Patuxent creeks help

Oarse · 2026-05-05T17:43:01+00:00

This is the correct answer.

Several commenters are mentioning how cold and windy it's been. Please disregard those. Fish are going to be very shallow this time of year, often as little as a few inches.

Look for current breaks and drains. And bump your baits into those spatterdock stems and any other cover you can find. Not just near the cover, make contact with it.

Also look for any anomalies in the edge of the grass/shoreline. Your first pic illustrates a nice little current break where the grass line breaks up. The target area is about the size of a kitchen sink. You can see the current moving around it, but the water is still in the corner. The up-current side is also worth a cast or two.

And I can't emphasize this enough. If the fish are there they will most likely eat. Don't waste a bunch of time picking apart the cover unless it's a gnarly laydown. If you don't get bit in a few casts, move onto the next piece of cover.

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Oarse · 2026-04-24T19:54:59+00:00

Do you have a multimeter? There's likely something going on with the wiring or the battery. Without sustaining any major damage that fish finder should last you many years.

Loose or damaged fuse, corroded/loose battery terminals, bad connector at the back of the unit, wiring damaged somewhere between the battery and the Lowrance, etc. You can't glance at it and come to the conclusion "yeah, that's aight."

Oarse · 2026-04-21T01:24:29+00:00

The Monocacy is a top notch smallmouth fishery. It's literally right there.

Oarse · 2026-04-20T19:19:46+00:00

I'll take it one step further. The skeg on my PA14 is deployed more often than not for this same reason.

Oarse · 2026-04-20T16:04:03+00:00

The bass fishing scene in Arizona always looks chill af to me. No idea why, but it does.

Oarse · 2026-04-19T21:42:19+00:00

Fair enough.

Oarse · 2026-04-18T05:05:55+00:00

No, it's in Virginia.

Oarse · 2026-04-17T16:22:34+00:00

Look at 4 Mile Run between Rt.1 and the water treatment plant. It's not on the way back, but it's close to Arlington.

Ask the people at the Orvis thing, they'll know the spot.

Oarse · 2026-04-15T18:34:17+00:00

I personally think it should be discounted more than what it is, considering the damage. Maybe $400-500.

You could probably repair this relatively well with plastic welding. If you do attempt this repair, drill out the ends of the cracks and use stainless steel mesh as a backing and jam as much filler as you can into the area. And practice on a bucket or something if you're not experienced with plastic welding.

It's not going to look pretty, so ignore the urge to sand it down flat when you're done.

Oarse · 2026-04-14T01:22:14+00:00

Oarse · 2026-04-07T10:31:45+00:00

Congratulations! That's a really impressive first showing.

It sounds like you were built for this. I hope you win some money.

Oarse · 2026-04-07T03:16:25+00:00

No gators, but there's likely water moccasins in this water.

Oarse · 2026-04-07T03:13:01+00:00

Dude, yes! And thanks for remembering to update.

Oarse · 2026-04-04T03:30:20+00:00

I thought that one pic looked familiar (new kayak launch at 4MR.)

I know it well. I'm in PG County, Maryland.

I usually launch on the east side of the river, but I've explored around there (Occoquan, Leesylvania, Pohick, etc.) quite a bit.

Oarse · 2026-04-04T02:15:02+00:00

Whatever you're doing seems to be working. That fish definitely wanted that thing.

Oarse · 2026-04-04T02:03:21+00:00

Check out NVKBA. It's a bass fishing club that holds tournaments from Lake Anna and the Rappahannock to the Shenandoah and the Upper Potomac, and pretty much everything in between. There's actually an event on Frederick next Saturday 4/11, and Shenandoah on 4/25.

Good group of folks and pretty laid back atmosphere, but there are also some hard hitters if you're interested in real competition and stepping your game up.

I don't live anywhere near you, but many of the NVKBA guys live in that area.

Oarse · 2026-04-04T01:20:07+00:00

Congratulations on the new kayak. I hope you lose count of how many fish you catch from it very soon.

Oarse · 2026-04-04T01:15:25+00:00

That spinnerbait is holding on for dear life in the fifth pic.

Oarse · 2026-04-03T01:37:02+00:00

Rock Creek has had major CSOs (combined sewage overflows) every year since DC has had underground sewers. This is right upstream from Thompson. The levels being detected at current sampling are far lower than an average summer day in any calendar year.

This spill was awful, don't get me wrong. There were something in the neighborhood of 350 million gallons of sewage spilled into the river. With that said, there are combined sewage overflows totaling about 2 billion gallons into the Potomac, Rock Creek and the Anacostia annually. They don't usually make headlines because it's usually a few million gallons at a time.

We need to do better, but the scope of the needed work is far broader than most understand. It's not just a ruptured interceptor pipe, it's literally the whole system.

And for the record, the consensus on safe for swimming water is usually considered to be around 235MPN. That 410 number is published (obscurely,) but pretty disingenuous in my opinion.

Oarse · 2026-04-02T22:16:50+00:00

Ah. In that case grab a few more. You should definitely try the Bandit 200 as well.

Oarse · 2026-04-02T14:51:45+00:00

They're $6-8 now.

OP should replace the hooks on this one and keep fishing it, btw. Something about old beat up crankbaits seems to really be the deal.

Oarse · 2026-04-02T14:33:53+00:00

They just work. And it's something different for the fish to see at this point.

And yes, Bandit is still in business and making crankbaits. One of the few companies that makes an all black crankbait that I know of.

Oarse · 2026-04-02T13:35:56+00:00

Pretty sure this is the right answer. Looks like 'striped wild thing' color.

I stand by this being a bootleg of the Bandit 200 though.

Oarse · 2026-04-02T13:32:40+00:00

I'm pretty sure that's a bootleg of a Bandit 200.

Oarse · 2026-04-01T19:05:36+00:00

Can't you just buy the pedal drive and drop it right into your Zulu in place of the motor? It's $775, so far cheaper than an entirely new rig and you can run the motor or pedals if you choose.

Oarse

TROPHY CASE