Hi James, great story! It makes me wish for some sort of earth view note system, where if you see a pond (or stream) on say a Google Earth view, you can see anglers' notes on what they found in that body of water. Maybe it wouldn't work because too many folks want to keep their spots secret, but if every place were noted the pressure would be dispersed.
Examples of info I'd be happy to share - there is a VERY shallow long, narrow pond perhaps 100 yards from Difficult Run, on public land and very close to the intersection noted - Waples Mill, Fox Mill and Oakton roads. I have hiked all around this (though haven't fished it yet) and it has modest numbers of sunnies in it, likely bluegill. I've yet to see a bass. This pond appears to be spring fed but is filling in, it won't be able to sustain fish for very much longer IMO. The deepest spot can scarcely be 3 feet deep.
There's really small pond by Fair Oaks Hospital at the corner of Alder Woods and Joseph Siewick. This pond is fairly deep by comparison and has solid numbers of bass and sunfish in it, and turtles that are obviously fed because they converge on you when you fish, looking for handouts.
Wouldn't it be nice to explore a satellite view and be able to see notes on what might be found to catch in a place? But I digress. Maybe it's about time to become a kid again and explore.
On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 10:35 AM, James M. <jmcceney@gmail.com> wrote:
--Hi all,I'm a longtime lurker on here, but this thread made me finally pull the trigger and introduce myself - figured a fish story would make an appropriate first post. I actually live in Fairfax right by the place noted in Andrew's article, and there's a retention pond near there that I fish in all the time for LMB and bluegill. There are signs posted there that indicate it's a part of the Difficult Run watershed. One day maybe a year ago I was fishing for some gills at this pond, and I saw a weird looking little fish about 10 feet away kind of hovering in some running water where another pond drains into that pond, right at a small dropoff. It definitely wasn't a sunfish, and it 100% wasn't a member of the bass family - it was tubular, about 5 inches long, kind of dark, and had white leading edges on pectoral and pelvic fins.I thought to myself, there's no way that's a brook trout in this water - it's just too warm, and it was the perfect size for a bass snack. I wrote it off as a creek chub or fallfish or some other member of the sucker family, but not one I'd ever seen before - maybe it was an aquarium specimen someone had dumped there. I cast my little panfish popper to it, but it wasn't interested - it didn't spook and it didn't move, but just kind of ignored my offering. This thread has me wondering if whatever it was maybe - just maybe - could be a holdover from the old native brookie population. I've done some research, but I can't find any other native fish that have white leading edges on their fins. I'm sure it was something uninteresting, but a guy can dream I suppose. I'm out there pretty much every day there's good weather, so I'll be sure to post if I see something like it again.
On Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at 9:06:16 AM UTC-4, Tom Moran wrote:Very nice John, thanks for posting that. I'm definitely going to explore (with a rod this time) some of the nearby upper tributaries. Looking downstream of the 66/50 interchange, the stream goes under Valley Road a short distance away. I bike through there all the time, and there is a pool below the bridge that holds quite an array of species. I've seen bass up to maybe 11", and some large suckers (fallfish?) plus sunfish and shiners. Downstream from there is public access through to Waples Mill Road so that would be easy to check out. 5 year ago there were two small beaver dams in that stretch but they disappeared. Coyotes? Trappers? Beaver haters?If I thought there was a 10% chance of trout holdouts in that area I'd search hard.But this weekend I'm targeting Tamarock Park area.On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 5:34 AM, John Smith <nati...@gmail.com> wrote:--Kinda of crummy resolution but hey it was from August 1982. This fish was not caught near the cloverleaf. It was in one of the tribs in the upper part of the drainage though. I was just getting into fly fishing at the time but this one was caught on a small spinner. It was released.
On Tuesday, April 17, 2018 at 9:05:34 PM UTC-4, Tom Moran wrote:John, would love to see that pic! Were you near the place noted in the article Andrew linked - near cloverleaf of 66 and 50?Andrew, I can see that shiner picture fine, no idea why it isn't working. I used a link instead of an upload for expediency while at work. Here it is again.On Tue, Apr 17, 2018 at 5:14 PM, John Smith <nati...@gmail.com> wrote:I'll take a pic of a pic of a 10-11 inch Brookie I caught in a Difficult tributary back in my high school days when I get home tonight. It's a shame they're likely gone. I use to run into Dr. Kelso's students when they were sampling. I remember seeing some decent sized fish in one particular reach.
--
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/ .t5T99c1AwCA/unsubscribe
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, 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/ .681b9675-192b-49fb-9811- 6fac52822012%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 a topic in the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/tidal-potomac-fly-rodders/ .t5T99c1AwCA/unsubscribe
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, 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/ .702e18fb-7822-4227-a1db- 9f98d6797597%40googlegroups. com
http://www.tpfr.org
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/tidal-potomac-fly- .rodders/t5T99c1AwCA/ unsubscribe
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, 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/45eda1ea-5ad9-48b1- 9f0c-e208f77dc3d7% 40googlegroups.com
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/CABPWty7zxWrCQytvyE7QXSasc26KHHGyJ52Wf7k8M%3DPXuSZykw%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
0 comments:
Post a Comment