Potomac on foot 4-17

[bignose]

I set the goal of having a new fishing adventure this week.
Last week, I fished about 3/4 of a mile above Fletcher's and had a mediocre day.
If you follow Shawn Kimbro's site: "Chesapeake Light Tackle", he did a real nice video-article on shad fishing, last week.
He filmed this about 100 yards above Chain Bridge, with him and Rich Jenkins. The water looked great, as did the fishing.
So motivated, I decided to give a try.

I parked in the little pull off just before Chain Bridge and hiked in.
I must be getting old. (61). It is a pretty rough walk-in, the trail wound thru swampy areas and over very large, jagged wet boulders and ledges with a steep decent to the water.
I was beat just from the walking.

The river was kinda off colored-visibility was maybe a foot, and still high from the rain upstream. Perhaps 4.5 feet at the Little Falls dam, and the tide seemed to be coming in as, the river level was going up.
I had a few hits, and saw a couple of snakeheads, one of which was very big.
Not my best day, but at least I can now say that I have fished there.

Makes me wonder if spearfishing from shore is legal.
There were several young men fishing from the very steep ledges on the Virginia side. Not me!
I figure that the current was too strong for all but the bravest of the yak crowd.

[chex]

We had our Meet & Greet last year right around this time, at Fletcher's. Shad, catfish and a couple walleye were caught. Several weeks later, I went back and came across a huge gathering of Longnose Gar. They were everywhere, breaking the surface like neo-dinosaurs. It was pretty awesome. A lot of people were fishing from the steep ledges on the Virginia side you mentioned, but I did not see anybody catch anything. I did eventually catch a large Gar on a Cicada blade bait, but I could not get it on the yak. That part of the Potomac is very interesting in the spring... a lot of fish come up to spawn.

[echo5oscar]

If you want to land gar, tie a bunch of green or white nylon string at the hook, and unravel it. The gar have a bony mouth, and lots of teeth, which get tangled like hell in the string. Works like a champ. Landed a 6'4" gar like that when I lived in Texas.

[DanMarino]

I've been wanting to hit that area for the last several years. There are some cool old reports on the Maryland Anglers Log about that spot.

[HJS]

bignose - Next time, after walking down the ramp from the bridge to the tow path, walk up the tow path (away from DC) about 1/3 of a mile until you come to a very small serve road that leads to the river. This little service road, barely one pickup truck wide, dead-ends at whats called the "concrete platform". Fish both upriver and down river from this platform. Don't bother with rubber boots at this location. All you need is a sturdy pair of old hiking boots to negotiate the car-sized boulders. You gotta be half goat to fish this area effectively, or maybe half old goat, not sure. I'm 66 years old and ride my mountain bike right to the rivers edge, easy-peasy. I go to this specific area to fish for stripers during late April thru May. I've been there 30-40 times over the past dozen years. I've had a few banner days for stripers there, but not so much in recent years. Matter of fact, the past couple of years the striper fishing has been almost non-existant. Sometimes I park at the next parking area upriver from Chain Bridge then ride the tow path towards DC to get to the little service road. On a hot day take plenty of drinking water.

DanMarino - The photos from those old reports on the MD-DNR Fishing Log were taken not more then 100 yards from the "concrete platform"