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10/28/2013

time to ball...in the fall

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nation's river

PictureSwing for stripers in areas with moving water
With water temps now in the low 50s and reaching the mid-upper 50s on warmer days, we still have a river full of life –albeit one that is playing a tad differently these days.

After getting some much needed rain a few weeks ago, the Nation’s River is now back to normal with clear, safe flows at a tad over 3000CC.  However, gone are the days of smallmouth madness, breaching snakeheads, and wailing the grass with topwaters for pig largemouth. The smallies are moving to their winter holes, the snakeheads have their heads in the mud (literally, they bury themselves for winter), and largemouth have been pushed from their summer hydrilla haunts to areas with hard cover and depth change. But as the saying goes, when a door closes a window opens. We’re not done yet.

Swinging bait fish patterns (size 2-6) on 3x leaders with an intermediate or sinking line in areas with current (think Tidal Basin, Gravelly Point, and mouths of tidal creeks on tide changes…..Rock Creek Park, Little Hunting Creek, Four Mile Run, etc….) have been producing consistent schoolie striper action for the past month or so.

 With the hydrilla dying off, baitfish are now essentially homeless…which is a terrible thing to be when you’re a baitfish. Fishing areas with significant tidal changes in low light hours (early/late in the day) will produce good shots at stripers and the typical mixed bag action that our unique river tends to offer up. Look for the crappie bite to really heat up as it starts getting colder out…..

If stripers aren’t your thing, the carp game is still going strong on the C&O Canal and with clear water, now is also the time to take your shots at Four Mile Run. Blind casting for carp without seeing any probably cause (mud trails, tailing fish, etc), while not entirely impossible to be successful, is a tall order. Be patient and wait to find some fish before casting. Small soft hackles, nymphs, or a well-placed woolybugger will get the job done. Remember, it’s all about presentation. Loud casts or lining the fish (casting over its back) won’t get you in the game…

Happy hunting....

Above All Else,
Stay fly.

Streamer lunchbox

trout water

PictureChelsea isn't the only one showing off fall colors













If the Potomac doesn’t strike your fancy, you can always head to the mountains where the leaves aren’t the only colors that are changing.

Brookies and browns are starting to get aggressive in preparation for the spawn and are showing off some AWESOME fall colors while most of your favorite DH streams have probably received their first stockings of the season…It’s a good time to be a trout bum.

 Think BIG or SMALL this time of year….meaning, meaty streamers or the tiniest nymph or dry in your box (“small for fall”). In addition to small dries and nymphs –long leaders (10-12ft of 6x-7x) are essential this time of year in order to get bit as fish are spooky. Be stealthy when entering the water and as a rule of thumb—if it's brook trout water— stay out.

Simply put, if you’re attempting to get your last few brookies of season before the SPAWN IS ON, please don’t wade in the stream. You’ll squash native brookie redds and ultimately be a hindrance to the survival plight of a unique, national treasure-ish strain of brook trout who have been swimming in these streams since the dinosaurs last walked the earth. Don’t be a hindrance, bro.

Now on to some hot spotting…….

I’ve mostly been fishing Beaver Creek in Maryland and the South Fork of the North Branch of the Potomac in Petersburg, WV recently and often. One is a technical wild trout stream, the other a mecca for jumbo stockers with a healthy population of holdovers and wild trout also mixed in. Yet, both waters (and most waters within the region) are fishing in similar ways.

 Small stimulators and dries in the riffles and quiet presentations to the head of pools has been producing well at Beaver. Last week I took a dozen or so wild browns (up to 11”) imploring this strategy. But the flies and casts –although an integral part of your fishing success—are not the only pieces of advice to take away from this report. It’s important to be stealthy on Beaver. Dark clothes, limited body movement when wading, and reading the water/choosing your spots versus “beating up the water” and trying to force feed these wild fish will markedly improve your experience. If dries or small, NATURAL nymphs aren’t your jam, chuck the biggest, ugliest fly in the deep pools and undercuts in the bank and hold on.

The Smoke Hole/Eagle Rock section of the South Fork continues to fish well as the bigger browns get aggressive in their pursuit to spawn. Big browns and jumbo rainbows should be the name of the game from here on out. Any of the above listed techniques will help put you on fish but I’ve found drifting egg patterns under a Chernobyl ant or indicator beetle to be absolutely deadly on the South Fork. As the season progresses or if nothing strikes the beetle, switch over to a small white indicator and an egg-natural nymph double rig….or dead drift a golden retriever/dark woolybugger (size 6 in black, olive, etc) and wait for the fireworks.

Happy hunting....

Above All Else,
Stay fly.


Fish porn

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9/3/2013

cool down to heat up

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Picture
 After the coolest August the District hath ever seen, this past week reminded us why Labor Day isn’t the end of summer. Air temps returned to the low-mid 90s and that ugly humidity thing reared its head again sending water temps into the low-mid 80s and fish scampering to find cooler water. Despite the warm water (it peaked at 86 degrees on the Tidal Potomac last week!), fishing remained strong with solid all day opportunities for smallmouth and largemouth bass, carp, catfish, snakeheads, and panfish on the Nation’s River and its tributaries. For those seeking trout, dry fly action for brookies is on fire in the mountains and the spring creeks are producing some slabs and Hawg Johnson encounters as summer creeps to an end. Last week I fished Hagerstown’s Beaver Creek with Orvis’ Trent Jones and Rock Creek Park a handful of times before and after work, neglecting my usual weekend trip up to Harper’s Ferry in lieu of a free boat ride to Annapolis for some crabs, brews, and celebration of non-laborious activities. 

Beaver Creek fished okay last Thursday as Trent and I set out before sunrise in an attempt to find Hawg Johnson and bring him to instagrammed justice. Although we were ultimately unsuccessful in taming this leviathan, Trent did well fishing a small stimulator in skinny water and some of the narrower pools, sticking several average sized Beaver browns that were looking up due to a ton of field hoppers and other terrestrials coming off the bank. In addition to terrestrials, fish were rising on something incredibly small that neither of us could make out on the surface. Oh well. Some parts of the trout equation will always remain a variable. That’s what makes it fun. While Trent fished dries, I spent most of the day fishing a variety of streamers (size 2-6 sex panther and size 6 Moss Boss in fall fish patterns) looking for an encounter with Hawg.  

Fishing in the couple honey holes behind the shop, I managed to get a couple solid browns (16-18”) to flash on a Moss Boss but ultimately they weren’t into getting stuck in the face and to my chagrin, aborted their missions to feast at point blank range. What a tease. After thoroughly harassing every fish in the stretch behind the shop, Trent and I meandered over to the special regs section by the church. As we came to the second footbridge pool (aka Land of Giants), I managed to crawl myself into position so that I could make a cast without being detected by the 30 or so browns in the pool. On the first cast my hopper landed right on the bubble line and a large brown (20” or so) rose up to investigate…and promptly put the fly on his nose before submerging to the depths…. like a coward.

I’ve had some spooky encounters with large fish on Beaver, but at this point, the bigger fish were toying with my emotions.  After a few more presentations and refusals, Trent and I decided to see if things were better downstream. Although conditions were right, fish continued to be fussy, as they neither wanted any part of streamers and hopper dropper set up nor the slightest interest in any of Trent’s smaller surface offerings. After fishing our way back up to the second foot bridge to fish for the last hour of the day, Trent and I decided to split up. He’d go investigate some of the pools we neglected up stream and I’d keep swinging for Hawg at the footbridge….

 Three monster flashes, one brief take (I pulled the hook out of his mouth), and one snapped line were all I had to show for an hour of pool gazing.  As usual, Beaver provided a nice challenge, beautiful wild fish, an escape from the doldrums of the city, and a brief encounter with Hawg Johnson. We left around 1 for a burger and beers at Whitlow’s, a meal so satisfying that I almost forgot about that monster brown…almost.  I’ll be back for him this week. You can bet on that.

Rock Creek Park continued to fish well this weekend despite reports of a body being found near Beach and Joyce Road on Labor Day around 6pm. Although the body (an apparent homicide victim) was found several miles upstream from legal fishing waters, it’s a powerful reminder for would be anglers to bring some sort of protection with them in the park, especially if fishing near dusk. That said – dry fly action (small terrestrials or poppers) for panfish has been insane in the last hour or so of the day (almost non-stop) while the bass bite has slowed down a little bit due to warming water temps.  Despite the climbing temps last weekend, bronzebacks are still being caught (albeit less frequently) on dead drifted streamers and clawdad patterns fished along channel ledges or dragged on the bottom near structure. Surprisingly, I’ve been finding more fish downstream around the Graveyard.  These skinnier channels that feature deeper water around the banks have been harboring small gangs of smallmouth bass (up to about 16”) that you can actually sight cast to or blind cast to and see erupt from the rip rap along the bank. Very cool. Other than that, Rock Creek Park was its familiar self with a few stray channel cats mixed in on the smallmouth bite. I expect action to pick up this week with our nighttime lows in the 60s and 50s dropping water temps back into the fish friendly 70s. Expect fish to be in their familiar haunts, albeit much more active.

With the NFL starting on Thursday (HTTR), pumpkin beers on the shelves, and cooler weather on the way I can’t be happier. Actually, scratch that. I want another piece of Hawg.


Stay fly. 


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    Wordsmith

    Remick Smothers is a native son of the District of Columbia and the founder of FlyTimesDC. 

    A self taught fly fisherman and fly tier, Rem graduated from Rhodes College with a double major in fly fishing and English in 2012. He has been celebrating the fly life ever since. Just remember, if it's dark out, there's a shark out. Above all else, stay fly. #flytimesdc

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