Riverbend is ugly!!

[HeaveToo]

I went fishing at Riverbend today.  There is a strange smell and a lot of dead grass and weeds.  It didn't fish well at all.

The bottom is mostly slimy.  The only area where I found a weed bed that was in good shape right by current I caught an okay sized smallie.

I am thinking that this is my list Riverbend trip for the time being. 

[Aden]

I had the same experience at turkey run a few days ago. The place had a strange brown sediment everywhere all the way across to lock 8. There were no fish. Not even sunfish. Too bad too. That spot has a lot of potential when the fish are there.

[Charlie Church]

A lot more dead grass headed that way from upriver too. It's wild how different the river can look in a week. Fishing definitely was a bit slower too.

[Rob Snowhite]

I was below Seneca on Wednesday and above Riverbend Thursday. Other than clumps of algae floating down I didn't notice anything off. No odor. Water was crystal clear. The fish didn't want to eat flies but other than that nothing wrong that I found. 


Paw paw fruits along shore are almost ripe enough to eat. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 16, 2015, at 9:30 AM, Charlie Church <charlie...@gmail.com> wrote:

A lot more dead grass headed that way from upriver too. It's wild how different the river can look in a week. Fishing definitely was a bit slower too.

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[TurbineBlade]

Ditto -- I was down quite a bit further than you guys (Alexandria) and found conditions about normal.  Fishing was not so good though -- just tiny white perch and a few shad fry, one of which I backcasted on accident.  

Gene

On Sunday, August 16, 2015 at 9:56:09 AM UTC-4, Rob Snowhite wrote:

I was below Seneca on Wednesday and above Riverbend Thursday. Other than clumps of algae floating down I didn't notice anything off. No odor. Water was crystal clear. The fish didn't want to eat flies but other than that nothing wrong that I found. 


Paw paw fruits along shore are almost ripe enough to eat. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 16, 2015, at 9:30 AM, Charlie Church <charlie...@gmail.com> wrote:

A lot more dead grass headed that way from upriver too. It's wild how different the river can look in a week. Fishing definitely was a bit slower too.

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http://www.tpfr.org
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[darbrewe]

I posted about this a few wks ago. The snotgrass is way worse than I've seen it before. I suspect alot of nutrient coming into the river from both sides. Golf courses and sod farms. JMO.

[Charlie Church]

Ken Penrod mentioned something about this in his latest report. It seems pretty accurate to what I saw on Saturday evening. Parts of the river smelled awful....like "put your buff over your nose and don't breath" bad. 

"The river is very low and very clear—and you can smell it—perhaps a sewage leak. Anglers need to carefully maneuver their boats now and I suggest floats to downstream take-outs. Waders should not allow river water on open wounds as the bacteria level is very high." 

http://www.penrodsguides.com/fishingreport.htm

[Jamie Carracher]

This fishing report is really interesting^^, especially the sections on the tidal Potomac, which the reports seem to indicate is not doing well, especially compared to previous years. They are downright pessimistic about fish populations, especially bass. 

Is the tidal Potomac overfished? Or is pollution pressuring fish? What can I do to help?

[Misha Gill]

Ken has a definite bent towards pessimism. His incentives conflict though, and sometimes he seems to vacillate, but I think that's understandable because no one really knows exactly what's going on. We all owe him a lot for what action he has been able to spur from VDGIF and Maryland DNR. So I defer - "age before beauty," after all. 

To answer your question about overfishing - his theory is that all the conventional gear bass tournaments really overpressure the fish, and add to the stressors already present, e.g. pollution.