a drop of rain.

Something else to try. Try Gulp leeches. I was casting them bare hook on a previous trip for smallmouth but when getting near the bottom they would every time get snatched up by a nice sized catfish. Really worked wel in the still sections and pools. The stuff just seemed to set them crazy and it would barely get to the bottom before a hit. I imagine any Gulp bait would do but the 5" leeches were all I had and I haven't tested any others as of yet. Was planning on it but with the plentiful smallmouth to be had this trip just didn't get the time.

BTW your average SM size was about the same as mine. That is a good fighting size, some of the previous trips all I could manage were under ten and skinny. The 10 to 12" this time were hefty and strong.

[nhunter344]

One other thing I forgot to mention, there is an island right before PoR (Paton Island?) I went to the west of the island and saw massive schools of catfish. Only about 3 or 4 inches, but hundreds of them. I just found it kind of neat.

[mchottie]

Rich,

Thank you for hosting a fantastic M&G float. Stacey & I were late to the launch point, GPS took us up and over the Petersville Road 287 bridge to the WV side, so we had to backtrack a bit. The lunch feast provided was fantastic, thank you again for inviting everyone to your home.

Like Don, i'll be looking forward to this M&G every year.