Visiting DC Area after 12 years absence -- what has changed?

[Nick Bowler]

OK -- I used to live in Sterling, and fish the DC metro area a lot.  But after Sept 11, I moved with my family back to where I was born -- Tasmania, Australia.  However, my wife's family is from the Baltimore area and we are returning for a family reunion at the end of July, start of August.

I plan to get a MD licence, and fish a lot of my old haunts (like the upper Potomac, Gunpowder, and a trip or two out on to the bay).  However, a lot has changed in the last decade plus!

1.  Are there any strange new rules for the upper Potomac.  I plan to wade fish for smallies and panfish.

2.  You now have snakehead.  Anywhere a shore-bound angler can go to get one?  What flies / techniques / time of day / habitat do they like.

3.  What's the current status of striper / bluefish fishing in the bay.  Again, any good spots for a shorebound angler.  Given my family reunion duties, my fishing will probably be early morning and evening -- so I would prefer to not get arrested for illegal wading.

By the way, if any of the forum members are heading down to Tasmania, I will happily take them out to my favourite haunts.  I cant guarantee fish, but there is a good chance you will see Platypus!  http://nicksfishing.blogspot.com.au/

[TurbineBlade]

Ah, the infamous, venomous mammal!  My mammalogy professor at Missouri State, as a young researcher, said that (at the time) collecting biological samples was a bit barbaric and he recalls collecting platypus with a shotgun.  I don't think they let you do that anymore.  

1.  No strange new rules, just bizarre interpretations of (apparently) old ones.  

2.  Sure -- virtually any of the tidal creeks to the Potomac will probably have some this time of year.  If you cast to enough of them you'll eventually find a feeder.  

3.  I don't know.  

Gene

[namfos]

Nick:

Felt soles on wading shoes and boots have been VERBOTEN in Maryland since 2011. See http://1.usa.gov/1AhdNb2 and from the Md. Secretary of State's site: 

"08.02.19.07. 07 Felt-Soled Waders.. An individual may not use footgear with external felt soles in State waters or within five feet of State waters."

Mark