Two Down, Three to Go!

As mid August comes upon me I’m beginning to wonder if I can get my quest completed before the end of summer. As today started I was five counties short of finishing. Two counties, Garrett and Allegany, are the furthest west. In fact I drove through them on my trip with my son to Junior Wilderness Camp in West Virginia. That trip really made me want to head west and see what I could do. Then I thought about it and decided to head to the other end of northern Maryland.

I woke up this morning at 4 am and was out the door by 4:30. I had a place in Cecil County in mind and just began driving. After a little over two hours I was in Elkton at Howard’s Pond Park, or as it is called “Cow Pond” on the maps. The area had a large pond, along with a smaller one as well as what looked like small canal running between the street and the ponds. I figured that the area would be good habitat for warm water species like largemouth and sunfish so I began by casting a Senko rigged weightless. After a couple of casts into one area and not getting any bites I walked over to the other side of the pond. My second cast from that side I hooked up with something. AND it felt heavy! I began to reel as fast as I could remembering to not reel against the drag. As I brought it to shore I realized that I was in a predicament. I was standing on a bank that was a good 4 feet above the level of the pond. My rod was pretty lightweight and my leader was light as well. I climbed down a little and began to try and lift the bass out of the water. As I lifted my line SNAPPED! I thought I was toast but fortunately the fish was exhausted and laid there on the edge of the pond. Now this is my quest so I go by my rules. One of my rules says to be official I have to photograph the fish. I headed back to the car and grabbed my net and was able to scoop up the 19 inch largemouth and bring it onto the shore. Photos and removing the hook took a couple of minutes. Fortunately a gentleman saw me retrieving the fish and came down for a look. He was nice enough to snap my picture and I then released the behemoth.* After that I walked around to different parts of the pond and really didn’t have many more bites. In fact to be completely honest I spotted a couple of small bait fish along the shore, but at that point I was ready to head to my second county.

I jumped in the car and headed towards Prettyboy Reservoir. Prettyboy is one of three reservoirs that provided water for the city of Baltimore and it is enormous. Since I was without the kayak I found a spot just before one of the bridges that crosses it to park. I headed down to the water’s edge and spotted smaller fish swimming in the shallows. I tied on a 1/80 oz jig and put an “Atomic Mite” on it. Immediately I was catching small sunfish. I think I ended up catching 7 or 8 fish in total between moving to different locations. After about an hour I decided to head home. But before I did I stopped and picked up about 40 yards of braided line that was sitting on the ground by where I stood. I also picked up an old spool as well as some plastic wrappers. If you are reading this I hope that you will do the same sort of thing. I tell my wife all of the time “I can wash my hands afterwards.” Please do you part and clean up afterwards.

As a footnote I’d like to say that while it was very exciting to pull in what is probably my biggest largemouth - it wasn’t as fun as a fight as some of the smaller ones I’ve caught. It seemed sluggish with only one or two runs. Maybe it’s me but I enjoy the fight more than the “reward” at the end. Just my two cents. Until next time ... Tight Lines!

If you are interested in watching what happened here’s the link to the video.