Updated October 22, 2000

Come on in !!!

If you would like to catch up with me and leave a fishing report for Western MD, and Washington County please see my  guest book or email me. NOTE Watch the fisherman's elbow. Right now I know why Bill Dance wears an elbow brace.
NEW: See what happens when you let trout fishermen in the Conococheague PICTURE

On Licking Creek opening day was a good day, with my limit caught in trout in just a few hours. The trout are still eating the always faithful gray Rapala, but smallmouth's are starting to bite, on hellgramite's and gray Mepps spinners, with a little bit of red in them. Smallmouth are small this year, but that is very typical, and if you catch them it will be on trout patterns. Rapala Original 3 ", Hellgramite's on a split shot, and Mepps Gray/Red 1/8 oz. Spins.
On the Conococheague Creek (Pictures ) the smallmouth are bigger then I have ever seen them. Spinnerbait's have certainly been the bait of choice for larger smallmouth, we have landed several recently that have exceeded 17 ", and the average spinner bass is easily over 12". White grubs and smaller spinner's will catch a quantity of bass, but not the larger size consistently. With the water level falling and with the clarity of the water we are switching to small tubes and very small Mepps spinners. Also the autumn colors are more effective, gold, orange, pumpkin etc. The primary spots are below fast current in eddies caused by a deep hole. Fish are schooling here and you can catch several in the same area.. Stanley Platinum Baby Wedges (white/chartreuse or white/blue) 1/8oz, Berkley 3" power grub on 1/8 oz. Jig-head. Mepps White 1/8 oz. Spins, 3/16 oz. Weighted black/blue fleck super tubes.

Potomac River (Pictures) is really good right now for catfish and smallmouth. I have seen smallies caught on tubes, grubs and worms, but I fished hellgramite's and live crayfish the other day and only caught a catfish. Below Dam #5 we fished with tubes and had a great evening, until sunset when the snakes started fishing, but we caught some really nice fish here. We fished tubes all day this weekend and caught over 70 fish in the heat of the day, unfortunately only 4 or 5 were keeper size. We then caught hellgramite's and fished for Sunnie's and ended up with about 15 more smallmouth and a handful of sunnies. Fish the shallow edges next to the deeper current and sweep tubes in and out of the current. Berkeley power grubs on 1/8 oz heads (pumpkin, with or w/o chartreuse tail), 3/16 oz. Weighted pumpkin or olive/purple fleck super tubes.
Blair's Valley Lake   has been stocked with over 2000 trout already, and using corn, and power baits, seems to work right now. I also caught a few yellow perch on my leftover shiners from the Potomac. Bass fishing had been ok, using dark colored weighted worms in the shallows, but all fish caught have been late in the evening. Berkeley Power worms Texas rigged w/ 1/8 bullet weight (tequila sunrise, black/blue, black chartreuse), Stanley jig and pig (real pork) in black/blue, or Mepps 1/8 oz single spin silver/blue.
Indian Springs Pond has, you guessed it, trout. I saw one bass caught on a bluegill, and it was around 3lbs, but the trout were hot on a wet fly pattern with a casting bubble on a spinning outfit. Try fly fishing with ant patterns or bead head #2 wooly buggers, for sunnies or trout. Bass are biting now, but you have to fish a slooowww deep worm with no weight. Bass will hit a black/blue jig and pig, or a tequila sunrise worm, weightless with 2/0 hook.
Lake Kay  is an up and down fishery right now, with the usual tequila sunrise working well, worms that is, but add some scent because the grass had been poisoned off and the bass have no cover and are a bit spooky now. Also small spinnerbaits can take fish here in a variety of colors. Fish the dock with spinner's being thrown all around those flats, and in the corners fish weightless worms in 8-10" length. Berkeley power worm's tequila sunrise, purple storm, black/blue. (hint: Try the 10" sickle tail worms). Stanley Platinum Baby Wedges (white/chartreuse or white/blue)
Susquehanna River Pictures The River was not bad to us on Saturday, but we were extremely limited due to the depth of the water. We could only wade out to shallow areas and fish, so we couldn’t get to our favorite channels. We caught everything on either a olive/purple tube or on a small gold/black baby wedge. We caught two largemouth, which seemed odd, but they were hiding behind islands in the slack water. Keep fishing tubes, jerkbaits and spinners.  Stanley Platinum Baby Wedges (white/chartreuse or white/blue), 3/16 oz. Weighted pumpkin or olive/purple fleck super tubes.

Fairfield quarries pretty productive now with crappie taking maribou jigs topped with minnows or shiners, they will also take the occasional bass. Bluegills are being caught on worms, and if they are fished about 10-12 feet down under a bobber you can take big bluegills and miss all of the dinks. For bass try a undersized inline spinner like  a Mepps.

Florida Bass Pictures NEW  Pic 1 , Pic 2 , Pic 3
 I was only in Texas for Basic Training in San Antonio, but here is Ron and his big Texas Bass
Susquehanna River stories and pictures
Old picture of David Allan Coe fishing in Smith Mountain Lake, VA
Ron Repp and his Susquehanna smallmouth
Chad and his Lake Kay 4.5 pounder
Catfish Pictures
Potomac Carp Fishing