Where to go?

[bdhoover77]

My birthday is this weekend and I think my gift will be a day to myself to fish. I’ve done very little fishing since the spring, so I’m anxious to get out. I’m thinking smallmouth might be the target species. Any suggestions on where to go to wade fish for SMB?

I don’t mind a reasonable drive from home here in Baltimore County. Obviously not looking for specific honey holes, just ideas.

 

[caddisflyer]

pm sent

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

My birthday is this weekend and I think my gift will be a day to myself to fish. I’ve done very little fishing since the spring, so I’m anxious to get out. I’m thinking smallmouth might be the target species. Any suggestions on where to go to wade fish for SMB?

I don’t mind a reasonable drive from home here in Baltimore County. Obviously not looking for specific honey holes, just ideas.

When my son lived near Fort Meade, he tried (unsuccessfully) to catch a snakehead on the fly in the Upper Patuxent in Hanover. (He and his little brother caught some on soft baits and plugs.) If you can't find SMB, snakeheads are all over the place.

 

[bdhoover77]

I usually go to the Monocacy for SMB. It’s been my go-to stream this year. I think, particularly with the lack of rain here in Maryland, I’ll find another stream this time around.

 

[bdhoover77]

I drove up Saturday morning with the plan to fish the Juniata for SMB (or whatever species happened to be game). Originally I had planned to fish the Conodiguinet below the Letort. I should have probably stuck with that plan.

I left the house at 5:00am and arrived at the Lewistown Narrows access. I don’t have a boat or kayak, so the idea was to wade fish. I checked the USGS gauges and compared that to what popular opinion seemed adequate wading conditions.

I suited up in my waders (I was not sure about water temps and wet wading, so I went with waders). I walked about 20-30 yards above the access point and began wading out into the river.

About 5 minutes in, I stepped in a hole that was deeper than I anticipated and higher than the top of my waders. Fortunately I had my wading belt and wading staff. Nevertheless my waders slowly filled with water. I didn’t panic and was able to make it fairly easily back to shallower water. I stumbled back into the parking lot and realized the legs of my waders were filled. The wading belt kept me from getting inundated but I still got soaked.

Fortunately I had brought along a change of clothes. But I didn’t anticipate having to use the change of clothes within 5 minutes of getting to the river. I emptied my waders and discretely (and embarrassingly) changed in the parking lot. Once I was dry, I thought to myself that I was both foolish and incredibly lucky — foolish in that I had not been more cautious in wading and picking my spots and lucky that I wore the wading belt. It could have been a much more serious situation rather than just really embarrassing.

Anyway, I looked at the soaked piles of clothes laying on the ground and decided it just wasn’t my day. I packed up and drove the 2 hours back home. So much for fishing the Juniata. I guess maybe next time it would be better done from a kayak.

At least it wasn’t a coldwater stream…otherwise there would have been, in the words of George Costanza, “significant shrinkage.” In all seriousness, always wear a wading belt!

The photo below represents everything I had on except a hat and sunglasses…

 

[Duriensbane]

Have yet to be in that situation myself, but i understand your concern. This past weekend, a friend and I were on Penns. Overcast skies, misty all day and a slight breeze made the weather enjoyable. Creek was lower then what i have been in earlier this year, but overall perfect conditions. Fishing was tough till we finally figured out what they were looking for. But Wading left an impression on me. Since flows were lower then normal i decided to really push my luck and get out into some spots and fish seams that normally would required some casting over-reach with my euro rod. Was standing slightly on 2 rocks, about calf deep, and stepped in-between them. Instantly i was up to my waist in water. So it really only takes one step and you could be walking back soaked.