Great fishing at Pimmit Run

[Patrick Reilly]

Headed up to Chain Bridge today late afternoon to fish the shad run under the bridge.  When I showed up the entire spot was washed out as the Potomac was running high and fast.  Turns out all the shad were in Pimmit run (see photo). So many that 5,10 of them were breaking the surface at any one time.  Using some unorthodox casting, managed to get a great two hours in.  Couldn't hear the traffic over the rush of the water and there wasn't another person there.  Looked like a beautiful hole up in the Shenandoah.   There were so many fish and such a small area that almost every cast had at least a nibble.  I foul hooked about a dozen fish because I'm not very good (and the fish were so thick). But caught one 13 inch shad in the mouth.  Used a 4 wt sink line on a Clearwater rod with beer-tie shad flies. I tried 3 different flies and all of them had nibbles and foul hooks.  Not sure if the fish will head out of the creek once the water drops, but if you can make it out tomorrow morning, I highly recommend it.

[TurbineBlade]

Patrick -- that's a pretty selfless sharing of knowledge.  If I were you, I'd write down the date, temperature, wind, little falls + point of rocks water data and refer back to it in the event that you get a similar weather pattern in the future.  It could be a good place to keep in your back pocket after spring rain during the shad run.  

Trust me -- I've recorded birding and fishing data regularly for 3 years now.  You will NOT remember by next year if you don't write it down.  Well, you won't recall enough detail for it to be useful anyway  ;)

Gene

[Patrick Reilly]

I'd be interested if someone a lot smarter than me has thoughts on why all the shad were in the creek rather than the Potomac. My non-bioligist thoughts are that the potomac under the bridge starts to get full of rapids for really the first time. Normally they can swim through it, but the water was running to fast for them, so everybody took shelter in the creek waiting for the river to slow.

Or I completely off base.

[Rob Snowhite]

Easier to find a mate and spawn. Gizzard Shad are external fertilizers. Female drops eggs at the top of the water column and males fight to fertilize them at the surface. Slow water prevents eggs from washing away before they can be fertilized and sink and stick to a substrate where the embryo will form. 

Sent from my iPhone

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[Robert Shane]

I saw this same activity last night at the P St Bridge over Rock Creek. Was waiting for the bus there at P/23 NW and saw fish going crazy down in the water so went to investigate. (missed my bus) The attached photo doesn't do much justice as it was about 8:14 and i'm 4 generations behind on iPhone's now but there were at least 20 fish in this picture, what I assume to all be shad but I couldn't a good enough look to actually identify. 

I know Rock Creek carries a bad rap for it's pollution and terrible smell but has anyone fished up there with any success? Without having walked much of the creek only seeing it from the road before last night, I think it looks like decent water to fish if you can get over the aforementioned issues. 

On Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 9:25:52 PM UTC-4, Patrick Reilly wrote:

[tperkins]

Hey Robert,
I fish Rock Creek, it's got a bit of everything and it's close to me. So give it a shot. I try not to get my feet wet.

-Thomas

[Jamie Carracher]

I've noticed a ton more action in Rock Creek this spring compared to last summer, when I first started trying to fish it. Not sure if that's just because the water is more accommodating now or what. Those river herring were all over the place last weekend. I tried three days in a row and couldn't get them to bite. They ignored everything I threw at them and every presentation. After that I went found some pools where I got a couple good bites (but lost the fish -- didn't set the hook well). I saw some real big catfish and carp in there. 

Rock Creek for me is nice to sprinkle in if you live nearby and don't want to go far. It's also nice because there are way less hikers, joggers and bikers to worry about than places like the C&O and Tidal Basin.

[Joshua Delmonico]

That selfless sharing of information is what this group is all about and one of the pillars of its foundation. 

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