Good Spots on upper Potomac?

[newbiedmv]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone is catching anything in the upper Potomac?

 

Been to Slackwater, it was dead dead dead.... only one small patch of grass, no minnows to speak of that I saw.I went all the way to I-81

I'm thinking of going to Seneca, but it's always a question of how bad the ramp is and if you can get under the aqueduct for the canal.

 

If anyone knows of ramps on the lower Potomac please let me know. Been looking for a long time. only know of one near National or Regan Airport ( which I'll never go to, cities freak me out  )

 

Thanks

[Logan S]

Not sure what kind of boat you have, but the Upper Potomac is really only suited to jet boats unless you go to Dam 4 / Slackwater.  Seneca is borderline, people do it with props but not me....But the ramps and areas on the Upper Potomac that are actually worth fishing (IMO) are all in jet boat territory.  

 

The tidal Potomac has a ton of ramps, some of the big ones are Smallwood, Leesylvania, Pohick, Occoquan, Marshall Hall and Aquia (Hope Springs)....There are several others in addition to these.  National is a good ramp but gets really crowded with sight-seers anytime the weather is nice, it's a great launch for winter fishing.  There's probably a dozen ramps to launch a bassboat on the tidal Potomac and most are in parks that have nice facilities.  

[newbiedmv]

Thanks. My neighbor has a jet boat and he goes everywhere. I've checked those ramps  out but no way with a prop.

I'm running a 17' creastliner, 50 hp merc, cheaply loaded but I like it better than my 13' row boat. It doesn't act like a sail in the wind, and slam you into the bank every time a boat passes.

 

yep, seneca is iffy. I went there with the other boat and a 25 hp. no issues until the 1969 evinrude locked up( cheap oil they said). Was down there in March a foot of mud on the ramp and  dozen trees on the acguduct.

 

I will look, but are those lower Potomac ramps in VA? I spent two days in southern MD looking and didn't find a single one until point lookout.

Never thought of parks for some reason, oh well maybe another road trip to southern MD.

 

Thanks again

Oh, I see you have lake Gaston listed. I've been thinking a lot about that one. are there hotels that can handle a trailer?

it's  a days drive, even bypassing the DC area

[Logan S]

9 hours ago, newbiedmv said:

Thanks. My neighbor has a jet boat and he goes everywhere. I've checked those ramps  out but no way with a prop.

I'm running a 17' creastliner, 50 hp merc, cheaply loaded but I like it better than my 13' row boat. It doesn't act like a sail in the wind, and slam you into the bank every time a boat passes.

 

yep, seneca is iffy. I went there with the other boat and a 25 hp. no issues until the 1969 evinrude locked up( cheap oil they said). Was down there in March a foot of mud on the ramp and  dozen trees on the acguduct.

 

I will look, but are those lower Potomac ramps in VA? I spent two days in southern MD looking and didn't find a single one until point lookout.

Never thought of parks for some reason, oh well maybe another road trip to southern MD.

 

Thanks again

Oh, I see you have lake Gaston listed. I've been thinking a lot about that one. are there hotels that can handle a trailer?

it's  a days drive, even bypassing the DC area

Smallwood State Park and Marshall Hall are in MD...Leesylvania State Park, Pohick Regional Park, Occoquan Regional Park, and Hope Springs Marina are in VA.  There's several other ramps in MD and VA also, these are some of the most popular.  No need to go on a road trip looking, it's 2020....Get on Google Maps and check em out .

 

Gaston has a few waterfront hotels/lodges plus countless rental houses and plenty of ramps.  It's a 4 hour drive there, so it's a place that you'll want to get at least 2 or 3 days on for a trip.  

[newbiedmv]

Cool man... yep I'm still living in the 80's for most of the time.

 

Bad music time

[newbiedmv]

Just a FYI: I was up at Dam #4 today July 1,2020 to test out my engine. There were thousands and thousands of dead half decayed minnows floating everywhere. about 1 every foot at the least. I went up about 2 miles before turning around. 

If anyone has any idea why let me know. The river was very high and fast last week. Could be damage from that or bad water quality. I asked the MD DNR about the limestone dumping but have not gotten a reply. They all were the same size, like a fisheries release.

At this point the upper Potomac is off for this season.

Oh, I putted back down at 4mph crisscrossing  the slackwater, my fish finder NEVER went off, even in the deep holes.

[Brian Martalus]

I have gotten some decent smallies wet wading just above and below Harpers ferry. This is my first year in the area and I had hopes of 50-100 fish days like I read about  from 10 years ago. I keep hearing about floods that messed up spawning the last few years. Not sure how this years spawn was-there was some high water in may and June but not terrible. I keying in on some decent wet wading spots by various creek mouths-often the tribes have more fish than the main river.

[John Diamond]

Potomac is definitely slow the last two years.  I launched out of POR early Sunday morning to beat the hordes who take up all of the parking spaces and clog the boat ramp with rental kayaks, headed up the Virginia side of Paton Island till I could get no further in my jet boat.  Caught four 10-12 inch smallmouth, then went back down river to the first cut through the island and then up the Maryland side where it's a bit deeper.  Fished behind a few of the boulder piles and caught two more of that size and a really fat sunfish before the bite was off and the wind really picked up.  Probably won't come back until after the summer is done, it's just not worth dealing with the people this time of year.  

 

Monocacy has been slow too, and lots of poaching and littering in the lower river, pretty much ruining it for everyone.  I did brave a trip to the Greenfield section and caught five the other night, but the amount of trash on the banks was disgusting and I just don't want to see that, so probably won't go there any time soon either.  

[Brian Martalus]

With the bars closed, people are trashing the sides of rivers up and down the east coast.  Sounds like you had a decent session Sunday morning but you had to work for the fish. In a good year, how many fish would you have gotten on a similar outing?

[John Diamond]

17 hours ago, Brian Martalus said:

With the bars closed, people are trashing the sides of rivers up and down the east coast.  Sounds like you had a decent session Sunday morning but you had to work for the fish. In a good year, how many fish would you have gotten on a similar outing?

 

Generally 15-20, and some with some size to them in the 1-2 lb range, similar on the Monocacy.  My PB smallie is from the Monocacy, 20 inches, around 4lbs or so(didn't have a scale).  

[Brian Martalus]

On 9/3/2020 at 8:32 AM, John Diamond said:

 

Generally 15-20, and some with some size to them in the 1-2 lb range, similar on the Monocacy.  My PB smallie is from the Monocacy, 20 inches, around 4lbs or so(didn't have a scale).  

Well, as has been discussed in some other threads, the Potomac SMB population is highly cyclical. Increased spring time flooding, summer water temps, pollution, and spread of catfish all have a negative impact on the population. I have heard that the population really crashed due post spawn flooding in the late 90s but by the 2000s things bounced back and fishing was great for a while.  Apparently 2015-2019 had mostly bad spawning due to post spawn floods but 2020 had a better than average spawn. Also MD and WV have been stocking fingerlings. Unfortunately it will take a few years for this years young of year to be of a catchable size.  Let's hope for the best!  I do wonder how smaller tributaries have faired in terms of spawning and whether fish from those smaller tribs do colonize or utilize portions of the big river.

[John Diamond]

4 hours ago, Brian Martalus said:

Well, as has been discussed in some other threads, the Potomac SMB population is highly cyclical. Increased spring time flooding, summer water temps, pollution, and spread of catfish all have a negative impact on the population. I have heard that the population really crashed due post spawn flooding in the late 90s but by the 2000s things bounced back and fishing was great for a while.  Apparently 2015-2019 had mostly bad spawning due to post spawn floods but 2020 had a better than average spawn. Also MD and WV have been stocking fingerlings. Unfortunately it will take a few years for this years young of year to be of a catchable size.  Let's hope for the best!  I do wonder how smaller tributaries have faired in terms of spawning and whether fish from those smaller tribs do colonize or utilize portions of the big river.

 

Well the Monocacy was similarly slow the past two years.  I had a tremendous 2017 there, some success in 2018, but 2019-2020 has been drastically slower.  

 

I have had success in Tom's Creek(Upper Monocacy trib) this year, catching a lot of 10-12 inch bass on my lunchbreak.  Caught a really fat, maybe 2 lb largemouth as well today