Washington,
DC, April 18, 2009
Perfect.
Finally.
After two weeks of miserable weather shadders turned out in
force on Saturday to do some serious fishing. The crowd
on Friday was
nothing compared to what I saw at the dock at Fletcher's
Cove Saturday morning.
Paula the 'Dock Lady' warned me Friday afternoon to arrive
early Saturday morning if I intended to snag a boat. Jin
and I planned to be there around 5:30am so I figured there
would be plenty of boats available. However when I arrived
Saturday morning there were cars parked in a jumble in the
offloading zone in front of the dock and there was a long
line of anglers standing in front of the dock shack getting
life vests, oars and a lecture from the 'Dock Lady'. By the
time I unloaded the gear and secured a boat half the fleet
was spoken for and many anglers were already
pulling
oars or motoring out of the cove to stake out a spot
on the Potomac. These were the hard core fishers and
everyone knew this warm weather could mean the shad
bite would kick into overdrive.
Jin
and I motored out and luckily the spot I fished on Friday
was open. We quickly dropped the stone and soon had lines
in the water. It wasn't long before Jin had a strike but
because he's been working long hours and is not getting
enough rod time on the water he lost it near the boat.
After the second fish flipped the hook Jin got serious and
soon a nice shad was boatside. After that he slipped into a
fish catching groove, hooking and landing a ton of shad. I
didn't do so badly, but my hookup rate just couldn't
compare. But we did pretty good compared to other boats
around us.
As the sun rose over the trees I looked up and down the
Potomac River and every boat from the Fletcher's fleet was
strung out from the far point downstream to just past First
Beach on the way up to Chain Bridge. It was interesting to
watch the boats downstream because you could tell shad were
coming as anglers hooked and fought fish. Closer and closer
until you got a tug on the line.
Jin
was using a lighter sinking line than what I was throwing
and I think the slower presentation helped a lot. I was
outfitted with a fast sink line (7-8 inches per second)
that got my fly down to the bottom quick, but in slower
water I think it got down too quickly. In the low morning
light the shad were probably hanging midwater, off the
bottom. Jin used a white shad fly with a red cone head and
this was the killer pattern for the day. I threw an
assortment of different flies and got good results with hot
pink and chartreuse, but I also switched to the red/white
shad fly after Jin landed his 15th shad (so who was
counting).
The bite tapered off around noon so we took time out to
motor back to the dock and refuel with hot dogs and
Snickers bars. After a quick pit stop to drain the tank we
were back out on the water to chase more shad.
The afternoon fishing was not as great as the morning bite.
Things were really slow. The tide was out and at slack, so
this probably put the fish off. We motored around and tried
several other spots which produced a few fish but not in
the numbers we had in the morning. A lot of people moved
off the current seam and began fishing the quiet water
closer to shore. Using the fish finder I marked shad in
water as shallow as 11 feet, and although we caught fish it
still wasn't as productive as fishing early during the
rising tide.
We kept at it for awhile and even gave a short casting
lesson to someone interested in fly fishing. But eventually
the bite really died down so called it a day and headed
into Arlington
to grab a bite of lunch though it was almost time for
dinner than lunch.
EQUIPMENT:
We used
fast action 5 and 6-weight rods rigged with a 260-grain
sink line or a Type VII full sink line.
DIRECTIONS:
Fletcher's
Boat House is located on the Potomac River in Washington,
DC, two miles North of Key Bridge and one mile South of
Chain Bridge, at the intersection of Reservoir Road and
Canal Road. You will know you have reached the entrance to
Fletcher's when you see the Abner Cloud House, an old white
stone building, which is next to the canal.
From 66 East, take the Rosslyn exit to Key Bridge. Stay in
the left lane. Take a left onto Canal Road after crossing
over Key Bridge. Stay in the left lane and turn left on
Canal Road, and continue until you see the Abner Cloud
House on your left. That narrow ramp is the entrance to
Fletcher's. Go down the ramp and either park in the upper
lot or go through the tunnel to the lower parking lot and
dock access. During shad season the boat rental office
opens at 7am. Boat rental fee is $20 for the day. You need
a DC fishing license ($10 DC residents. $13 non-resident)
to fish and Fletcher's sells this at the rental kiosk along
with fishing equipment, bait, hot dogs, drinks and ice
cream.
WARNING
FOR WEEKDAYS: Both
lanes of Canal Road become
ONE WAY into and
out of DC during morning and evening rush hour during the
weekdays. If you're hitting Fletcher's in the morning and
following the route above you have until 5:30am to get
there. If you miss this window you must wait until 10:20am.
Once it's one way you must come down Canal Road via Chain
Bridge and trying to make the turn into Fletcher's from
that direction is a killer because that ramp is the only
road into and out of the Boathouse parking lot and it faces
towards Key Bridge. Canal Road becomes one way going
towards Chain Bridge from 2:30 to 7pm, so you have to hang
a sharp U-turn when you leave.