Smallies at the Upper Potomac River

[starg33ker]

Went camping at the Harpers Ferry area of the Potomac River from Friday afteroon til' Sunday morning. My mom came since this is her favorite place to go because of the scenery, history, and agriculture. Friday night we went to my favorite local spot from the camp ground. We slammed smallies and rock bass. My mom caught 6 smallies and I caught 7. We both caught a few plump rock bass too. That afternoon I caught my personal best smallie. Later on at dusk I caught a small smallmouth and a redbreasted sunfish on the Potomac itself while we tried catfish fishing (no luck otherwise).


My personal best smallie


My mom holding a bass for the first time ever (she's terrified of touching them!) Way to go mom!

Saturday my mom and I tried my spot again the following morning but didn't land any. Then we hiked to my dad's favorite spot from when he was a teen. Fishing was still slow but I did catch two small smallies and a small rock bass.







A local fellow was there bike riding. He suggested that we check out Lander. Later to find out, Lander was a big part of the river and was deep. There was little to no places to fish from the bank. The places that were available were poor with no structure. Instead my mom and I hiked down the C&O Canal to Canoctin Creek where she caught one beautiful pumpkinseed bluegill and I caught a fun size smallie (at the same time). Fishing was still, slow.



Then we went to Point of Rocks. Again, one small smallie. Still slow. On our drive back to Sharpsburg to our camp we found a parking spot along the Harpers Ferry so we took advantage of that to see what we can catch at sunset. Within 30 minutes I caught 4 smallies and a nice channel cat that gave a fun, unforgiving fight. My mom caught herself a smallie too. That was encouraging to end a long day on a high note. The sunset was beautiful too, reflecting off the cool flowing mountain stream.



On Sunday morning I didn't waste any time. I went back to Harper's Ferry for a little while before calling it an early day to take the 2 hour drive back home. I ended up catching an additional 9 smallies and a small rock bass. I'm really beginning to like that place!



To sum it all, I had a great time. I'm not a local so I'm not familiar with fishing the Potomac and it's tributaries but I think I made the best of it! Fish were all caught and released. We used a variety of lures like Mepp's spinners, spinnerbaits, grubs, tubes, buzzbaits, and crankbaits.

[starg33ker]

Upon further review. Was my "personal best smallie" really a largemouth? I'm taking a closer look at it and really starting to feel discouraged that I caught a fat lazy largemouth that I catch a lot of here on the eastern shore. I see that it has a prominent lateral line, no stripes or dark markings. The head has more of a largemouth characteristics than a smallmouth. Am I going crazy? Can someone clarify this for me?

[Deskins]

Smallmouth.

[spynet000]

definitely a smallmouth bass. Great catch!

[andypat]

Very nice post and pictures. Yes, that is a largemouth bass. Where on the eastern Shore do you live? I'm from the Shore, but now live in Venice FL. I'm with you, I would take a smallmouth over a largemouth any day. OR, a rockfish/striper. See Ya!

[HJS]

Thanks for the report. HF is one of my favorite areas on the Potomac. Many areas on the Potomac support good numbers of lmbass, especially in the quiter back waters. And yeah that certainly looks like a largemouth to me.

[uncle phill]

Nice report and pics! I too, believe thats a fine river LMB.

[frogasm]

that looks like a river smallmouth to me. a large portion of river smallies bronze out and don't have stripes. if you look at his belly he goes from a brownish color to whitish in a speckled pattern. that is n't typical of largemouth. also his fin coloration says smallmouth. definately looks like a smallie to me, compare his belly with the others pictured. identical. also for a solid fish like that, he has an awful small mouth to be a green fish. nice job on your PB.

[jnashed]

I'd say smallmouth also.

[Remobeater]

Cool, sounds very similar to our fishing on the new river. We're catching Smallies, rock bass, and then at night with worms we get the occasional pumpkinseed. The fish here are hitting spinnerbaits, white/pearl 2" swim shads, crawdads, and especially minnows. If we go out in the morning with a bucket of minnows we can usually catch about 8-12 smallies and rock bass in about an hour or two, unfortunately we haven't got one as big as yours! Nice work, persistence always pays off.