The tidal Potomac at Fletchers and Belle Haven

[HermanyorFlorida]

Hello All,

Topic of conversation that came up at the PRSC meeting last week.  Is there still a sustained striper run on the Potomac that follows the shad runs?  Those gathered think there you used to be.  I've seen people catch stripers while fishing for shad this year, but is there an opportunity at Fletcher's after the shad are gone?

On a related note, has anyone fished around Belle Haven?  I haven't been out there since a very, very long time ago and did ok with largemouth.  It seems like it would now be very largemouth, snakehead and maybe carp friendly.  Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

[Yambag Nelson]

I don't know about big stripers but there is often a run of schoolies that show up towards the end of the shad run into june. Last year there were fish around like 16-22 inches after the shad were mostly done. I assume these were not resident fish.   Other years you see a lot of smaller fish especially up around chain bridge.  Not sure if those are resident or migratory fish but a lot of them are like 10-14 inches.  

There is also a fall "run" of fish but I don't know if they make it up as far as fletchers (guessing some do). I think those fish mostly follow bait up the river as they are super fat.   

[Gregg Rockett]

I seem to recall that a couple of previous posts covered this topic and my dim recollection is that Gravelly Point is a good spot to fish for stripers during an outgoing tide.  

That being said, would one of these tidal measurement sites be most reliable?

Willy Weather: https://tides.willyweather.com/dc/district-of-columbia-county/tidal-basin.html

Tides 4 Fishing: https://tides4fishing.com/us/washington-dc/washington

Gregg Rockett

[Doug Graebner]

I don't really catch schoolies a ton but i usually see a few lounging around at the Wharf during the summer and I used to occasionally catch 10-16 inch schoolies in Rock Creek back when I fished that more.

[HermanyorFlorida]

Thanks all, very helpful.    @Doug, the  Wharf, as in Washington Channel?  I'm looking for places near some kind of boat rental, so that and Rock Creek are potentially interesting.

[Doug Graebner]

yes, that side of teh channel, although you're not allowed to fish from the shoreline at the Wharf itself. I think you could probably get a boat up agains the tidal basin outflow into the channel on a falling tide though. Rock Creek is pretty sporadic for schoolies; it's an interesting fishery but IMO it's deteriorated somewhat.

[Doug Graebner]

(this reminds me that maybe next weekend I should check out Gravelly Point, just a lil six weight should do it for teh schoolies I guess.)