Gravely Point last night

[Gaucho Fly]

Fished Gravely Point last night from about 12AM to 1:30AM for the first time. With a new baby at home, I have a feeling night fishing once the kids are in bed will become a much more common occurance for me this year... The tide was running out pretty strong, but there was barely any water in the channel. I was surprised that it was only about 1 to 2 feet deep in most places and about 3 feet at the deepest point down by the pier pilings. My 300 grain was catching bottom on just about every cast, so i switched to a floater on a long leader and started getting much better drifts.  I wonder if the regulars can tell me if that is always that shallow or was it just an unsually strong tide with the full moon?

 

In the end, I had a few pulls but only managed one 15" striper before cold, wind and sleep coerced me back to the car.  A 10 - 15 pound catfish that looked half dead was swimming in circles at the surface by the boat ramp, but he was not about to eat anything.  Not a lot of splashes and the herons looked like they were a bit bummed out too, waiting for something to happen.   I will say I have a better appreciation for this place now that I have experienced it under a full moon by myself.  In the day it can feel like of all Washington is hanging out there at any point in time, but at night, it feels a bit more like you are in on some kind of secret.  Will need to give it another go in the next few days.

 

[Daniel Davala]

Strong winds like we experienced all day yesterday will push a lot of water down river and can work against/alter the predicted tidal effect, even during a moon tide.  To show the significance of the wind effect, take a look at the two gauges below.  The first shows the Gauge at Little Falls above Chain Bridge, which is non-tidal of course, from 5/23 to present.  You can see that the River was actually on the rise from the rains we had earlier in the week.  The next gauge shows the Potomac near Wisconsin Ave., which is tidal, during the same time period.  So, even though the River itself was on the rise, the lower/Tidal Potomac actually fell nearly 3 feet due to prominent and sustained winds primarily out of the West/NW.  Once the winds diminish a bit, the lower Potomac water level will pop right back up.  Pretty crazy and cool how that can happen.

 

Still, glad you got out there at night in spite of the conditions, and great to hear from you Nick.  Congratulations again on the new little one!

 

Dan Davala

 

 

 

 

 

On Sat, May 25, 2013 at 11:28 PM, Gaucho Fly <nfran...@gmail.com> wrote:

Fished Gravely Point last night from about 12AM to 1:30AM for the first time. With a new baby at home, I have a feeling night fishing once the kids are in bed will become a much more common occurance for me this year... The tide was running out pretty strong, but there was barely any water in the channel. I was surprised that it was only about 1 to 2 feet deep in most places and about 3 feet at the deepest point down by the pier pilings. My 300 grain was catching bottom on just about every cast, so i switched to a floater on a long leader and started getting much better drifts.  I wonder if the regulars can tell me if that is always that shallow or was it just an unsually strong tide with the full moon?

 

In the end, I had a few pulls but only managed one 15" striper before cold, wind and sleep coerced me back to the car.  A 10 - 15 pound catfish that looked half dead was swimming in circles at the surface by the boat ramp, but he was not about to eat anything.  Not a lot of splashes and the herons looked like they were a bit bummed out too, waiting for something to happen.   I will say I have a better appreciation for this place now that I have experienced it under a full moon by myself.  In the day it can feel like of all Washington is hanging out there at any point in time, but at night, it feels a bit more like you are in on some kind of secret.  Will need to give it another go in the next few days.

 

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[Nick F - Gaucho Fly]

That's great insight. Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense and something to keep in mind for future outings. Look forward to seeing you out there.