TWIF (This Week in Fishing) August 16th - 21st

Tuesday, August 16th: As mentioned in my last post, my sore neck continued into the beginning of this week. With that I had no desire to load the kayak up on the car and try to find a spot to fish. The pain was a bit much. But Tuesday afternoon gave me the chance to try a location on the eastern shore since once again I was meeting with my sister in Easton. On the ride I took about a half hour and made a few casts along the shore of the stream leading out of the Wye Mill Community Lake. It was pretty wide to be honest as I got there and I could see fish breaking the surface going after some of the insects that were dropping down. Fortunately I was able to catch one small bass, maybe 8 inches long, on an orange nymph while the other fish continue in action around me. The photo I took wasn't flattering for the fish or me so I'm hoping the readers will trust me when I say I caught one.

One interesting thing about this spot is the "Anglers Survey" box put there by the Inland Fisheries Dept of the Maryland DNR. It houses cards and pencils and asks for anglers to record their catch. It would be really neat to see the results posted somewhere.

Wednesday, August 17th: While the heat has continued into the middle of the week I spent most of the day in the air conditioning. But once the evening came along I gave my youngest son a ride to soccer practice and hit a local pond. My trusty plastic worm started me off with a few bass. The first two hit the worm right after the worm hit the water. At one point as I was reeling in a small bass hit it after a little bit of jerk or tug right at the shore. It ripped the worm straight off so I figured some of the fish were looking for a moving bait. So I put a 3 inch chartreuse grub on the hook and began to use it as a soft jerkbait. It paid off with one bass and even a crappie which was a pleasant surprise.

Thursday, August 18th:

This morning I finally took the opportunity to get the kayak back on Lake Lariat in the southern part of the county. It's been over a month since I've been down here and I really enjoyed getting back there. I ended up spending about two and a half hours paddling around making casts in some of the spots that seem to hold fish. I was using a twin tail grub from Arkie. The tails on the bait are very flexible and provide quite a bit of action. It worked like a charm allowing me to hook up with about a dozen fish, mixed between bluegill, bass and redear sunfish. In fact I did something I've never done before. On one cast in a location that usually pays off I made my cast and hooked up pretty quickly. What I had felt heavy and provided a nice fight! As I pulled it into the kayak I was astounded by a 12 inch redear. I took a few pictures of it and then made sure this trophy was revived. Then I let it swim off. After that I pulled out my phone to check Maryland Fishing Challenge website. Being a sunfish I kind of thought I had just caught a "citation" size fish. The cutoff for a redear is 11 inches and my fish was one inch longer! I was really excited. My grandfather, who used to take me fishing all of the time when I was younger, always said he had "never caught a fish big enough." Personally I think he had but had never known exactly how to register it. The Maryland Dept. of Fisheries made it quite easy.

Saturday, August 20th:

The end of the summer, at least when it comes to my summer. Teachers report back on Monday so I have to try and get my fishing in when I can. This morning, my youngest son had soccer practice so I took him up to the school. While he was at practice I drove up to Sewell Branch, the spot in the middle of the county that I like to try. The water flowing through was mocha colored and I couldn't see down into it very far. I had a green and white tube on the small jig which produced a few small fish. I also tried a small, maybe 2 inch, Rapala Ultralight, Firetiger minnow and it produced a couple of fish as well. In fact, unless it has shaken it out, there is a fish swimming around that area with it in its lip, since something hit and snapped my line immediately.

Sunday, August 21st: This morning I took the kayak over to the Patuxent River, out of Nan's Cove. I was about an hour and a half after high tide so the water was beginning to move a bit. We also had a nice breeze what kept me moving as well. Unfortunately the breeze also kicked up a few small waves on the main part of the river so I actually didn't venture out too far. I paddled around the edge of the cove, using the same small Beetle Spin and caught a little over two dozen white perch. Again they were on the smaller side so they were all released.

Once the early evening came around I decided to walk down the edge of the bay and give the mouth of Flag Harbor a try. I had a double drop rig with circle hooks baited with small pieces of shrimp. I haven't spent much time down this way due to not hearing of anything being caught. Nevertheless I spent about 45 minutes to an hour making casts along the shore. I ended up catching a couple of "spot" as well as a small black drum.

I hadn't caught either of these species this year yet so it was nice catching them today. It also means that I hopefully can spend some time "unwinding" after school down by the bay. Until next time ... Tight lines!