Any action on the Potomac?

[Jim White]

Good morning,

Looks like the Little Falls gage will be hovering just below 3.5' this weekend and was thinking about doing a little fishing.

Has there been any action in the vicinity of Chain Bridge (fish from shore) or Riverbend State Park (wade fish)?

Thanks,

Jim

[Lane Thurgood]

Jim, I went to the Maryland side across from Riverbend earlier this week and found it (compared with ideal conditions) a bit high, a bit murky and with too much grass in the water column.  More importantly, I neither saw nor caught fish.  It wasn't unfishable, mind you, but I saw no surface action whatsoever that you would expect to see with damselfies flitting about and otherwise hungry fish.  I tried a noisy popper hoping to bring something up, then tried big crayfish patterns below.  Picked up too much grass.

So I hit the C&O. 

A buddy went last night and found the same conditions. 

[Jim White]

Lane, many thanks for the update. Perhaps I'll wait awhile on Riverbend. How is the C&O fishing?

[Jim White]

Anyone had any striper action between Fletcher's and Little Falls?

On Friday, July 8, 2016 at 8:05:30 AM UTC-4, Jim White wrote:

[Marek Rich]

I was out around Carderock this morning and saw plenty of action above and below. Caught this guy on a green crystal bugger. Overwhelmed my 4 weight, but still loads of fun. Caught 5 or so smallies, but missed bubba (easy 3 pounder) when he spit the hook at me.
[image1.JPG]
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[image2.JPG]

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[Melser Bonilla]

Heavy presence of catfish in Mount Vernon this morning. They were breaking the surface and appeared to be going after small bait fish.

[Jim White]

Fished the Potomac at Carderock, Lock 8 and Lock 6 yesterday. C&O looked nasty or non-existent so didn't drop a line there. The Potomac was fairly clear (Little Falls was at 3.4') and the water looked nice and fishy in all three locations. However, I caught only one fish. A smallie (12") at Lock 6 on a chartreuse clouser.  Good news is that I slipped on the rocks and fell only once while wet wading. No injuries. Shoulda' brought my wading boots/socks (was wearing my Keen sandles), a wading stick and my PFD (and maybe a helmet!). Several other close calls. First time fishing the Potomac above Chain Bridge. More challenging than I thought it would be. Perhaps I was fishing in the wrong areas? Plenty of evidence along the shores where I fished that I was not the first person to have fished there. 

Note: At one point I saw a guy standing out in the middle of the river and wondered how he got out there (I think I was at Lock 8) . Noticed later he was in a kayak shuttling between shallow areas to then get out and fish. Not sure if he caught anything. This was mid-morning yesterday (Saturday), was it anyone from TPFR?

On Friday, July 8, 2016 at 8:05:30 AM UTC-4, Jim White wrote:

[Marek Rich]

Gotta get out early or late in the evening, especially with this recent heatwave. That area does get its fair share of fishing pressure, but I still find success in likely looking places. If subsurface, try to find deep pools and get down deep. Be prepared to loose some rigs, but that is where they're laying. If surface, I usually wait to see or hear something popping before I throw dragonfly or poppers. Happy to hit the water with you one day and show you my go-to spots.

Marek

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[tatu...@gmail.com]

I fished 4MR yesterday morning from 0530-0815. Caught a nice bluegill about 5 minutes after wading out on a dark green popper then nothing after that. I could see and hear tons of fish feeding all around me but nothing was biting. I was in the middle of the run fishing to both sides. Finally put a new long leader on my floating line and started throwing a Grey Ghost Streamer www.orvis.com/p/gray-ghost-streamer/0640
I cast and let it sink for a few seconds then started stripping it in about a foot at a time. Must have caught a dozen small strippers. Heck, I walked about 50 yards upstream to cast to a sunken tree, I just left the streamer in the water as I walked, strippers were still hitting the fly (even caught one too).
Cheers
Collin

[Carl Z.]

I at Swain's Lock this morning,  I got a late start and there was no Smallmouth action on top.  I got a lot of casting practice in and got quite a few small bluegill on a popper.  The gills were hanging out near the bank near or in the shade.  

Bluegill on a 12.5 ft 7/8wt Spey rod was a bit of overkill.  It was fun anyway.  It beats practicing with a yarn fly.

Carl

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[TurbineBlade]

We've had basically only sunfish action in the last week or so of fishing, and not particularly "hot" action at that.  Such is fishing.  

In Arkansas, I did manage one new fly rod species (pic)-- In my opinion, it is the prettiest of the sunfishes and one I miss catching during my years as a Missourian.  

First one to ID the species wins the smartie of the day prize. ;)  

Gene

On Sunday, July 10, 2016 at 7:26:33 PM UTC-4, Carl wrote:

I at Swain's Lock this morning,  I got a late start and there was no Smallmouth action on top.  I got a lot of casting practice in and got quite a few small bluegill on a popper.  The gills were hanging out near the bank near or in the shade.  

Bluegill on a 12.5 ft 7/8wt Spey rod was a bit of overkill.  It was fun anyway.  It beats practicing with a yarn fly.

Carl

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Carl Zmola

On Sun, Jul 10, 2016 at 3:51 PM, <tatu...@gmail.com> wrote:

I fished 4MR yesterday morning from 0530-0815. Caught a nice bluegill about 5 minutes after wading out on a dark green popper then nothing after that. I could see and hear tons of fish feeding all around me but nothing was biting. I was in the middle of the run fishing to both sides. Finally put a new long leader on my floating line and started throwing a Grey Ghost Streamer www.orvis.com/p/gray-ghost-streamer/0640
I cast and let it sink for a few seconds then started stripping it in about a foot at a time. Must have caught a dozen small strippers. Heck, I walked about 50 yards upstream to cast to a sunken tree, I just left the streamer in the water as I walked, strippers were still hitting the fly (even caught one too).
Cheers
Collin

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[Lane Thurgood]

Longear, no?

[TurbineBlade]

*Ding!*

Right as rain my man ;).  Beautiful fish - 

Gene

On Sunday, July 10, 2016 at 10:44:32 PM UTC-4, Lane Thurgood wrote:

Longear, no?

[TurbineBlade]

Me, a graphite rod, and a kayak are three things seldom seen in a picture as well ;).  I blame the restrictions of flying -- 

[Steven Butler]

That's unfortunate on the C&O conditions, was considering hitting the canal for carp this week in that area. Has anyone had any luck with carp since the dog days hit? Really want to cross them off the catch list this summer.

[John Smith]

That is a good sized longear to boot. There is actually a small introduced population of those in the Potomac. I have caught a few in the riverbend area although much smaller. Very cool sunny.

[namfos]

Here's one I suspect is maybe a longear-green hybrid from Little Seneca Lake

Mark

[Lane Thurgood]

It's certainly a hybrid, but I think it's a bluegill-green sunfish hybrid.  My opinion.

[TurbineBlade]

I would vote just "green sunfish", but I'm not great with ID on sunfish hybrids.  Who knows?  

They're a fun fish too.  

Gene

On Monday, July 11, 2016 at 10:04:30 AM UTC-4, namfos wrote:

[Lane Thurgood]

On closer review ... so would I.

On Monday, July 11, 2016 at 10:50:26 AM UTC-4, TurbineBlade wrote:

I would vote just "green sunfish"...,

[Jamie Carracher]

On July 3 I hit the river from a rowboat out of Fletcher's Cove and caught a 15ish inch smallmouth on a popper that was a blast. I had a few other nibbles and a few that spit out the fly on me. I was working the trees on the Virginia side. I tend to have the best luck around here in the morning during the summer. It's also more peaceful.

[Rob Snowhite]

Me and the kid just caught this fatty green sunfish in Reston. Taken on last nights beer tie fly size 14. 

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[tatu...@gmail.com]

Hit 4MR again 1630-1930 this evening (high tide 1701). High water with the high tide made wading into the middle unattainable. I threw top water and streamers in all colors, skunked all around. It was hot and just dead all around. As I was leaving around 1930 I started to see fish breaking the surface going after dinner I guess. Guess my timing was off, probably better to hit a little later as the sun is lower and the tide headed out (1900-2100 is my guess)

Cheers
Collin

[Gary Fleeger]

I am not familiar with 4MR. What location is this? Thanks!

[Collin Tatusko]

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ll=38.842432%2C-77.05523&spn=0.011448%2C0.022724&msa=0&mid=1oJSX4Qc9BZ6IC05qtisGtVYi8Ns

Follow this link on Google Maps and it will show you. It's the
stretch of river/inlet over by the Toyota dealership in
Alexandria/Route 1 by Potomac Yards.

Cheers
Collin

On 7/15/16, Gary Fleeger <gfle...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am not familiar with 4MR. What location is this? Thanks!
>

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[DontCallMeEd]

My buddy and I fished the upper Potomac Saturday. It was hot as hell, and we had to work for them, but we found smallies willing to eat. To my surprise we only got one on topwater, everything else came on streamers, mostly clousers. I thought the evening looked promising until the thunderstorms came through. Good day on the water though. 

On Friday, July 15, 2016 at 10:51:34 AM UTC-4, Collin Tatusko wrote:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ll=38.842432%2C-77.05523&spn=0.011448%2C0.022724&msa=0&mid=1oJSX4Qc9BZ6IC05qtisGtVYi8Ns

Follow this link on Google Maps and it will show you.  It's the
stretch of river/inlet over by the Toyota dealership in
Alexandria/Route 1 by Potomac Yards.

Cheers
Collin

On 7/15/16, Gary Fleeger <gfle...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am not familiar with 4MR. What location is this?  Thanks!
>
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[Rob Snowhite]

Watched a guy land this on 4MR yesterday. NSH on Topwater! It was about 10". Informed him of beer tie so hope he makes it. 

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<Screen Shot 2016-07-18 at 7.28.38 PM.png>

<Screen Shot 2016-07-18 at 7.42.19 PM.png>

[Marek Rich]

Went out last Friday evening above Rileys Loch. Water was super clear and had decent success on small clousers and blue poppers, but nothing huge. Then this guy smoked my green flash wholly bugger. Good times.

[Greggory DiSalvo]

My girlfriend had a bunch of miles to run on the C&O Sunday morning, so I tagged along half asleep.  Rented a boat at Fletchers for the first time since the shad and the fishing was pretty slow.  I grabbed a small smallie on a popper at the rocks, but then nothing for the next hour.  I may have hooked into the gamiest rock in the Potomac, but upon setting the hook, my line snapped.  If anybody else is targeting submerged rocks, I was using a large, olive ultra suede crayfish pattern...

I did manage this decent smallmouth on an olive and orange clouser.  I dropped the fly next to a submerged palette along the mudbank just downstream from the cove and immediately saw a flash and missed the hit.  I must have pulled the fly 20 feet through the water on the set, but the fish gunned it down for the take.  It was pretty neat.  Anyway, I really need to get a light boat so I can explore some other areas of the Potomac.  

Gregg

[Jim White]

Fished out of Fletchers on Saturday. Over four hours on the water (0700-1130). Motored (electric trolling motor and battery in a Fletcher's boat) up to Chain Bridge and fished there awhile. Then drifted back down stopping to fish the most likely looking spots on both sides of the river. Fished deep with 9wt full sink (clousers) and shallow with 6wt floating (poppers). Even brought along one of my bait casting rigs (yes, I sometimes use hardware, but I can stop at any time, honest) and threw spinner and crank baits. 

Didn't catch a damn thing.

Very disappointing. Sunny, hot, and humid with nothing more to show than a mild case of dehydration and a sunburn. Looks like it's back to Burke Lake for bluegills to regain some semblance of my fishing manhood.

[arthur...@gmail.com]

Nice fish!

Art

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<GOPR1612.JPG>

[Bob Smith]

On Monday, July 18, 2016 at 11:13:23 PM UTC-4, Marek wrote:
> Went out last Friday evening above Rileys Loch. Water was super clear and had decent success on small clousers and blue poppers, but nothing huge. Then this guy smoked my green flash wholly bugger. Good times.

Caught a lot of channel cats on poppers. Quite a hoot.

[namfos]

Hardware's okay - just so long as you just say no to bait. ;-) I was out there late on Friday afternoon (4-7) at Chain Bridge and the "helipad."  The fragrance of skunk was in the air.

Mark

On Tuesday, July 19, 2016 at 12:08:08 PM UTC-4, Jim White wrote:

...Even brought along one of my bait casting rigs (yes, I sometimes use hardware, but I can stop at any time, honest)

[Carl Z.]

Hardware, .... that's nothing,    but I am a little worried about someone smoking "green flash wholly bugger".   I'm not sure that's legal outside Colorado. 

Carl

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[Jamie Carracher]

With temperatures around 100 degrees this weekend, do you all think fishing is a wash? Or if we're out early enough, maybe we have a shot?

On Wednesday, July 20, 2016 at 10:16:06 AM UTC-4, Carl wrote:

Hardware, .... that's nothing,    but I am a little worried about someone smoking "green flash wholly bugger".   I'm not sure that's legal outside Colorado. 

Carl

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On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 8:26 AM, namfos <mark....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hardware's okay - just so long as you just say no to bait. ;-) I was out there late on Friday afternoon (4-7) at Chain Bridge and the "helipad."  The fragrance of skunk was in the air.

Mark

On Tuesday, July 19, 2016 at 12:08:08 PM UTC-4, Jim White wrote:

...Even brought along one of my bait casting rigs (yes, I sometimes use hardware, but I can stop at any time, honest)

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[Charlie Church]

One of my best smallmouth floats last year was probably the hottest day of the year. On top of that, the best action was in the afternoon and on topwater. I think we had close to 50+ fish including a few over 16 or 17 inches that day.

IMO, you never know unless you go!

[Bob Smith]

Always worth a try early or late. REALLY early and REALLY late. Crack of dawn and in the gloaming.

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[Gary Fleeger]

My son is "hooked" on fishin! What a blast! I picked up my first fly rod from Orvis a month ago and he has been worked is two foot Zebco. Today was his 8th birthday and he got his wish of a slightly larger rod and of course asked to hit the river. We went an hour north to Dam 5 on the Potomac and had tons of fun. 12 smallies wading back and forth through the river. On the last cast of the day he sent a spinner right at the dam hit a massive bass. He got it about 4 feet away before the line snapped on his little rod.

His fun helps soften the fact that I'm still clueless with my fly rod, but learning. I was excited to get a nice top water hit from a smallie with a bumble bee!

Not a bad day!

[arthur...@gmail.com]

How old is your son? You might be able to get him started on the fly sooner than you think.

Art
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[Gary Fleeger]

Funny you are asking. He turned 8 today. The folks at Orvis suggested 11-12, but he was doing some short range casting with my fly rod today while I untangled his rod from time to time. I was surprised that he could even do it. Any tips would be appreciated!  

He truly loves fishing.  We were out there 6 hours and he did not want to leave. 

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[arthur...@gmail.com]

Ha ha silly Orvis folks !

Each child is different. I teach hundreds of people how to fly fish every year. I have seen some kids as young as six pick it up. In general I think I would agree with the 11 or 12 thing but I have been surprised before.

I know I have seen some good posts about tips for teaching kids here  before. 

Rob Snowhite has a daughter that got started at a very young age.

Art

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[bpmck1]

Each child is different, but I think a great way to introduce children to fly fishing is through tenkara.  I'm no expert in fly fishing, but I do know a little about children (having six).  The biggest challenge with fly fishing for kids (and probably for adults) is maintaining a connection to the fly through proper line tension.  Kids have a tendency to drop the rod tip when fishing tenkara and that creates too much slack in the line and almost no possibility of a good hook set.

Just a couple thoughts; I'd definitely defer to Rob for more info and experience.

Brennan

[Parker Cromley]

I got a nice carp in 4MR on Wednesday. He was in about a foot of water. As Art likes to say: "It turned into a knife fight in a phone booth" real quick. Needless to say my shirt got thoroughly covered in mud/water. I am happy to report that after I moved him to a deeper section he made a full recovery and is out there for  someone else to catch!! 

[Gary Fleeger]

Great tip! I watched a video with him and the idea interested him. We are going to give it a shot and see how it goes. The bluegill tournament will be a great opportunity for him to give it a shot!

[namfos]

Nice catch!

Mark