View Full Version : Any Chain Bridge Reports?
Salmo trutta
05-27-2009, 11:12 AM
The water spiked some yesterday but then came down some today. It's still below 5 feet and might be fishable. The creeks north of Montgomery County seem unaffected from Monday night's rain but the creeks in Montgomery County reached flood stage.
Anyone seen the water clarity?
I heard there was a good American Shad bite on Friday BTW.
I haven't been there since May 15. River conditions appeared to be good over Memorial Day weekend but I just don't do CB on weekends, much less on a 3-day weekend. But then it started raining and river flow spiked, albeit briefly. I'm looking at Thursday late morning or early Friday. We shall see. Anyone have a river condition for today, mainly interestyed in turbidity?
Salmo trutta
05-27-2009, 02:39 PM
I phoned fletchers and they told me it was very dirty from last night’s rain but they were still renting boats. They also told me about the good American shad bite on Friday but it was only by one boat out of plenty who didn’t' do anything.
Our haunts up river should be starting to get good or will be as good as they are going to get.
kiko13
05-27-2009, 03:27 PM
River was very muddy today when I crossed over to DC....
Ernie
Tissy Furnes
05-28-2009, 08:57 AM
Pretty muddy still up at CB this morning. Canal looks like Willy Wonka's chocolate river.
After yesterdays heavy T-storms, I'm getting that sinking feeling that I'm not going to catch a single striper this May at CB. First year for that since I started fishing there.
On another front, I launched my canoe in Black Hills Lake near Gathersburg on Friday29. I was targetting bluegills on their beds with flyrod and popper. They didn't let me down. Very fast action for medium sized gills, nothing over 8" though which was a little disappointing. I use to do well there with numerous jumbos over 9" but not in the past couple of years. Great fun none-the-less. Approaching T-storms chased me back to the ramp early. Nasty menacing looking thunderheads too. Started raining buckets 5 minutes after take-out... very close call. The bluegill spawn seemed to be about over.
Salmo trutta
06-01-2009, 08:45 AM
I fished CB on Thursday. Sorry, late report. The water was off color but maybe 6-8 inches of visibility. Not impossible. I also set up looking for carp in the canal at first.
I saw several mud trails and bubbles coming from carp, at one point there must have been dozens in a 100 square foot area. I just couldn't get them to play. Mulberry's were still white. Didn't see any fish under them. I fished an intermediate line which was the wrong way to go. I had forgotten my floating line and still had some striper stuff in the car. Figured I'd fish the nine weight with intermediate but when fishing a small nymph or bugger intended for carp, you need to have a floating line to help detect strikes. Even the end of your fly line slowly sinks or is neutral buoyancy, that's a disadvantage to see the tell tale strike of a mouthing carp.
So I fished the river for about an hour. There were some regulars down there with some fish on stringers, decent size stripers for this time of year around 20 inches. Said they caught them on bait and rapala xraps. This one particular guy I know and have seen down there for years was doing something different however. He's a very good fishermen and could place a herring on a rod in Va from anywhere along the DC coast north of CB.
He said he's almost completely given up striper fishing. It's all about the Snakeheads now he told me. He said you have to find them first in the calm eddies. They will come up to take some air and retreat back down. He said he's had his most success on jointed rapalas in bass color. He's caught them to 30 inches in the area. He also said he has yet to fish Center Rock yet because of the high water. Chances are, there's still a lot of fish up there waiting for us.
I just HAD to go to CB today, Monday1 - 10:00am to noon, just in case the river had suddenly cleared and the stripers were biting. I didn't want to miss a moment in case they were. But no love could be found. Big skunkeroo! Although I wouldn't call the river muddy, it was still too dirty to do any serious striper fishing with soft plastics. Visibility was about 12", maybe 14" tops. I fished from below the platform up to Center Rock. Flow was still cookin pretty fast above the platform. Fishing pressure was light and everyone was using cut bait except me. Some had done well with catfish but were keeping a tight lip about striper action, if any. I think I was the only person there who spoke English as a first language, so communication was a problem. I didn't see any stripers caught. There were still a few gizzard shad and herring flipping around, but since I didn't snag or bump into any, I figure their runs are about done for the season.