Articles

Occoquan to Hallowing Point

-by Andy Andrzejewski

The area from Sandy Point to High Point, at the mouth of the Occoquan River offers some fishing opportunities even though the water is shallow along the shore. Logs occasionally wash into this area and provide good bass cover, at least until the next storm moves them.

Gabion baskets were placed along the shoreline of the point of the Mason Neck wildlife refuge to prevent erosion from wind and wave action. A Gabion basket is a wire basket full of rocks and they can become good fish holding habitat. Although in shallow water, they are accessible at high tide and can be fished.

The area along the boat channel leading into the Occoquan has a ledge which drops quickly from shallow to water approximately 10 feet deep. The ledge itself is a spot you may want to spend some time on. Some scattered rocks are located along the ledge. You can find them with a deep diving crankbait. However, I have found this to be a sporadic place for bass.

High Point and the area upstream for a short way, is littered with downed trees which can be very productive on a high tide.

As you come around High Point and go up the Virginia shore along the Mason Neck Wildlife Refuge toward Sycamore Point, you will see the remains of a dilapidated pier. This old pier gives up an occasional good bass and on a rare occasion, can give up a limit.

Just above the pier is Sycamore Point. Sycamore Point is not that pronounced of a point but can be located on a good cruise chart such as NOAA chart number 12289. Some pilings, which are awash at low tide, are visible on this point. I have had very little success for bass on these pilings and I usually bypass them on my way to the marsh and the three little feeder streams you will find further up the shore line at Mason Neck.

These three streams have no official name but over the years I have come to refer to them as limit creeks. The first creek you will come to has a hazardous entry. You must stay on plane as you enter the mouth and then make a hard left turn to the right of the sand bar on your left. Do not go into the branch that is straight ahead. You will find yourself hard aground. The left branch is the main portion of the feeder stream and once you make your sharp left turn around the sand bar, you will be in four to five feet of water. The channel is very narrow but fishable for several hundred yards.

As you leave this branch and head for the center creek, make a wide turn around the point before entering the creek. There is a ballast rock pile that sits off of this point about 30 yards and the rocks are a mere inches under the surface. The rocks are visible at low tide so if you have any doubts, wait until a low tide and get a good dead reckoning on the rocks before attempting to navigate this area. The GPS coordinates for this rock pile are N 38-37 920, W 77 09 580.

Once inside the center creek, you will find decent water depths for several hundred yards. About 100 yards inside this stream, where the stream makes a sharp right turn, you will see another little feeder coming out of the spatterdock pads. The depth in this bend used to be 13 feet deep but it has silted in over the years to about nine feet deep. The channel is changing direction. It is now cutting through the spatterdock point on the inside of the bend and Im sure that in a matter of years this bend will be silted in.

The first time I fished this little creek, many years ago, I threw a spinnerbait up into the little marsh feeder and caught thirteen bass on my first thirteen cast. I never repeated that success but every time Im in this creek I stop and fish for the memories. This little stream is fishable for a few hundred yards, depending on your boat size, and has a nice little drop along the edges as well as spatterdock pads and submersed aquatic vegetation in the summer. As you leave this creek you can either fish your way out and using your trolling motor, electric motor your way across the flat into the mouth of the upstream feeder creek or you can exit the center creek on plane and blast across the flat into the next creek. The flat is very shallow but there is four feet of water as you immediately enter the mouth of the northern feeder. The channel in this creek is very narrow, only about the width of a boat and you must keep against all of the outside bends to fish in here. You can only access this creek for a few hundred yards before it becomes to narrow to turn around. I usually fish upstream to the beaver hut and then turn around and work my way out.

The flat in front of these three creeks presents a fishing opportunity. A stray log will wash onto this flat and bass will take up station on it but what has been the most productive for me have been the isolated patches of wild celery grasses which grow on the flat. I like to work my way around the perimeter of these patches with a buzzbait when the water is high and with a spinnerbait on lower tides. Some years, this flat becomes covered with milfoil and hydrilla, which also makes for good bass cover.

Sitting some 250 yards or more from the Hallowing Point shoreline is a submerged rock pile that gained some fame when Jim Bitter won a B.A.S.S. tournament with some of the bass taken from this spot. It has become know as Bitters Rock Pile. This rock pile has a horse shoe shaped trench around the south east side of it that is 10 feet deep and about 10 feet wide. The top of the rocks are awash at low tide. On occasion, local residents and tournament anglers will put a marker on this navigation hazard. The markers dont stay in place long. Anglers who dont want this spot to be easily found, remove them. These rocks are super bass habitat. The GPS coordinates for Bitters Rocks are N 38 37 960, W 77 09 090.

Before we return to the Hallowing Point shoreline, I want to mention that there is another fine bass spot on this flat. The best I can tell from fishing it and snagging many crank baits and Texas rigged worms, is that it is the remains of an old uncharted wreck. This cover sits in a depression about seven feet deep and has a circumference of about 200 feet. It is not a numbers spot but has produced quality bass up to seven pounds. In the fall, stripers favor this spot too. It is not well know and thusly, is not heavily fished. It is not yet a community hole and since secret spots on the Potomac are rare, Im not going to reveal the GPS coordinates for this spot yet. Suffice it to say that it is located somewhere between Sycamore Point and Hallowing Point.

Back on the Hallowing Point shoreline you will find a number of boat docks and a rip rapped launch ramp area. These docks and ramp are in fairly shallow water but they will hold bass.

When you come to the tip of Hallowing Point you will find a small rock jetty and then a day marker that sits on the point. Bass have been caught from these areas but stripers like it too and seem to be the dominate species here.

South of Hallowing Point sits Craney Island. This small rock Island receives very little fishing pressure except from the hundreds of cormorants who foul this spot. My own experiences at Craney Island resulted in stripers and giant carp but no bass. Seldom do you see a bass boat on Craney Island and as an old Potomac River veteran once said, No Bass boat, no Bass. However, the depth and location lend itself to being a place bass would use. Fish it and make your own decisions.

The author is a full time guide with Reel Bass Adventures Guide Service and can be reached at 301-932-1509.