Upper Potomac: 2/4/12

[DanMarino]

I hit the Potomac River this afternoon from 1PM until about 3:15PM. The river was beautiful. The water was pretty clear with a green tint. No wind with an occasional slight breeze.

I tried to fish shoreline eddys and some boulders/ledges near deeper water. No fish were seen by me. I fished a tube, gulp alive minnow, and a curly tail grub. Conditions were very comfortable with air temperature around 50 degrees. I saw 4 jet boats out and they bothered me a bit with their wakes. One guy decided to fish within 30 feet of me for some reason. I don't get that when he's got an engine and the whole river available to him???? He said he caught two smallies while trolling a silver buddy and the fish were pretty far off shore with no apparent reason for being there.

It started raining, and then snowing on my drive home.

Around 2PM I noticed an aquatic insect hatch occur. Here's a picture of the insect on my waders. Anyone know what this is?

Anyway, I had a great time on the river that I love to fish.

13

[ictalurus]

Sounds like a nice day except for the jet boats. That happened to me once on the Patuxent. Water skiers kept driving past me back and forth. Oh well.

Given the time of year and the looks of the bug, I'm pretty sure it's a winter stonefly. How long was it? If it is a winter stonefly, it's one of the biggest I've seen. The winter stoneflies I encountered near Blackburg, VA looked much smaller.

http://inhs-uiuc.blogspot.com/2010/0...toneflies.html

[DanMarino]

That's it.

That's it. Some were smaller than others. Most were around .5 inches or .75 inches long. It's neat that the stoneflies are a food source for the fish in the winter months.

[Redfish12]

I think we called those black stoneflies back in the day. I hear on the Potomac (I follow TidalPotomacFlyRodders, used to be somewhat active, no longer am) and they say that the ticket during a hatch is to fish the surface film/just below.

I know when I stream fished more I was always excited for a hatch of big bugs like that. Fly fishing in the winter gets really boring drifting nymphs and or floating gnat patterns. If you're spin fishing you could try a sparsely tied dark wetfly or nymph on one of those clear bobber things and swing it in the current.

[ronaultmtd]

Match the Hatch

Yep- that is when you need to have a good selection of flies- it is pretty exciting to see it happen, though- almost instantly the bite turns on and fish start feeding out of no where- Trout and smallies go crazy and gorge themselves- I almost never had that luck- usually a day early or a day late-

[jet]

Ugh, I hate bugs. Lol

[EDGEWATER]

Looks like a Caddis Fly of some sort.