Exploring Violette's Lock

On Sunday afternoon, I made the trip up to Violette's Lock (aka Lock 23) near Potomac, MD. I knew there is carp fishing in that area because one of my friends sent me a picture of a carp he caught from the area. I didn't get the intel from him on exactly where he caught the fish, and there was minimal information I could find online for carp. Go figure. It was up to me to find the fish.

I started off the day walking along the C&O Canal for about 1.3 miles. The first 3/4 of a mile was completely unfishable. The canal was completely choked off by weeds, and the height of the tow path would make landing a fish nearly impossible, but even worse, the bank was completely covered with high brush growth making casting impossible. There were also a couple kayakers paddling up the canal which would've spooked anything you wanted to fish anyway. It wasn't until the end of the stretch where the weeds started dying off and I saw a few carp behind the trees. Once the canal became fishable, I didn't see any carp, which surprised me because the conditions looked great. Shallow-ish water with a nice muddy bottom. After about a quarter mile, the water got deep to the point where sight fishing would no longer be possible unless you find fish feeding on the edge of the bank. Once it shallowed up again, weeds started choking out the canal. I didn't find any fishable spots for the entire length I walked. This time of year - especially on nice days on the weekend - I would not plan on fishing the Canal near Violette's Lock.

After that, I grabbed my waders and jumped into the Potomac. I saw someone with a spinning rod in hand walk down a little path, so I went that way instead of walking out towards the direction where people were launching kayaks. The water was surprisingly dirty given how little rain we've received. I couldn't see my feet once I was about thigh deep. It may have been silt getting stirred up from the kayak launch. Because of this, I didn't explore much on the Potomac side since I don't feel comfortable wading in water where I can't see where I'm stepping, particularly with the bottom formation of this stretch of the Potomac. Perhaps next time, I'll try going upstream of the kayak launch. Or just go with my friend that's fished it before.