Fishing Upper Potomac with a 5-Weight?

[Daniel Page]

Hi all,

I'll be camping in Harper's Ferry this coming weekend right on the Potomac and can't give up the chance to do a little morning fishing. 

I'm still getting the hang of fly fishing(pretty novice) but jump at every chance I get to get a little deeper into the sport. I read that the smallies on that part of the Potomac are great, but without a decent 7 weight rod I don't think I can get much done with a streamer or a popper... I pretty embarrassingly found that out a few weeks ago that 5-weights aren't quite strong enough to throw a streamer to any effect.. 

I have a few Chernobyl ants and also have some smaller black foam spiders I thought might do the trick on the surface earlier in the morning..

Does anyone have any advice for trying to fish a 5-weight rod with a floating line this time of the summer? 

Any advice is appreciated. 

Thanks all

Dan

[namfos]

You'll have fun with a 5 wt. River-bred sunfish pull harder than many a largemouth from a pond or lake. Just fish slimmer streamers and smaller poppers. Hellgrammite imitations are a good bet.

Mark