Harpers Ferry today...

Made out with a few smallmouth this morning. Nothing worth keeping. Wet
wading was awesome, water was nice and low, but that still didn't keep me
from stumbling around on the rocks. Took a couple spills due to not paying
attention while walking and casting. My bro in law went with and he managed
to step into an 8' hole once or twice so we both were soaked from head to
toe. Started out about 7am about a mile or so north of the rail bridge
spinning some lures around the damn area and worked our way down to about a
1/4 mile from the bridge. Decided it was time to get in the car and head
over to the W.VA side and see what the fly rod would produce for me around
the old bridge pylons. Nadda...(on the Shanendoah or the Patomac) Guess it
wasn't a complete bust, only success was on crayfish and segmented shad rap
(that I lost to a deep snag, D'oh!).

Wasn't sure what patterns to use on the Potomac since i've only had
experience with the small stream tactics. I tried a bead head bugger in
black and green then a Pautuxent special since it was weighted. The bass
were hunkered down deep so I didn't really have anything in my box that
would get down there, and no split shots either. I just practiced my casting
and watched my bro in law drag in a couple more smallies till about 1pm and
called it a day... I'm gonna invest in a sinking line and try looking for
some patterns that dive deep so next time i'll have a better chance of
success.

Any suggestions or experiences of what works well on the Potomac?

Thanks in advance.

Anthony

"Anthony" wrote in message
news:z7sLe.6379$Rp5.3256@trnddc03...
Made out with a few smallmouth this morning. Nothing worth keeping. Wet
wading was awesome, water was nice and low, but that still didn't keep me
from stumbling around on the rocks. Took a couple spills due to not paying
attention while walking and casting. My bro in law went with and he
managed
to step into an 8' hole once or twice so we both were soaked from head to
toe. Started out about 7am about a mile or so north of the rail bridge
spinning some lures around the damn area and worked our way down to about
a
1/4 mile from the bridge. Decided it was time to get in the car and head
over to the W.VA side and see what the fly rod would produce for me around
the old bridge pylons. Nadda...(on the Shanendoah or the Patomac) Guess it
wasn't a complete bust, only success was on crayfish and segmented shad
rap
(that I lost to a deep snag, D'oh!).

Wasn't sure what patterns to use on the Potomac since i've only had
experience with the small stream tactics. I tried a bead head bugger in
black and green then a Pautuxent special since it was weighted. The bass
were hunkered down deep so I didn't really have anything in my box that
would get down there, and no split shots either. I just practiced my
casting
and watched my bro in law drag in a couple more smallies till about 1pm
and
called it a day... I'm gonna invest in a sinking line and try looking for
some patterns that dive deep so next time i'll have a better chance of
success.

Any suggestions or experiences of what works well on the Potomac?

Thanks in advance.

Anthony



Sorry, never mind the first sentence, I didn't read it very carefully before
posting...It should have said, "Only caught a few smallmouth this morning".
The posted one sounds like I was havin my way with the fish...jeez...

YUCK!

Anthony

Anthony wrote:
"Anthony" wrote in message
news:z7sLe.6379$Rp5.3256@trnddc03...
Made out with a few smallmouth this morning.
snip
Sorry, never mind the first sentence, I didn't read it very carefully
before posting...It should have said, "Only caught a few smallmouth
this morning". The posted one sounds like I was havin my way with the
fish...jeez...

Either way, sounds like fun. ;-) There was a "report" here a month or
so ago about a young lad who forgot fish had teeth and, well, we won't
go *there* again...
--
TL,
Tim
---------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj/

Any suggestions or experiences of what works well on the Potomac?

Well, normally I use a heavily weighted, 5" long, Murrays Hellgrammite on a
sink tip line that I've cut all but 5 foot of the sink tip off. With a
three foot straight leader of 8 pound mono as the terminal tackle. Go out
with a couple extra flies in my pocket, extra mono and some forceps. That
works all day. Until this year.
I fished a little downstream of where you were this evening with Allen Epps
and his buddy Todd. It was brutal. Code Red air quality and 100 degree
temp. Found myself setting the vest on a rock, standing in the water, cast,
dip down to my chin, and retrieve from that position. Allen mentioned the
line from Blazing Saddles "you all act like its 126 degrees out here, but it
can't be any more than 114."
Your buddy must have put some special stuff on his lure to get the fish.
Nothing was moving. I've heard others say the same. The Shenandoah and the
Susquehanna have both suffered fishkills of the adult bass population. I'm
hoping that the same hasn't happened on the Pot-O-Mac.
I also noticed that the weed beds are gone. Didn't get to fish the river
last year as the rain kept the level up above safe wading levels. I'm
wondering if Hurricane Izabel may have scoured the river more than I
thought.
Good luck.

--
Frank Reid
Reverse email to reply

On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 18:12:27 -0400, "Tim J."
wrote:

Anthony wrote:
"Anthony" wrote in message
news:z7sLe.6379$Rp5.3256@trnddc03...
Made out with a few smallmouth this morning.
snip
Sorry, never mind the first sentence, I didn't read it very carefully
before posting...It should have said, "Only caught a few smallmouth
this morning". The posted one sounds like I was havin my way with the
fish...jeez...

Either way, sounds like fun. ;-) There was a "report" here a month or
so ago about a young lad who forgot fish had teeth and, well, we won't
go *there* again...


Neither will he. I heard he died.

Cyli
r.bc: vixen. Minnow goddess. Speaker to squirrels.
Often taunted by trout. Almost entirely harmless.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli
email: lid (strip the .invalid to email)

"Frank Reid" moc.deepselbac@diersicnarf wrote in message
...
Any suggestions or experiences of what works well on the Potomac?
Snipped to:
The Shenandoah and the Susquehanna have both suffered fishkills of the
adult bass population. --
Frank Reid
Reverse email to reply

Frank:

A good friend of mine fishes the Shenandoah hard up near Luray, or at least
he did until this year. He had moved back to Lynchburg this year, and hadn't
heard about the fish kill (caused by farmers spreading liquid manure on
frozen ground and the subsequent spring run off into the Shenadoah of that
potent elixir, according to the reports I have heard). He fished it early
this summer, and worked hard all day for two small fish. He said it was the
worst day of fishing on the Shenandoah he has ever had. Later, when he
learned of the fish kill, he said that the it may have been the saddest
thing he had heard. I'm sure that if left alone, the Shenandoah will be
back, but I suspect that it will take years, and then only if the liquid
manure situation is rectified. This seems to be a growing problem, as I read
recently that there were major fish kills in Wisconsin this spring - also
caused by liquid manure entering the rivers and streams.

Jim Ray

"Anthony" wrote in
news:TauLe.2283$Xw5.1058@trnddc02:


"Anthony" wrote in message
news:z7sLe.6379$Rp5.3256@trnddc03...
Made out with a few smallmouth this morning. Nothing worth keeping.
Wet wading was awesome, water was nice and low, but that still didn't
keep me from stumbling around on the rocks. Took a couple spills due
to not paying attention while walking and casting. My bro in law went
with and he
managed
to step into an 8' hole once or twice so we both were soaked from
head to toe.

....you guys been taking lessons from Frank Jr I see. ;-)

Frank Sr
....the old rocktripper...

"Frank Reid" moc.deepselbac@diersicnarf wrote in message
...
Any suggestions or experiences of what works well on the Potomac?

Well, normally I use a heavily weighted, 5" long, Murrays Hellgrammite on
a
sink tip line that I've cut all but 5 foot of the sink tip off. With a
three foot straight leader of 8 pound mono as the terminal tackle. Go out
with a couple extra flies in my pocket, extra mono and some forceps. That
works all day. Until this year.
I fished a little downstream of where you were this evening with Allen
Epps
and his buddy Todd. It was brutal. Code Red air quality and 100 degree
temp. Found myself setting the vest on a rock, standing in the water,
cast,
dip down to my chin, and retrieve from that position. Allen mentioned the
line from Blazing Saddles "you all act like its 126 degrees out here, but
it
can't be any more than 114."

Yeah, the only place we caught the smallmouth was up by the damn in the
rapids, fishing the crayfish and shad rap lures on the calm side of the
rocks. My shad rap was a blue/orange and we both were casting a deep
red/clear crayfish as well. We had to wade out pretty far in some spots to
get some good pools. The bass were on the small side and I think I only got
two or three. My bro inlaw took about five total for the day. He has some
experience in rivers here in MD and VA but other than that he also talked a
lot about fishing lake Texahoma when he lived in Texas with his dad. Said
they lived right down the street from the lake and he spent most of his time
out there workin the banks. He also spends a lot of time a Lochraven draggin
largemouths and whatnot in so he seemed to be the fish magnet that day for
us. He was having a rough time bringing anything in once we went south of
the train bridge. He caught two smallies by the surrounding area of the
pylons on the Shanendoa before we decided to call it a day. Was getting
annoying cause one of the rafters was smacking his oar on the water when
they went by. By 10pm there were so many tubers and rafts floating on the
water it was getting difficult to get any action at all. Like I said we
started out about 7am and were there till 1pm and only caught a handfull of
smallies.

Your buddy must have put some special stuff on his lure to get the fish.
Nothing was moving. I've heard others say the same. The Shenandoah and
the
Susquehanna have both suffered fishkills of the adult bass population.
I'm
hoping that the same hasn't happened on the Pot-O-Mac.
I also noticed that the weed beds are gone. Didn't get to fish the river
last year as the rain kept the level up above safe wading levels. I'm
wondering if Hurricane Izabel may have scoured the river more than I
thought.

I was amazed on how shallow it actually was. In some spots it was like 2'
deep and in others you'd step into an 8' hole but I think due to the amount
of silt and slime all over the rocks that it wasn't scoured too badly just
was prolly too late into the heat of the day for catching anything worth
talking about. It was a really hot day. The morning was great tho, nice and
cool untill about 10 or so.

Good luck.

--
Thanks for the reply, I'll definately try the hellgramite on my flyrod, I
knew I wasn't prepared for the river but next time we go, i'll be ready to
coax a few in...We were talkin about it on the way home so it will prolly
happen within the next couple weeks or so.

Tight lines,

Anthony

I was amazed on how shallow it actually was. In some spots it was like 2'
deep and in others you'd step into an 8' hole but I think due to the
amount
of silt and slime all over the rocks that it wasn't scoured too badly just
was prolly too late into the heat of the day for catching anything worth
talking about. It was a really hot day. The morning was great tho, nice
and
cool untill about 10 or so.

One of the idiosyncracies of the Potomac is that in the middle of summer,
the fish feed heavily during the late afternoon and evening and rest during
the morning and early afternoon. I usually don't leave the house until 2
p.m. Try doing that and fishing till dark.

Thanks for the reply, I'll definately try the hellgramite on my flyrod, I
knew I wasn't prepared for the river but next time we go, i'll be ready to
coax a few in...We were talkin about it on the way home so it will prolly
happen within the next couple weeks or so.


Black is the color for smallies. If you don't have an old sink tip lying
around, try a shooting head, about 5 -7 foot long with the rest of the
terminal tackle as I've described. That will get you down into the deep
hole where the fish are holding.
And good luck to you.


--
Frank Reid
Euthanize to respond

to step into an 8' hole once or twice so we both were soaked from
head to toe.

...you guys been taking lessons from Frank Jr I see. ;-)

Remember how hot it was that one time on the Rappahannock? Okay, put in
really bad air quality. You may not be swimmin' with the women, but
swimmin' was definately the way to go.

--
Frank Reid
Euthanize to respond