A recent visit to Orvis inn Woodbridge and encouragement from Mark pushed me toward Harpers Ferry in search of Smallmouth. I'd long wanted to fish the stretch from above Harpers Falls starting at the ruins of dam 3 down to the footbridge leading from West Virginia to Harpers Ferry so I didn't take much persuading. A walk around the block convinced my neighbor Doug to tag along and ride his bike up the C&O Canal while I fished. As we crossed over the 340 bridge from VA to WV I was reminded how big and beautiful this water is. We parked about a mile above Harpers Ferry, Doug took off and I rode my own bike up to the head of the dam three ruins. I found beautiful, deep, fast, stained water, my plan to wade in and out easily would have to be adjusted. I never was able to fish the center-current flows as I simply couldn't get to them even swimming, there was just too much fast water. I caught several small smallies in back eddies, but they were nothing to get excited about. I also found that the wind, channelized by the notch made casting quite a challenge, it must have been a steady 20mph straight upstream. I ended up wading out into a half dozen rock-hopping areas with minimal success. My lesson learned here is to bring a kayak and heavier fishing gear and someone with local knowledge to clue me in to the better water.
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| Here's the section I fished from the WV side -- so much gorgeous water but hard to access w/o a kayak |
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