Post COVID Lock down Little Patuxent trip

[Johnsfolly]

About a month after they started lifting the lock down in Maryland, I wanted to try to get on a new darter species to achieve another of my 2020 goals. Most darters were going to be on the other side of the bay. We hadn't been over the Bay bridge since the first week in Mar. Now it is the middle of June. I picked out a couple of spots on the Patapsco and Patuxent/Little Patuxent rivers to try for the tessellated darter that would also have some interesting things for all of us to do as a family. We got the first park and it was closed. I was confused since they had opened up the parks and fishing areas. Well it turned out that they were full and not letting in new folks. We went and found another park that was full. I then headed to a section of the Patuxent river and it was running higher and faster than I felt would be good wading for us to actually be able to fish darters effectively.

Finally got to a spot at Savage Park that we would have access to the Little Patuxent river. We got the microfishing gear ready and went down to the river. We had a large family downstream of us. The kids wanted to see what we were doing and they waded through a hole where Livie wanted to fish. That didn't go over well. The dad told the kids to stay away from us. We had another family or two upstream from us. So we were pinned in on a 50 yard section of river only.

Fortunately I did see a darter in the first hole. It spooked and swam a bit upstream, but still within my reach. I put the bait in front of the fish and it just was not interested . It finally had enough and swam to a spot that I could no longer see it. I did notice something moving between two rocks. I put my bait in the gap and it turned and pulled the line into the gap. I set the hook on my first Maryland madtom! It was also a new lifer species for me as well, a margined madtom.

We tried several more pools to try to get Livie on one, but didn't see another. My wife was getting interest in her baits, but no fish landed. We put on a smaller sized hook. I caught the first fish in the pool that she fished, the first river chub of the day.

Then Livie landed one and then Sue got revenge on that fish that was going after her bait earlier. No new darters, a little tired of the people, but we had a great day finally getting out of the house and work.

We'll have to get back out again after those darters and madtoms!

[Quillback]

Good stuff!