Encouraged by the great day I have had over the Fourth of July weekend fishing Sycamore Landing, I was anxious to return to the Upper Potomac. I'm slowly working my way upstream with the intent to visit each of the launch and other access point with the intent of producing a map book like my current map book focused on the North Branch of the Potomac. I hope to have it ready to go by early next year in time for the next smallmouth season. Anyway, the next access point up from Sycamore Landing is the one at the mouth of the Monocacy River.  I was favorably impressed with the cleanliness of both the parking lot and the public restroom. There was no trash or other debris to detract from a very scenic area. We drove by a few families having picnics in the shady grass and dropped the canoe into the river. If you have a big boat, you will need to be careful here as it is very shallow. You run the risk of your motor digging up the river bottom or clipping on a log as you carefully negotiate your way out into the deeper water of the Upper Potomac. Once past the bridge, I turned the canoe upstream because I like to head up and then drift back down to the launch. This makes it easy to time the exit from the river without having to grind upstream against the current using the small trolling motor. As we puttered upstream, I kept a careful eye on the river bottom. The most encouraging thing was that the water was relatively clear. It held a small amount of silt in it, but we could routinely see 3 or 4 feet down. It looks like most of this area is accessible to people who want to wade. There is a shallow shelf that goes out from both the shorelines 25 to 50 yards into the river. That shelf terminates on a deeper trench that can range between 4 and 8 feet deep. Interspersed among all this are deeper holes that can go 8 feet or larger. The bottom is a mix of sand, large rocks, and gravel with a few large boulders intermixed in. In short, good smallie country. Prior to leaving the dock, I chatted with a few other fishermen to find out what was working in this area. The consensus was that small power bait grubs fished Texas rigged and bumped along the bottom was the most productive pattern. Perfect! That's what I typically use on the Upper Potomac and a smaller version when I need to avoid heavy vegetation with my fly rod. We started to fish opposite of Cox Island. There's a very shallow shelf that extends most the way out to the island from the Maryland shore. After a little bit of searching, I found the place where the shelf broke off and the "deeper" trench began. I dropped the anchor and we began to fish there. It wasn't long before we started to pick up some small smallies. We didn't catch anything to brag about but we caught enough to keep us interested and happy. At one point, the Basswife complained of being hung. So I dropped what I was doing, stored my rod, pulled in the anchor and began to motor the canoe up to where the lure was hung up. As I kept going upstream, it seemed like the lure was getting farther and farther away from us. I asked her, "do you have to fish on there?" She said nothing was pulling, but I told her to set the hook anyway. We continued to move upstream looking for this "hung up lure". I knew it was a fish but by the time we overtook it, but all that she pulled up was a small tree branch. I'm convinced that the fish was able to wrap her lure around the branch and shake off. Given the fact that are rod tip was bent over at an acute angle, I'm sure this was a river monster that would have made a great story -- but we'll never know as we never saw it. We drifted downstream for about three hours, parking in various places using the anchor to hold us while we fished. We did not have very good luck in the shade of the shoreline and found the more productive spots to be those deep seams out in the middle of the river. From the mouth of the Monocacy upstream, the good spots are at the mouth and the center for about 3 or 400 yards. There are randomly dispersed deep holes on the Virginia side if you go over that far. The seam ran out when we got parallel to Cox Island, but the shallow areas continued to be productive in the middle of the river.  We saw more large boulders scattered in between Cox Island and the Maryland shore -- perfect spots for smallies.	Pressure Trout Size N/A Physical Fitness Bass Size Access Regulations Hard to Find Stocking Scenery Overall 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.   Bottom Line: This is a nice spot. It is fishable even if you do not have a canoe. All you need to do is hop on the towpath, walk a ways up or downstream and then skid down the steep bank to the shore. Wade out and have at it! Getting There:   I hate to do this, but I support the site by selling books.  My book on the Upper Potomac - "Wade and Shoreline Fishing the Potomac River for Smallmouth Bass" is available in both ebook format (instant download) or traditional print. This book walks the 57.3 miles upstream from the Chain Bridge in DC to Harpers Ferry, WV using words, annotated maps and over 200 pictures to provide you exact references while removing any doubt about what to expect in each section of the river.  The 230+pages include detailed directions, 42 maps, 45 tables and 208 GPS coordinates - more detail than you will see in any other fishing guidebook. You can purchase the eBook version for $9.95 by clicking on the buttons below:        To purchase the traditional print version: Secrets Revealed?  No.  This is a very public location that is documented in Fishing the upper Potomac River Date Fished: 07/12/2009 Tell a friend about this article by clicking on this link
Exit from the boat launch to the Potomac is through the bridge	Downstream from the river mouth
Upstream	Basswife fishing hard under her canoe umbrella
The Dickerson Power Plant is downstream and offers warm water fishing in the winter in the discharge	Southern tip of Cox Island