How deep is the canal?

So exactly how deep is the canal? It's a question I've wondered for a long time. Of course, the answer is "it depends" but I now have a much better idea. With a few hours to kill on Saturday afternoon, I ran over to Fletcher's Cove to have a run at some carp. I realized immediately that the water levels were down about 3 feet. Looking towards Georgetown, I could see some mud islands poking out of the water. I realized this would mean one of two things: Either water levels would be great for sight fishing to big carp OR I'd be able to finally get a good understanding of bottom structure and depth. It turned out to be the latter. Walking south of Fletchers, you have about a quarter mile where there's still a good amount of water - to the point where you can't see the bottom - so you're talking a depth of probably 5 feet or more at normal water levels.

Once you hit a quarter mile down the canal, you get into another quarter to half mile stretch that's between a foot or two of depth, so it's likely 4-5 feet at normal water levels. Both this section and the last had a distinct "V" shaped bottom, where it was clearly deeper in the middle of the canal. There were lots of schools of shad, a few nice sized largemouths, and even the occasional carp. What had the potential for ideal sight fishing was quickly destroyed by the movement of all the fish stirring up the silt and giving you less than 6" visibility.

Moving past this, nearly the entire rest of the canal down to the foot bridge crossing at 34th St was basically dry with no more than a trickle of water in the middle of the canal. The closer you got to Georgetown, the flatter the bottom became with little to no drop off. The majority of this section is about 3 feet deep. There are a few deeper holes that are holding lots of sunfish and a couple carp around the Key Bridge.

Despite this being mostly a scouting trip, I was able to stick one fish, and it was a hefty one. Probably one of the bigger I've gotten on the canal, actually. I'm not going to hit that section of water again until the Park Service begins refilling the canal. There's too little water, and I think fishing it any more will really over-stress the fish. Next time, I'll walk north of Fletcher's. I've only hit that stretch once before and saw nothing, but all the fish in the lower stretch had to go somewhere, right? On a side note, rumor has it water levels are normal up at locks 7 and 8. I haven't checked it out myself yet, though.

Not quite carp but...

Who doesn't like seeing some serious fish porn? And it was sight fishing redfish, which is pretty similar to carp. I hit up the marshes of Louisiana with Captain Greg Moon for a few days (ok, weather only cooperated one of four days I had scheduled) and crushed it. 20-25 fish with nearly all being over 20 lbs. They averaged close to 25 lbs, with a few creeping close to the 30 lb mark. Awesome, awesome fish and awesome fishing. Read the whole story about the trip and see all of the pictures on the blog section of Find the Fishing.

Joaquin Effects

The effects of Hurricane Joaquin will be impacting our fishing for a few days at least, but it's hard to say how long with how frequently it seems to be changing directions. Few of the models still have it making landfall over the mid-Atlantic, or even anywhere in the mainland. Regardless, all the streams should be blown out for the next week at least, I would guess based on the rain we've already received. Besides the rivers just being too muddy, it would be downright dangerous to wade into any streams or rivers. The non-tidal section has predictions at the Little Falls Pump Station of the river still rising by Monday approaching flood stage. The Tidal Potomac at Georgetown is expected to approach flood stage with the next two high tides, and is expected to flood with continuing intensity at high tides through at least Monday. The predictions don't go beyond Monday yet, but I'll be keeping my eye on them. While no one wants the property damaged associated with floods, when the Tidal Basin floods, it creates some fantastic grass flats where the carp are known to come up and feed. We often see that with spring floods, but we may may not see that in the fall. Depending on how badly things flood, the river could mix with the C&O Canal, which could either let fish escape, or hopefully, bring some big fish in that get caught up in the canal. I'm thinking we won't hit those levels though.

Looking ahead at the forecasts, Saturday is definitely a wash (pun intended) for fishing of any sort, but maybe there will be a break Sunday if you have some still water you can hit. Next week should be nice, so lots of opportunities to stick with the still water or even the Canal. Hopefully the following weekend will give the waters enough time to get in some fall fishing.