Potomac River 7/1

[TheLastRodBender]

Went out this past weekend with the intent to get the early bite going and only stay out til we couldn't really take the heat anymore.  Expected high temps were 95+ with a heat index up near 102.  Add to that an air quality alert and no expected cloud cover or frontal system meant we were going to be in for a steamer. 



Launched out of Leesylvania at 5:45 on Sunday morning and head north to a main river grass bed, at the mouth of a river, on the VA side.  Water temp was reading ~83 and we were fishing an incoming tide, with the tide chart for Quantico (a few miles south of where we were fishing) listing high tide at 9:55am. 

I was in the back of my friends boat, and we had another friend of ours who we hung around with all day who was solo in his own.  The guy I was with made a b-line for the area ~50 feet from shore, while our other friend stayed back off the shoreline ~200 yards.  As soon as we pull up and get the trolling motor in the water we notice the amount of activity on the surface.  No real 'explosions,' but a noticeable amount of activity. 

The guy who was solo put 4 fish in the boat in the first 45 min we were on the water with a bladed jig style bait.  My friend and I in our boat had a limit between the two of us by the 2 hour mark.  Biggest fish in our boat was 4, and our best 5 might have been about 10lbs total.  All in all, we landed 8 - 10 fish by 8:30, a couple on a "woops"y dawg style bait, a couple on a baby 1-, 1 on a bladed jig, and 1 on a stick bait that I used to follow up a missed hit on the baby -1.  At that point, the bite SHUT DOWN.  We did however catch our fair share of catfish... gotta love it. 


After we gave it a while we ran south to a couple more bigger creeks that produced nothing.  I pulled 1 fish out of Quantico creek on a swim jig but that fish might not have even kept in a tournament.  By 1:30 we decided we had cooked enough and called it a day.


The biggest thing I noticed was the absolute lack of grass.  The river looked baron compared to years past.  There were NO matts.  Areas that I remember looking like carpet, had NOTHING even breaking the surface.  I brought my punch gear expecting the Potomac in July.... never even picked it up while the boat was in the water.  It was crazy.  Talking to my buddy, the best we could speculate was the intense amount of rain we've had causing the water to be muddy most of the spring.  This blocked the sun from being able to properly penetrate, preventing the grass from getting what it needed to properly grow.... i don't know, just a theory? 

[Capt. BassinLou]

Thank you for sharing your report LRB. Happy to hear you guys pulled some fish into the boat. Fortunately the morning bite paid off, with these summer temps so far, an afternoon bite is a real grind.

[Lipripper]

Thanks for your report LRB and sounds like y'all had a good day out in that heat and put some fish in the boat.