Potomac River Question

[GorillaBass]

A buddy of mine was giving me advice on size of boat to fish it. I live close to it. I fish the reservoir 3-5x a week, but sometimes I get tired of the struggle there and just want to catch a lot of fish, potomac/belmont bay area has NEVER let me down. So..

 

Due to the variables of weather, he said don't get anything smaller than 20ft.. he said 18/19 and even 20ft on even semi windy days absolutely sucks out there in the middle of the bay fishing the grass. He said 21ft or more..

 

thoughts, advice, opinions?

[Logan S]

A bigger boat always helps....But plenty of people run the river just fine in 17' to 19' rigs.  You need to make good decisions if the weather gets dicey even in bigger boats.  'Semi-windy' days keeping 20'ers off the water is a little dramatic, I've run my 20'er thru some of the nastiest stuff the river will throw at you.  No offense to your buddy, but I wouldn't exactly put much weight on the opinion of someone who claims something like that. 

 

Most of the time, any size bass boat will be fine on the river as long as you're smart about it.  Those days when it's blowing 15-20+ are when the smaller boats will be severely limited on the main river...But there are enough ramps in creeks that are protected so you could still fish those days if you wanted.  FWIW, our club has many 17-19 foot boats that fish our tournaments on both the Potomac and Upper Bay without issue.

 

Having said all that...I'd always recommend a 20 or 21 over an 18 or 19, for a variety of reasons.  Many people have trouble storing the larger boats though and they are generally more expensive.  You can get by just fine in an 18 or 19 around here if there is something preventing you from going bigger.  

[Sam]

When the wind blows the Potomac is a beautiful white cap lake.

 

The weather can turn on a dime and it can be extremely dangerous on the Potomac, no matter the size of your watercraft.

 

Same is true for the big creeks off the main river.

 

And no matter what size boat you have always check the weather and keep an eye on it while on the water.

 

I have an 18 and half foot Ranger and will not challenge the Potomac when it is angry.

[GorillaBass]

Thanks you guys.

 

I kind of thought his statement was BS. I get it, a bigger boat is always nice, but if 1ft can make ALLLLLL the difference then I seriously call BS.

 

More of a reason than just handling water for me to get a bigger boat would be more room and space, considering I just hooked my gf a week ago, her not being in my casting radius means more than just battling a rough lake.

 

Thanks for the input