basser89

Here's hoping all the MD crew (and everyone else as well) had a Merry Christmas! Hope Santa treated everyone well too!

Glenn, Keri, all the Mods and all the Members..... Merry Christmas!!!!

Good find! I always seem to miss this for one reason or another. I might be able to make it this time. I'll keep ya posted when we get a little closer.

Nice looking toothy critters Kevin! Can I ask where you caught them (not specifically, just a general area)? PM me if you want. Congrats on the catches! I've managed a couple of "cold" water muskies before. The fight sure does change from their summer time fighting habits! LOL

There are 2 parts of the C&O canal in MD that I fish that can get pretty thick with duckweed when the wind pushes it in certain areas so I can see why basslover is posting the question. I typically use 1/8oz and 3/16oz weights when throwing plastics in these areas but when the wind concentrates the duckweed I usually have to up the weight to 3/8oz or 1/2oz to punch through it as well. As Bass_Fanatic suggests, upscale your weight to get through. I typically start with the lightest weight I can that will get me through to keep the rate of fall as slow as possible. If that doesn't work, then I'll increase the weight even more to see if a faster fall will cause a reaction strike. There are other times that I will go even lighter to keep the bait on top and just crawl it across that top. You'd be surprised by the amount of strikes you'll get this way as well. When I use this technique, I usually opt for stick baits or straight tail worms to limit the amount of drag I get. Shaking the bait in one place from time to time will help let the bass know where the bait is. I've also experimented from top water soft plastics (Rage Tail Toads and Rage Tail Shads) as well. Surprisingly, the Toads seem to have more success in these cases for me. With the Shad, I don't get as much action out of the tail and the Toad. Just something else to keep in mind. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the sanity check Kevin! Yeah, I've fished it for about a decade (guessing) now and have never seen the canal dry. The next free time I'll have to fish is sometime over my Christmas break. My company does a year end shutdown between Christmas and New Years so sometime in that stretch is likely when I'll get back out again. Just have to figure out when. Once that's figured out, I'll let you know. Btw, cool story about the snappers! Never seen that before. I've seen several in there but never seen any fighting.

Great post Kevin! I believe the ultimate downfall to my day was the equipment I brought with me. Looking back, the issue I had was the rod. I was using one of my older BPS rods that has more of a moderate action than a fast action causing a poor hook up for throwing plastics. Will definitely keep that in mind the next time I head out (which will probably be sometime over my Christmas break). Tubes were the ticket to the action I got saturday. The section I was fishing was fairly stained so the color of choice for me was black/red flake (which is a confidence color of mine in those water clarity conditions). With the amount of brush/stumps/laydowns in the canal, I had to look for isolated pieces of wood or sections of wood that just "looked different". All my hits (from the bass) came from the opposite side which surprised me some since this was the shadey side of the canal. I didn't get a water temp but I believe there may have been some warm water being pumped into that section which could be the reason the bass were as active as they were. Maybe someone else can confirm this for me but Kevin you mentioned about the rainfall and the canal. From what I've experienced since I've been fishing there (and the section in Williamsport for that matter) I have never seen those sections go dry, even under low rainfall years. I "guess" is these sections are spring fed.

Nice catches Kevin! Great pics too! As I mentioned at the end of last week, I did hit PEPCO over the weekend. At first light, I ventured down to the warm water discharge to eval the conditions. I had checked the levels before I left the apartment but just couldn't vision it in my head. It was worse than I had expected. LOL! The bank I typically walked down to hit a few of my good spots was there. Even worse, they weren't pumpin any warm water. I ended up hitting the canal and was surprised with the action I got. I ended up with 5 hits but the rust must have effected me a little more than I thought. 2 of the hits were panfish bites while the other 3 were definitely bass. I missed 2 and hooked up with the third which I broke off trying to pull it over a laydown. Wish I would have had a little better hook up ratio but was glad to get out!

Welcome to THE boards LuckyBass! I'm not familiar with this area but wanted to let you know there is a MD Who's Who thread on this page. I created the thread so the MD anglers had a place to get to know each other, find other anglers that are close by and to share information. I know it's a tall order but if you skim through the pages, you may find another angler close to you or at least close to the area you're talking about that can help you out. Hope this helps some. Good luck in getting the info you want!

From what I'm seeing, rain is supposed to end wednesday morning. IF we get levels peaking where it did last week, I believe they'd be back down to a manageable level by saturday. So one way or another, I'm hitting PEPCO.

Thanks for the heads up Chris. Did you make to the discharge or did you fish down further? I'm planning on hitting the discharge next saturday. Hopefully water levels are still good. I actually prefer it when the levels are about where they were over this past weekend.

I've picked up a couple and was able to briefly try them out before the water temps dropped too low here. The only other frog I've used was the Bronze Eye and I've had good luck with them. Strike King's walk easier than Spro's IMO. As far as softness goes, Strike King's seems as soft as the Spro's. As I had said, I haven't thrown them much but I never had an issue with Strike King's filling up with water either. I can't comment on the hook up ratio yet since I haven't had any hits yet.

I have the Rapala version that is IGFA certified as well and I'm very happy with it. I bought mine for the same reasons as you, for those toothy critters. One thing that concerns me with the one you're asking about is that it looks to me that it does not have a bearing on the grip section. Reason I bring this up is my dad had a cheap Berkley grip that was built this way. He had a small (like mid 30" size) musky go into a death roll on him and it almost broke his wrist from rolling over and over on him (he was using the lanyard as well which didn't help the case). If this one is set up with the bearing than I'd say it would be ok.

Yeah, sounds like your timing wasn't the greatest for fishing the canal. Brian can confirm also, there are some good bass in there. Probably won't be able to hit the warm water itself for a couple weeks yet. Good to hear you've got out some wv. Its definitely a shorter trip to Dickerson than Black Hills for you but it is still a decent drive. As I said above, I'll probably start hitting Dickerson sometime after Thanksgiving.

Hey Nick, You find your way over to Dickerson yet?

Same on I recommended above.

My dad gave me this one several years back as a gift and I absolutely love it! http://www.cutco.com/products/product.jsp?itemGroup=5721 Its a great knife and holds an edge really well.

At the end of the season from what I just heard from the one of the central PA TV stations.

I've seen that one before but I still got a laugh out of that one Peter. LOL! I did manage to sneak out at lunch today for a little while. Managed a dink on a RatLTrap.

11:59:59PM December 31. I start back up as soon as I get my license in January.

Got a reply from my DNR contact today regarding the tiger muskies in Black Hills. Here's what he said, "The last year that tigers were obtained from PA was 2006. Tigers from that stocking would most likely be 36 inches or larger." Sorry I was off on when I thought the last stocking took place. Not sure what I was thinking then. My contact did copy the central regional manager to see if he could provide me with some more information. If he replies, I'll share that info as well. Nick, if he does reply, I'll ask him if he could shed some light on what that all black fish you saw as well.

No problem Nick. Glad I can help out. The stick ups is over on the eastern arm of the lake. If you go to the parking lot right next to the volleyball court and park at the opposite end of the lot, you'll see a little path going into the woods on the other side of the road. Go back that path and hang a right and you're basically looking right at the stick ups. Fun little place to fish but keep in mind that place is known to eat some lures so I tend to leave the treble hook baits at home unless I'm on the boat.

Spot on directions Brian! Brian and I used to have a tree laying across the canal to prompt us the path leading over to the discharge was coming up, sadly that's gone now. Another way to know is when you see the fence (guessing its the PEPCO boundary fence)on the opposite side of the canal, start looking to your left for the path. I know there used to be a little sign about 10-12' up on a tree that used to be right at the path (can't remember if its still there or not). Good point about the water/muddy area too Brian! It can get pretty sloppy on that path leading to the discharge so don't wear anything you want to keep nice. LOL! I'm hitting Black Hills at lunch today. Thinkin I might head back to the stick ups. It's been forever since I've been back there.

Kevin is 100% right about the tiger muskies being sterile, although they do go through a "mock spawn" in the spring. I just sent the DNR contact I have an email too see what kind of information he can share with me about the tigers to see if I'm wrong about the growth rates as well as if stocking has resumed or if there are plans to resume stocking. As soon as I have any information, I'll share it with you guys. It's been quite some time since I've held a musky (of either strain) in my hands. Nick, my next few weekends are booked up but if you need directions on how to get to the canal at PEPCO and the warm waters, let me know and I can get you directions.

Slayn, yeah, I'm referring to Dickerson (PEPCO is the name of the power plant) but I'm not talking about the warm water discharge that dumps into the Potomac. There's a section of the C&O canal that holds water there and there are largemouth in it. It's definitely NOT warm water because it will freeze over in the winter. I've caught a few decent bass out of the canal (in the 4 pound range). The warm water discharge area can be fun in the winter as long as the water levels are right. If it gets too low, then fishing pretty much shuts down. Almost forgot, I got a Quantum Energy PT, lefty model. Am I reading you post right? You saw a small tiger at Black Hills? As far as I know, DNR stopped stocking tiger musky at Black Hills (and pretty much the rest of the state except for far western MD) back in 2004. Any tigers in Black Hills should be over 40" easily by now. Wonder if I need to check with my DNR contact to see whether they started stocking again? More great pics you posted Kevin! It's been forever since I've caught any pickerel. Nice bass too!