Upper Potomac

[Paul Naj]

Got out with the gang from the Pacemaker site this past weekend for a float down the Upper Potomac in search of some SMB. The day started off slow with a bunch of little 6 and 7 inch dinks but as the day progressed, so did the fish. There were plenty of feisty 10 to 13 inch fish caught and a few better ones including this 3# fish I got on the home stretch towards the launch. There was another one caught that was a half inch and few ounces short of mine.

All in all it was a great day with beautiful scenery, fun fishing and great people. Can't wait to get out and do it again.

Naj

[SimonSays]

Nice fish! I think Andrew and I are going to give it a shot this friday also.  Have any recommendations on lure type and how to work them?

edit: just glanced at the pic again ... I love tubes =D

[flippin4it.]

       Nice fish!!!    My buddy went on Saturday and had a 50 fish day. Most on cranks.

[JCrzy4Bass]

Nice fish Paul.  I've never been up on the upper part of the Potomac... scenic isn't the word for the lower part lol.  But their are exceptions.  Anyway, what launch did you guys hit?  Or did you just put it your kayak at a random spot?

My dad and I have a canoe now he purchased next week and we are trying to find somewhere we can go where the current isn't too terribly bad to fish for smallmouth and we can make the paddle back upstream afterwards.  The rap's current and James' are too fast moving to do that.  Maybe I should try and find a spot up there.

Did you snag any largemouth in the process?  Glad to hear you had a fun time man.

[-Drums-]

NICE smallie!  I've heard (from the same buddy Rob is referring to) that the Upper P is on absolute fire right now in terms of the smallmouth activity.  I gotta get out there again!

[AnglerNFuego]

Nice fish Paul. I've never been up on the upper part of the Potomac... scenic isn't the word for the lower part lol. But their are exceptions. Anyway, what launch did you guys hit? Or did you just put it your kayak at a random spot?

My dad and I have a canoe now he purchased next week and we are trying to find somewhere we can go where the current isn't too terribly bad to fish for smallmouth and we can make the paddle back upstream afterwards. The rap's current and James' are too fast moving to do that. Maybe I should try and find a spot up there.

Did you snag any largemouth in the process? Glad to hear you had a fun time man.

Algonkian Regional Park buddy.  

[Chai]

i can't catch a fish with a tube if my life depended on it. i just don't get them  :-/

[A.Do?]

Great SMB you got there Paul! I hope Simon and I have the same luck you did!

[slomoe]

Nice fish!

[rondef]

Nice smallie Paul

[A.Do?]

Nice fish Paul.  I've never been up on the upper part of the Potomac... scenic isn't the word for the lower part lol.  But their are exceptions.  Anyway, what launch did you guys hit?  Or did you just put it your kayak at a random spot?

My dad and I have a canoe now he purchased next week and we are trying to find somewhere we can go where the current isn't too terribly bad to fish for smallmouth and we can make the paddle back upstream afterwards.  The rap's current and James' are too fast moving to do that.  Maybe I should try and find a spot up there.

Did you snag any largemouth in the process?  Glad to hear you had a fun time man.

Algonkian Regional Park buddy.  

Yeah, that's one of the possible launch sites that Ernie uses and the one we'll be using this weekend with him. I'll have to ask him about the other ones cuz this one makes me nervous. You gotta remember to land before you hit great falls ! Now that could get  ugly.

[SimonSays]

Nice fish Paul.  I've never been up on the upper part of the Potomac... scenic isn't the word for the lower part lol.  But their are exceptions.  Anyway, what launch did you guys hit?  Or did you just put it your kayak at a random spot?

My dad and I have a canoe now he purchased next week and we are trying to find somewhere we can go where the current isn't too terribly bad to fish for smallmouth and we can make the paddle back upstream afterwards.  The rap's current and James' are too fast moving to do that.  Maybe I should try and find a spot up there.

Did you snag any largemouth in the process?  Glad to hear you had a fun time man.

Algonkian Regional Park buddy.  

Yeah, that's one of the possible launch sites that Ernie uses and the one we'll be using this weekend with him. I'll have to ask him about the other ones cuz this one makes me nervous. You gotta remember to land before you hit great falls ! Now that could get  ugly.

we'll definitely be feeling the burn then...lol

[Paul Naj]

Thanks guys. It was a fun trip, I can't wait to do it again.

I was up further by Point of Rocks but Algonkian is holding some nice fish too and is an easier spot to paddle upstream and work down. Don't forget to work the area between the ramp and the falls though.

Chai, I'm with you on the tubes bud. I've fished them in lakes with moderate success but was doing squat with them in the mornings in the river. I was switching to grubs and flukes and catching a few fish but the guys I was with were getting better fish on tubes. One of the cool things about the river is that the water is really clear and in some of the shallower areas you can see how your lure works and see small fish following it. You can also see the baitfish as they sweep in the current. It took me a while but clearly my tube wasn't looking like the bait. When I stopped bouncing the tube and cast at just the right angle and did a slow, steady retrieve, I started getting hits. Sure enough the tube was looking a lot more like the bait. Also, it was important to pitch it slightly ahead of the structure so that it dropped down the back side or put it directly in some of the accelerated water around breaks. After I figured this out I stopped catching the little 6 inch dinks and got respectable, hard fighting fish.

[slomoe]

I guess you have to have a boat the find good fish there? I've only been once, we walked from the ramp to the little creek that ran off but didn't have any luck.

[flippin4it.]

             Went to the upper yesterday and landed 22 smallies. Looks like it is getting back to it's old self.

[A.Do?]

Definitely a great smallie fishery. SimonSays, a few friends and I went out to the upper potomac on friday and hooked up with a few smallies.

This was the first time i've ever fished in a river and only my 2nd time ever fishing for smallmouth bass.  It was definitely an awesome outting and I can't wait to get out there again.

We started the day with small 2in. grubs and top water.  I decided that i'd try out my cicada top water lure and ended up getting some pretty crazy explosions! The first was from a this sunfish and the second was a smallie, my first of '08 and my second EVER.

I switched to a tube and worked that for awhile but got nothing. Then switched to a fluke and got nothing as well. Meanwhile, Simon was tearing them up on his clear grub and landed quite a few smallies and some big bluegill.

We worked with small grubs for another hour or so, tossing them where we saw fish were hitting the top of the water. Caught a few more, this was the better of them.

My buddy Jeremy threw a few senkos t-rigged and hooked up with these beauties,

Later on that day, I was getting frustrated =( because I wasn't catching much while Simon and Jeremy were tearing it up. So I decided to take this time to work on my baitcasting and decided to try the tube again.  Caught 2-3 small guys but there were probably my new personal best. Here's the bigger of them

After this we all decided to use tubes too and we came out with these:

The biggest of the day were 3 smallies that went for 1.5lb or so. We didn't have any measuring devices to measure the length so all we had were our scales. Totals (rough estimates, we lost count) were like 8-10 smallies for Simon, 4 for me, and I think about 12 for Jeremy.

Definitely looking forward to getting out there again! We missed some good schools and we learned a lot so next time it should be more productive.

[flippin4it.]

               Nice to see my outing was not a fluke....... I got a trick I learned and will need to show it to you.

[rondef]

Where did you guys launch on the upper Potomac?

[A.Do?]

Where did you guys launch on the upper Potomac?

Not too far away, we launched out of Algonkian Regional Park off of Rt. 7. There's a $2.50 launch fee for canoes kayaks and i think $5? for boats. The river is split but a few islands. The water is pretty shallow (wadeable) if you stay on the side closest to the launch, but we heard it's deeper with many deep pockets if you go pass the island toward the other side. We didn't get a chance to try the other side because of jet skiers and our friend told us the current was a lot stronger on that side as well.

We saw a few jons but the majority of the boats fished the "deep" side while kayaks stayed in the shallow end.

The water there is crystal clear and you'll be able to see every pebble on the bottom.

I'm addicted to smallies and really want to go back this weekend. There are also HUGE panfish here. I hooked up with a bluegill off a 3.5" TUBEEEEE That thing was the size of a dinner plate but I lost it at the boat so wasn't able to take a picture  

[flippin4it.]

            I launched out of the same place but fished the deeper water, only because my guide/buddy wanted to put me on some of the 19+ inchers they had been catching.

[slomoe]

yall killed it, nice work.

[JCrzy4Bass]

Good numbers guys. I'm gonna have to head up there one day and give it a shot. I never have luck on the white 2-3" grubs I use so I may have to try some of the clear colored ones in pearl, chartreuse, etc.

Some dark fish there too. You guys fish with heavier weights (1/4, 3/8 oz) or what? Deeper pools?

Good job again. Simon always has a smile on his face with those fish. Goes to show you that some people just have a pure love of this sport regardless of the size of the fish. I could catch smallies that size all day and be perfectly content like him. Got some good ones mixed in too. Nice fish fellas.

[A.Do?]

Rob, haha we wanted to work the other side but d**n 4th of july jet skiers were out in large numbers! >

Jay, for the grubs we were using 1/16th size jig heads and for the tubes, I was using 1/8th but i'm not sure what size Simon was using. A lot of the fish were actually shallow and we weren't specifically targeting pockets. We kind of just tried to work the whole area as we were finding them every where.  

These smallies put up really good fights and i've got new found confidence in tubes. Heading back out there friday with Simon if anyone is interested. Simon and I ALWAYS have fun regardless if we're catching fish  ;D but we love it more when we figure it out!  

[SimonSays]

Thanks for the kind words J, I love catching the fish =D

Like Andrew said I started off with 1/16 jig heads with 2-3 inch white grubs then switched to a 3inch yamamoto white (more clear than white).

I also caught one decent sized fish off a fun sized swimbait (3 inches).

As for tubes I started tossing a 3.5in coffee tube in watermelon/red on a 2/0 gamy skip gap hook with a 1/8 oz tungsten bullet weight.  The fish tore that one up and I didn't want to bother Andrew with grabbing another since we were on our last leg of fishing so I switched to a Black/blue Mann's hardnose tube I had on hand (.82 a pack at Gander mnt!) at 4 inch and caught 1 or 2.

These smallies put up a GREAT fight...the 1-1.5lbers put up fights like 3lb-4lb lmb's constantly trying to shake the hook and dive.  Great when you get a solid hookset, nerve wracking when you don't =D

[flippin4it.]

               This should be the location of our next Fish-A-Palooza trip after Hunting Run later this month.       6lbs test max!