North Branch of the Potomac

July 2, 2006

Eastern Trophies Fly Fishing donated a float trip to Project Healing Waters back in March of 2006. Joe Grady of the United States Marine Corps was the lucky winner of the trip.

It seemed only proper to do the float trip on the Nation’s River, the Potomac. We floated the North Branch of the Potomac River on July 2nd, on what we aptly call “The Buffet Float”. This section of the river not only holds wild brown trout, but fingerling stocked rainbow trout, smallmouth bass, sunfish, and the elusive tiger musky. Joe hooked rainbow trout, brown trout, sunfish and smallmouth bass on his float trip.

The day began at 9 am with a short presentation of a 5 weight, 9 ft Winston Vapor Fly Rod. The R.L. Winston Rod Company of Twin Bridges, Montana donated the rod to Joe. Eastern Trophies was glad to present him with the rod.



With a smiling face we rigged up and were fishing shortly thereafter. Joe has some experience casting fly rods, but this was his first time actually fly fishing, let alone fishing from a boat. Joe’s first cast into the river had him hooked up with a mid sized rainbow trout. Some quick head shakes enabled the trout to shake loose. Not ten minutes later, drifting through a deep pocket just below a riffle, Joe hooked into something big with his crayfish pattern. As we floated down river, his new Winston Rod bent well and was pulled from the right side of the boat to the left numerous times. After about 5 minutes of fighting, the trout showed itself briefly to be a wild brown trout and easily pushing 25” in length. For another 5 minutes the brown trout fought Joe tough until it made a run underneath the raft and rolled to free itself. What an experience for Joe to fight such a fish just minutes into his first fly fishing experience.

Throughout the rest of the day, Joe hooked and landed numerous sunfish and smallmouth bass. His fish of the day was a 17” smallmouth bass caught on the soft seam of a riffle. The bass rolled up to the surface to take his 4” crayfish pattern and, like a pro, Joe set his rod hard and the fight was on. Once again, like the wild brown hooked earlier that morning, we had to float with this fish for a few hundred yards before it started to give in. Both the smallmouth bass and the trout on the North Branch are hard fighting fish.



Joe and his wife Ashley had a terrific time on their float trip. Combined, they landed over 20 fish and did a terrific job for their first fly fishing trip. Along with the rod Winston donated to Joe, Eastern Trophies Fly Fishing donated a fly fishing reel to complete the package. With the sacrifices our soldiers make, donating a trip to Project Healing Waters was the least Eastern Trophies Fly Fishing could do. I would like to especially thank the R.L. Winston Rod Company for donating a 5 wt Vapor Fly Rod to Joe. I won’t forget the day that I spent with Joe and his wife and I look forward to more float trips with the soldiers from Project Healing Waters.

William Heresniak
Eastern Trophies Fly Fishing