Slow day on the upper potomac

[PigPen]

Got out early for a float from Brunswick to Landers 6/8 and really struggled getting bites. Over all i got a few small mouth and a catfish. Talking with a few locals they said the fishing has gotten sparse the last couple years. I personnally thought I was cleaning up last year with many 12-14 inch bass during the few times I could go out. I'm curious what you guys think?

Also I did get to see an abundance of bald eagles fishing and that was a nice sight. Although catch amd release would have been better :-)

[DanMarino]

I kayak fished the Upper Potomac once last year and had a productive trip. I believe that was last July. Have not been to the Potomac since because all the rain last year. I hear reports that numbers of young fish are down from annual flooding during the spawn. I plan to make some trips this summer and will report back here.

[PigPen]

I was hoping it was your trailer at the launch sat morning. Oh well. The guage height at pt of rocks was 2.6 so a bit high still. Hopefully around 1.8 it will get better. There were some monster fish either mating in the exposed tree roots or they were crushing bluegills but they would be really nice catches. All I could see were the fins and tails as they thrashed around.

[Mark]

PigPen,

Brunswick is one of my favorite upper Potomac fishing spots. Last year's high water kept me away but given the success you cited for 2018 perhaps I should have paid it a visit.

I don't use my kayak on the river. I have a couple of couple of reasons for that, but the main one is that I've never had trouble finding fish while wading from the public ramp to the nearby campground. So I strictly wade when I visit the area.

I typically do not go until summer when flow rates are low.

My last Brunswick visit was in September 2017. I had a nice afternoon catching a good number of 11 and 12 inch smallies and an occasional sunfish.

P1030101.jpg P1030109.jpg

My favorite time to visit the river is late afternoon. I stay until the sun goes down because the topwater bite improves as the day wears on. Here's a photo of the bridge at Brunswick during that magical time:

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I appreciate your report and I hope the bite there picks up. I'd really like to return this year.

[PigPen]

I went out on the potomac again yesterday with poor results. The water was cloudy from the storms but the level was about 2.6 ft. I did have some success when my lures went deep but also lost a few in the rocks. I boated 1 and lost 3 which is pretty sad. I ran into other kayakers with worse results so guess I should be grateful not to be skunked. Other fisherman also reported poor fishing. I wonder if the heavy storms reducing bass fry stocks coupled with fishing mortality over the last couple years depleted the stream?

[Mark]

...I wonder if the heavy storms reducing bass fry stocks coupled with fishing mortality over the last couple years depleted the stream?

Persistent high water has definitely impacted the smallmouth spawn in the upper Potomac. I posted this MD DNR link recently on another thread but it bears a relook:

https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/P..._stocking.aspx

[lovett88]

I made a couple of trips up that way last summer and had about the same results. The last time i went was the meet and greet in 2016 which seemed like non stop action. It is always a great float trip but makes the hour plus drive back home a little longer when only boating one fish. Hopefully fishing improves over the next few years.

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[PigPen]

The few times I got out there last year i i found some nice size ones but not many little ones which jives with the DNRs thoughts. I guess I will need to go to the savage resevior or the susquahana for my small mouth fix for a year or so. The savage has some ok camping but really nice water with low fishing pressure. I ve crushed it fishing rubber salamanders against the shore.

[DOGFISH]

Over the past several years, I have noticed a sharp drop in the number of smallmouth in the upper Potomac. I fish above Harpers Ferry both wade fishing and kayak fishing. Same here, the high water kept me away last year.

[Slackdaddy]

Same old theme in the Doah/MAC/Susky threads: Fishing has sucked for 2 years now.
2017 we were having a banner year on the Doah, Mac, South Branch, etc. 2018 was a wash out do to extreme river levels, 2019 has sucked for fish numbers, even though the river levels have been manageable.
I'll try it in Sept,, right now have switched gears to Snakehead fishing and being nice to the wife.

[jmt1980]

I floated Brunswick to Point of Rocks on Sunday (July 28) and had the exact same experience. For me this is a "quantity not quality" trip where I expect to catch a ton of fish with zero expectations of anything particularly big and I think I caught 3 smallies (10" and smaller) and 2 catfish. The locals gave me the same info about the fishing going downhill. Theres not nearly as much grass as previous years, and I didn't see ANY sunfish that day. I kind of want to check out the Monocacy this year to see if it's still productive because it has plenty of drop-ins that can make it a fun float too.