***If learning to fly fish for smallmouth bass interests you, TPFR is hosting an "on the water" Casting Church on Sunday, July 12th on the Monocacy River outside Frederick! Ill be there and am looking forward to it!***
I'm happy to report that the year classes of smallmouth bass in the Potomac are in a very good place right now. On my recent float trip with Chris Campo on the upper main stem Potomac, I boated 15 fish. Most were 12-15 inch "bread and butter" fish (as Chris calls them) and one spectacular 19 inch specimen. I recall only one that was 9-10 inches. These are a very fun grade of smallmouth to catch, especially on fly tackle. The future of SMB fishing on the Potomac is bright for years to come.
Our day started out with a fun top water bite. We launched the boat at about 5:35 am and hit a ledge structure that crosses the river. Fish were crashing minnows both above and below the ledge. Mostly they were chasing schools of minnows in the eddies, but there were fish holding in the "laminar flow" just above as well. We could see them busting from afar, and worked our way over to be able to place a cast over the area where they were busting. It wasn't as fleeting as a bait ball on the Chesapeake Bay either, where birds and boats quickly put fish down. The fish stayed turned on for a while, so there was no rush, and multiple presentations were possible. Probably the cloud cover and drizzle helped.
I had multiple takes where the fish launched itself fully out of the water on the eat. I fished the legendary Chuck Kraft pattern called the "Topwater Kreelex" tied by William Heresniak, which is a cork bodied gold-silver-red pattern I think in a size 2. I fished a fast action 6 wt Winston (also purchased from William - "a cannon" as he accurately described it) and felt I had plenty of power to make 60'-70' casts. A 7 or 8 wt would have worked well, too.
The 19" fish was a memorable fish. It was lying in the slack water to the side of a midstream boulder formation next to fast current. We had just caught a nice 15" fish that jumped four times and at least 3 ft fully horizontally traveling through the air. Chris instructed me to check the seam next to the boulder. I assessed the cast as needing an aerial upstream mend, and made a good first cast. The big fish ate at the end of the drift. I didn't see the eat, so it must have sucked the fly down from below. The infamous toilet bowl flush that big fish so often make. It was low light and raining so I barely registered it. My fly had disappeared so I set the hook. As soon as I did I knew I had a big fish. I didn't see the fish for what felt like ages as it bulldogged and ran. I could feel her indomitable will. Thankfully she was hooked firmly in the corner of the mouth so I was able to play her carefully and bring her into the net at the right moment. She was definitely the biggest SMB on the fly I've caught in the last 5 years at least. Maybe longer!
After the exuberant top water bite, we continued on downstream as a steady rain developed. At this point we had boated 10 fish and had 3 further encounters. The fly rod had showed out at sticking fish. We alternated between fly and spin tackle the rest of the day. It was a midstream bite, just floating down and over invisible pools and occasional wood as we went. The soft plastic fluke accounted for a number of fish, and a few more were taken on the top water kreelex and whopper plopper. But the hookset ratio went way down. At the end of the day we had boated fifteen fish and encountered 15 more, for a total of 30 fish encounters. Epic. Thoroughly soaked, we were off the water by 1030 am, which was great because I had to get back to my family.
It felt like a Cinderella day. I wish I'd fished the CK Baitfish at some point, as that would surely have worked, and I might have stuck more fish, and I wish I'd brought a better rain jacket, lol. In any case, it was a day of smallmouth fishing I'll never forget. The end.
Link to my Instagram post from the day:
***If learning to fly fish for smallmouth bass interests you, TPFR is hosting an "on the water" Casting Church on Sunday, July 12th on the Monocacy River outside Frederick! Ill be there and am looking forward to it!***
http://www.tpfr.org
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