Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} How hard is the Tidal Basin to you?

Jamie,

Lived in SW on the waterfront for 3 years and fished as much as I could.  I considered myself wise to the tidal basin’s fickle nature.

Short answer is if you want to consistently catch fish, grab a spinning rod and a crank bait, some worm hooks and soft plastics, and some cone head sinkers.  Long answer for the fly rod guy – there are indeed some unique moments.  I would never talk about them in the past because I lived down there and didn’t want people fishing there.  It’s mediocre for fly fishermen for sure.

The basin is uniformly around 10’, changes with the tides, with some structure (read: crap to get hung up on) near the Ohio Dr. bridge, and in the center of the basin where the swimming platform used to be.  (Tidal Basin used to be a public swimming facility.)

Early season you’ll find herring, school stripers, crappie, white perch, some gizzard shad, and largemouth bass.  As it warms up, expect to see more yellow perch and largemouth, snakehead, carp, and catfish.  Again, the Potomac is tidal.  The bite happens on a moving tide.

There are some select spots where fishing is easiest for the fly rod angler, but those are not necessarily the best fishing spots.  Those places you’ll have to find on your own.  Here’s a hint – it’s not where you think they are.  That’s all I’ll say.

R

From: Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders <tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com> on behalf of <andrewmollohan@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders <tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com>
Date: Friday, May 20, 2016 at 3:46 PM
To: Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders <tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} How hard is the Tidal Basin to you?

Does that mean low tide or high tide? I have fished both and get skunked...every...single...time.

On Friday, May 20, 2016 at 3:41:40 PM UTC-4, Carl wrote:

I like to fish the Tidal Basin in the evening, but Tide is also important.  You have to watch the tide charts and the time of day.

I agree that it is feast or famin, but even on a give day it is bursty.  The fish will turn on all of a sudden and then turn off.

Carl

--

Carl Zmola

On Fri, May 20, 2016 at 2:52 PM, Jamie Carracher <jcarr...@gmail.com> wrote:

How difficult would you consider fishing the Tidal Basin? As a city-dweller, I've spent a lot of hours down there during the last few years and find the place really challenging. Being a medicore angler probably has something to do with it, but I have come up empty in my couple trips down there in 2016 (had a few good bites this morning that I lost). Last year, I pulled some of my biggest fish out of there, though.

It's hard to beat the place -- convenient, beautiful and jam-packed full of fish. But it also is challenging: tourists and joggers; low hanging trees; fickle fish. My other regular haunts are 4MR, the C&O and Bull Run, and for the most part, I always come away from those places catching a fish. But the Tidal Basin, it's feast or famine -- nothing or a catfish that wants to break my rod in half.

I'm curious of the group's take. 

--
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-rodders+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to tidal-potoma...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/f41e2b2a-2ccc-4b1e-b5fb-f8206df3840d%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tidal-potomac-fly-rodders+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/360516ad-6e6a-43a6-9d2c-d0671698b89f%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.