Smallies Below Conowingo

[BelAirSteve]

Had a chance to fish the rock gardens below (not immediately below) the dam this weekend. A friend of mine has been fishing it for years, and knows, in great detail, where pools are and how deep the water is, etc. He's a spin guy.

We arrived and I promptly caught a nice 11" smallie on about the 5th cast. Beautiful dark green smallies - when you look at the bottom you understand why they are colored the way they are. "Fly guy 1, spin guy 0" I said.

Of course he proceeded to catch a fish about the same size as soon as I opened my mouth. "Looks like is 1 - 1 pal!" I caught another one in the same area just above a riffle shortly thereafter. The fish were pretty much where they were supposed to be.

We moved to his favorite hole, waded out, and he explained where to cast and sure enough on the second cast I landed another 12" fish. 3 or 4 casts later it was on! I know it was a big fish, but when it jumped we both looked at one another with that "holy s*&t - did you see that?" look. I would estimate it was about 16", maybe bigger, maybe smaller. The jump was like the cover of a Bass Pro catalog - mouth wide open, gills flaring, tail walk...the whole nine yards. He ended up jumping twice before shaking the hook. I suppose I am not accustomed to adding that extra strip set, since I usually fish for small stream smallies. Nonetheless, it was the biggest smallie I have ever hooked.

In terms of flies, the go to fly was a chartreuse crystal bugger, I think size 6. Which was a fly I received in a swap on this very board in 2010! Every fish I caught (5 total, 3 landed in about 2 1/2 hours) was on something with chartreuse in it. Tried white, tried brown, tried olive, tried black. The rule still applies - any color works as long as it's chartreuse!

I will definitely go back and prove that the fly guy always outfishes the spin guy! Can't wait for the fall when the smallies put on the feed bags!

 

[jay348]

I had all intentions of going there this weekend as well, but the plan never materialized. Now I wish it had.

Good stuff.

 

[icyguides]

Steve, stripers into the 24inch class are starting to show up there now. You never know what you'll hook into there, but if you thought a 16 inch smallie put on a show, a nice striper will really give you a run for your money. Good luck and stick with chartruese.

 

[BelAirSteve]

icyguides wrote:
Steve, stripers into the 24inch class are starting to show up there now. You never know what you'll hook into there, but if you thought a 16 inch smallie put on a show, a nice striper will really give you a run for your money. Good luck and stick with chartruese.

Yep...always looking for that too. Was hoping we might locate some of them, but maybre a bit early.

 

[glenrockonthefly]

Steve,

I use to live in Abingdon and could be at the dam in 20 min...there are always fish to catch, spring the shad run is a must, in June & July I have had great luck catching white perch on small clousers, smallies are there april through november. Come late September the stripers are great! Everyone will be up throwing stuff into the discharge looking for 2 keepers while there are schools of 10-16 inch fish from the fishing platform down, I get there at least once or twice each year late sept and catch close to 100 fish on clousers size 6-1/0 its a blast!!!

 

[BelAirSteve]

glenrockonthefly wrote:
Steve,

I use to live in Abingdon and could be at the dam in 20 min...there are always fish to catch, spring the shad run is a must, in June & July I have had great luck catching white perch on small clousers, smallies are there april through november. Come late September the stripers are great! Everyone will be up throwing stuff into the discharge looking for 2 keepers while there are schools of 10-16 inch fish from the fishing platform down, I get there at least once or twice each year late sept and catch close to 100 fish on clousers size 6-1/0 its a blast!!!

Hit me up if you ever want some company. I am new to that part of the river. I go on a guide trip every spring in the flats for stripers.

 

[sandfly]

smallies are on the flats too. spent part of my childhood there fishing the flats and around turkey point. smallies, large mouths, stripers, perch, cats, white perch and pickeral all are in the flats.

 

[BelAirSteve]

Made it out again today, in the same general area, but explored some rock gardens and grass beds. Saw lots of "fishy" looking spots, landed 4 in likely holding areas.

This was the biggest fish of the day:

After my buddy caught a perch on a surface plug, I switched over to a white Gartside Gurgler and caught that fish on the 3rd cast. Just blew up the water hitting it.

The other three were about like this:

Tied up a really cool fly which you can see, I'll post a picture of it later - worked just like I hoped. White and yellow/chartreuse marabou, with pearl flash. Tied it like a bunny leech, palmering the marabou all the way up, alternating yellow and white. Added a piece of yellow mallard flank as a wing on top, and apparently the fish liked it!

 

[midgeman]

You really need to hit the susky above harrisburg...the smallmouth there would eat the ones in your hand. I had given up on it for years. But the quality of monster fish that it still has is simply awesome! So awesome that I bought another jet sled today.

 

[glenrockonthefly]

Steve

I will be there sometime around the end of September to fish for stripers, will let you know exact date when I get it figured out.