County #18: Washington County

May 26th, Memorial Day Weekend The plan: wake up at 4 am, eat a quick breakfast and get on the road. My destination is Greenbrier State Park in Washington County just about two hours from home. Put the kayak on the water and catch a few fish as part of “Fish Across Maryland” and then head back home.

Reality: I woke up at 4 am, ate a quick breakfast and drove up to Greenbrier State Park. It took exactly two hours. But as I write this I am sitting in a line of cars waiting to get into the park because it doesn’t open until 7:30. While waiting I also was paid a visit by a park ranger who informed me that the water level of the lake itself has been drawn down for ongoing repairs to the dam. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how “Fish Across Maryland” goes for the day.

Reflecting on the day: To say that I was worried about my attempt would be honest. I have fished another lake that was drained down for dam repairs and had no luck. This was not the case for today. As I paddled out of the little finger from the launch I saw loads of underwater vegetation, so I figured that was a good sign. There were some areas of sandy bottom between patches of grass and if I looked closely I could see fish swim over them. I made it out to deeper water and made a few casts along the grass edges. My trusty tube jig would fall nicely in a spiral. On one cast the spiral seemed to stop and gave it a yank. There it was my first fish of the day and first fish in Washington County: a nice 9 & 1/2 inch black crappie. Landed, photographed and released, any other fish for the day were bonus!

I spent a little more than two hours paddling around the edge of the lake. Occasionally I’d see or hear some splashing along the shore and I figured the largemouth were getting breakfast. I’d make casts near those spots, if I was within range, trying to entice something to bite. I was lucky to get hooked up on a few occasions but pleasantly surprised to see that I was caching bass. I was catching “sunfish.” (By the way any FishNerd knows that the largemouth bass is a member of the sunfish family, but here I’m talking about a different species.) To be completely honest I think these “sunfish”were redbreast sunfish; and they were beautiful! The orange and yellow on their anal fins and tails were so bright. It really made them stand out. I ended up catching three or four of them along with a half dozen black crappie. The small “Crappie Magic” swimbait by Luck E Strike paid off with most of the catches today. I even landed a nice largemouth using it and missed on a couple of others. After the two or so hours in the kayak, I decided I’d head back to the launch. In total I think I caught about a dozen fish. Maybe not the biggest day of fishing, numbers wise, but it was a very fun morning.

With respects to the plan the moral of the story: Know before you go! I really don’t have anyone to blame but myself. Looking back I found “Tweets” from the Greenbrier State Park that the water level was going to be down all summer. It is Memorial Day weekend and state parks in Maryland are ALWAYS very busy this weekend and every other weekend during the summer. Nonetheless at least I have a story to SHOW and TELL! Until next time... Tight Lines!

Upon hearing from the Maryland DNR and the fishing department - the sunfish that I caught were "green sunfish." I had caught them before in another location, but it's always nice to catch something different.

National Relaxation Day, August 15th

**Disclaimer: While this won't be my most verbose blog post, I thought I'd share the steps of making the new baits I tried out yesterday. I hope to point together a nice post about my summer in a week or so, just before the new school year starts.

According to the "Twitterverse" yesterday was #NationalRelaxationDay. I decided to spend some time at my "makeshift" fly vice. I wanted to give a couple of things a try. Here's how it went:

Step 1:
I used a number 2 Mustad straight shank hook and I laid some wraps of thread.

Step 2:
I took a piece of copper wire, recycled from a piece of coaxial cable, and bent a hook into it. I then tied it to the bottom of the hook as a catch for soft plastics.

Step 3:
I had seen a YouTube video on how to tie a weed guard on a hook so I tied on a piece of monofilament line, 30# test.

Step 4:
I decided to leave one there. But I also thought I'd try to put "eyes" on one. I used the black head off of a curly tailed grub. It's probably a little bug for the presentation but I figured why not?

Step 5:
At that point it was a matter of putting the soft plastic trailer on it. I used a 2 inch grub from Yum "Christmas tree" color. The colors do a nice job matching the minnows I've been using on river.

Of course saying that I tied a hook to hold soft plastics, I'm not sure if it qualifies as a "fly" or not. But as they say "The proof is in the pudding." That afternoon I headed to one of my favorite spots, a private pond in the middle of the county. A few casts, on a light rod with 6# test monofilament line, the bait got tapped a couple of times. After a couple more casts I reeled in a small largemouth bass. When I brought the fish up I saw that he liked the lure since it was almost all the way down his throat. (The photo at the top of this post!) After it was released I changed locations a little and caught another largemouth. I was hoping to get a crappie or two, but alas no luck.

The next day I took the kayak out on the river. Using the same bait, I made casts to a location that I know usually holds fish. On the third cast, I hooked up with a small striped bass, or what might have been a hybrid between a white perch and a striper. After photos, I released it and made a few more casts. Unfortunately I didn't check my line and it snapped on my next hook up. I tied the other version of the lure on, without the "eyes" and caught two or three white perch on it before moving to another spot.

There's something satisfying about making a lure yourself and then actually catching fish with it. Now I just have to make a few more...Always check your line as well as your knots. Until next time...Tight lines!!

Easter Break is Here!

April 13th and school is out for a few days. With Easter being a little later this year, and state testing pretty much starting right when we get back, I only have Thursday through Tuesday off. So with that being true and my nephew getting married on Saturday, my family and I aren't going out of town as usual. With all of those factors, I decided to try a few spots in Maryland in an attempt to add a few counties to my "Fish Across Maryland" quest.

This morning I woke up at my normal time, 5:10, and went through my regular routine. I left the house around 5:50 or so and began the trek to Smithville Lake, in Caroline County. About a two hour drive across the Bay Bridge down Rt. 404 until I was basically within spitting distance of the Maryland/Delaware line. The Maryland DNR website mentions that the lake is an excellent spot to catch largemouth as well as other sunfish. Being the Eastern Shore of Maryland, I was hoping to get into a nice chain pickerel while there.

I put the kayak on the water just after 8 am. I had a golden colored jerkbait tied on one rod and decided to begin with that. The pond had large areas of lily pads and I thought I'd make long casts on the edges. On the third or fourth cast, I hooked up with something and reeled down to make sure I didn't lose him. After a minute or so I had a 10 inch largemouth as my first fish in Caroline County. Two pictures and he was released to swim again.

Having driven 2 hours to get Smithville, I wasn't just going to paddle back in after catching my first fish, especially since I caught him after being on the water for only 10 minutes. I paddled around for the next couple of hours casting a 1/32 oz jig with an orange soft plastic "critter" from Johnson's. It paid off with nine other fish, split between bluegill and black crappie.

Most of the fish I caught today were towards the northern portion of the pond. I wanted to try the other end so I paddled that way as well as let the wind push me. There were a few others fishing down that way; but I only saw one other person reel in anything. Around 11:30 I decided that I would start to head back to the launch when I spotted an old tire sticking out of the water about 6 ft from shore. After a few big tugs, and lots of muddy water in the kayak, I brought it home. A few of the other anglers chuckled as I went by joking "I didn't know kayak anglers needed a spare tire." Nevertheless each one also said "Thanks." Like the app* I heard about a few weeks ago says "Cleaning the planet one piece at a time."

Until next time...Tight Lines!
*App name: "Litterati."