3 minutes ago, Junger said:

 

Yep, Farmington on Wharf Rd is a good soft launch for kayaks. The grass in Piscataway comes in pretty quickly too. Frogs, swim jigs, weedless plastics will work there. Another spot you can check out is Mallows Bay, there's a small protected cove south of the boat ramp with lots of sunken wood, and a creek mouth that will produce on the outgoing tide.

It’s been a while since I fished at Farmington, but I remember going down there years ago to try for catfish. Never caught any but did end up catching a few decent bass. Wasn’t sure if that bass population had been destroyed by the blue cats or not. I’ve never been to Mallows, but sunken wood and a creek mouth sounds like it would produce well. 
 

Thanks for the tips bud, I really appreciate them. 

14 minutes ago, Pete Brewer said:

If I were to go in the main river, it would be well north of DC, probably beyond great falls, but south of point of rocks. That seems to be a little more doable and practical than dragging the kayak out at national harbor. 

Totally, above Georgetown it might as well be an entirely different river.  My favorite Upper Potomac launch was Edwards Ferry, but I haven't fished it since I had an AL boat many years ago.  

On 1/24/2023 at 11:48 AM, Logan S said:

In a kayak on the lower Potomac, I'd stick to Slavins and the no wake area of Mattawoman.  Pohick is another good launch option.  You can realistically fish from any boat ramp, but I wouldn't want to be in a kayak on the main river or in the big water of the major creeks...

 

This is where I would launch from in a Kayak. Slavins/Mattingly or whatever its called now is a 6 knot zone so you will not get swamped by boats. You can fish a lot of Mattawoman creek from here that is all 6 knot zone.

 

Other places I would look into are Black Hills Lake Seneca and Piney Run Reservoir. Both are electric only lakes and have some big fish in them. The fish in my avatar was caught at Piney Run in the middle of July.

 

Allen

17 hours ago, Munkin said:

 

This is where I would launch from in a Kayak. Slavins/Mattingly or whatever its called now is a 6 knot zone so you will not get swamped by boats. You can fish a lot of Mattawoman creek from here that is all 6 knot zone.

 

Other places I would look into are Black Hills Lake Seneca and Piney Run Reservoir. Both are electric only lakes and have some big fish in them. The fish in my avatar was caught at Piney Run in the middle of July.

 

Allen

I fished Piney Run as a kid as I grew up just south of there in Howard County. A guy I used to work with had the record striper out of there at one point.   
 

I scouted Black Hills one day while I was working in the area. I’ve heard it has big bass, but haven’t had the chance to go back and fish it. I spend most of my time on the Patapsco and do roughly 2 miles of paddling from my launch point to where I fish and back. I know I’m dealing with more current in the river than I would be at Black Hills, but will I be able to cover enough water up there paddling? 

What's everyone been up to? I finally got to get out and get the lines wet recently. I took an afternoon hike last Wednesday at Swains and the water was at the winter levels, very low. Just a trickle from the lock and I had to go all the way down to the Cold Spring branch section of the canal. I got a few dinks, and my biggest was about 1.5lbs, very tight to wood. Water was probably in the mid 50's still, a few more degrees and pre-spawn should be good.

 

 

Today I was able to get out to Little Seneca Lake for a few hours. I wanted to test my spider rig set up which I'll use for crappie with my dad during the crappie spawn here, and the tidal Potomac. It worked well, but my 10' poles aren't long enough to get the bobbers out to where I would like them. Water temps were at 48-49 degrees in both the main lake and creeks. I only marked fish at 30ft, nothing shallow yet. Glad I took an early trip though, my Ultrex built-in transducer is shot now, it was working intermittently last season, but is totally blank now. Hopefully I can send it for repair and get it back before the fishing gets really good.

 

 

 

The ponds of PG/AA are warming up, I managed 6 bass in one afternoon and only three of them were super-dinks! They all came on more or less the same presentation, a paddletail swam along "deep water" transition lines.  

 

Last year was a bust for me fishing wise, took too much work in the spring and fall.  This year I am trying to block off most all of May and hope to have a rod in hand for most of it.  

Prespawn bite is on right now.. some big fish to be had.

16 hours ago, Fried Lemons said:

Prespawn bite is on right now.. some big fish to be had.

Man, I gotta find some time to get out there!

 

After like two years of talking about it, I have finally upgraded my rack/yak carrying system.   I feel like my passenger side mirror is 100% safer now with the lift assit and I can get the boat up there in literally half the time. 
 

If anyone wants to get up to some yak shenanigans this spring/summer, let me know There are a lot of spots I'd love to hit, but are unsafe/unreasonable/unfun to try to launch and recover from by yourself.  

I’m off tomorrow and planning on taking the kayak out. I’m a little indecisive and between centennial, rocky gorge, triadelphia, and little Seneca. Anyone been out recently with some insight, or if anyone wants to get out tomorrow I’m up for anything. 

On 4/2/2023 at 3:19 PM, Pete Brewer said:

I’m off tomorrow and planning on taking the kayak out. I’m a little indecisive and between centennial, rocky gorge, triadelphia, and little Seneca. Anyone been out recently with some insight, or if anyone wants to get out tomorrow I’m up for anything. 

 

Can't really help much with those bodies of water, I've been going for shad pretty much since mid-March. But, I did walk my dog to the right of the boat ramp at Needwood before today's storms and saw good size LMB pairing up in the shallows around laydowns and rock. They stocked trout a few weeks ago at both Centennial and Needwood too. They're probably moving up the creeks at Little Seneca, I may go looking for spawning crappie next week there.

On 4/6/2023 at 10:57 PM, Junger said:

 

Can't really help much with those bodies of water, I've been going for shad pretty much since mid-March. But, I did walk my dog to the right of the boat ramp at Needwood before today's storms and saw good size LMB pairing up in the shallows around laydowns and rock. They stocked trout a few weeks ago at both Centennial and Needwood too. They're probably moving up the creeks at Little Seneca, I may go looking for spawning crappie next week there.

I made it out just as the winds picked up. Spent about an hour battling the wind and getting a few casts off. Decided it wasn’t too safe at that point and called it a day. I’m going to try to get out this week for a few hours, though it’ll be from the bank as I’ll have my kids with me. 
 

Has anyone had found early mornings to be productive yet?

23 minutes ago, Pete Brewer said:

Has anyone had found early mornings to be productive yet?

 

Yes, dinks and sunfish moved up shallow in numbers last week, water temp will just keep going up now, and some fish are on beds already.

On 4/9/2023 at 12:38 PM, Deleted account said:

 

Yes, dinks and sunfish moved up shallow in numbers last week, water temp will just keep going up now, and some fish are on beds already.

Yup.  Saw a lot more beds pop up the last 3-4 days

Quick afternoon hike at Swains southbound. First thing I noticed was the lock was removed, but they had huge sandbags blocking the canal. That was not good since there was very very little water flow coming in....and what I saw was not good. The entire stretch from Swains to Great Falls Park is down 2-3 feet, and there's a construction gangway at the very north end of the GF parking lot. Not sure what they are working on now, but it seems like they're always working on something south of Great Falls lock that keeps things low. The main river was raging a double chocolate mocha.

 

Swains:

 

Just north of Great Falls:

 

Main River:

 

I did manage 1 decent LMB on the Z-Man HellraiZer, 2 other dinks and 1 huge blow up missed. This lure is a lot of fun.

 

No one on the MD board since may??? d**n I have been gone too long. 

Everyone's too busy dealing with drought compounded by crippling storms lol

 

Mercy 

On 8/8/2023 at 10:42 AM, Lendiesel22 said:

No one on the MD board since may??? d**n I have been gone too long. 

yeah-been far too busy this year with work.  Hoping to get a lot more outings next year.  Our kayak club (RiverRunnerz) has our final event this weekend on the Pocomoke.  Hopefully will end the year on a high note (although tidal fishing has never been my strong suit)

Hit Little Seneca Lake on Sunday around 10AM, mainly to help a buddy launch/load his new to him (used) Tracker. This is his first boat, so it was pretty exciting. We hit the big gradual point/drop off on the right before the bridge, looking for bass moving up in the 7-20FOW range, but the water temps were around 47 so I don't think they've moved up quite yet. Then we hit a couple other drop off areas, but nothing and left by 1PM.

Spring peepers are out in force along the C&O canal and my local pond. Time to throw the frogs!

On 3/6/2024 at 12:13 PM, Junger said:

Spring peepers are out in force along the C&O canal and my local pond. Time to throw the frogs!

Same with Northern MD.  LOUD

On 2/2/2023 at 6:22 PM, Pete Brewer said:

I scouted Black Hills one day while I was working in the area. I’ve heard it has big bass, but haven’t had the chance to go back and fish it. I spend most of my time on the Patapsco and do roughly 2 miles of paddling from my launch point to where I fish and back. I know I’m dealing with more current in the river than I would be at Black Hills, but will I be able to cover enough water up there paddling? 

 

Biggest fish from there is 7-4 along with 8 over 6lbs.

 

Allen

Every year my club does an informal tournament on Black Hill before the season starts....We did it in the cold, windy, rain on Saturday... Fishing wasn't too bad, we managed a small limit, only 1 decent 3lber.  We all got hammered by the winners who lapped the field with a very impressive 21 lb limit 😮 

 

On 3/25/2024 at 10:39 AM, Logan S said:

Every year my club does an informal tournament on Black Hill before the season starts....We did it in the cold, windy, rain on Saturday... Fishing wasn't too bad, we managed a small limit, only 1 decent 3lber.  We all got hammered by the winners who lapped the field with a very impressive 21 lb limit 😮 

 

 

Plan on hitting that place in the next month now that I finally was able to renew my boat registration.

 

Allen