"September was special at Pretty Boy this year," notes long-time reservoir angler Jerry Sauter about his 04 efforts on this approximately 1,600-acre lake located in north-central Maryland.

In 20 days of fishing Pretty Boy, Sauter and his boat mates boated an amazing 51 citation largemouths and smallmouths. Two of the largemouths were over seven pounds. Five of the smallmouths were over five pounds, the largest of which weighed 6-3. Forty-three other citation fish were recorded by Sauter and his pals for the month of September.

One lucky companion of Sauter, Brian Sabo, boated a seven-pound largemouth and a 5-8 smallie. Charles Fears, a long-time fishing partner of Sauter's, had the goal of catching a six-pound brown bass with Sauter. He did it by landing the 6-3 on September 21 - one of the largest smallies registered in Maryland for 04. Most of these fish bit crawdads. Some did take topwater plugs and 4" Texas-rigged Culprit worms. All fish bit off main lakes points, George's Run and Frog Hollow, 10-28' deep. The water temperature was around 75.

Pretty Boy was impounded back in the 1930's and remains a good place to catch a citation largemouth and smallmouth. Yes, the best anglers use a specialized reservoir rig powered by an electric motor, but the weekend basser can try his or her luck using their full-sized rig, too. The caveat is that you can only fish Loch Raven, Liberty or Pretty Boy with that rig!

W2 readers will recognize Sauter from the articles featuring his famed crawdad tactics on Tridelphia and Rocky Gorge Reservoirs appearing in our June 04 issue and all the way back to 2002.

Live crawdads have been Sauter's "secret" weapon for years. He simply hooks them in the tail with a small Gamagatzu hook, pinches on a 1/8-oz. Split shot about six inches above the hook and tosses the dad out. Light line (Triple Fish 8-lb.) and an inimate knowledge of the bottom contours in all the Maryland reservoirs is what allows Sauter to consistently land huge fish within a half hour of sprawling Baltimore.