Haw-Ho-Noo; Or, Records of a TouristLanman, Charles
History
Haw-Ho-Noo; Or, Records of a Tourist
Lanman, Charles
Fishing -- North America; United States -- Description and travel
Unquestionably, the finest rock-ground on the Potomac is the place known
as the Little Falls, about four miles above Georgetown. At this point
the river is only fifty yards wide, and as the water descends not more
than about ten feet in running three hundred yards, the place might be
more appropriately termed a schute than a fall. The banks on either side
are quite abrupt and picturesque; the bed of the stream is of solid
rock, and below the rapids are a number of inviting pools, where the
water varies from forty to sixty feet in depth. The tides of the ocean
reach no further up the Potomac than this spot, and though the rock-fish
are caught in considerable numbers at the Great Falls (which are ten
miles further up the river, and exceedingly romantic), yet they seem to
be partial to the Little Falls, where they are frequently found in very
great numbers. They follow the shad and the herring in the spring, but
afford an abundance of sport from the 1st of May until the 4th of July,
though they are caught in certain portions of the Potomac through the
year, but never above the Great Falls. The rock of this portion of the
Potomac vary in weight from two to eighteen or twenty pounds, and it is
recorded of the anglers and business fishermen that they frequently kill
no less than five hundred fish in a single day. The favorite bait in
this region is the belly part of the common herring, as well as the
shiner and smelt; but it is frequently the case that a common yellow
flannel fly will commit sad havoc among the striped beauties. A stout
rod, a large reel, and a long line are important requisites to the
better enjoyment of rock-fishing at this point; but as the good standing
places are few in number, many anglers resort to boat-fishing, which is
here practiced with pleasure and profit. Of the many scientific anglers
who visit the Little Falls during the spring and summer, the more expert
ones come from Washington; and of one of these the story is related that
he once killed no less than eighty handsome rock-fish in a single
afternoon. He occupied a dangerous position upon two pointed rocks in
the river (one foot upon each rock and elevated some five feet above the
water), and fished in a pool that was some seventy feet down the stream,
while the fish were landed by an expert servant stationed on the shore
about thirty feet below the spot occupied by the angler. The gentleman
alluded to is acknowledged to be the most successful angler in this
region, and in an occasional conversation with him, we have obtained a
goodly number of piscatorial anecdotes. One or two of them are as
follows:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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