Fishing America
STATE #22 - WASHINTON DC JULY 2018 - THE POTOMAC RIVER
SPECIES CAUGHT - Large-mouth Bass, Small-mouth Bass, Yellow Perch, Channel Catfish
I didn’t know Washington, DC had a place to fish until 2018. It actually has two rivers, the Anacostia and the Potomac. I fished the tidal Potomac River that serves as the SW border of DC on July 9th with Andy Andrzejewski. My target fish was the snake head in honor of Nancy Pelosi.
The snake-head fish bites according to the tide and that’s all I know about why it didn’t bite. Typical of DC to not get what we want from this place. But I still had a great day fishing catching quite a few large mouths to honor most everyone else there.
On the boat ride up to our first fishing stop, Andy pointed out a property on the Virginia side of the river and asked if I recognized it. I asked, “am I supposed to?” He replied, “that is George Washington’s house.” So, I didn’t realize I would get a river view of Mt Vernon when I started.
Our first stop where most of my catch came from was underneath the I-395 bridge and the second and final one was underneath the 495 bridge where I added a few more. It seemed strange fishing in this massive river with a view of our capital city in the background.
When fishing at the I-495 bridge I could cast in different directions from the same spot and fish in DC & two states (VA & MD) as they all intersected here.
As for fishing, no lessons were needed as I was familiar with all species here. The limit of black bass was achieved pretty easily (the combination of large-mouth and small-mouth). As always, I keep the edible species.
Although I catch large mouth at home, I like to compare them on the plate. If I get too many, I always find somebody to give them to.
The large mouth out of this river fought harder pound for pound than others around the nation. This river has a powerful current and, on this day, had a lot of trees and huge limbs in it. We hit one of them with the boat running pretty fast but there was no damage I could tell.
The fishing was pretty steady, and the numbers were good. All catches came from one top-water crankbait and one type of rubber worm. The fishing overall was really great as well as the guide. But the traffic was horrendous and the DC culture is not mine.
My hotel was actually in Waldorf, MD and it may as well be part of DC. I couldn’t tell much difference in any of it there. I am thankful that I was able to visit and fish with Andy as this made my tour of our nation inclusive of the capital. But I am more thankful that I live in Cass County, Texas.
This DC two-day stop was the first of many on a 5-state fishing tour. I stayed with the Potomac the next day but fished in Maryland. I would visit it again on the coast after Delaware, so I’ll save the details for that article two weeks from now.
For those of you that read my articles, I would like to follow up on my CO and MT/WY trips. When I returned from my MT/WY trip I could not find my Colorado guide Dillon Matthews that I had such a good time fishing within Lake Pueblo in mid-May.
We had plans of fishing again when I came back through CO. I called him as planned leaving MT and several times while in WY but couldn’t get a response by phone or text. I never heard from him at that time.
When I was leaving DC in heavy traffic headed toward DE, my phone rang. I recognized the CO area code and knew it was probably him. It was actually his sister and she told me she was taking care of all his calls. I didn’t realize just what she meant at first. She had got my message on his phone.
I thought she meant helping him with booking and stuff. I said, so how is Dillon doing? She said we lost him. He died in a car wreck on June 1st. So, what a way to find out why he didn’t return my calls. This guy was more than 20 years my junior, but we had hit it off like best friends and made more fishing plans.
As I looked at DC in my rearview mirror, I mourned the loss of my new friend and told his sister about our brief friendship. We all have the guarantee of that appointment at some time but some of them just seem too quick.
I thank God I got to make friends with him and fish Colorado with him. I can see him now in my mind driving that boat across the beautiful waters of Lake Pueblo with a big smile on his face. You never know what that next phone call will be about.
Andy’s business is Real Bass Adventures and is online. He mostly specializes in the large-mouth bass but can find a few others too. As I left our capital city, the DC traffic and the new information I received left a knot in my gut.
The good news was there were some good stops ahead of me. I was about to get some new species Fishing America and so I headed for the Atlantic Ocean.