Smallmouth Bass on the Monocacy River

Type:
Region: Central
Location: Monocacy River

With Hurricane Irene threatening on Saturday I decided to stay on some small water not too far from the vehicle just in case I had to make a break for it. The Monocacy River near the Route 28 Bridge fit the bill. Fortunately the weather pretty much behaved all day in that area as we had some rain and a little wind but nothing too drastic.

Predictably with foul weather approaching the smallmouth bass were feeding aggressively. Over about a half mile of river I caught 22 smallmouth bass and one rock bass who bit off more than he could chew.

I caught bass in the 7-9 inch range, 12-13 inch range and a few that went 15-16 inches so we seem to have multiple year classes thriving in the Monocacy which bodes well for the fishery.

I was fishing with a jig by Confidence Baits called the "Draggin' Head" (you can see one in the corner of one of bass's mouth) tipped with a crayfish colored tube. You screw the spring into the top of the tube then bury the hook texas style into the body of the tube. Then you have a lure that is extremely snag proof and effective in the river ledge rock formations that smallmouths love to prowl in search of prey.