Add Two More Counties to the List

In regards to my quest to catch a fish in county in the state of Maryland I have had some recent success. I believe most of it can be attributed to the fact that spring is finally here and that fish are becoming more active. But I also think that some of it comes down to perseverance on my part for at least one of the counties.

Back at the beginning of April I was paging through the internet looking up various things about some of the music artists I like. In flipping through various pages, I stumbled upon the fact that one of my favorite music groups, The Choir, was going to be performing in mid-April in Columbia, MD. I immediately order a ticket for the show. The tour was in support of their new album, "Shadow Weaver" but it was also a celebration of the 25th anniversary of their "Circle Slide" album, my favorite.

April 19th came around and I headed up to the area for the show. I made sure that I had plenty of time before the show to find a spot to try a little fishing. I came prepared with my small spinning rod, spooled with 8 lb test line and a couple of small 1/32 oz jigs with soft plastics. When I got the Centennial Lake in Columbia, I was greeted by an incoming cold front that had winds blowing about 15 mph. Since I was on shore I decided to try and find a spot that might hold fish, kind of out of the wind. As things would progress that afternoon, I had a few "nibbles" as they say, but nothing big enough would really bite. The worst part of it for me was that I was standing along the shoreline that had a few rocks extending about 2 ft into the water. I could spot small fish darting in and out of the rocks. It was then that I decided that I wasn't going to be skunked, so I changed my set up to a small size 8 hook. Once I had it tied on, I began to look around for possible locations of "bait." I rolled over a couple of rocks and found a white grub. I slid it on the hook, cast it out about 4 ft past the rocks and reeled it in slowly. Seconds later I was holding this little guy.

I found a couple of more grubs as well as an earthworm and caught three or four more of this little guys, which happened to be "green sunfish" which I had never caught before. (I learned this after some research.) "Fish Across Maryland: Howard County" was on the list.

The most recent county added to the challenge is Prince George's County. This past Saturday, April 25th, I was returning from a visit to my mother in Salisbury when I had some extra time. I decided to detour a little and got to School House Pond, in Upper Marlboro. I had given the area a try before but was not successful. That day I showed up with the same set up as above, and immediately began getting nibbles. After a few minutes of casting to various area, I was able to reel in yet another bluegill. But this guy was large enough to take my soft plastic, Berkley Powerbait nymph. I spent a little more time in the area and also caught a small black crappie.

That brings the current list to 6 counties: Calvert, Howard, Prince George's, St. Mary's, Wicomico and Worcester. Here's to getting few more soon.

County #4 - St. Mary's

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take the kayak out on the water, so I decided to head down to St. Mary's Lake in Callaway, MD. It was a gorgeous afternoon, with temperatures in the mid-70's and just a very slight breeze. I paddled straight out from the boat launch and made my way over the northern shoreline. A couple of anglers I met at the launch mentioned that they had caught some crappie along that side so I thought it would be a good spot to start. I couple of casts in and I was hooked up with one of the largest black crappies I have ever seen. I got him to the boat and celebrated the catch. After a photo or two, I released him back to fight again.

I spent the next couple of hours casting along the same shoreline, moving about 100 yards at a time. I ended the day with just about a dozen really nice size panfish. Well let me rephrase that, I caught just about a dozen. All were released. Who knows maybe I'll see them again?

Fishing Across Maryland

Easter Break is over so my normal schedule has begun again. That also means that I have to squeeze in my chances to fish on the weekends. This morning was mildly successful when I was able to catch a small bluegill as well as a small black crappie. That being said this week I also finalized my rules for FaMD, Fish Across Maryland. While they only mean something to me, others may stumble across them. Here they are:

Until the next time I get to get out and fish - tight lines everyone!

Three Counties and Counting

Well my fishing quest is truly underway now. Easter Break has been very kind to me, as I have been able to try a little fishing each day. So far, starting with Sunday, March 29th, I have caught at least one fish for 6 days in a row. While I don't think that this is very impressive, I do like the fact that I have had to time to appreciate the area around me. Along with that I know that fishing is an addiction, but I don't really want concentrate on "streaks" since a geocaching streak, 31 days in a row, left a very bad taste in my mouth towards the game in general.

No my fishing quest, as it is, is about trying to catch a fish, any fish, in each of Maryland's 23 counties. Not too difficult except it will take a good bit of planning and driving to accomplish it. Also let me say that my "quest" is not to get it done as fast as I can. If it takes over a year, that's fine with me. I just want to give it a true and honest effort. That being said I currently have three counties completed. The first one was Wicomico County, on Maryland's eastern shore. I'm originally from Wicomico, so I think it is really neat that it was also my first county, back on January 24th, with this nice black crappie from Bell Creek within the Pemberton Historical Park.

That day I also caught three other crappie as well as a nice largemouth bass, but one of the "rules" for myself is that the first fish caught is the one that counts towards the challenge. At some point I'll have to post my rules for this whole thing.

County number 2 was Calvert County, in southern Maryland. I have been living in Calvert for almost 23 years now, but it wasn't until a couple of years ago that the fishing bug really bit me. I teach high school and a couple former students of mine used to talk about all of their outdoor adventures and it got me interested. The fish that counted for my new "home" county was another black crappie.

Not the largest of the species, but I was able to reel him in back at the beginning of my current streak, on March 29th.

Last but not least, county number 3 is Worcester County, on Maryland's eastern shore. I spent three days in Salisbury with my family visiting my mother and each morning I would head to a different location and see how I would do. Since I brought the kayak along, I decided to wake up one morning and head to Shad Landing State Park, which sits along the Pocomoke River between Snow Hill and Pocomoke City itself. I have lots of memories from Shad Landing, mainly of youth group camping trips from when I was in junior and senior high. I drove down to the park and put the kayak onto the water. It was low tide, but I had no difficulty paddling along the canoe and kayak trail. Pretty early on I landed this nice bluegill.

As I paddled out into the main portion of the river I saw several fish breaking on top of the surface, but I was unable to get any bites. In fact that bluegill was the only one I caught that morning, so I'm really glad I did get him.

That's it for the quest so far. I really hope to pick up a couple of the neighboring counties to Calvert before too long. But then again, Easter Break will be ending soon. I'll keep you posted…