How To Catfish the Potomac River 

Really? That’s good info thanks!

Any time! If you ever have questions I'll try to help

Thanks! And yeah that river is no joke some days.

Hey I'm glad my videos are helping out! Thanks for watching and subbing. Hopefully you get into some monsters on the Potomac! I don't know what size boat you have but the biggest thing I can tell ya is watch the wind. If it's calling for anything stonger than 8mph and you have a small light boat be very careful! Gets nasty really quick out there when the wind blows opposite of the tide.

Thanks! Yeah it is easy to unintentionally do something illegal down there.

@@TheFlattyDaddies very much so

Thanks man. And ya never know where the big uns are going to bite. You were up in some pretty famously good spots too.

Thanks! It's definitely a great river and with traveling to. Especially if it's close to you than the James. It's starting to to rival the James River in quality and I think there's just more blues in the Potomac.

Thank you! It was cool to see ya on Saturday, stinks the fish didn’t cooperate for you two. And yeah it’s a crazy river for sure. The November tournament had some real giants in it.

Thank you!

Thanks! I hope it helps people get down there and fish it.

Hey thanks a lot! I found these spots by trial and error more or less. There's also some great apps that can help with where you want to target. Navionics is definitely the best I've found and it works great on a phone, but you have to pay about $15 a year to use it. But it'll show you holes, ledges, and depths pretty well. Another option is the i-Boating website which is free and will give you a lot of details. fishing-app.gpsnauticalcharts.com/ Hopefully that link posts, not sure how YT is with links in comments. It's more on the bare bones side of maps but it'll show you what the bottom looks like for the most part. You should be able to find the deeper areas in Baltimore with that and then it's just a matter of finding public access points through Google Maps or going to the spots. Good luck out there I hope you get in to some monsters!

Thank you I hope it helps!

Thank you for that it means a lot! And I never tried that river maybe one day I will. I don't keep all of my catfish because I'm the only one in my family that days them so they would end up going to waste. Plus I really only like the smaller ones- once they get over 8 or 9 lbs they get a stronger taste I don't really enjoy much. Thanks for watching!

@@TheFlattyDaddies I understand, I do prefer the Smaller ones to eat. We've been doing Tournaments here for years also.My Son and I placed 2nd last year on one of em. Was in February, wind blowing 35-40 ,but we sheltered up in a Creek and got to work. Fun Day!

@@mikejordan6036 congratulations man that's awesome you can fish with your son! Those conditions are tough to fish for anyone and taking 2nd during that is awesome!

Hey man! I might be able to hook ya up some time- definitely if I have a good bait day I can. They are definitely hard to come by but make a big difference. I'll let you know, but probably won't be back down till the January tournament.

@@TheFlattyDaddies I appreciate that I’ll meet you anywhere I’ll drive 50 miles if I have to lol

I’m usually a couple hundred yards off the shore in about 5-6’. I go in Gunston Cove and Dogue Creek but any of the covers on the VA side should hold shad. And no problem I hope it helps you two to get on some blue cats down there. Also, try not to gill net in any channels that are marked with buoys.

@@TheFlattyDaddies we've been fishing near where you said you were in 80 ft of water. We caught 9 last Sunday but the largest was only 11 lbs. We've been having good luck in Havre De Grace. We got a 34lb down there recently. Thanks again Cory

That’s awesome to hear! I’m glad you guys have been getting out still and getting into monsters. I just tried by Havre de Grace yesterday for the first time- that place is incredible! I didn’t catch anything as big as yours but there’s so many quality fish in there.

I’m not the best judge for that because I really don’t fish it during the summer. But definitely November through early January are fire on the Potomac. February can get a little rough with the really cold water. But then late March and April can be really good too as the water starts warming. After that I switch to the Susquehanna and target flatheads so can’t help with summer months unfortunately. Good luck!

Hey man thanks for checking out my video. I pretty much only use the Marshall Hall Landing ramp anymore. It's free, open year round, close to where I catch bait, has a porta jon for emergencies, and is good shape. It's also open 24/7 and I haven't had any issues with people bothering my truck. I'll sometimes trailer my boat up to Gravelly Point if I want to fish the DC waters but that's pretty rare. Hope that helps! You can also use the Fort Washington Marina but they charge $10 a day and the parking can be a little tight.

I use Marshall Hall Landing. It's free, always open and is a pretty good ramp.

Hey man, thanks for checking out that video. I attach the weight to bottom of the start of the gill net, then toss that out followed by the buoy on the top of the gill net. Then I feed it from my bucket till it's all out. Then I throw my boat anchor and anchor close to the end of the net and let the end of the gill net float with the current. It doesn't hurt to have a float at the end either in case it's deeper than 6ft and the net doesn't stay visible. Hope this helps!

@@TheFlattyDaddies gotcha yeah that makes sense. I just got a 75x6, trying to get it set up. I mainly fish the Potomac, probably won’t be using it in anything much deeper than 6’

One more question for you since I can’t seem to find anything online. Do you need to have a marking flag on the end of the gill net since it’s for recreational use? I can only find the commercial regulations

Definitely a lot of truth to that. I haven’t run into too many catfishing boats that were rude but I have seen a lot of bass boats that don’t care. But I’m sure there’s catfishermen out there that don’t understand proper etiquette. Maybe one day I’ll get another one out like that. I can understand not wanting videos like this up but I figured people are going to come down there anyway, may as well give them some safety tips and basic starters to make it more enjoyable.

@@TheFlattyDaddies thanks for the reply! Great video overall and very informative. Popularity of catfishing on this river has picked up a ton over the last two years, but I am excited at everyone having a chance at catching these giants.

@@grantd.5438 there's plenty of those giants to go around too. At least it doesn't ever feel like there's people catfishing in all my spots. If they are it'll just force me to find new spots.

@@TheFlattyDaddies agreed! Spots and big fish are abundant! There will always we a delta year over year in terms of growing fishing competition around waterways all over the US, our best bet is to inform everyone how to have a safe, legal, and comfortable time on the water with other anglers as volume grows.

Hey man, just saw your comment, I like both tides really. Any kind of current is the ticket. I have the best luck when it's running the hardest and the worst luck when it's slack tide. If I had to pick one though, I think the outgoing tide has treated me better over the years. Thanks for watching!

And "What it is" haha. There's a lot of great youtubers that call it home for sure.

Na I've never made it that far south. My boat isn't really built for the open water so I just go where I'm comfortable. You fish down that way much?

No, this is my family's first time and I was looking for help on fishing in that area. We are taking our 18ft pontoon boat with a 20 horse on it. We like to rent air b&bs around the Chesapeake bay and tributaries to enjoy some good fishing.

@@fishen4crabs679 gotcha that sounds like fun! The biggest thing I can tell you is watch the weather- it gets nasty quick if the wind gets over 7 to 8 mph and it's blowing against the tide. Your boat should do wat better than mine though. I usually fish around Fort Washington and put in at Marshall Hall landing. The fishing is great on that area. Good luck down there!

Yeah we did pretty good. We fished the tournament Saturday and managed 3rd place with 80.3lbs between 2 fish. Not a stella weight for that river but still a good day.

They've all been pretty cool but they can be thorough for sure. And thanks!

DC waters starts at the 495 Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Look at Google Maps though because it's not a straight line, kinda jagged. Right below the bridge can be really good on the channel ledge.

Thanks again for your help!

Go for it man! I'm sure I left a lot out, especially for DC. How'd your tournament go? Any big ones caught?

@@TheFlattyDaddies not at all biggest was six and change

@@TheDevonthedude88 man that’s rough! A lot of people in our tournament struggled on Saturday too. I had a pretty tough day on Friday .

Actually it looks like it is. The listing states gill net and trammel net, but when I looked up what a trammel net is, it's multilayered vs the single layer of a gill net. I'm going to have to check to see if that's an acceptable net for Virginia waters. Thanks for pointing that out!

@@TheFlattyDaddies No problem I like your channel. Keep it up !

Oh yeah all winter long! I was there yesterday and didn't find any monsters but got into a bunch of em. The water warmed up to 40 degrees and they're feeding pretty well.

Heating back up now buddy!! 2200 lb yesterday