After fishing on the Rappahannock earlier in the day, I decided to drive north to fish at some of the other access points near Remington. The road led by the Phelps Wildlife Management Area and a neuron triggered in my brain that connected the Wildlife Management Area with stories I had heard of the bass pond situated in the middle. In short order, I saw the white pillars that marked the access road to the bass pond in front of me and I could not resist jerking the wheel hard to the left to head down the gravel road to see the pond for myself.
Not sure where it was, I stopped at the first information kiosk on the right-hand side of the road. The posted map gave clear directions and, following those, I bumped to a stop a few minutes later in a wide parking area at the top of the lake. I was immediately encouraged to see a sign that cautioned anglers that they could only keep one bass greater than 22 inches in size. Hopefully, that was an indicator of the monsters that exist in this pond. You park on the top of a ridge and walk an easy third of a mile to reach the bank of the lake.
The manager of the wildlife area has mowed a wide path leading to a similarly manicured bank. There are numerous benches positioned along the west side of the lake making this an ideal place to sit in the evening and enjoy some cool fishing. Since I had my fly rod with me, I was also happy to see that manicured bank extended a significant distance away from the edge of the lake. This assured me that my backcast would not be tangled in trees as it was at the Merrimack Wildlife Management area I had visited several weeks earlier.
The east side of the lake is heavily wooded and to fish from that angle, I recommend you bring spin gear. Since I was en route to another place on the Rappahannock to wade, I did not have much time to spend fishing the pond. I threw some flies in at the junction of the wide trail with the lake and immediately picked up some decent size sunfish. I saw that the shade was on the water at the south end and walked down there to see if that’s where the bass were. No bass, but plenty is sunfish later, I decided that this is a place worth returning to and walked up the trail to the truck to go further north on the Rappahannock.
On this day, the water was a bit cloudy. I imagine when the silt settles out, the action will improve. In particular, with the rains of this last week, this would be a good place to visit this coming weekend.
Getting There: From US 29, turn south on Freemans Ford Road at Remington. Bear right to stay on Rt 651 (Sumerduck Road). Follow Sumerduck to the entry marked by white brick columns approximately 7.5 miles from Remington. Turn onto the gravel road and follow it to the end.
Google Local Coordinates: 38.462192,-77.750158
Secrets Revealed? No. This is a very public location that is documented in one the Virginia VDGIF website.
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Date Fished: 07/05/2010
Easy walk down to the lake on a manicured path
Looking to the northeast corner
Looking to the south
Looking north from the southern end
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore