St Mary's Lake smorgasbord

[Big Mike]

With moderate south winds preventing me from hitting the Potomac and not having much luck on the Patuxent I decided to hit St Mary's Lake. Launched at 5:15 and headed up to the lily pads at the top of the lake to try top water. My first fish was a pickerel on a Chug Bug. Nothing like dealing with a toothy fish and treble hooks to start your morning off. Caught a bass after that but the top water bite really wasn't happening. Switched over to a curly tail grub and immediately started catching some nice bass (by this lakes standards) with a couple of 14"s and I lost one that could have gone 16". Started back down towards the dam and picked up a couple of crappie and a yellow perch along the way. Picked up the occasional bass and pickerel as well and ended the day around 8:30 with 9 bass, 4 pickerel, 2 crappie and one yellow perch. All in all a very enjoyable morning and I have to remember to fish here more often just because I never know what will be on the end of the line. Most of the bass where in 6 to 8 feet of water with a sharp edge nearby.
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[perchy]

Nice to hear the bass are making a comeback at that lake! Any large pickerel again this time around?

[Big Mike]

The pickerel were small this time (10 - 14"). I had a follow up to the boat of a decent sized one but that could have been my fisherman magnifying goggles at work.

[Big Mike]

I had so much fun on Tuesday that I hit SML again this morning. The fish were very active and I hooked many bass, but for whatever I was having difficulty boating them - I would say at least a dozen threw the hook. In the end I boated half a dozen or so and enjoyed the constant action even if I was challenged today. Towards the end of the morning as an experiment I put on a 3" white gulp under the theory that if stripers like them, then bass will as well. Not only do bass like them but crappie where slamming the heck out of them. I even picked up an 18" pickerel on it. I kept one crappie for lunch, blackened in a smoking hot pan - nirvana.

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