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My challenge was fairly straightforward. I needed to take the Basswife fishing but did not want to go onto a lake. All summer I have been in pursuit of smallies. The problem is that smallies exist in rivers and rivers typically have current, current that flows around rocks and rapids. While the Basswife likes to fish, she hates any kind of on the water excitement involving boats. So I had to find smallie water that was not rough or nasty. The Upper Potomac out of the Seneca boat launch near the famous Seneca Breaks section of rapids was just the ticket.
The weather prediction was for scattered showers in the afternoon, so we were a bit wary as we left our home in northern Virginia on the one-hour drive to get to the launch. When we pulled into the launching area, we were reassured that there were only scattered clouds in the sky and none appeared threatening. With the weather problem solved, I took a look at the launch area. A hardball road leads up to it and places you on a U-shaped entrance where boats line up to wait their turn to quickly back down the ramp and depart. There is plenty of parking . On the afternoon we were there, the police were checking to confirm that each boater had the required safety equipment. They wanted to make sure that I had life jackets with whistles for each person. I had the jackets but not the whistles and they told me that I needed to get those in the future. With that warning, they allowed me to proceed.
The boat launch is not actually on the upper Potomac. Instead it's on the last 50 yards of Great Seneca Creek (stock trout water in the upper sections). After we popped into the water, we motored downstream through the arched bridge that supports the old canal and into the big water associated with this wide stretch of the Potomac. After my experience with Lake Anna and Smith Mountain Lake, I was a little bit concerned that we would be run over by large boats operating in the area. This worry proved to be unfounded as the only boats we encountered were those owned by fellow fishermen and most of those were quick to move upstream - well beyond where we could go powered by the trolling motor.
I asked the police how fast the current was in this area and they indicated that it was running at about 2 mph. Given that my trolling motor will push the Basscanoe at 3.4 mph on a calm lake, this meant that I could only make headway upstream at 1.4 mph. Wanting to move a bit faster than that, I hugged the right hand shore in an attempt to avoid the brunt of the current. Even with that subterfuge, we only made headway at 2 mph. My strategy was fairly simple. We would move up river as far as we could tolerate given the slow going and then throw the trolling motor into reverse and gradually sweep back down to the launch point.
We ran up river a little over a mile and then put this strategy into operation. We were both using spin rods with a 1/8 oz split shot and terminating the rig with a 2 inch power grub or 1 inch power nymph. Just like my experience up at the Point of Rocks, we quickly began to pull in various fish. We caught a number of smallies in the 10 to 12 inch range -- nothing huge or spectacular -- but enough to make the afternoon exciting and interesting. Of course, the bluegills were all over the place and the Basswife was thrilled to catch them as well. In fact, I spent more time that afternoon doing guide/guy duty taking the fish off her book then my own.
On the day we were here, the river was running at normal levels. Once you moved away from the shore, the water could be up to 10 feet deep on the track we followed. I suppose you could wade fish by moving up the C&O towpath and then climbing down to the shore, but I do not recommend that approach. It looked to me that the right-hand bank was only wadable 20 yards out into the river where it drops off rapidly to four or more feet deep.
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Remember to refer to my rating explanations - these are based on what I look for - so RED for Physical Fitness translates to easy physically - you do not need to be in shape to fish this section. I prefer terrain that is tough to get into and out of.
We did fish the shore line a little bit but found that most of the action was out in the main channel. If you stop to think about this, it certainly makes sense as the current pushes the food to the fish. However, my experience on a number of other Virginia smallmouth rivers is that the big boys shelter underneath the shade of the bank in the heat of the afternoon - so we had to work the shore for a little bit. No action there.
At around 4 PM, some of the clouds began to appear a little threatening, so we decided to call it a day and moved swiftly with the current back to the launch point.
Bottom line: I do not think I have found a bad place to fish on the Upper Potomac. There are a large number of places where you do not need a boat, where wading is actually the preferred method of attack. In this case, I strongly recommend a canoe, kayak or other type of boat to be able to move around on this big water.
The next time I come up here, I'd like to charge all the way over to the Virginia shore and check that out. My observation of the other fisherman is that many of them launch from Seneca and then bullet upstream past the small island at the top of our track. We were one of the few boats on this Sunday afternoon that were fishing in this area and nobody was fishing the Virginia shore that I could see. It's certainly worth investigating the next time out.
Getting There: Take the River Road (Rt 190 N) exit off of 495. Follow it for a long way until it hits Seneca Road (Rt 112) at a T intersection. Turn left and follow that road a short distance. Right before you cross over Seneca Creek, turn left on Rileys Lock Road and follow it to the launch.
Google Local Coordinates: 39.070058, -77.341095
Secrets Revealed? No. This is a very public location that is documented in Penrod's book and on the
Maryland DNR site.
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