 | As a guest of Maryland State senator, Allan Kittleman, Tom D'Asto, my son Jeb and I fished his farm pond for a few hours this afternoon. The pond is part of an un-named headwater tributary of the Middle Patuxent River and is both stream and groundwater fed. |
 | The pond receives little fishing pressure, so we were all able to catch & release nearly 20 to 30 largemouth bass each. I used all soft plastic baits including the YUM Wooly Bug, YUM Dinger Worm, YUM topwater Buzzfrog, YUM Craw Papi, YUM Vibra King Tube and YUM 6-inch Lizard, all of which caught fish! |
 | Tom was primarily using a lizard soft bait, and was obviously having a blast! |
 | Just like a kid in a candy store. |
 | We fished this pond once last summer and the pond was crystal clear, filled with hydrilla and other submerged aquatic vegetation and just as productive. We noted several bass on beds today, primarily along the dam face. |
 | The backside of the pond includes a mature, mixed oak woodlot with rock outcrops and spring seeps. The forest floor contained spring beauty, skunk cabbage, mayapple, cutleaf toothwort, jack-in-the-pulpit, buttercup, emerging jewelweed and invasive barberry and garlic mustard. I did note two spring, ephemeral wildflowers at peak bloom. This photo is of rue anemone (Anemonella thalictroides), a delicate, native wildflower. The word 'anemone' means 'wind' in Greek. |
 | This flower, a cousin to the rue above, is called wood anemone or windflower (Anemone quinquefolia), which is ideally designed to bear the brunt of the strongest spring winds. It has a stem so slender and pliable that no wind blast can break it. |
 | I'd bet that in the course of two hours, nearly every third or fourth cast generated a fish. It doesn't get any better than that! |
 | I practiced loading-up my rod to set the hook and I lost three or four long distance strikes because my monofilament can be so stretchy. |
 | Jeb did his best fishing on soft plastics but landed a few on a BooYah spinnerbait with an attached stinger hook. |
 | Just before Jeb went out on this floating dock I caught a handsome three-pounder from the forward edge of the deck. I was able to drop the lure on the deck and twitch it softly into the water. The hit was instantaneous. |
 | My line snapped when I tried to set my hook on a fish. I put on the same Gamakatsu offset shank worm hook and YUM pumpkinseed colored Craw Papi on to my line and threw back to the same spot. I immediately caught another fish and when I reeled him in he had two Craw Papi's in his mouth. What a glutinous fish! Lucky for him I was able to take out both hooks and release him back into the water so that he can grow and be caught again another day. |
