Heading to Dickerson on the Potomac this Friday

[brettgaba]

I've never fished this area but understand there's a warmwater discharge there. Hoping to catch some smallies and bluegill on flies Might bring a spinning rod in the car as backup. Temps should be in the mid 40s.

Anyone have any input? I've never fished it before. Mainly looking for info on where to fish in this area - is it obvious where the warmwater is discharged from the power plant? Is it a far hike from the parking area?

These are the directions I have.
http://www.montgomeryparks.org/park_of_the_day/oct/parkday_oct31.shtm

[SteveL]

Hike upstream around a half mile or so from the parking lot to the discharge and fish near it--you will see a channel entering the river. There was construction work on the plant over the past year that affected flows and temps, but now it seems to be back online and it should be good for fishing. The warm water hugs the MD shore for a ways downstream, and in spots you can wade out a bit, but not near the discharge.

[brettgaba]

thanks, steve. how's a 6wt with a 175g sinking line sound for that water? clousers and wooly buggers?

[SteveL]

That should be fine. Salmo has fly fished in winter there a lot, I think his go to is black wooly buggers. Also there are sometimes good stonefly hatches even in midwinter esp as we get towards spring. The best fishing tends to be when the river is really cold and the fish concentrate in the warm water, so the conditions now are excellent.

The outflow was made into an aritficial whitewater course a number of years ago and in winter I regularly paddle the channel in whitewater kayaks. I see and talk to a lot of fishermen near the outflow. The outflow is usually around 20 degrees above ambient river temps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickerson_Whitewater_Course

[Salmo trutta]

Floating line should be good enough. At flows this low, like near 3.5 feet at little falls, you can wade just about anywhere. But getting in the water can be tricky because of the mud. Try and find a gravel bar near shore and start there. No need to wade out that far as the warm water doesn't go much beyond the middle of the river. One way is to start up top, about a mile from the parking lot where the discharge is, get in the water and work your way back downstream casting at the shore or anywhere really. There are some holes and some deeper water sections but the only way you're going to find them is to try and fish it. A kayak would work too but it's about a 500 yard walk from the parking lot to the river. Or you could float from the mouth of the monocacy down below the discharge and take out near the parking lot, Or float all the way down to Whites Ferry which is about 3 miles total. THe warm water hugs the MD shore all the way to Whites Ferry. I saw a ten degree temp. difference in a narrow channel on the MD shore just upstream from WHites Last January. It was filled with carp and catfish and a few bass.

Stone flies should start on the next warming trend. Maybe today even. THe nymph stays in the surface film, struggles there for a while even. The adults barely get touched. Size 14 or so. Brown, stone fly nymph with long anal anteni.

Black wooly buggers always work too, as do small sparse clousers in white or off white. Plenty of minnows near shore.

Best of luck.

[brettgaba]

all this info is hugely helpful. thank you so much. looking forward to exploring a new area.

i'll post a report when i get back.

main goals are: get out of the house, try a new spot, take some pics/shoot some video, hopefully catch a fish.

[brettgaba]

I ended up doing pretty well. The action was steady through the afternoon and I caught good numbers of smallmouth bass, white crappie, sunfish, and one little largemouth bass.

The big surprise of the day was all of the crappie I caught. An eddy behind a big stump had a big school of 10-12″ fish. I think I caught 3-4 around this size from this spot with others coming in randomly from other spots.

pics and more on my blog - http://smallwater.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/potomac-river-dickerson-warmwater-discharge-1152010/

[SteveL]

Outstanding report!!

[Salmo trutta]

Awesome! You gotta love those crappie. I've seen some insanely large crappie caught there from time to time. Sometimes even the canal has a few that have saved a trip in the past in that area.

Did you see any stone flies hatching? Any surface activity? Those things are bound to get going here shortly. Just not sure how much damage or how much silt will be coming down river from the recent rain.

I fished Great Falls Yesterday looking for walleye. I fished with all spinning gear in the rain with a couple other people who've never caught a walleye. We didn't get any hits but the water was very clear, perfect conditions, maybe even too clear. We only fished for a little over an hour with no success. Oh well. My one friend said that's why it's called fishing, Not shopping. He often partakes in this so called "shopping" sport more so than your average fishermen but I had to hand it to him for braving yesterdays conditions.

[jnashed]

Fantastic!!! I loved the pics on your blog.

[brettgaba]

thanks, guys. might head back there this evening just for kicks. but whatever itch needed scratching was taken care of on friday. still can't believe i had a day like that in january. today's mostly been a housework and fly tying day.

salmo, saw sparse stoneflies hatching. nothing regular. every once in a while you'd see one flying around or on the water. sometimes there would be the occasional splash mid river. when's that hatch begin? do the fish really turn on like they do in the summer?

**totally unrelated question about this area: are there carp in this section of the canal too?

[Salmo trutta]

There are carp all over but few fish in that section of the canal. Basically the only place that holds water up there is from the parking lot upstream to the Monocacy. The area of the canal upstream of the bridge right at the power plant is best for some reason. Even though all those dead falls and fishy looking water on the way to the discharge looks mighty good, there are few fish from what I've found but I rarely fish it. I'm mostly on a mission to hit the river up top and only hit the canal when the river is slow.

Plenty of carp downstream like near Pennyfield and swains lock. More closer to DC however. The river in that section of Dickerson to Whites Ferry is chock full of carp too.

The hatch should start now and with good water conditions and warm weather in the middle of the winter the fish will key in on the nymphs. Mostly pan fish but I've seen some large swirls that were probably carp or bass. Matching the hatch is critical and easier said then done. Finding a nymph that practically floats is the key.