VekolBass

Don't get too down on yourself, and certainly don't sell your boat! (Just typing the words made me queesy.) I practically never get skunked on the Potomac between March and October, but I have fished long days and only caught 2-3 mediocre fish. If you do some research on the results of tournaments held on the Potomac river you will be amazed at how many guys come in with empty sacks. Even professionals can have a bad day on the Potomac. It's location, location, location. A couple of things I have discovered over the last couple of years: 1. If you are not catching fish where you are at then move. Don't spend a lot of time in an un-productive place trying to get a fish to bite. They are either there or they are not, and they are either in an active feeding mood or they are not. Unlike a reservoir where you can use your sonar to locate suspending fish, or those holding off of a ledge, you can't do that in the Potomac because the huge majority of the fish are so shallow that by the time you get near them they get spooked--never get into the sonar's cone. Also, because the water is generally so murky you can't generally "tease" a bass into striking a bait if it is not in the mood to feed. (The exception to this is summer in weed filled bays, the weeds clean the water and it is quite clear. This is why punching mats is so effective.) So keep moving until you find feeding fish. A couple of hints on that. First, use the current to your advantage (keeping in mind that it changes direction twice a day.) There are two ways to do that. In the bays, like Aquia creek or Mattawoman, the fish seek current. It brings food to them. Target places where the current will tend to concentrate food--you will have to use some visualization techniques to do that. In the main river, bass avoid the current as it can be very strong. Look for things that break the current, and concentrate on those. The huge weed fields (can't think of a better term) do that to some extent in the summer. This time of year, look for other objects that are protruding in the river that can obstruct current. The picture in my avatar was taken in just such a location on the Potomac. Second, be observant of what is going on. When you start so see baitfish hopping out of the water, or you see the osprey's, eagles, and herons feeding that should tell you something. If the place looks dead, particularly in the spring and summer, it probably is. Go somewhere else. You may not have to move far--sometimes a hundred yards or so can make all the difference.

I'm planning on purchasing one of these in the very near future. I was wondering from those that have had experience with more than one brand/manufacturer, what your preference is. Thanks

Great fish Rondef. Good luck on catching her big sister.

Way to whack em Flippin. I've not had much luck with swimbaits--but then I haven't made a serious effort with them. Was the water in the pond you were fishing relatively clear, or have you had success with swimbaits in stained/dirty water as well?

Welcome to BR. I fish the Potomac quite a bit, and I have never heard of Algonkian boat ramp. Where is that located? Most of the ramps I've seen on the Potomac, and other places where you can run an outboard motor, are generally pretty good. There are though, plenty of other things in the Potomac that can tear your lower unit off, or rip a hole in your boat, so you might want to get a good chart of the river and study it before you go out.

I was fishing shallow--in 2-4' of water. I never fish water deeper than 5' because there is no grass in water deeper than 5' that I've ever been able to find. The keys to bass on the Potomac: 1. Fish in or near (within 25') of grass. If you can find wood in conjunction with grass, then that is even better. 2. Understand how current positions fish. Since the Potomac is tidal, the current changes several times a day. You need to position yourself to take advantage of it. I'm still figuring that out, but the general rule is to fish closer to the bank as the tide is rising, and farther away when when it is falling. You also need to determine how/where the bass will position themselves to take advantage of the goodies being moved along with the current while expending the least amount of energy possible. The falling tide is generally best (but not always), particularly the first three hours. I always try to be in my best areas at high tide, ready to take advantage of the beginning of the cycle. Remember you are fishing a river, and not a lake. The important structure, particularly in the Potomac are subtle things. I always look for the deepest water in shallow bays. "Deeper" generally means a 1-2 foot difference. In Aquia creek, the area of the river I'm most familiar with, these areas are found on the main river side of the bays in the creek. My guess is because water follows the past of least resistance, and where possible a straight line, the current is faster in these spots, and it sweeps the sediment from the bottom. I seldom fish the main river this time of year because I'm looking for the warmest water I can find, and that is not the main river (I've also found that the east side of the river is cooler than the west, don't know why, or if that holds true for the entire river.) Often times I've found that these deeper areas have hard gravel or shell bottoms--which is a plus. I've heard that there are areas, such as the "Spoils" up by Smoot Bay where guys throw deep diving cranks with considerable success at certain times of year--but by and large I recommend you stay shallow. Also recommend that if you have not done it yet, get a copy of Ken Penrod's "Tidal Potomac River Fishing Bible" which you can get at his site: http://www.penrodsguides.com/

J, Fish should be going into full blown pre-spawn mode from now until probably the end of the month. Common wisdom says that bass spawn on the first full or new moon after the water temps reach 64f. I'm sure the spawn takes awhile, because not all fish can spawn at the same time--simply not enough good spawning water in the Potomac for that to happen. To much mud. Water temps are currently 50f in Mattwoman Creek according to the USGS site that I occasionally check. It would take at least a week of temps getting into the mid-70s, or a lot of blue bird days with warm nights to get the water temperature up to 64, so we should have at least a couple of weeks of pre-spawn left. I don't have any Mattawoman specific information--never fished there.

RW--I don't think anyone is going to pull anything out of the Rappahannock to challenge the two monsters that you're holding in your avatar. There is a huge population of smaller fish though--we had a good year class a few years back, and reproduction has been at normal levels since, so there are a lot of fish in the one lb. range. J--that is what you can expect to catch. As far as numbers of smallies I've caught on the tidal portion. The truth is, exactly one. I caught it though, a few miles downstream from Little Falls though. So if there was one that far downriver, there is likely more the closer to the fall line you get. As I said, as you get closer to the fall line, the more rock and gravel you find, and that is the key. Smallmouth do not like mud bottom, and that is what you mainly find in the tidal portion of the Rapp. I have not specifically targetted smallies in the tidal portion, I generally fish for largemouth, but as you observed, there is nothing stopping a smallmouth from getting into the tidal portion except preference for hard bottom composition. (Salt content is not much of a factor that far upriver.) If you happened to catch Mike Iaconnelli's "City Limits" show a couple weeks back on VS you saw him get into a bunch of smallmouth downstream from DC on the Potomac near a water discharge. Good example of smallmouth breaking the rules. Unfortunately, no bank access that I know of. Your choices for boat launching are the Fredericksburg City dock, just east of the CSX railroad bridge, or Little Falls boat ramp east of Fredericksburg on Rte. 3. Beware, the Rapp can be a tricky river. There are old submerged pilings that extend out towards the centerline of the river, some submerged boulders, and snags. Go slow until you learn where this stuff is at.

J, If you don't want to wade (I wouldn't either this time of year), or get frustrated fishing the bank, you might want to try and fish the tidal portion downstream from Fredericksburg. I have caught smallmouth there in the past. Fish upstream from Little Falls ramp. As you move upriver, be observant of submerged bolders and rock/gravel banks that will appear, particularly on the left (green) side of the river. You might want to try a brown/green jig or perhaps throwing a square billed crank into the laydowns around these areas.

When you see bass busting the surface after baitfish.

My son and I fished a little while at the Fredericksburg city dock on Sunday. We did not catch anything, and we did not see anybody around catching anything. There was one dead shad lying on the bank, so there are some early arrivals moving up river, but the run itself is not happening yet.

I spent all morning installing a new TM on my boat, a Minn Kota PowerDrive V2. Get it all hooked up, attach the battery--nothing. Called the service outfit--I've got to take it off my boat and drive 20 miles to have them look at it. > My original plan was to install the thing, then go fishing to test it. So I went fishing with an inop TM, and a 15-20 MPH north wind. I recently installed a GPS to go with my Humminbird 737, and have been itching to fish a deeper body of water than I usally do, trying to develop my structure fishing skills. So I ago out and spend the first 30-45 minutes putting around the lake at slow speed looking at my graph. I find a good concentration of fish holding on a steep ledge in about 15' of water, mark the location, and continue on. After moving up one of the two arms of the lake I determine that the fish are just now leaving the main pool area of the lake, so I return to the first concentration I had marked, tie on a Rapala DT16 in a perch color. On about my tenth cast a 2 1/2 lb bass whacks the Rapala--my first deep structure bass! And in fairly adverse conditions too. I'm pumped about the upcoming season, this opens up thousands of acres of water that before I'd look at, scratch my head, and go back to casting at the shore. Now if I could fish this new water without having to drop an anchor.

Nice fish, everytime you do a new PB is special.

On a similar note to what some of the others posted above, just tell the guy that you are so D*** good at fishing that if you ate everything you caught that there wouldn't be a LMB left if California. He still won't get it, but maybe you can have some fun with him.

Nice looking fish.

Sorry... http://www.navionics.com/HMPremium08Catalog.asp

The below link will take you to the Hotmaps Premium 08 catalog. From there you can navigate to earlier versions of the program. The bottom line is that the more you pay, the more you get.

Bass are bass, they are driven by the same factors in moving water as they are in still water. This time of year, when the water is cold, their life is a constant trade-off between energy expended and energy gained through eating. They have the same trade-off in the summer, but because the water is warmer their metabolism is higher (as is the metabolism of the baitfish they feed on), and that means they are more able to cope with current. That said, you want to find the warmest water you can find in an area with the least current. That means any sloughs or feeder creeks on the north side of the river. Bottom composition and depth also might play a factor, with shallower water warming faster. Rip rap also absorbs heat and transfers it to the adjacent water. If you find water at or above 50 deg recommend you spend most of your time throwing either lipless crankbaits like the Rat-L-Trap or spinnerbaits. There are numerous articles on specific lure selections in the articles under the "Fishing Articles" tab on the top of this web page. Jerkbaits are another option. Do recommend that if you miss a bite with one of these lures, you immediately follow up with a different bait to the same spot. A good way to maximize the productivity of each piece of water you fish. If the water is still in the 40s try jig and pig or dropshot.

It seems as if the state at least now has a plan. The great news is that it includes a marina. With a marina I would think that there must also be a boat ramp. Don't know if the ramp is going to be on the river itself or on the Aquia Creek side. Hope it is on the river--then I can avoid the sometimes scary experience of trying to get to the river through the extremely busy channel at Youbedamn point. It will also provide a likely lower cost alternative to Hope Springs Marina and their $15 ramp fee. Here's the story: http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2008/032008/03142008/363605 Now the state has to come up with the $$$.

Day Two. Whacked them. 20 fish total, I caught 12 and Matt caught 8. The key is tidal stage. You need to be in your best area when the tide begins to go out. Eight of my twelve were caught in a 90 minute period right after high tide. Spinnerbaits were the hot lure. Green, or greenish white with willowleaf blades. Fish them in and near grass beds. Traps are a good back up. My big fish of the day. 3lb 12oz Matt's was 3lb 7oz: Tommorrow it'a on to Smith Lake on Quantico to see if we can hook up with any crappie. Rondef, sounds like a good idea--perhaps sometime in April.

Flippin--let me know when. We were fishing the "bays" in Aquia creek. If you look at a chart, there are a series of them. You want to look for the warmest temps you can find, but you also need to fish where the tidal current moves the bait fish. You will find that each bay has a primary drainage on the side closest the river. Since Aquia is on the west side of the main river, those drainages are on the east side of each bay as the water follows the most direct route to the main river on each tidal cycle. You will find a slight "channel" in these locations. Our best bite occured the first two hours after high tide.

Made the first trip of the year today with my son. I caught one, and lost another at the boat. He caught three, including the largest of the day, a 2lb 12oz LMB. Water temps were about 49 when we started at 10:30, and were up to 52-53 by the end of the day. The only down side was the wind, which was blowing 15 sustained, with gusts that felt like close to 25 (there were times when my river anchor wouldn't hold the boat still. Caught them on a variety. Mine came on a 3/4 oz trap in the bleeding shad color. My son caught two on a chartreuse spinnerbait with gold willowleafs, and one (the largest) was on a Bomber Long A in firetiger. Plan on going back out tomorrow. Less wind, and clouds--could be a great day. Mine Big fish of the day:

My solution Works OK, except that you have to be careful when casting not to smack your rod tip or bait into the rods in the holders.

I asked the same question a few days ago. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1205004510 I'm thinking twice.