Fishing the Tidal Basin Tuesday

[McFly]

I fished the tidal basin Tuesday and caught several good size smallmout bass and two huge largemouth. The fish seemed to hang up close to the wall especially around any shade or cover in the water. I noticed that the clouser minnows that had red eyes that resemble the bluegills in the river caught all the fish. I was having a pretty good trip until I was snagged between my thumb and index finger while unhooking a huge smallmouth. I'm tying a few flies with the red eyes to see if the fish really prefer them.

[Paul Kalajainen]

What side of the Basin were you fishing?  And what size clousers?

Thanks!
Paul

[McFly]

I was fishing on the side by the FDR war memorial, a chart/white clouser size #2, cast up and strip the fly close to the wall. When you first come down the walk way make a right and go up in the corner by the bridge and work your way down, there is a low branch providing a little shade  farther up and that spot holds a few good bass every trip. Directly behind the memorial is a marble bench for some reason they love that spot also.

[JP]

3 questions:

Were you wading?

What time of day were you fishing?

And lastly, where is the best place to park for this particular strech?

Thanks for the help.

[Aaron O]

Hey JP,

 

 

     There is no wading at the basin.  Your actually standing on a raised wall with a metal fence around it. 

 

     As far as parking, There is limited parking right at the basin but you have to get there pretty early or late to secure a parking spot otherwise you may be driving around a while.  I would suggest either bringing a roll of quarters with you just in case you can't find a spot or better than that, take the metro in.  Its about a 3 block walk to the basin but then you dont need to deal with parking or the traffic.

 

Hope that helps and enjoy the views.  :)  

 

 

Aaron

 

 

P.S.   Just make sure if you hook a tourist, It's catch and release  ONLY!

 

 

 

[Todd Kuethe]

I find that there's almost always a few spots on the road between FDR and the river (near a bunch of athletic fields).  It's probably a bit too much of a walk for most people who want to get to the heart of the mall.

[namfos]

Pinch down the barbs on your hooks.  3 years ago I wrecked my fathers day fishing trip by embedding an Aggravator nymph, size 6 Tiemco 200R, in case you're interested ;-) in my eyebrow.  Now all barbs get mashed before mounting in the vise. 

On Thursday, July 26, 2012 12:20:44 PM UTC-4, McFly wrote:

[JP]

Thanks Aaron. Thinking about making a trip here in the near future.

[McFly]

When you first come in to the Tidal Basin area there is parking directly across you'll usually see a row of buses and I've never had a problem getting parking during the week the weekends are a different story, I was fishing at mid dayand the heat wasn't to bad on Tuesday. If you want you can park at east potomac park and walk down it's a 15 minute walk. There is no wading in the Tidal Basin.

On Thursday, July 26, 2012 12:20:44 PM UTC-4, McFly wrote:

[Paul Kalajainen]

I went over to the Tidal Basin on Friday evening about 6:45-8:45.  It was pretty close to dark by the time I left, maybe the prime time would have been a little later, but I didn't get anything.  I walked up and down the wall from the bridge to the FDR memorial casting basically parallel to the wall and stripping the line in from there.  I used a variety of colors of woolly buggers - no luck.  Any specific places along the wall where the fish like to hang out?

-Paul

[McFly]

Paul the Fishing may have been a little rough because the water temp was up there-the bass stayed deep until the water temp was more comfortable. The best thing to do if your fishing from shore is look for minnows or bluegills, if you see them shallow then the bass will most likely be shallow, you can usually get them to come up by throwing some cracker crumbs in the water or you can take a thermometer and measure the water temp like the trout boys. If you don't see minnows or bluegills shallow fan cast and cast in the corners and up under the bridge. The warm temp makes it so you have to slow down your retrieve I don't care what some guy told you in the Fly Fisherman magazine but your not going to have a bass or snakehead chase down a fast moving fly when the water temp is high. The flies that slayed them over the years in the chanel and tidal basin for me where black sponge spiders make sure the legs aren't to long over 1/2 inch-chart/white clousers with some flash in them size #2 or #4- bluegill size poppers in a chart/black and chart/white-beadhead nymph- black wooly buggers. The spot where the tree limb comes down almost to the water is the prime spot but don't beat it to death fish it 20 minutes and move up the wall them work your way back.