Ice Fishing Trip for Yellow Perch in Piney Reservoir

Type: Nontidal
Region: Western
Location: Piney Reservoir in Frostburg, MD

Last week I was able to take a life long mission of mine off of my 'bucket list' - catch a fish through the ice! It is not that I have many days in ice fishing, but I do have a handful. My first experience was when I was three years old on a day trip my Dad took me on for Northern pike in western New York.

I was joined by several of our Fisheries Service staff who joined me for the afternoon as we returned from an event from Western Maryland. Fortunately, there were several individuals with a lot of experience ice fishing Piney Reservoir. It did not take them long to start catching yellow perch using small jigs tipped with a couple of maggot grubs. After a couple of hours we had about 20 nice yellow perch. Most were between 8-10 inches. I am told that after i left there were a couple 11 and 11.5 inters caught. We only caught yellow perch, but there is also a good population of bluegill and tiger muskie.

If you are looking for a new experience, or new ice fishing location, consider Piney Reservoir in Frostburg, Maryland. And, if you make it an overnight trip, consider staying at the beautiful and affordable cabins of New Germany State Park which is about 15 minutes away. Here is a weblink that provides some information about Piney Reservoir: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/recreational/fwhotpineyres.html. And, lastly, I look forward to reading everyone's angler logs this year. Take care. Tom O'Connell, Director, MD DNR Fisheries