At the beginning of the year, one of my goals was to catch a trophy Largemouth, actually I made a list of fish I wanted to catch, and it was time for me to target Bass, My biggest Bass was about 5lbs, (thats a trophy in this area to me) I caught it a few years ago on my kayak and never got a very good pic of it, this time I was hoping to get one about that size with a better picture. The forcast was calling for a warm week so I decided to start fishing Loch Raven every day after work, the first few days of a warm front when the water has been cold will usually send fish into the shallows because it warms faster. The first spot I hiked to I noticed the water was muddy, but about 20' out it became clear, Im not sure why that was either because we had ne rain. I suspected the fish would be near where the muddy water met the clear water waiting for disoriented baitfish to enter the clear water from the muddy, or vice versa...And thats where I caught my first two Bass, both about 3lbs. I was casting a Texas rigged Senco worm (Watermelon), which I stayed with the whole evening. I also had a few bites that got off. But soon the wind picked up and I had to find a new spot, I hiked a while and found a cove down in a valley where the water was flat calm. As I approached it I had a good feeling about this spot, first off there where lots of fallen trees that fish love, no other people around, and I also notice small fish coming to the surface once in a while eating insects on the surface of the water. Conditions just seemed perfect, even the smell in the air just felt right! I didn't want to do anything to mess up this opportunity, so I entered the area very cautiously, so not to spook any fish that may be close to the shoreline. I've learned a long time ago that walking up to the shoreline to quikly can be a mistake, I've seen some nice fish swim away in the past that could have been caught. I try to enter a shoreline simular to the way The Great blue heron does. generally I begin to start walking slower when im about 20' from shore, once about 10' from shore I will make my first cast, while reeling in the line I will also be moving very slowly to the shore line, I will usually stay 3' or so away from the shoreline for about 5 casts, then I will move to the shoreline and make farther casts, but still try not to move much, I try to cast with just a short flick of the wrist, once Im sure no fish are close to shore I will relax more and move more freely. Well it didn't take long before I caught my first fish here, it was only about 12" (but fought well for its size), I wasn't quite sure what it was, I thought it looked more like a Musky then A Northern Pike because it had yellow lines instead of the usual white/gray blotches, but I sent a pic to DNR and they basically said thats what Juvenile Northern Pike look like
A few cast later and I had a nice hit, after a nice fight on 10lb braid I had a Northern pike on the bank
It was turning out to be an awesome couple hours of fishing!! I was getting the usual snags which are expected when your fishing around fallen trees, thats just part of fishing structure like that, so one of the times I was re-rigging I decided to not use any wieght with my worm, the first cast I felt what at first I thought was another snag, but I thought I felt a very slight movement, so just to be sure I set the hook hard, and all of a sudden a huge Bass shot out of the water ( I was thinking this is when I will lose her), and the fight was on!!! This fish was nuts, constantly jumping out of the water, peeling drag (again thinking this is when I lose her), even rapped itself around a log once (I was really thinking this is when I lose her), I just patiently waited, keeping pressure on the line, but not to much, luckily she came loose because I was thinking about taking a swim in that cold water :), One thing that was really worrying me was that I was only using 10lb power pro, That is light line for an area with such heavy cover, but some parts of Loch Raven are shallow along the shore and you sometimes need to cast a far distance. It was a relief when I finally got my thumb in its mouth! My first real trophy Bass, I didn't measure or wiegh it, it was obviously spawning from the looks of its red tail, and I just wanted to take a couple photos and get her back in the water, but It was a huge fish for Maryland waters, a big fish for anywhere
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