Pond Fishing Inside the Beltway: A Failed Experiment

As I live and work inside the Beltway, there are many times that after work I get the itch to go drop a line somewhere. However, due to the traffic, I don't feel like going far. Hence, I scoured Google Maps to see if there were any fishing holes inside 495. I located a few last week, and hit them up.

Fairview Lake (Google Maps)

This rather large lake is located down Route 50 right before you hit the Beltway. This is a strange lake because half of it is bordered by office towers, such as General Dynamics, and the other side is a residential neighborhood.

I parked and started fishing on the office park side. There were few access points, but enough to keep me busy. However, my experience with water and lakebottom conditions hinted to me that this was not a bass lake. My confidence was already low. I fished around without a single bite. Then I got to the residential side, there was a big sign saying essentially, no trespassing, you will be prosecuted. I acted like I didn't see it, and collapsed my rod (link) into my backpack. I walked the shoreline and if I saw any sign of bass, I'd remove my rod and take some casts. But this never happened.  I miraculously caught a tiny warmouth bass, which in itself is impressive.

I got to the end where my car was, and fished that cove for a bit and nada. I packed up and left, unprosecuted. Conclusion: This is private and unstocked lake. Good for turtles.

Ben Brenman Park Lake

I pulled up to this watery oasis in Alexandria, near Cameron and Holmes Run, also just inside the Beltway. At first glance, this looked delicious. Lots of cattails, lilypads, and bullrushes. Prime bass habitat, I thought. On my first cast, my worm immediately got picked up by something. Yank! Nothing. The same thing happened the next dozen or so casts, so I deduced that these were just aggressive sunfish yanking my chain. Encouraged, I casted out further and worked my way down the bank. The same thing kept happening, a few times I tore the culprit out of the water and saw a small black fish, either a black crappie or rock bass. After an hour, I too deduced this was not a bass pond. Especially when I saw a scene where locals were feeding the fish and a heron. Swarms of bluegill and giant goldfish--I mean GIANT, like close to 10 pounds--swirled around, but didn't see a single predator. 

That is, other than the Great Blue Heron that was picking off sunnies eating the bread!  It was pretty amazing watching this guy at work, he stabbed at the water with his beak 4 times, and caught a fish 3 times.  That's definitely a better catch ratio than the Sussex County Fisherman! I shot some video and took some stills. 

One more important note about BB: I noticed many NO FISHING signs, and was twice warned in broken English "no fishing" or "police".  There is a police station literally right on the lake!  So I rolled out, before I got arrested again.  Conclusion:  Beautiful lake for walking and watching wildlife, but no fishing. Also if you want to see the diversity of the DMV this is the place.  It's like a melting pot of world cultures all tossing bread at mutant goldfish.

Basically if yer inside the Beltway, yer stuck fishing the Potomac and its tributaries, which isn't bad, just not as convenient.  The few options discovered by me don't hold bass, and could well wind you up with a fine or even arrest.  Tips I've learned over the years if accosted by your locale's finest:

1. DO have your fishing license, and produce it.  
2. STRESS that you are a catch and release angler and show you have no intention of keeping anything
3. If its a PRIVATE lake, say you are looking at houses in the neighborhood and were curious if this was a fishing pond.
4. Agree to LEAVE rather than argue.
5. Tell them you LOVE bacon.

Until next time, stay clean kids!

Introduction: Billy's Fishing Blog

I should probably start with a quick bio of myself.  I grew up in Fairfax County, Virginia (for the most part) in the 80's, spending most of my free time waist deep in a creek or fishing the half dozen or so ponds around my neighborhood.  I used to keep a rather

meticulous paper log of my fishing trips, partly to show if I caught more fish than my brothers, and partly to help me see seasonal patterns in subsequent years.  As I got older, I gave up the practice, but have still kept fishing.  This online journal is an attempt to revisit that premise using the wonders of modern technology.

I attended the University of Virginia down in Charlottesville, and on days when I had a light classload, my fraternity brothers and I would take excursions to fish the Rivanna River and the Upper James.  Sometimes I'd visit my friends at James Madison, and we'd fish the Rappahonnock.  

After college I moved to Arlington, VA, which if you don't know is inside the Washington,

DC Beltway--in fact it used to be part of DC in the old days until they gave back the land to VA.  Suffice to say, it's an urban area with few fishing options.  However, it does have miles of shoreline along the Potomac River which can be difficult to fish without a boat.  However, over the years I've learned some tactics and areas that can yield fish from the shore.  I've also used Google Maps (blog post on that to come) to locate some hidden fishing holes inside the Beltway.  My goal here is to chronicle all of this knowledge, provide abstracts of my fishing adventures, as well as share any advice or tips.  This can work both ways too--if you have anything to share, it is welcomed.  Tight lines!

~ Billy