Northern Creeks & Rivers suitable for a pontoon?

E

ejm4

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For the past four years we have spend weekends offshore fishing off the coast of Delaware & Maryland. Time to try something different, so we sold the Boston Whaler & kept our pontoon which we used in the back bays.

We are interested in some of the feeders to bay which would be suitable to launch a pontoon for the day. We have three small kids so much of the time we would spend either beached or on anchor while they swim.

We will be traveling from PA for mostly day trips. I do not want to travel the bay, but find some places to have a great day on the water.
 
Most of the rivers in the northern bay are awesome for what you want to do! The best for swimming and anchoring would probably be the Sassafrass. You have 8 miles of river and areas to swim, very well protected especially near Georgetown.
 
What Van said. Launch at Duffy's Marina. Inexpensive and plenty of parking.
 
I was reading about Lloyds creek - Possible to make it from either Port Deposit or North East via pontoon or too rough?
 
Totally depends on the day and boat traffic. Also how large is your pontoon? I do not see a real problem at all...Just my opinion!
 
Lloyds Creek is off the Sassafras. I don't know squat about the handling of a pontoon boat but I do know that the water is often pretty choppy around Turkey Point. The Sassafras can look like a day long Le Mans start for boats of all sizes on a busy weekend although that shouldn't be an issue where Lloyds Creek comes in because the Sassy is pretty wide there. Lloyds Creek does get pretty crowded on weekends though. When we kept the boat at Skipjack Cove we preferred Back Creek behind Knights Island (north side of the Sassy, east of Ordinary Point) or Still Pond Creek, further south on the bay. Its also a bit of a ride from the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay to the Sassafras so vessel speed and the resulting length of the trip may be an issue. Can you trailer the boat to Georgetown?
 
Yes - Boat is on a trailer so we can launch from about anywhere. Closest points from home are around Port Deposit, North East, HDG, etc.

The party barge cruises at a whopping 22 mph. :)
 
Tow to Duffy's Creek Marina in Georgetown. I don't know where you are coming from but the drive should be an issue... maybe 30-45 minutes from Northeast.
 
We will be driving from Mechanicsburg, PA (Harrisburg area).
 
I've never been on a pontoon boat in my life, so I may be way off here - but I would advise against coming down the bay to the sassafras in one. The waves don't get tall in that area, but they are steep, and close together - mostly boat wakes, not actual waves. I do the ride occasiaonally in a 23' 3400 pound boat, and take a bit of a beating almost every time. From your direction, it will probably be 30 more miles by car to get to Georgetown area as opposed to Northeast - so keep that in mind too. I'm sure there are places on the Susquehanna and Northeast river you could anchor - I just don't know where any of them are.
 
From Mechanicsburg I think you would just add 30 minutes to your drive time to reach Georgetown.
 
You can launch from Charlestown on the North Easr River,down the road from Northeast Md., cheap launch fee or free if you eat at the restaurant.Probably the closest point to Mechanicsburg.
 
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