Potomac Report

[Trent Jones]

Until today I had not fished the Potomac since the end of November...getting anxious for the season to kick off I headed down to one of the few semi-reliable crappie holes I know. The river is still pretty sloppy from the snow/rain but I got into plenty of crappie (some were close to 12") and a half dozen Largemouth, one of which went a little north of 17". Since it was on the way home I stopped at Gravelly Point. I broke down the 6wt and strung up the 8wt with 250gr sinking line. About 30 minutes into fishing I hooked a schoolie and promptly called it a day. I pierced about two dozen lips in 2.5 hours...number two chartreuse clouser with LOTS of flash got the job done.
 
Below is my first Potomac fish of the year as well as my first Potomac LM and schoolie of the year...and the big fish of the day.
 
Let The Games Begin!!!!!!!!!!

 

-Trent

 

 

[TurbineBlade]

Nice Trent!

Gene

[Scott Stankus]

Great fish as usual, Trent! Thanks for sharing!

--Scott

Sent from my iPhone

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[Aden]

Wait for it............challenge accepted!

[Vic Velasco]

Nice!!!

[Gerry_Ostheimer]

Well, it was a brutal wait but yesterday the Potomac shad kicked in. I started early but shouldn't have as the bite really got going mid to late morning. At the south end of the island near the boat docs a guy was tossing shad darts from shore and was well into fish. Every other cast kind of thing. Upstream of him for a while was a single handed fly guy roll casting a sink tip and also getting into fish. Clearly they were up against the shore. Eventually I set up shop at the northern tip of the island - next to the informal, but stable wood pile bridge - and cranked up my light 2-hander (12'6" 6 weight tossing a 475 grain skagit with 15' of T-11) and it was game on. Sometimes mid-swing, sometimes on the hang done, with a strip or without a strip my chartreuse bug with great big lead eyes was getting clobbered. A guy in a canoe set up just upstream of me and did great on a full sink line. Upstream on the shore it was combat fishing with darts and flies with doubles happening every once in a while. For this inshore fishing the fly didn't have to be too deep - maybe 3-4 feet down, and they just loved a classic steelhead swing starting the strips at mid swing. We are lucky to have such a great fishery.
And thanks to the volunteers that were having a clean the river day.

River was high and a bit muddy, but the pods of fish kept moving thru and were very grabby.
A lot of the H Shad were very large and I swore I had a few A shad in there based on size and markings. These were 4+ pound fish!

Also, it was clear that there are plenty of large stripers present. I saw some massive splashes up and down the river out in mid current and closer to the VA side. Perhaps I'll take a stouter rod to that side of the river to see what I can swing up with a large profile fly.....

I suspect that the big surface splashes are from stripers chasing herring from near the bottom clear to the top, so a deep water presentation is likely the way to go despite the surface activity.

Gerry

[John Bilotta]

Nicely done.
John

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[Vic Velasco]

Gerry - 

How was the water?  Still high and dirty, or is it slowing down?  Was the boathouse renting boats?

Now I'm going to have to take a day off.... ;)

Thanks!

Vic

[Jeffrey Silvan]

I got out there today. I happened to look at the Little Falls gauge around noon and saw it dropped to 4.9 ft. I called and they were renting all day, so I raced over there near 1 PM. I got on the water just before 2 PM by the time a boat was available. The water was still relatively high and stained pretty good, but not quite chocolate milk. Because the water was fast, everyone was centered right outside the launch, so I couldn't get a spot on a decent seam, but made do. My first cast of the season resulted in a shad on a chartreuse dropper dart. All the subsequent ones were on the pink one, so I cut the dropper off after the fifth fish. 

Outside of the seam, the action was sporadic. In the nearly 4 hours out there, I landed 10 or 12, but missed a decent number of fish. Most of these guys were BIG. I had several fish whose fork length was bigger than the opening of my net which is 16 inches. Most of the rest were close to 16. The people right on the main seam were generally catching a lot more fish (even compared to those on secondary seams) but it also appeared their were a bit smaller. The fish also seemed higher in the water column than I would've typically expected. A lot of my fish came either with only about 10 feet of line left on the cast or within the first 5 strips if I cast directly downstream and didn't wait for it to sink.

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[TurbineBlade]

Man, I need to get in on the shad action this year I guess!  It looks like fun.

 

Great pictures guys!

 

Gene

On Friday, April 4, 2014 9:49:36 PM UTC-4, Trent Jones wrote:

[Gerry_Ostheimer]

Hi Vic,

I think that Jeff answered your questions, but for the latest on boats and clarity issues I'd check out the map updated by the Fletcher boat house types.

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=215985205281593198240.0004b9b1bc00cfd986f02&msa=0&dg=feature

G

[Gerry_Ostheimer]

Different day = Different river

April 6th the flow was about 20,000 cfs and the bite on a swung fly was epic.

April 11th I fished 8 AM to Noon and was skunked on the two-handed rod with 15' of T-11 in the vicinity of Gordon's Rock.

River was down to 16,000 cfs and was in great shape.

The shore spin casters that were dredging the bottom with darts and flashier lures were into fish on every cast.

I even stood next to them right under the trees and managed a few long " Perry Pokes", but could not get deep enough to get a strike.

Noticed that other fly guys from boats or outrigger canoe were also not catching many fish, but they were doing better with probably full sink lines.

Without a doubt the spin guys had a great advantage yesterday.

The slot to the left of "Early Morning Ambush" was absolutely stuffed with spawning herring and they were being heavily predated by cormorants.

Regularly, I saw cormorants surface and swallow 8-12 inch fish whole.

Perhaps the heavy cormorant presence drove the H shad to deeper holes along the bottom.

Sounds like the fishery is evolving into a low light / evening game for those that like to swing flies.

In addition, quite a few guys were targeting stripers. Guys in boats tossing heavy, big white lures. They were connecting with some regularity.

All in all a fun time even without the tug. But man, the spin guys from above "Morning Ambush" and below "Sand/Mud Bar" were killing it.

Also, the spin guys upstream did really well.

I think that "Pothole" and "At your feet" were producing well on darts, too.

Gerry