One County Closer to My Goal

April 21st, Earth Day weekend, and what a better way to spend it than on the water in a beautiful location like Cunningham Falls State Park. A month earlier I had visited the lake here, but I was completely skunked. I didn’t know the lake, it was 10 degrees cooler than back home and it seemed like the fish had not moved up to the shallows to spawn yet. That day I spent the better part of four hours trying different techniques in different parts of the lake to have no success. Fast forward one month to today and things have changed.

I arrived at the park just before 8 am, meaning I had left the house before 6 am. I drove into the parking lot and had the place to myself. Being alone I took my time rigging the kayak with my seat, scupper plugs, rods and tackle. I even brought a small cooler in case I caught something to bring home. The air temperature was in the mid 30’s with a very slight breeze. I paddled out towards the northern shore figuring that the water temperatures over there might be a little warmer. I had a small yellow tube on a 1/16 oz jig head about 24 inches below a float. As I approached the northern shoreline I began to make casts towards the point. If memory serves, it was on the fourth cast when my float went under and I was hooked up. A minute and a half later I had my first fish of the day and more importantly first fish in Frederick County. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I drove about two hours to get to this location. I wasn’t about to spend 15 minutes fishing and pack it back up. So I did my best to hold my position where I caught the first one and repeated my cast. This brought another half dozen or so to the kayak.

After a little while I paddled along the same shoreline, past a few guys sitting on their chairs waiting for the trout to bite. I was able to catch a few more including one bluegill. Then I decided to turn back to the launch and head home. I ended up catching 9 or 10 crappie and the one bluegill on my outing and I was pleased with that.

With my catching a fish in Frederick County, that brings me one step closer to my goal of catching a fish in each county in the state of Maryland. In fact the number is now 17. It also raises another concern. The closest county, where I have not caught a fish, to my home is now Baltimore, about 90 minutes away. My normal "modus operandi" has been to drive to a location, fish and drive home. That has just become more involved unless I begin to plan trips where I can get multiple counties on the same day, otherwise I'm going to be spending a lot on gasoline. So the next couple of weeks are going to be spent in planning. I'll keep you informed.

I realize that this is a fishing blog but I wanted to mention one more thing. During the month of April, I’ve been participating in a movement on Twitter called #30daysofpickinguplitter. As a person who enjoys being outside I think it is vital that we do everything we can to keep our “playground” clean. This particular day I picked up the standard beer can along the shore as well as multiple cigarette butts. But I also found a couple plastic bags with fish remains and other very disgusting contents. I still picked them and found a dumpster where I could put them when I stopped for lunch. I just wish I hadn’t found them. I hope anyone who might read this might make a commitment to do what we can to pick up trash we see. Thanks for bearing with me on this. Until next time...Tight Lines!

By the by: I did get some footage of my outing and hope to put together a short video before the end of the month. Stay tuned...

Citation, a video and a couple of failures

Well Easter has come and gone so I thought I’d post a quick update on how the fishing is going in my part of the world.

Up to this point my focus has been on fishing freshwater from the kayak. Mid March I was on the Eastern Shore visiting my sisters. I took the kayak out on what has become one of my favorite locations, Williams Mill, about a mile south of Delmar, MD. It was cold and windy so I was thankful I had remembered my anchor as it gave me the chance to hold a spot. I was using a shad style bait under a float with a nice bit of success. In fact I’ve mentioned it before that I think that there’s citation size fish there. The first fish I landed that day proved my point as I reeled in a nice 15 & 1/4 inch black crappie. I released it since I figured they were about to start spawning. Using the same presentation I caught about a half dozen more, most of them would have been terrific in a frying pan. I also caught multiple chain pickerel that day, some on the shad bait as well as a few on a jerkbait. The largest of those measured to just under 22 inches which tells me there has to be a “trophy” in there. I’ll head back in the not too distant future and hopefully find out. Now if you want to see footage of the outing that day I did have the GoPro with me. You may hear some excitement as well as some moments of anguish. But I promise I did my best to edit it down to about six minutes.

Now as to my quest to catch a fish in each county in the state of Maryland. Since my post at the beginning of March I’ve made two attempts of getting new counties. If you noticed I said “attempts.” A quick outing in Princess Anne, MD on the Manokin River proved fruitless as it a tidal river and I was there at low tide. At times I had to get out and walk the kayak since it was scrapping bottom. Then over the Easter weekend I made the drive up to Cunningham Falls State Park in northern Frederick County. It was a beautiful day with nice high skies. Unfortunately not being familiar with the lake, I spent most of my time paddling around trying various baits to no end. Since it was such a gorgeous location I plan on returning some time in the future. Until next time ... Tight Lines!