Dam, I Caught A Fish!

Since I've returned from the roadtrip, I've been feeling blah. I guess it's a bit of a wanderlust hangover, knowing that the end of the roadtrip signals the beginning of the school year, and when I need to go back to work. So, yesterday, I made the effort to get out of the house by going fishing before heading down to Kettler Capitals Iceplex for a skating session for season ticket holders.

Pat has started calling the Weverton Cliffs area on the Potomac the "community pool," and sure enough, there were some people wading when I got to the end of the first path out to the river. I don't understand the people who wade and swim in areas where I lose a ton of lures (and their associated hooks), but that's their problem. Anyway, I moved a bit upstream, and with my Under Armour Bozeman boots, had no problem traversing some marshy area to get out to a group of rocks to fish from.

It ended up being a frustrating two hours of fishing. Early on, I had a fish on a Whopper Plopper that escaped. I switched over to a swimbait, and had a hit.... that evaporated when the line broke; I could clearly see the dark shape swim off with my lure. I had another one on a swim bait that again escaped during a leap into the air.

I should have brought a cup. I could have at least come home with a ton of crayfish.

How many crayfish can you find in this photo?

Just before I was ready to leave, I was visited by Mr. Sneaky-snake. I'd seen this snake swim by maybe a half-hour earlier, and then it came back to poke around in the rocky area directly in front of me. It decided to swim up and poke its head out just feet from where I was standing.

I actually hissed at it to make it go away

My first thought was that it was a copperhead, but Pat says it could have been a "northern watersnake." It was a bit pale brown compared to all of the northern watersnake photos I could find. But, when it swam, it was completely underwater, which I don't think is characteristic of copperheads. I didn't get close enough to see the shape of its head.

The trip down to Arlington for the skating session was awful. Traffic was more miserable than usual, and then of course both Elizabeth and I miss out on winning cool prizes by only a few numbers. We had 273165 and 273265, and 273163 and 273267 were called. :( We consoled ourselves at the former World of Beer location just a block or so away, before calling it a night.

So, this morning, I woke up wanting revenge on the fish who'd escaped me.

I decided to try my luck at Taylor's Landing, and chose poorly. Ninety minutes in, and nothing. No nibbles, just several lost lures.

Giving up there, I drove out to Dam 4. Last time I'd done these two in conjunction, I'd caught nothing at Dam 4, but a smallmouth and a walleye at Taylor's Landing.

My first spot, I was vying with two idiots that if I didn't know any better, I'd just call them frat boys. Loud, obnoxious, and just trying to be disruptive. I just kept casting, and didn't say a word. They quickly got tired of trying to antagonize me, but they'd clearly scared the fish away. When I was sure they'd left the area (and so wouldn't think they'd "won"), I moved further downstream from the dam.

I cast for about fifteen minutes with nary a nibble. I moved further downstream and tried again. Nothing. I moved a total of four times before I found a place with fairly calm water, albeit a huge log about five feet off shore. It was going to make casting interesting if I wanted to reel in directly in front. I opted to cast so that I was bringing in the bait at an angle to the log, and hopefully missing it.

Now, I'd been trying everything I had. Topwater (Zara Puppy and Whopper Plopper). Swimbait (Reaction Innovations Little Dipper and BPS Sassy Sally). TRD Finesse Worms. Nothing was getting even sunfish bumps. So, I went back to my old school setup -- the Spider Classic hook with a BPS Sticko Split-tail worm (minnow color).

The second cast, I felt something, and figured it for a sunfish (which I'd seen chasing some of my bait on the way in). I was wrong.

I'm probably the only person who is disappointed to catch a walleye

It was a skinny little thing, and came in just over eleven inches. Figures, considering I now have a stringer to keep the larger ones! I tossed it back and kept casting, only to lose the lure a few moments later.

I put on a swimbait and promptly caught another walleye; again, it wasn't quite twelve inches. All I could think was that Pat was going to be upset that I'd caught two walleye, and couldn't keep either one.

The swimbait was pretty beat up after the walleye (as usual), so I swapped it out for another one. A few more casts, and I'd gotten it hung up on a log (not the one I could clearly see) twice, bad enough that the hook was slightly bent. It was getting close to six, and I was thinking I should go home, but I wanted one more cast. Just one more.

I tossed out the line, then actually started walking downstream as I reeled it in, to try to avoid both the visible log as well as the one I'd gotten hung up on the past two casts. Then it hit, hard. I knew it had to be a smallmouth. I set the hook and reeled for all I was worth. When I saw the fish, I thought, OMG, it's a monster.

A good 14-15" fish, and a hell of a fighter

I think it looked like a monster right off because of how skinny the walleye were. Still, this fish was feisty, and it was hard for me to even get it off the hook. It was thrashing so much, the swimbait flew off, and I was nervous I'd end up with the naked hook in my hand. Obviously, it calmed down enough that I was able to grab it by the lip and remove the hook.

Since I was pretty satisfied by that last cast, I packed it up afterwards and headed home. Pat scowled at me when I returned, but I will put money on us going fishing this weekend, and him outdoing me. :) Though I might catch more walleye.... ;)