See that picture of a big fish above? Not there, and there’s a reason for that. It’s the sum total of what my partner and I caught on Saturday.
I could blame the fact that there was a 250 boat tournament out on the Potomac River with us. I could blame it on the fact that we had what I consider the worst tide possible. I could blame it on a number of things, including early-onset male pattern baldness, but we should have caught some fish. No excuses.
Making it worse, the angler who joined me in my boat was one of my newest editors, someone who I’d emailed with but never met in person before. I hadn’t fished the Potomac for about a month, and wanting to impress, I took a few hours Friday morning to try to find a few green bass. It wasn’t hot and heavy by any means, but I caught four and shook two off, all in the same general area, so I planned to go there at the same tidal stage. We started elsewhere, and when that wasn’t happening we made the long run down the river to my key area.
It looked the same. There weren’t many boats there. If there were any fish there, they were playing hard to get. We never got a bite. I thought I saw one bass swimming in the grass.
In other likely areas, places where I’ve caught fish under the same conditions, at the same time of year, we experienced the same fate. Not from a bass. Not from a snakehead. Not from a perch. If I’d had some dead shad I might’ve chunked some over the side just to feel something tug. We fished hard, from 6 am until well past 1 and didn’t have a legit bite. In 26 years of fishing the Potomac, anywhere from 20 to 40 times a year, I don’t think that has ever happened. Perhaps it has, but if so I don’t recall.
Let me tell you, it sucks under any condition, but it’s even worse when you’re trying to entertain someone else who you want to impress. It’s embarrassing. It’s demoralizing. It’s almost enough to make you want to sell the boat.
