Western MD trip did not meet expectations

[J.A. Veil]

I had been looking forward to driving west to Morgantown today with several stops along the way to fish in the Upper Potomac River and a nearby lake. I received some excellent suggestions from other MKF members. My final plan as of last night was to stop at two park service launch areas in Washington County -- Taylors Landing and McCoys Landing -- and another lake location.

After nearly two hours of driving, I arrived at Taylors Landing. As soon as I could see the river, I knew that I would not launch there today. The river was very high and was moving faster than I wanted to deal with. I took some photos of the ramp, which had an interesting red line painted on it saying Danger.

I drove on to McCoys Landing and found the water equally high there. At this launch spot, the park service had posted a sign explaining what the red danger line meant. As long as the river level came up the ramp past the yellow part of a line and into the red zone, it was not safe to launch. I agreed and kept driving.

My third spot was Big Pool, a long narrow lake in Ft Frederick State Park. I launched at Big Pool into calm green waters. Sadly the fish were not biting. In two hours of casting and bouncing a variety of soft plastics, spinnerbaits of several sizes, and some hard plastic plugs, I hooked only two juvenile largemouths. Neither one pulled very hard.

I loaded the kayak onto the roof racks and headed west. I made a short stop at Rocky Gap State Park to look at Lake Habeeb. I made a few casts from the floating dock at the boat rental place, but had no bites. That concluded my disappointing fishing day.

[Southerly]

got to see some new places.

for years i kayaked with my wife just to see new places and didn't fish from my kayak. so of course, i didn't catch fish but didn't think of it as a skunk. shame the fishing did not work out in such beautiful surroundings.

the red danger line relates to rapids downstream, or fast current?

[ictalurus]

Sorry your trip was a bit of a bust. Think of it as scouting for next time. That boat ramp warning system is pretty cool.

[bignose]

Well, at least you got a look at the locations.
The rain kinda raised the River recently. It had been low for months.
I use the USGS streamflow website to try to estimate the height of the River, and the tendency-is the river going up or down. Point of Rocks is a good gauge. Much over 2 feet and the River is a bit high. 1.75 is a good level, mid summer.
The POR gauge went from 2.5 to nearly 5 feet in the last day. Yeah, that's a bit too high!
Taylors Landing in interesting because you have 2 ramps, one above and one below a ledge that crosses the river. I like to head upstream (my "kayak" is an electric powered canoe) about 2 miles to Shepherds Island and then drift down. You'll hit pools, ledges and micro ledges along the way. This may be my favorite stretch of the Upper Potomac. The pool below the Taylor's Landing ledge sometimes is loaded with little smallies.
Favorite lures:
1/8 oz. Rebel Pop-R
2 1/2"broken back Rebel
3" curly tail on a jig head
Shad rap in pearl/silver
Rebel Wee Craw
Bomber fat A.

[camelbird]

I guess thats the true spring weather on the upper potomac. You'll get um next time around. We'll have to put a va trip together Ill take you to a few spots in my stompin grounds.

Justin

[Capt C-Hawk]

Used to fish Big Pool when I was stationed up that way. Hard place to learn, but there are lots of fishies living there. Locals used to drift right down the middle catching crappies. I had my best luck on a 10" Mann's Jelly Worm (black w/ a red tail). How long has it been since any of us has seen one of those?

[J.A. Veil]

the red danger line relates to rapids downstream, or fast current?

It is a line painted from the bottom to the top of the ramp. When water levels are low, the water does not touch the line. When water level is intermediate, the water reaches up to the yellow zone (indicates caution). When the water is really high, the water level reaches to the upper, red section of the line (indicates unsafe water levels and current).

[J.A. Veil]

Used to fish Big Pool when I was stationed up that way. Hard place to learn, but there are lots of fishies living there. Locals used to drift right down the middle catching crappies.

My only other visit to Big Pool was in January 2010 when I accompanied Virgil Poe on an ice-fishing trip. Virgil had all the necessary gear. We fished both tip-ups and jigged tiny lures tipped with maggots through the ice. It was a far more productive day than today. We caught numerous largemouth, some yellow perch, a bluegill, and an unusual gold colored sunfish later identified by a DNR fisheries biologist as a warmouth.

I posted a report of that trip on Tidalfish at http://www.tidalfish.com/forums/show...ghlight=virgil

[archeryrob]

Taylor's would have been a bad idea. You could have went to the store and got some chicken livers and been catching Cat's right off the boat ramp.

McCoy's or 4 Locks is a deep water Dam spot that you should have been able to fish even at high water like that. Big Pool can be a Huge PITA many times trying to catch fish. But of you had trouble at Rocky Gap, it might just have been an off day. Maybe the temps dropped again and shut them down. I have been in Mississippi and was not around to track the local temps.

[zimm]

for anything below Harpers Ferry you really need to look at the guages for the Shanrnedoah as well as the Potomac
Archeryrob-could the run from Little Orleans to Hancock be effectively fished in one day or would an overnight trip be a better choice?

[AnimalPA]

Used to fish Big Pool when I was stationed up that way. Hard place to learn, but there are lots of fishies living there. Locals used to drift right down the middle catching crappies. I had my best luck on a 10" Mann's Jelly Worm (black w/ a red tail). How long has it been since any of us has seen one of those?

BP actually had those year befor last, don't know if they still do. I picked up two packs just for the memories of using them as a kid. That's all I used.

[archeryrob]

Zimm, that's a 17 mile trip. That a 2 full day fishing trip. If you want to do it in one day, I would leave the fishing rod home.

I have yet to fish the area, so let me know. Maybe one time me and my buddy will tag along. The fishing below Hancock is slow with shallow water and little cover so I have just never pushed up there for a float yet.