Re: NANFA-- Potomac Fishin' Trip

Wally Billingham (wally_at_wallybillingham.com)
Fri, 23 Aug 2002 19:23:22 -0400

Thanks for sharing Bob,
I am trying to picture where this is at is it in the National Park? I grew
up in Laurel and used to fish in the Canal quite a bit. It used to have some
VERY large bass (by MD standards) in it. The trick was to work Rapala's in
the little waterfalls that would form between the locks. I once got a 27"
largemouth there that would have easily gone 7-8 lbs. I released it so if
its still alive 8 years later it would be a state record :-)

I also remember the longears that were in there, as well as all the other
sunnies. There were some huge bluegills in there as well that I would catch
on my rapala's. When I get to go back home next spring we will have to go
collecting.

Wally
----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Bock <bockhouse_at_earthlink.net>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Cc: PVAS <pvas_at_pvas.com>; <PotomacAquaria at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2002 9:37 AM
Subject: NANFA-- Potomac Fishin' Trip

> Hi, all. On Wednesday, my sons and I went on an old fashioned fishin'
trip
> to the Potomac River, in the C&O Canal Historical Park across from Old
> Angler's Inn. The river was lower than I'd ever seen it, and the boat
lauch
> was at least 4 feet above water.
>
> We fished with worms and small hooks and came up with several redbreast
> sunfish, native to the area. [See photo on Andrew DeWoody's web page,
> http://www.fnr.purdue.edu/fi/dewoody/dewoody2.html]
>
> We also caught another native, the pumpkinseed sunfish, as well as the
> introduced bluegill and longear sunfish. The latter, native to the
central
> U.S., was one of the most exquisite specimens I had ever seen, and the
> furthest south in the river that I had ever found one. (They're
> particularly numerous in the C&O Canal at Pennyfield Lock.)
>
> The specimen I caught was every bit as exquisite as the photo Garold
Sneegas
> donated to the NANFA website:
> http://www.nanfa.org/aki/longear.htm.
>
> If people are interested, I'll be glad to lead an old fashioned fishin'
> trip/photo session back to the river, to photograph these beautiful,
> irridescent creatures. They also are one of the more aquarium manageable
> lepomis species, reaching only about 5 inches in length and are no more
> nasty (and no less) than a comparable size cichlid.

--
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/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org