Grass is looking good on the Potomac
Death and taxes may be the only guarantees in life, but fishing grass on the Potomac River is not far off. And with it being early fall and the grass matted up to its fullest extent, expect the anglers in the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Northeast Division Super Tournament to spend plenty of time in the salad.
Tournament details
Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Northeast Division Super Tournament
Marbury, Md.
Sept. 15
About the fishery
If you’re looking for a place with secret hideaways or to get away from anglers, look elsewhere. There are few fisheries where community holes and crowds come into play more than the tidal river shared between Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Running roughly north to south into the Chesapeake Bay, it’s a tidal river that usually fluctuates a couple of feet per day.
The fishing is almost always shallow, either in the grass and pads or around hard cover like rock and wood. Though there are some sections of the main river that really play, the bulk of the damage tends to be done in the creeks (or the mouths of them), with some hot creek arms attracting a ton of fishing pressure. It’s often no surprise to see 30 or more boats at any given time in some of the main creeks like Quantico, Mattawoman and Chickamuxen.
What to expect
When Bass Pro Tour pro Martin Villa thinks September fishing on the Potomac, he thinks one thing.
“That’s punching season,” said Villa.
With the grass at its fullest of the year, there are few better ways to get above that 16-pound mark each day to contend than putting a big rod in your hand with a heavy weight at the end. Now, Villa warns it’s not a way to get a lot of bites compared to tossing a vibrating jig or dragging a soft-plastic stickbait, but it will get the right bites.
And if the mats are not too thick in a particular area – the Greenway Flats area definitely comes to mind and is often a fall player – swapping the big weight for a frog is also a prime option for both numbers and size.
The key will be finding where the healthiest school of fish are residing in the tournament. While those mid-river creeks always hold fish, and often the winning ones, there are still plenty of times where smaller creeks simply hold a better-quality population of fish during a given event, with the majority of the Top 10 fishing the same area.
Where will that be?
“There’s no way to know until the event because it can change week to week,” said Villa. “Usually that’s from mid-river north this time of year, but which one is impossible to know. But usually, there will be one creek that shows out.”