Dodging the Wind

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Mid Bay
Location: Edge of Shipping Channel

Fishing for me lately has largely meant dodging the wind. Several trips in October were spent in West and Rhode River catching perch and an occasional striper on a lee shore. On Sat. (25th) the forecast looked good so we ventured out in search of breaking fish to cast to. Unfortunately the forecast was a little inaccurate. 15 knots can whip up some mighty rough and wet conditions in a small skiff so we stayed in shallow. After several hours we had only one small rockfish. Finally the wind subsided a little we started to search the edges of the shipping channel. Plenty of fish on the depth sounder and birds searching but nothing on top so I started to jig a ½ oz silver buddy at the 30’ contour. I was just about to give it up and Wham! Something grabbed my bait and took off. This fish made several long runs that were so fast I thought I was on to a big bluefish or maybe even a cobia. My wife finally got the net on it and we snapped and quick picture and released it. This fish looked like a prime spawner and we prefer to eat the smaller ones anyway. I later heard that fish were breaking everywhere early Sunday morning.

Tags: striped bass, perch

Upper Potomac Bass Are Biting!

Type: Nontidal
Region: Western
Location: Potomac River Between Harpers Ferry and Brunswick

We canoed and fished the Potomac River between Harpers Ferry and Brunswick on Sunday. Conditions were perfect for fishing mid-day at this time of year. The water was a little higher than normal and the slight bit of turbidity and cloudy conditions helped to cut the light penetration. Smallmouth and Redbreast Sunfish were active the entire day. My wife was getting them on small spinning lures. I experimented with the fly rod unsuccessfully at first but slowly caught up with Susie after switching to a wacky worm. Later in the day as the clouds thickened I had success on a fly rod popper. In the end we each caught 50+ plus bass. Many were 12” or larger including several which exceeded 16”. After running the ledges at Knoxville we jumped out of the boats and floated in tubes and life vests just to cool off and relax. I cant think of a better way to spend a summer day in Maryland.

Tags: Smallmouth Bass, Redbreast Sunfish

Western MD Fishing Report

Type: Nontidal
Region: Western
Location: Deep Creek Lake, North Branch of the Potomac

I just spent a week fishing and camping in western MD. The smallmouth fishing on Deep Creek Lake was great. This trip is an annual rite of spring for me. I try to time it during the pre-spawn when bass are shallow and aggressively attack streamer flies, soft plastic jerk baits or tubes. A boat makes the fishing much more productive and if you’re camping at the State Park you can leave it at the docks right at the launch ramp. It doesn’t get any easier than that. This year was exceptional for the average size of fish. DCL doesn’t produce giants but it has a great population of 12” to 15” smallmouth and an occasional larger one. Mixed in will be lots of big Rockbass, Pickerel, Largemouth Bass and Yellow Perch. If the water gets in the upper 60s and the Bluegill and Pumpkinseed move shallow you’ll have a shot at some of the biggest ‘gills you’ll find anywhere. Of course if you want to change tactics you can head to deeper water for Walleye which are also abundant in the lake. But I have a hard time putting down the flyrod and leaving the shallow water action. You can often watch the fish in the clear water as they rocket out of nowhere, grab your fly and all too often spit it out before you make your first move.

I was also lucky enough to float the North Branch of the Potomac for trout one day with guide and former Western Region Fisheries Manager, Ken Pavol. The river was high which meant weighted nymphs and indicators but the wild rainbows and several nice browns were plenty of reward for our efforts. There are a number of great guides floating the North Branch now days and they can usually show you an experience which will have you convinced you’re in the Rockies rather than 3 hours from DC.

Tags: Bluegill, Smallmouth Bass, Brown Trout, Pumpkinseed, Largmeouth Bass, Pickerel, Rockbass, Yellow Perch, Walleye, Rainbow Trout

Deep Creek Lake

Type: Nontidal
Region: Western
Location: Deep Creek Lake

I’m a little late on this report but I thought someone might tuck away the info for next year. We had great late May fishing at Deep Creek Lake for smallmouth, big pickerel, rock bass and few other nice specimens. I pulled into the campground on Wednesday afternoon the 18th. It was grey and even a little chilly but that not uncommon for Garrett Co. this time of year. The next day was a little rainy and cool so I took my time getting ready. I dropped by boat in around nine and started fishing the Park shoreline. Within 10 minutes I had numerous hits and caught several little smallmouth on a white streamer fly that I like to fish unweighted on a 6-weight outfit. This was a good sign. The water temp was 60 f which is a perfect early spring temperature. It never actually warmed up and the water temp may have dropped a half degree which may be why the smallmouth fishing never got really hot. But no matter the pickerel were hungry and I got several over 20”. The next day alternated between sunny and balmy and breezy, cloudy and chilly but the smallmouth fishing was better. That afternoon I picked up our former Western regional manager, Ken Pavol for a few hours. And Ken gave me not only a casting clinic but showed me what it takes to drive these smallmouth crazy. Kens been on this lake for 30 years and knows a thing or two about DCL smallies. Over the next few days the smallmouth got more and more aggressive. I fished a few different flies and a couple of spinning lures but nothing could beat that suspended streamer pattern. My wife came up for the weekend joined me for some fantastic flyrodding for smallmouth. Nothing was huge but most ranged between 11 and 15 inches. We also caught a few bluegill that were pushing 11 inches. You talk about fun! Well I heard from Ken just a week ago that the lake was still on fire. The smallmouth were trailing off but the bluegill action only got better. You can bet where I’ll be next May.

Tags: Smallmouth Bass, Pickerel, Rock Bass

Fishing with Susie

Type: Nontidal
Region: Southern
Location: St. Marys Lake

Susie and I decided to fish St. Marys Lake on Sunday. This time of year the bluegill are usually get ready to spawn so we grabbed the flyfishing gear and headed out. Things were a little slow at first but I eventually started picking up some fish on a small nymph which I was using as a dropper under a popper. Unfortunately they were all dinks. Susie only had a few halfhearted strikes on a yellow foam bodied spider so she switched to a black one with white legs. Soon she was picking up fish. As we rounded a main lake point she laid the bug down and it immediately disappeared with a loud smacking sound. The big bluegill put such a bend in her rod that she giggling out loud as she brought it to the boat. She proceeded to catch about four more in the same spot. Well I may be stubborn but I’m not a fool so I switched over to a black spider pattern and soon was into a big bluegill as well. Over the next few hours we found several spots with concentrations of big gills along with a half dozen largemouth between 9 and 11 inches, a crappie, a nice pickerel on a streamer and a couple of really chunky redear. While we never saw any nests, the sunnies were obviously starting to stake out their territory and were really aggressive. By this time a damp easterly breeze had started to pick up so we pulled on our jackets and paddled back to the ramp. We were feeling pretty smug about doing just what we had set out to do. Did you ever wish you could put a little bit of today in your pocket to pull out a month from now?

Tags: Bluegill, Largemouth Bass

Reminder - Quantico Waterfront Restrictions

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Southern
Location: Lower Potomac River

The following message is being sent on behalf of Inland Fisheries Chief, Don Cosden:

“Anglers should be aware of recent restricted access to waters in and around the Marine Corps Air Facility at Quantico, VA. The attached document provides a map showing the area and explains the new restrictions now in place. I met with managers and legal staff from the Base on Wednesday, April 13 along with AC Carpenter (Director PRFC), Gary Martel (Fisheries Director, VDGIF), John Odenkirk (Regional Biologist, VDGIF). We discussed the reasons for the new restrictions and large area affected as well as possible exemptions. Ongoing security concerns and recent changes to airfield infrastructure were given as the two main factors prompting these new restrictions. No exemptions beyond those listed on the attached document are being considered at this time. I have been told that fishing guides will not be given an exemption to fish within the restricted zone. Legal counsel for the Base have decided the federal definition of commercial fishing as described within the Magnuson-Stevens Act excludes fishing guides.”

Click here to view map of restricted area (file is in pdf format).

Tags: Recreational

Striped Bass

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Easterm
Location: Mid Bay

Fishing for stripers had been a little slow for me earlier this fall but Monday I got back out on the water after about a 3 week hiatus and it paid off. I headed out of West River around 9:00 and there were already a knot of boats just inside #1. Unfortunately either I had missed the bite or nothing was going on period. I could see scattered bait on the depth finder from top to bottom everywhere I went but several hours of trolling produced only one bluefish. At mid-day I went in to pick up my wife who had just finished work for the day. We decided to try fishing shallow since nothing much was happening out near the channel. A good ebb tide was moving down the beach and the first rip we cast to produced a strong hit and one small rock. We moved a little further down the shore and BAM Susie got a solid hit. This fish took so much line that she initially thought it could be a ray but the pulsing of the rod tip told a different story. After tightening the drag a little she finally worked the fish in and I slipped the net under a beautiful fat striper of about 26 inches. She caught nice size fish for the next 45 minutes or so. I tried a popper on my fly rod but with the chop and turbidity they weren’t finding it so I starting tossing a rattletrap and was catching fish immediately. Small bunches of fish were moving through the area quickly while others seemed to relate to the rips. And then it was over. We had our keepers so we decided to move back out to the channel edge to try for some of the big blues I had been hearing about. This time the bait was up over a large area and medium sized blues were slashing and cartwheeling through the schools. But only one here and one there and casting wasn’t doing the trick. I finally put out a couple of spoons and trolled the edges and started picking up nice stripers again. At one point they erupted right in front of the boat. I cut the engine and we grabbed the spinning rods. Both of us were into nice fish on the first cast. I turned around to see fish on both trolling lines as well. By the time we caught and released those four stripers and cleared up the tangles and mess, things had quieted down. We had had our fun anyhow and decided to head home.

Tags: Striped Bass

Deep Creek Lake Report

Type: Nontidal
Region: Western
Location: Deep Creek Lake

We fished Deep Creek Lake over the weekend and had some great action. Smallmouth had already spawned but many males were still on their beds. There was no need to fish those fish however. Just cruising the shorelines and casting in 4 to 8 feet of water brought many strikes, nudges and follows from nice fat smallies in the 10 to 14 inch range. Fishing a little shallower got you into the rockbass which were apparently staging for their spawn. As always happens on Deep Creek Lake we ended up quite a mixed bag of species including largemouth, bluegill, pickerel, rainbow trout and the above mentioned smallmouth and rock bass. Most of our fish were caught on flyrod streamers but some hit poppers and when they just didn’t want to come up we switched to jigs to keep the action going. An 1/8 oz jig with a small plastic bait in pumpkinseed or black did the trick. All and all it was a great trip despite the rain. Camping at the park allows you to dock your boat right at the ramp which is about as convenient as it gets.

Tags: Deep Creek Lake, Smallmouth Bass, Rockbass, sunfish, Largemouth Bass, pickerel, rainbow trout

Fished the Susquehanna below Deer Creek on Saturday with my dad

Type: Nontidal
Region: Northern
Location: Susquehanna below Deer Creek

Fished the Susquehanna below Deer Creek on Saturday with my dad. In his 80+ years of living near and fishing the Chesapeake, dad had never been on the Susquehanna so it was fun for him to experience first hand the head of the Bay and see the diverse habitats which exist within a short boat ride in any direction from Havre de Grace.

Fishing was slow to start. With a hot sun blazing down not too much was moving mid-river except a few white perch. Finally some high clouds moved in and that was all it took to get the hickories moving. I started edging the boat closer to shore where some good clear water was flowing out of Deer Creek and shore bound anglers were showing us up. My dad and I got three or four each along with a few more perch before we had to leave to meet the ladies who had made a day of it cruising the shops in North East and Havre de Grace. All and all it was a great day even though we didn’t bail’em.

Tags: Family, Hickory Shad