What a glorious weekend to get on the water. With air temps in the low 70s to mid-60s, fish were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing this weekend – spawning or gorging. Not a bad time to be a fish...or a fisherman for that matter.

Shad (Hickory, Gizzard, and Americans) are thick up at Chain Bridge/Fletcher’s Cove. More Americans and Striped Bass have moved into the river offering anglers a shot at larger Instagram trophies. As noted last week, shad have sworn off the pink stuff. Hit them hard with CHARTREUSE darts, torpedoes, or any other small fly with that color incorporated on sinking line and you should be in the game.  For stripers, throw larger herring pattern streamers or big clousers on sinking lines to get down in the water column through all the shad. Vary your retrieve until you start connecting (FYI - you may snag a gizzard shad or two…just roll with it).

For fishermen targeting largemouth bass in the more tidal section (below Three Sisters), continue to look for structure on hard bottom in shallow water that’s close to deeper water.  

Hotspotting:

The night bite at Gravelly Point has been consistently productive thus far in the early season. I’ve been hooking into schoolie stripers, pre-spawn largemouth, smallmouth bass, crappie, white perch, and even a walleye (or three) in the past couple weeks on Sex Panthers and similarly themed clousers. About an hour and a half to two hours after the tide drop have been the most productive times.  Try fishing the Duck Pond flats for largemouth and other typical mixed bag action on the incoming tide.

Rock Creek Park is flush with shad, bass, sunfish, and carp right now. For those wishing to catch shad or bass on lighter gear, this is your opportunity.

The Tidal Basin snakehead population continues to show off. After hooking one fish in the mouth last week, I was skunked this week…but saw plenty of fish.  Shad, white perch, and blue gill are all over the sea wall here as well. I’m not sure if stripers have gotten thick in here just yet. I did see/hear some suspiciously striper-esque pops under the Ohio Drive bridge. Try an incoming tide or the early stages of an outgoing tide (easier to land fish - less space between you, fish, and sea wall).

Tight lines this week and enjoy the spring time – it only happens once a year.


Stay fly.

Last Friday’s rain storm sure messed a lot of things up. The hot shad bite we had been experiencing cooled down with the rain and muddied water…..the shore bite disappearing altogether on Monday. The striped bass and largemouth bite also cooled significantly with the rain and subsequent post front conditions. But fish can still be caught dragging big, dark flies in and around structure. Water temps dropping from 70 degrees to 60 in the course of a week didn’t help things either. However, this shouldn’t come as a surprise –the Potomac and its tributaries are adversely affected by big rains. That’s not to say that fish were not caught this weekend. When big rains effect the Potomac - community ponds, public lakes, and other areas without extreme runoff become hot spots. The infusion of fresh oxygen into the water usually ignites the bite in a big way.  But muddy water and blue bird skies don’t make things easier. Period.

Unfortunately for fishermen this past weekend, the big storm happened on Friday – leaving the river a muddied wasteland for most of the fishable weekend. High skies and zero cloud cover didn’t help ignite the bite as much as squash it. Even hitting the water on Monday, there were noticeable mud lines and very few patches of “clean” water. Knowing that the shad bite would significantly cool down at Fletcher’s in addition to the largemouth and striper bite – I decided to check out some areas for Snakeheads down river.

I chose the Tidal Basin not only for its somewhat robust snakehead population, but also because the snakeheads in the lower part of the river do not have lock jaw (unlike the spawners upriver at Chain Bridge). In what I like to call, “Urban Whale Watching” – snakeheads will come up to breathe air every 20 minutes or so, giving away their position with a telltale boil – I waited to see if any fish were around…and were they.

In my experience, the tidal outlet on Ohio Drive holds good numbers of these fish.  There are some monsters in there too (3.5ft+) so be prepared for anything and everything.  I found fish on the incoming tide nearest the inflow on Ohio Drive.  I worked the gate for about an hour or so with no luck. Every pattern I tried failed. Including the Sex Panther…..I then walked the sea wall for a few hundred yards covering all water between Ohio Drive and the FDR Memorial. Still, nothing. Somewhat tired and defeated (beautiful weather, ugly water) I decided to give it one more shot at the bridge. I’m glad I did.

On the second cast, I felt a big bump and strip set hard on what I figured to be a catfish or bass. Snakeheads are too smart, too finick,  I thought to myself. Man, do I need to keep the faith more. My rod doubled over, a monster snakehead erupted from the water, and my adrenaline started flowing. After a spectacular display of brutish strength, I got the fish to the wall….only to realize that A) the tide was still too low for me to boga grip it and B) my net was too small. A good problem to have I guess….until I got the fish’s head in the net, the fish slid backwards out of said net, and the hook dislodged from its toothy gullet. I’ve never come closer to snapping my rod.

So…. sorry for being long winded, just thought I’d share that moment of truth.….

Water will clear up by today or Wednesday with a return to fishing normal spring patterns. Chartreuse has been the color for shad recently as they’ve collectively decided to swear off the pink stuff. For stripers look for current and bait (incoming, outgoing tides at creek mouths) and for largemouth, look for fish holding on shallow structure.

Stay fly. 

First and foremost - a happy birthday to my sainted mother Lorraine Wallace.  Secondly - the shad run is on big time.

With water temps in the mid 50s (and CLIMBING!!!!) expect things to only get better down at Fletcher's Cove, as the presence of American Shad and Snakeheads will start becoming more visibly felt with the passing of the calendar. 

As for this past weekend - fishing was slower on Friday, luke warm on Saturday, and on fire on Sunday. This was a weekend of many firsts for Matt Devaney, Pat McLeod, and Dennis Feliciano as they all caught their first hickories this weekend. 

All shad (hickories exclusively) were taken just south of the boathouse (but north of Three Sisters). Allowing the fly to sink around 10-13 feet in the water column and stripping it back once the line cleared behind the boat was key. Once the fly got deep, making short, choppy strips back to the boat made the difference when the fish were in thick. However, when action slowed down - slow steady strips also produced their share of hits.

For my shad rig, I like to throw two flies (Rem's Kindergarten Special and Rem's Brown Noser) in variations of pink and green. I prefer using a short section of 3x tippet (1-3 feet) to attach the first fly and an additional foot or two for the second fly instead of a conventional leader because it provokes shad that short strike your fly. You'll notice in the pics on the right that I use barbless circle hooks for my shad flies. I do this for a few reasons:

A) Care for the Fish: Plain and simple, they're easier on the fish. Plus you don't have to worry about snagging gizzard shad and perfect hook sets are usually in the corner of the mouth. 

B) Safer: When in close proximity to other boats or fishing with two anglers in the boat - these flies make it impossible to snag yourself or someone else. (FYI proper etiquette is not anchoring your boat 5-15 feet in front of someone - this happened to my twice this weekend. Rather than being a complete Rick, try and stay about 45-50 feet away from other boats if you can. I know the currents make it tricky and there are a ton of people out there, but don't be a complete Rick. I'm all about sharing the water - as evidenced in last week's word hatch - but it's a completely different story when someone is anchored up and you decide to post up within spitting distance. Above all else, stay fly, right?)

C) Keep your flies: Similar to it being difficult to snag people or undesirable fishes, it takes some serious misfortune for one of these flies to snag on the bottom. After losing 15 or so flies in my first 4 trips, I've lost 3. 

Try circle hook streamers for yourself. You won't be disappointed. The fish gods may even thank you for it.


Stay fly. 

Finally, something new to report. Four Mile Run is no longer the only place to catch fish! Spring is here! Well... not entirely just yet, but the water temps are pushing 50 and will definitely get into the low to mid 50s by the end of the week. This means a bunch of things for our area's fly fishing community:

A) SHAD RUN
B) STRIPER RUN
C) SNAKEHEAD RUN
D) PRE-SPAWN LARGEMOUTH
E) BEST TROUT FISHING OF THE YEAR

So what's a fly fisherman to-do? There are just too many options. 

Well, here is where I come in with some advice. Especially with shad catch reports starting to become more consistent on theTPFR forum and Fletcher's Boathouse website - try to do a little bit of everything. Don't limit yourself. Spring is only sprung for a small portion of our angling calendar. Go nuts.

Options A-C all take place on the same stretch of river near Fletcher's Cove and Chain Bridge. Bringing two rods, while often times a complete burden, will actually serve you well here because you can easily switch from a shad set up to your striper/snakehead rig depending on the respective fishery's temperament that day. Additionally, snakeheads seem to pop out of nowhere, so it'll be good to keep that extra rod close by. FYI - Pink seems to be the color for shad thus far and stripers are not stacked up at Gravelly Point just yet.

As for my catching this past week/weekend, I decided to chase some trout. 

On Wednesday of last week, I fished the public section of Mossy Creek. Throwing some hand-tied patterns (meet Kermit), I had one rise from a big brown in the first bridge pool, before having to settle for a few fall fish and one more rise/rejection. A beautiful morning on a gorgeous stretch of water is hard to beat, but driving the 2.5 hrs for a skunking is tough to take. Luckily the next night was the Fly Fishing Film Tour, so I got my fill of fish porn regardless if I was the one doing the catching or not.

On Friday, I fished with Trent Jones of Orvis Bethesda. After telling him about the shit show in Virginia's stocked trout waters, he decided to introduce me to Maryland's Beaver Creek - a small limestone creek in Hagerstown, MD that boasts a healthy population of wild brown and rainbow trout. This creek is a gem. Having almost exclusively fished Virginia's trout waters, I was very impressed with both the number of fish per pool and the quality of them. In short - gorgeous, wild fish an hour from DC. That's hard to beat. 

We caught about a dozen or so browns with a pretty rainbow mixed-in in a few hours on the water, Trent slaying them with the smallest dry (size 24) I've ever seen and me, nymphing with size 22 zebra midges and scuds. The largest fish was around 12" but we broke off larger fish throughout the day (fml). The fish were particular about what they ate and are definitely spooky, so careful wading and general stealthiness are key (no need for SNP brook trout stealth tactics though). 

I'll be hitting the stretch from Fletcher's Cove to Chain Bridge this week before work in pursuit of shad, stripers, and snakeheads with a guest appearance on the private waters of Mossy Creek on Friday. Add in MLB Opening Day and I'm in heaven. 

Hope springs eternal.


Stay fly.