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I fished the Upper Potomac between the Lander and Point of Rocks on two successive weekends with two very different companions. One has been my best friend and roommate for 34 years and the other was another scroungy fishing addict like myself!
Last year, after doing a bike trip into the Cranberry River in conjunction with the fall stocking season, I became enamored with the idea of using a fishing bike to move quickly from place to place. In short order, I purchased one on Craigslist, rigged it with the appropriate container to hold my fishing rod and have been waiting for the right opportunity to deploy this new, mobile fishing platform. With all the research I've doing on my upcoming two books (Rapidan and Rappahannock), I failed miserably to leverage the investment... until I convinced the Basswife to float from Lander to Point of Rocks in early July.
Those of you who follow this column know that the Basswife does not like either rapids or insects. I assured her that, based on my view of the river while wading between these two locations, we would not have any issues with either. Lander and Point of Rocks are a reasonably short distance apart; perfect to do a self shuttle using a bike. With that, I dropped the bike off at Point of Rocks; locking it to the guard rail underneath the bridge and made the quick drive to Lander.
The water was crystal clear and bathtub warm as we began to float along the Maryland side; peppering the bank with our casts. Ever since I hooked myself on the back and she had to extract it, I have been forbidden to use my fly rod in the canoe. Therefore, we were armed with spin gear and plumbed the depths with plastic grubs and six-inch plastic worms. We started to pick up small bass almost immediately and spent a considerable amount of time hovering underneath the power line that is directly downstream from the launch.
Once the action calmed, we drifted downstream through Huffman Rocks to fish the deep channels that line each side of the rock formations running parallel to the river. As I discuss in the book, there are places where you can wade along this entire stretch. However, you won't be able to get all the way out to the rock formations in the middle as a result of the depth of the channel. It was here I pulled in a nice two foot-long catfish -- he hit a six-inch brown Gulp flavored worm. Good action and, most importantly, the Basswife was also catching fish.
But, this happy scene was destroyed when a gust of wind blew up and snapped her umbrella off the holder I had rigged for it. Thinking quickly, she snagged it before it blew downstream and immediately began clutching it with both hands; making no effort to fold it up and continue fishing. Clearly, this fishing trip was over for her. I dallied a little bit at the rapids that mark the start of the run from the upper part of Paton Island down to Point of Rocks,but knew I needed to get to the launch as quickly as I could. A few minutes later, we pulled the canoe to the shore and I jogged over to the bike with a quick word over my shoulder that I would "be back in a minute." Not bad. It only took 26 minutes to ride up the towpath, throw the bike in the back of the truck and drive back to Point of Rocks. I could do this any day! Bottom line on this trip was we caught decent numbers of small fish, it was a beautiful day and, except for the umbrella disaster, was a total success.
As a result of this "dry run", I was looking forward to the following weekend when Dan Neuland, who reports for the Frederick News Post, had offered to float the same stretch using his two-man pontoon boat. This was going to be good! Not only would I be able to take my fly rod since the Basswife would not be with us, we would also wade at the appropriate places and take our time on the run south. I agreed to link up with Dan at 0600 at Point of Rocks; not realizing in my excitement to fish with another addict that it would be an hour and a half drive to get there from where I live. Oh well, I routinely got up at 0330 to do my research on the North Branch to write that book; so it was no big deal to get up a little bit before 4 AM and hit the road. Right on schedule and in a whirl of dust, Dan rolled into the launch, I loaded my gear and we quickly headed back up to Lander.
Once in the river, we noticed that we could not see the bottom in the shallow water along the Maryland shore. But since Dan got a huge, explosive strike on a popper he flipped out at the tip of the grass island downstream from the launch, we did not give that a second thought. Encouraged by the response given to Dan's popper, we both began flipping top water patterns at the shore. Nothing.
We drifted over to the power lines and moved up and down; holding position with the anchor in the same place the Basswife and I had had such good luck the week before. Nothing.
We decided to drift over to the deep water near Huffman rocks. By this time, we realized that the water levels were up significantly from the week before as a result of the brief, but intense, bursts of rain the area experienced earlier in the week. Making excuses, we convinced ourselves that that was the problem that we had to deal with -- stained water and a lack of clarity. Our reaction was to switch to subsurface patterns in an attempt to get down to the fish.
Fishing under the blazing sun, and still not catching anything, we added another excuse to the list we were quickly developing. In addition to all the other challenges, the heat was now also having an impact and driving the fish to cool hiding places that we had not been able to discover. Woe to us!! Poor babies!! Fishing through Huffman Rocks without success except for a small bass and a sunfish that I was able to pick up, we resolved to wade in the rapids that mark the boundary between Lander and Point of Rocks.
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Remember to refer to my rating explanations - these are based on what I look for - so RED for Physical Fitness translates to easy physically - you do not need to be in shape to fish this section. I prefer terrain that is tough to get into and out of.
Purchase Switchfisher's books using the links to Amazon below for:
- Wade and Shoreline Fishing the Potomac River for Smallmouth Bass
(more info)
- Trout and Smallmouth Fishing on the North Branch of the Potomac
(more info)
It looked perfect! Plenty of water charging through the narrow channels and dumping into the pools below the rocks. I threw heavily weighted small plastics using my fly fishing "bass rig" into those perfect holding places with no success. Dan was enjoying a similar level of frustration as we ranged far and wide in search of what had become a rare and endangered species. With increasing disappointment, I recommended that we stop at the break where you can move from Maryland to Virginia at the top of Paton Island. As documented in other reports on this website, I have always been successful in that location. Hauling the oars hard, Dan pulled us upstream to wedge on top of one of the rocks in the middle of the river and we hopped out. After 30 minutes of fishing the downstream break, we looked at each other and concluded that this was not going to be our day. Nothing.
At any rate, we were hungry and decided to break for lunch on the sandy beach that marks the boundary between the two forks in the river. In one last shot after lunch, we waded around the tip in search of fish. Within 10 minutes, I hit a hot streak and tied into a succession of small smallies and called Dan over to fish the same spot.
He was standing 20 feet away from me when I finally hit the jackpot. With a 4 foot leap in the air, a 16 inch smallie (hmmm... seems small... maybe this guy was really 50 - 60 inches) was hooked! In shock, I played him as Dan pulled out his camera and shouted over to me, "I've got my camera and this will be on the front page of the Frederick News Post!" Within seconds, the jinx was on me! In my excitement, I made a beginner bonehead mistake, I failed to let fish run and get it on the reel. The fish took advantage of that and did an expert self extraction, laughed heartily and left me looking into abject horror at a dangling, empty hook. This was one of those days. With joint sighs of resignation, we slogged through the shallow water back to the pontoon boat and drifted quickly down the Virginia side to fish the junction of Catoctin Creek. It looked dry and stagnant, so we gave up and headed back to the launch.
Another day on the Potomac! At least we had great weather and good companionship and I certainly look forward to fishing with Dan again. However, next time I'll check the back of his truck to make sure that he does not unload the bad luck along with the rest of his gear :-)
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Dates fished: 7/10/10 and 7/18/10
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