Fried Lemons

I wanted to get out there Friday and Sunday. Work is keeping me way too busy unfortunately.

Wow, no kidding there. I assume you were around dam 4. I was actually far downstream. The density of fish here is lower as I've never caught more than 2 in an outing. However the average size seems bigger. The fish I've caught here ranged from 18-24".

I agree and think fishing enjoyment is a balance of enjoying the technique and enjoying playing the fish. Before this cat my biggest fish was a 35lb mahi mahi caught trolling out of Cancun. I could barely lift my arm after fighting that fish but the monotony of trolling combined with the 3 foot waves that day made it an overall unpleasant experience. To me bass fishing is lacking in the opposite way. The techniques are a lot of fun but the fight can be very lack luster.

Water levels are down but widewater is deep enough to not really be affected by the draw downs.

Season is winding down for me. I'll probably give it one more trip Friday and call it. Here are a couple walleye I caught during the fall run. All males in the 18-21" range.

I had this exact thing happen to me when I was 15. It was the first 5lb+ bass I had ever hooked. That event was actually the point where I started buying heavier gear. I use heavy gear around slop. I won't argue that at times it is necessary. Unfortunately I was alone at the time so the pictures aren't that great.

I recently had an experience that brought the title to mind while fishing my local river. I was fishing for smallies when I had a behemoth 42lb blue catfish smash my blade bait. I fought the fish for a solid 10 minutes, steering it away from current, brush piles and rocks. While I definitely felt undergunned I allowed the fish to pull drag while letting my rod absorb the headshakes. Eventually I managed to land the fish. It occurred to me then that no smallie would ever come close to the power of that blue. Which do you value more: enjoying the fight with the fish or getting it in with no chances of escape? That's basically what I am getting at. I was fishing with 10lb mono which is about as low as most people will go for bass. The encounter I had with that blue reminded me of the importance of proper drag setting and fighting technique, and the satisfaction of a good fight. I feel this is something that has been lost to bass fishermen in particular. I understand why it is in the interest of tournament anglers to get the fish in as fast as possible but it seems this style of overpowering the fish is also dominant in the recreational scene. Your thoughts?

Thanks for the input everyone. I contacted my local DNR and a fisheries biologist got back to me. The fish is apparently a goldfish several generations wild. Subsequent generations tend to lose their bright colors. I thought that was pretty neat.

I think it was actually a plain goldfish. I see lots of colored ones swimming around.

Fished the canal at swains for the first time in a few months. Water was drawn down 2-3ft below usual. In these conditions there is usually a sweet spot that holds most of the fish. The rest is either dead or dinks. I found the sweet spot in a slightly deeper stretch with a single piece of isolated cover. 3 bass at 3lbs apiece caught on consecutive casts 14" 1.5lb crappie

Try fishing tight against the bank. Fish generally move up shallow in high water to escape the current and to feed on worms and other food items washed in by the rising water. Shallow in this case can mean less than a foot of water. Any obvious current breaks are also worth trying.

I’ve fished for about 18 years and I used spinning exclusively for 15 of those years. I didn’t want to deal with the learning curve of casting gear. Now I use both equally and believe each has its application. If I had to use only one it would be spinning but I see no reason to limit myself.

Fishing stays good if you are willing to pursue other species. In my area yellow perch, crappie, walleye, pickerel and blue cats are all very active this time of year.

I accidentally snagged this fish on a crappie jig in a canal. At first I thought it was a small common carp but now I think it might be a crucian. I’ve never heard of wild crucian carp in my state and wonder if this is yet another invasive species in my area.

Loch Raven is loaded with them.

Edge rods are 50% off atm if anyone's interested.

Ml rod with 6lb test is more than enough for smallies in most situations. Only time I would consider heavier is in heavy current with rocky cover.

Both sides. The stretch you speak of gets pretty heavily beat. The road side is less pressured but has worse access. I’ve caught big fish from both sides.

Yep, widewater. There are some giants there. The blue cat I'm pretty sure was blind. You can see how the eye in the picture is clouded up. The other eye was completely gone. Doesn't seem to have bothered the fish at all.

Had a really good week fishing jerkbaits and blade baits in the C&O canal and potomac river. I've gained a ton of confidence in blade baits in particular. They've been catching all kinds of species. A 3 caught jigging a lipless crankbait off a point in the canal 14" crappie caught hopping a blade bait in the canal Small walleye caught jigging a blade bait in the canal. Never seen one of these in the canal before. 2lb smallie fishing a jerkbait with a slow steady retrieve. Biggest fish of my life, PB blue cat at 42lbs caught jigging a blade bait for smallies/walleye. Fought for 10 minutes on my bass gear, was surprised my rod held up. No wonder the target fish weren't around.

I have a sad story to share as well. I had just gotten a shiny new reel and I headed down to the water excited to try it out. It had rained the night before making the rocks slippery as can be. In my lack of caution I slipped and fell. I had two combos on me. One rod had snapped just above the first guide and the new reel had a nice bit of rock rash right on the shiny new side plate. The rod was a very nice rod shipped from abroad just a month ago.

For soft plastic toads, keitech noisy flapper. In my view it combines all of the best qualities I’m looking for in a toad: the commotion of a stanley ribbit and the aerodynamics of a horny road, all while being more durable than either. I’m honestly sad I didn’t discover this bait earlier in the season when the frog bite was hot.

832 is nice and smooth but I had issues with how quickly the color faded from the line. I’ve been using smackdown which is thinner than the 832 and seems to hold its color better. I also love sunline fx2 for frogging.

7'MH musky rod with a penn fathom 25 and 65lb braid. This is more than enough to handle any size of catfish found in my local waters, where they can easily run 50lb+. I need to muscle fish away from rocks hence the heavy gear.

Have you considered the type of shore you usually fish? I have a couple rods over 7’ which get great distance but at times I wish they were 6” shorter when I have trees behind and beside me. I find rods 6’6-6’10 give me the best mix of distance and maneuverability.