Anyone venture on to the Potomac this weekend?

[William Steinman]

Howdy all,

I was out of town for the weekend, but I'm chomping at the bit -- did anyone venture on to the river in search of shad?  I realize the water level was high and temperatures cold, but I know there are many brave and impatient souls among us.

Thanks!

B.

[Jeremy Maggio]

I was out at the Chain Bridge (DC side) on 3/29/14 from about 9-11 AM. I was with another fishermen and neither of us had any hits or flashes (skunked!). The current was very strong and the water was high. I think the fish are still sitting deep but things should be changing with the warmer weather this week. I know I am chomping at the bits for the run to start!

- Jeremy

[Yambag Nelson]

I went out on saturday for a bit around the end of low tide.  Water was low then as it was before the rain really hit.  I didn't catch anything, thought I might have had a couple bumps.  Heard reports of a few fish being caught but nothing great yet.   I didn't bother getting a boat and just fished a couple spots from shore upstream of fletchers.  This was my first time fishing a full sinking line and I struggled with losing flies. 

 

On Monday, March 31, 2014 11:32:51 AM UTC-4, William Steinman wrote:

[Paul Kalajainen]

Impatient is right!  I was at Fletcher's all day Saturday, lots of other boats in the water as well as people fishing from shore.  I fished through the morning with no luck, but by the afternoon I found a small school and caught about 10 Hickory Shad very quickly, had several others that spit the fly before I could get them to the boat.  I've never caught shad before, so it was awesome to find them.  Even with the rain it was a great day on the water.  Can't wait for the coming weeks!

Paul

[Eric Y.]

I fished from the rocks on Saturday and ended up with 3 medium-sized LMB and 0 shad. 

[Ben]

I was out Saturday morning at Fletcher's. Picked up a shad from the rocks. It looked like something took a chunk out of its gill cover. Never seen that kind of damage before. Tied into a nice fish up by the waterfall. Not sure what it was, but it was a pretty even match for an 8 weight with a 13lb leader. I'm thinking it could have been a striper. I did come away from the encounter with a silver scale on my lead fly (which was about 24" away from the dropper), and the fight was similar to stripers I picked up last year (fast, short runs followed by bulldogging in the current).

Not a bad way to kick off the spring season.

There are definitely fish out there hitting flies, and I imagine things should start picking up before too long.

Also, Yambag, I fish a heavy sinking line and feel your pain. Losing flies is part of the game of fishing that area from the shore. You can start to minimize losses once you figure out the structure of the bottom a little better (checking things out with polarized glasses at low tide and trial and error with different drifts), but if you're not snagging up every once in a while, you're probably not fishing where the fish are. Not sure if this will help at all, but keeping a little tension on the line (and trying to keep the line relatively straight) during the entire drift, just enough so you can feel as your fly ticks over rocks or when your line hangs up a little, can keep you from getting hung up too often. Sometimes you can pop the flies or line out by lifting the rod tip before everything gets deep into the snag, and you can even continue the drift/swing from there (plus you're more likely to notice light bites). Fishing from a boat also definitely helps in minimizing lost flies.

Ben

On Monday, March 31, 2014 11:32:51 AM UTC-4, William Steinman wrote: