upper potomac

[TANDEM MAN]

Fished with my son for a 2 day trip recently. Launched at Brunswick and motored up river and fished the grass beds and rocks. For the two days we caught and released about 50 fish. Smallmouth was the dominant catch. 3 or 4 large mouth and some hefty sunfish. We lost several bass that looked to be in the 3 lb range. We were fishing with 6lb test line, not a good idea but thats what we had on the spinning reels. We also had several lines bit off immediately when it was hit. Must have been tiger muskie or walleye. Great trip and a great fishery.

[Salmo trutta]

Nice report and good times with your son.

As for bite offs.... I've never had a walleye bite me off. They sure do have sharp teeth but maybe it's something to do with the spacing or something. It's not like it can't happen but it's very rare. of course there are a few bites that I missed and resulted in break offs but that could have been anything, like a bad knot. Check your knots and when you have a break off, if the line looks all twisted at the end, it's usually when the knot just came undone. It happens to the best of us.

The muskie usually follow a bait and will hit when there's a change in retrieve like most often right at the boat. I'm no expert by any means on muskie fishing though. In that section of the potomac, there seems to be more true strain muskie. They are more numerous above the dam on the Potomac above harpers ferry.

Some people us heavy mono or floro for a leader instead of some big bulky shinny leader. and if you do choose to use a wire leader, make sure it's good quality with ball bearing swives and good snaps. The snaps are very important in that the snap wraps around the connection, not those cheap wire ones that clip inside some sleave. They usually fail but mostly fail when casting large baits but to loose a fish on a faulty, poor quality leader is a heart breaker.

Did you use a jet boat? Or were you able to navigate around the rocks with a prop? I've never fished brunswich but am planning to one of these weekends.

Good luck

[TANDEM MAN]

I actually used my electric motor to fish the area. It is 36 volts with 101 ibs thrust and it was sufficient for the time but I would suggest a gas motor. Everybody else I seen had gas motors.The rocks are there and the best way to handle it is to have someone up front to watch closely and advise as needed. The ramp is decent ,wide enough to launch 2 small boats at one time. You launch in a cove like area and go to your left to make your way out to the main river. It is very shallow at the entrance to the river and we had to get out and walk the boat thru that area. The average depths were 2-4 feet in the area we fished. I found 1 area 6 feet on the meter. Do not go down river. I heard several fisherman say they tried it and it was a waste of time. 90% of those we seen went up river and as soon as you start seeing scattered rocks it's time to start fishing.

As far as the bite offs. It was clean bite offs. No poor knots etc. Definite attack like bite and the whole lure was bit clean off. This happened to each of us and both times we were casting in the slack water just behind the current, a classic area for an ambush predator. It may well have been large smalley's but the bite was not the same as the other 3 dozen or so smalley's we caught over the 2 days. Next time I plan at least 10 lb test and a leader or another strength.

Thanks, Mike