Schoolie stripers?

[Miguel Cuunjieng]

Just wondering if schoolie stripers are still an option for fishing within the city area these days, has anybody gone recently? Also, aside from gravelly, where do people go to target these critters?

I have a friend coming into town who is hoping to do some fly fishing or light spin fishing and he sure does love bass. Any striper or consistent largemouth/smallmouth recommendations would be awesome!:) thanks again guys and hope the early summer is treating everyone well!

[Miguel Cuunjieng]

Also, just for those who may be curious, a recent trip to the gunpowder proved quite rewarding for those seeking for technical dry fly fishing. While we didn't catch the 18incher recently posted on the backwaterangler web page, we caught a number of trout in the 5-11 inch range that were beautiful as ever. The reward was simply getting a tight line after successful presentations (mandatory reach casts and downstream presented sulphurs in sizes 16-18). The hatch peaked from about 2:30 to 5:30 but wasn't incredibly thick. Trout were keying on sulphurs and egg laying caddis skittering across the top to their doom in the flat water immediately following decent riffle water (made more stretch and York road access). One the hatch died down, swinging partridge and orange and sulphur soft hackles worked as well with one tiny shot 18" above the first fly. Tight lines everyone!

[TurbineBlade]

Or....you could drop a canoe into the SF shenandoah and catch the 70+ smallmouth bass we just caught with the Missouri family in town ;).  It's ever-so-slightly-murky, but fishing great.  

The real secret about the gunpowder is that there are "500 fish per square foot" or whatever, meaning your life is pointless and you should probably do something else if you cannot catch at least 40 trout every trip out there.  They are everywhere in there!  If you slip and fall wading there and don't have a belt on, you'll literally have 6-7 trout down your pants when you stand up...and also some did-e-moe and probably at least one other angler to dig out.   

Sorry - I don't know anything about striped bass.  

Gene ("Never be a Pretty Boy") TurbineBlade

[Andy Thomas]

That's a first.  I've never seen anyone complain about a river having to many wild fish, but I guess Gene can find something to complain about no matter what the subject.  On a more serious note, I hear a lot of hate from folks at in TPFR regarding the Gunpowder and I'm not sure why.  Is it just the lack of catching 15" - 20" trout or is it something else?  Maybe I'm a bit nostalgic given that I learned to fly fish there and caught my first trout there, but it seems to me to be the best trout fishery for wild browns nearest to DC. I get there are other rivers that may fish just as well and have the opportunity for a bigger fish, but they are farther away.

And just so you know, the fish on the Gunpowder can be just as finicky as anywhere else.  I'm beginning to think that those who complain about the fish being to small or that they are too easy to catch use that as an excuse for not fishing the GP so they don't have to make an hour and a half trip to get skunked.

[TurbineBlade]

Andy -- tongue-in-cheek, tongue-in-cheek.  I hate the gunpowder precisely because the fish are not easy to catch in my opinion/experience ;).  If there's anything else to hate it may be the large number of other anglers or possibly the driving on 2 beltways for some people (like me), but that's all.  Nothing to do with small fish -- I spend entire days catching chubs and sunfish and apologize to no one for it.  

The best fish I ever caught on the GP was on my 2nd cast ever in the stream on a soft hackle in December 2013.  It gave me false confidence -- 

Gene

[Misha Gill]

I'll second the Shenandoah endorsement - I went over Memorial Day weekend and we absolutely slayed fish. However, there is a strange corollary to the GP here - all the fish were small, in the 11-13 inch range. Apparently there was a fish kill that affected the larger fish in the Shenandoah and Potomac river systems last spring.  Huge bummer. If there isn't a similar event though, in 3 years the Shenandoah and Potomac will be loaded with 15-18 inch fish though. And that will be really fun. 

[Joe Mathews]

I'm with Gene on this one. Finicky fish, small fish, poor hatches, somewhat crowded river. There just isn't that much food coming down that river. Although I've seen 16"+ browns, and some over 20". Just not very many, and the longer fish are often a bit undernourished and "snaky" . If I'm going to catch 7" fish, i'd rather make a slightly longer trip to SNP and get wild brookies where I won't have to skip water due to other anglers.

[Yambag Nelson]

I mind small wild fish, but if I am going to fish for them, I would rather do it on a mountain stream with no one else around.  I can deal with crowds, but the rewards better be worth it.  Crowds + small fish don't do anything for me.

On Monday, June 1, 2015 at 9:54:49 AM UTC-4, Andy Thomas wrote:

[Joe Mathews]

Example of a beautiful large brown Kiki Galvin recently met on the Gunpowder (Kiki, if you see this--nice job! And will you share what fly you caught it on?!): https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/backwaterangler/17682859412/

[Misha Gill]

Backwater anglers published her photo, and she told them what fly it was - a skated caddis. That would have been awesome. 

What everyone is saying about the crowds and small fish is true, but every river has it's secrets. I've caught plenty of decent sized fish on the GP. And all I will tell you about that is that I was not fishing around Masemore. 

[TurbineBlade]

Truth be told, a big brown (14 plus inches) out of the gunpowder is probably much more difficult and uncommon to achieve than a lot of other, much larger fish caught elsewhere that may clog message boards...but only people who have fished it would have any appreciation of it. I've walked away from it skunked several times, and then gone over to catch bluegill so I can remember what catching fish feels like. 

Beth (as a rare objection to fishing a river) hates going up there on 695.  It formerly served as a "winter place" for me, but we're probably done going up there.  

I agree with Joe and....Yambag?  ^^

Gene

[GSFeder]

I like the GP bc it's cold year-round and it's fairly close, but in my experience, it's not an easy place to *catch* fish, which I think is what Gene's sarcastic remark was getting at. Plus I hate the didymo.

Cheers,

-- Greg

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 2, 2015, at 7:25 AM, Joe Mathews <joseph.t...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm with Gene on this one. Finicky fish, small fish, poor hatches, somewhat crowded river. There just isn't that much food coming down that river. Although I've seen 16"+ browns, and some over 20". Just not very many, and the longer fish are often a bit undernourished and "snaky" . If I'm going to catch 7" fish, i'd rather make a slightly longer trip to SNP and get wild brookies where I won't have to skip water due to other anglers.
>

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[Jeffrey Silvan]

I've had three experiences at the Gunpowder. The first time I went was basically the first time I went after trout on a non-SNP stream/river. I managed to pull in 4 10" fish the entire day, all on dries. Saw very few people, didn't really know what I was doing. The next time, I made the mistake of going on an unseasonably nice weekend day - I think right after Thanksgiving. It was literally wall to wall people. It was the type of fishing where there was one person every 100 feet. No one was catching anything. I found some space to myself along a section with big boulders and deep pools, but only got a few follows from 10-12" fish and no strikes using streamers. The most recent time I went there (unless I'm forgetting a trip), I went on a nice day during late summer or very early fall. I saw a handful of people fishing, but never anyone close enough to impact where I wanted to fish. I cause TONS - I'm talking 30 or 40 - fish all on ant patterns. Nearly all were the 10" range, with a few smaller and fewer in the 12" range. I'm definitely no expert, but I enjoy it because it's a nice, easy drive and the fish are (usually) challenging and let me hone my admittedly lacking trout stream techniques.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/94502593-4352-44E6-AAF0-8D12923BD7BA%40yahoo.com.

[Terry C]

Hi Miguel, give me a call in the training room at school . Let's go fishing

[Miguel Cuunjieng]

Haha it's great to see such spirited conversation regarding the gunpowder! This is totally the best fly fishing/fishing forum ever, what a solid group of skilled and humorous fisherman!

For the record, my second largest brown to date came from the gunpowder as well in about 2006 on a greenie weenie pattern...I do believe luck played an incredibly important role especially given I had only been seriously fly fishing for about 2 years at the time. I like to think I've improved in skill but my average size on the river has certainly declined since then. But based on the thread, I guess I may be fishing in the wrong area:)

Thanks as well for the smallmouth recommendations! If my friend and I are limited to wade fishing, are there any spots/stretches of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers the group would recommend? 10-13 inchers sounds like a blast! Additionally, any recommendations for tackle (5 vs 8wts, floating vs sinking lines, clousers/clawdads vs poppers)? As a smallie newb with a fly rod these tips would be immensely helpful. Thanks again to everyone for responding and I hope to begin providing more help to the group as I continue to explore as well.

PS Mr. Cummings!!!! I'll find the number and call for sure, it would be a blast to fish with you!!! Let's go get some trout or some bass soon when you are free :)!

[Andy Thomas]

Well, to each his own.  If less folks like the GP, more water for me.  I will add though, with the exception of the *&%^$/ tubers during the summer, I can always find peaceful, solo water on the GP.  There are roughly 7 miles of catch and release water with multiple access points.  As long as you stay away from Masemore road and walk at least 100 yards from the parking area, you can usually find water with no one around.

Miguel--for a smallie rig, a 6-7 weight is optimal.  Most smallmouth guides have both in the boat.  I would generally prefer a 7 just because the bigger it is, the easier it is to throw larger streamers but that just my preference.  Floating lines are usually what you need and you can likely get away with a sinking leader for smallies in deeper, slower water.  As far as flies, it just depends on the time of year.  Smallies eat streamers, poppers, crawfish etc, it just depends on the season and time of day.