Patapsco, 3-6-12

[HJS]

Fished the inner Patapsco launching at HH, 3-6-12, 10:30am-12:30pm. Royal skunking… no fish, no hits and nothing of interest showed on the FF. Once again there was absolutely no current coming out of the WWD in spite of the fact that plenty of smoke and steam was coming out of every stack, pipe and orifice of the trash incineration. (See pic) Begs the question: Where is all the cooling water going to?!?!? I dunno.

I decided to paddle back to the trash incinerator to see if the warm water was being release right at the plant. The tide was extremely low and most of the river past the RR pivot bridge was now exposed mud bars. Regardless of the route I took I couldn’t get back into the incinerator without running aground. (pic #2) The water was fairly clear, and I spooked a number of schools of really big carp on the far side of the RR pivot bridge in 1-2 foot of water. At my approach the schools of carp would explode in all directions scattering like roaches, each leaving a contrail of mud.

Might be over at the HH-WWD for this winter. I’ll have to ask around about what going on with the lack of outflow at the WWD.

Resco trash incinerator in the distance.


The mud flats past the RR pivot bridge don't show up that well, but it looked a muddy mess back there.

[chex]

Good re-con, thx. I was going to maybe try again on Sunday, but now, not so sure. There are some other WWDs downstream aren't there?

[HJS]

Yeah, there are a couple of others WWDs but I haven't heard a peep about any of them this winter. Most notable WWD on the Patapsco is Brandon Shores. Its reachable with a kayak but it would be a looong haul and you better be hoping for a dead calm or at least a south breeze to push you back to the launch at Fort Armistad (base of Key Bridge). It's about the same distance one-way as it is from Harbor Hospital to Fort McHenry. BTW, Brandon Shore has the two really tall smoke stacks that can be seen on the skyline for miles around. The billowing steam clouds from it's cooling towers can also be seen for a long ways away.

Back to HH-WWD. I've been fishing there for about a decade. That place is famous for going from feast to famine and back to feast all in the span of just a couple of days. Most famous day ever for me there was several years ago. I caught nice stripers almost every cast for 4 hours, the FF was black with marks for 100+yards. I returned the next day (~15 hours later) foaming at the mouth to pick up where I left off only to get totally skunked. Dunno why they are there or why they suddenly left, it just happens. You never know what your going to get into there.

[DOGFISH]

Wow, you guys should write in to the Big City Fishing Show. That would make for a good episode, fishing that area by kayak.

[HJS]

Oh yeah, this is inner city fishing at it’s finest. Here's two more pics of the area I took a couple of years ago.

Going through the RR Pivot Bridge


Under I-95 with the Ravens Stadium peaking through the highway piers.


I've caught stripers at several location shown in these pics. I don't go there for the scenic beauty but for the urban adventure and to catch a couple of stripers.

[chex]

Oh yeah, this is inner city fishing at it’s finest. Here's two more pics of the area I took a couple of years ago.

Going through the RR Pivot Bridge


Under I-95 with the Ravens Stadium peaking through the highway piers.


I've caught stripers at several location shown in these pics. I don't go there for the scenic beauty but for the urban adventure and to catch a couple of stripers.

Hmmm, I can't see the pics.

[DanMarino]

Me too.

I'm not seeing any photos either!

Maybe all the water is being turned to steam and going out the smoke stacks instead of being discharted into the River?

13

[Yak Fish]

Can you actually see current from the WWD? I was there at the end of fall and I just kept searching for the warmer water and eventually found it. On this calm day, I could barely make out slight ripples on the surface. At any rate, I got no fish at that spot.

[HJS]

Sheesh... posting pics on web site has turned into a royal PITA for us computer illiterates. When I pull up this thread I can see the photos just fine on my computer. I haven't a clue as to why no one else can.

I put the pics in my MKF album and then linked them to this thread. Maybe I'll try a different way later this evening. (If cars were as confounding and ornery as my computer and the Internet I'da gone back to the horse and buggy long ago.)

[HJS]

See if this works.





Well... you guys are just going to have to use your imagination. Ooops... I see it worked after all. I had to load the pics directly from my computer like I usually do. I though it could be done by first loading them to my MKF album... but I guess that doesn't work like I thought it would.

Now that's weird. In the post where Chexone said he couldn't see the pics the pics did appear in his post when he quoted my post containing the pics. What's up with that?!?!?

[HJS]

Can you actually see current from the WWD? I was there at the end of fall and I just kept searching for the warmer water and eventually found it. On this calm day, I could barely make out slight ripples on the surface. At any rate, I got no fish at that spot.

YakFish - I bet I've fished that WWD at least 50 times, so I know what it looks like. Yesterday was almost a dead calm. During dead calms the plume from the WWD is readily apparent from 100 yards away.

[chex]

Yep i see them now... I go over that body of water almost every day... always wondered if there were fish under 395.

(Is your photo album private? that may be why they're not showing up that way)

[HJS]

Yep i see them now... I go over that body of water almost every day... always wondered if there were fish under 395.

(Is your photo album private? that may be why they're not showing up that way)

Yep... my photo album sure is private. Guess I'll have to change that. Thanks, I never would have guess that was the culprit on my own. I'll change the setting and see if they miraculously appear earlier in the post.

[chex]

Yep, there they are! Nice pics!

Your comments make more sense now in the context of the photos...

[HJS]

There was one other important piece of info I forgot to add to my fishing report. On 3-6-12, the water temp from the WWD to the hospital was a fairly constant 43F... same as the ambient for the rest of the Patapsco. There in lays the problem. The only reason a WWD works is that the water in the immediate area of the discharge is comfortably warmer than the water temperature outside of the area of influence (rest of the river).

During success fishing trips there this winter the water temp in the general area of the WWD was 46F-49F, while the rest of the river hovered around 40F. Those few degrees made the difference.