Small Stream recon in the plans

[Aaron O]

Hey All,

Thinking about going on my first recon mission to check out a small creek running near my house in NE DC. I have to admit that this is an off shoot from the Anacostia so my hopes are not high but I did see a heron and some ducks paddling throught the creek so maybe there's hope. I don't know whether it normally has fish in it but I have seem small panfish and a goldfish in one of the pools last year before they got rained away. I plan to bring my small rod (5/6 wt.) with a small woolie bugger and maybe a small popper to check out any pockets that may have something. The pool I am showing is a deeper man made pool but most of the creek is really shallow with some pockets around the corners,

For those of you that don't know the area and may not see the humor in this, I live in a lower middle class urban area and I will definately stand out trying to fish there. Plan to start out next to my local fire department where the only thing they have found recently in the water is a dead body (year or two ago). I hope to have better luck.

Aaron

I will give an update after my mission is done and let me know if you have any suggestions,

 

 

[Aaron O]

 

[Dave Jamieson]

Hey Aaron-- Is that by chance Watts Branch? Years ago -- I can't believe it was a decade ago this year -- I wrote a story about a rather heroic effort to clean that stream up:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/27526/the-river-wild

What the volunteers found was amazing -- thousands of hypodermic needles, several torched cars, and, yes, a homicide victim. It really puts planting riparian buffer zones into perspective. I'd be curious to hear how the stream's doing and whether it holds any fish. 

[Aaron O]

YES IT IS!!  I have read your article and I'm amazed by it.  I never knew the history of it.  The area is not like that at all anymore.  I'm not saying its always peaches and cream but I don't think it's anything like that anymore.   If your interested and if your still in the area, I would love it if you wanted to stop by and we can walk it together.

 

[Dave Jamieson]

I'm sure it's not like that at all anymore. In fact, it wasn't much like that back in '03. Most of those needles and torched cars would have been holdovers (heh) from the worst of the city's drug days, way back in the 90's. 

I live close by, right near RFK, and I'd be happy to go exploring sometime. Probably bring along the 4 weight too.  

[Todd Kuethe]

I spent a fair amount of time exploring the rocky sections of the Paint Branch last summer. There were a number of small pools full of tiny bluegill and creek chub. They weren't much to look at, but they were fun to catch and would gobble up all types of small flies. I'll be excited to read about what you find!