Potomac, Washington County, MD, 08/27/2017

3wt7X

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Time Fished: 0630am- 0430pm

Weather:
Partly sunny with nice temps. It started in the low 60s and rose to the low 80s throughout the day. A slight breeze that became stronger throughout the day.

Water:
Moderate flows with clear water. It was probably the most clear that I can remember the Potomac in the section that we floated.

Hatches:
Damselflies were moderate. I could here cicadas in the trees, but nothing on the water. Minnow populations looked sparse along with crayfish. The river looked baron of life in some areas. A few whiteflies trickling off.

Tactics:
White and chartreuse poppers on top, and minnow and crayfish patterns on a sink tip below. More fish were caught underneath, but bigger fish were caught on top.

Results:
The topwater bite was decent in the early morning, with several fish in the 12-16 inch range coming to hand. It was a slow, but steady pick throughout the rest of the day with minnow and crayfish patterns. I like the river because it is close to home, but it just is not on par with the Juniata or Susky in the area we fished. We covered about 7 miles of water, and there was a lot of areas that we did not see a fish, while floating around in clear water. No minnows, no forage, no bass. Other areas had small concentrations of 8-10 inchers with small schools of bait. The bigger fish were isolated and roaming the shores. Fun float with good company, I just wish that Harrisburg was a little closer 🙂
 
A few pics
 

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It was a great day, it is just hard not to get a little spoiled fishing up around around Harrisburg.

In terms of wildlife, we saw a pair of deer, a bunch of green herons stalking the banks, a good number of great blue herons, a lone bald eagle towards the end of the float, two ospreys and a few swallows eating bugs off the water.

Here was my big fish of the day.
 

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It's really interesting how these bass rivers have flipped (in a sense).

Back during the period from about 2004-2011 I switched from fishing the Susky and focused a lot on the Potomac as I expected it to treat me better (and the drive time was the same).

The times I hit the P last year, it did not treat me well and now I've largely returned to fishing the Susky instead. The Potomac is still a great bass river - as your pics and report reveals - but expectations are a personal fishing thing and really can steer where we fish and what we expect to see and catch.
 
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