quick visit to Rock Creek

[Andrew LaVigne]

I hadn't hit our nation's backyard creek yet this year, and needed a bass fix without a big drive yesterday, so hit the Connecticut Ave bridge stretch yesterday late afternoon. Some thoughts: 

-there are bluegill everywhere, and they want to eat. go to a smaller popper if that's what you want to catch. 

-if you ever had the urge to sight-fish to catfish, this is your spot. Lots of them in the bottoms of the pools, and every slimy roll is visible in the water. There also were some sucker/carp type fish I couldn't ID, but if you're of a mind to catch them, some buggy nymphs dead-drifted on the bottom would probably do the trick. 

-The creek amazes me with how much it changes year to year - there's some really nice new downed-tree cover in this stretch, and the water depth in certain spots changed as a result.

-Lots of small bass around, but once you see them, they're probably aware of you, and were pretty quick to bolt for cover when a popper or streamer hits the water. 

-Caught a couple nice fish (bigger than any I caught on the Shenandoah earlier in the month) in some slower, deeper stretches. 

-Tan/gold streamers and blue poppers are really all you need - maybe a clouser to mix it up & target the catfish. And a decontamination shower - somehow the water seemed grosser to me than before, possibly because I hadn't been there in a while. Yes, I did wade briefly to get to better spots, despite all common sense & signage to the contrary. Haven't noticed new limbs or strange rashes yet, but we'll see. 

[Jamie Carracher]

Those are nice-looking bass! I live over there but haven't been down to the creek in a couple months. I haven't been real successful down there just because I don't have waders and it's hard to get to some good spots from shore. Also, that water is real funky.

You started down by Calvert? Did you go upstream or downstream from there? 

[Andrew LaVigne]

There are decent spots upstream and down. I tend to think of the creek in 3 sections for my purposes - 

1 - upstream of the Zoo; usually would park at the bottom of Porter street, near the blocked off entrance to Klingle street. There's fishable water right there, as well as up and downstream, with easy access from the bank. Fishing is not allowed upstream of Porter according to the NPS website. Despite that, there's a sign about fishing in the creek upstream of that bridge, upstream of the Piney Branch confluence. If someone were to fish those spots, specifically the confluence and the 100 yards upstream, there are small & largemouth bass and some carp around - used to walk my dog over there and could spot them from the trail. 

2 - Calvert/Connecticut area - I park at the National Park Police stables off Beach Drive; you can fish up the creek to the Zoo easily. There are trails you can follow to get to some less-visible spots downstream as well. The best spots have taken some serious brush-pounding or sketchy wading to find, so I'm not going to totally give those up. That being said, there's a lot more access to the creek than it looks like from the road. If the bank isn't too steep, there's almost always a cut-through. easy to cross the parkway there and work downstream; there's much easier access about 300 yards down. 

3 - Mass Ave/Normanstone - I park in front of one of the embassies on Normanstone right at the head of the Normanstone trail, hike down, then it's easy to find access downstream. You can get to good water fairly easily, although there are definitely some holes where the bank's too steep, and wading to get to them is just not worth it. There are some pools with tons of fish stacked up (usually catfish and suckers). Haven't tried downstream of the cemetery bridge, seems like access gets kind of risky down there. 

[TurbineBlade]

Klingle Valley is one of the few DC streams which supports any of the EPT species -- we dug a couple of mayfly nymphs out of there in 2009.  

Those are fun fish!  Cool report -- 

If you get down a bit further in Rock Creek you can get those sea lampreys meandering around, looking for a place to die.  They're creepy, but kind of neat.  

Gene

[tperkins]

Further down below the P street bridge, there is some good fishing too. I actually caught some small striped bass there earlier this year. Though it is also a spawning ground for Coney island whitefish. 

[Brendan]

had to google that... 

[namfos]

On Monday, July 27, 2015 at 2:06:55 PM UTC-4, tperkins wrote:

 

[Carl Z.]

Did you wet wade?

I did this at the Zoo some time ago, but that was during a drought.  With all the rain (and potential sewage overflow) I would do a double decontamination shower.

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[Andrew LaVigne]

Yes I did. and I don't plan to again, I don't think. May go buy a cheap pair of waders just to use in nasty water like this. 

I really was only in the water for quick moves across the stream between trail spots, and probably was more likely to get poison ivy and ticks than some unknown Water-Borne-Itis, but in retrospect, I have decided that would rather not have to explain to a medical profession that I got a strange rash from fishing. 

[Jamie Carracher]

You inspired me to go back down there again last night. I was wondering how you were getting good angles on some of the deeper spots! I don't own waders and the only reason I've really considered them is because of water quality around here. 

I didn't see many fish in the areas I was able to get to, but I did get a bluegill. I also realized with all the backcasting room in the middle of the creek that I need to work on my form.

[Lane Smith]

Rock creek's limited back casting room (and the fact that the P street bridge is several blocks from me) motivated me to buy a mini rod about 5.5 feet long. Dan Davala was also kind enough to hook me up with a discontinued microliter orbits reel for it. It works quite well in rock creek though there are times I still have to sort of side cast.