Freshwater Fishing Report, December 25 Update:
Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and welcome to the final fishing report of 2020. Considering how this year has been we’re thrilled to see it finally end, and we’re wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2021 filled with bent rods and slimy coolers. Due to the holidays (and some pretty lousy weather), gathering intel was difficult this week and the reports are a bit abbreviated. But rest assured, we’ll be back in 2021 ready to fish hard and bring you all the how-to, where-to fishing information possible. Thanks for staying tuned to FishTalk, and if you see the chance to do some fishing in the near future…
One spectacular report comes from reader Darwin Hayward, who enjoyed some amazing fishing on the upper Potomac catching a 24.25-inch brown trout — while muskie fishing — and also managing to find his first actual muskellunge. For those interested in trout fishing throughout the region, stocking is well underway Virginia and anglers in multiple counties have some new waterways to target. Visit the Virginia stocking schedule webpage to get the details. Maryland stockings have been on pause since fall, but Pennsylvania is planting fish these days, too; visit the Pennsylvania page for more info.
We had a reader report from the shoreline of Liberty this week, where yellow perch were hitting small paddletails cast as far enough to reach a rocky drop-off. Southern Maryland anglers: the renovations at St. Mary’s lake have been completed, and the new parking facility, boat ramps, and lake trails are now open. Note that entry is now paid by swiping a credit card, so leave the cash at home and come armed with plastic instead. We also heard from one angler who fished Lake Anna and found stripers down deep, willing to hit green and blue one-ounce jigging spoons.
Contributor Eric Packard hit a mix of Western Shore lakes and rivers this week, and found a few pickerel and bass willing to bite but noted difficult conditions in several places. St. Mary’s Lake was very turbid and off-color (though a bass were still willing to hit paddletails and Beetle Spins). The Magothy produced a fair number of pickerel, plus a bass, casting similar gear. We also heard from some folks who attempted to fish northern creeks from Rock up, but arrived to discover hard water over the weekend. The incoming low temps do not bode well, and ice may be problematic for the near future.
AIC Lenny Rudow says a visit to the southern Eastern Shore millponds was productive, but a little bit too productive for his son David who out-fished him to take the current lead in the CCA Winter Pickerel Championship (ouch!), after sliding the net under a 26-incher. Minnow on white jigs suspended deep under bobbers were the ticket. He also notes that the bass were biting (for David – 3 to 0. Ouch, again). Three-inch Z-Man paddle tails in dark green also proved productive.
Freshwater Fishing Report, December 18 Update:
Warning: almost all of our reports came in pre-storm. Naturally, we're expecting that the conditions will have deteriorated a bit in some areas. AIC Lenny Rudow reports a moderate but steady pickerel bite in the southern millponds, with lots of fish in the 19- to 22-inch range plus a few larger ones striking minnow suspended under bobbers. He also said the water was quite crowded last weekend and Sunday he saw more anglers plus pleasure-kayakers, canoers, and people just out for joyrides on the ponds than he can ever remember. Crappie weren’t terribly active but a couple of large ones did also pop up and David Rudow caught a 13.25-incher on a minnow/jig combo. The younger Rudow also reported having good luck on the pickerel slinging a dark green ZMan four-inch paddletail on an eighth-ounce head. Contributor Eric Packard checked in from the northern millponds, which were also noticeably crowded and had somewhat cloudy water. He noted the effectiveness of paddletails on pickerel as well, but also reported chatter of a better bass bite.
At Lake Anna, walleye have been caught around rocky areas and Dike Three. Soaking minnows is the most common way to get them out of the water. Minnow are working for crappie as well. They’ve been hanging out along submerged brush, bridge pilings and suspended over creek channels between 15 and 20 feet of water. There are plenty of them to go around and bringing up a bunch hasn’t been trouble for most anglers. Largemouth bass are also present in deeper water and off points. Jerkbaits, Sassy Shads, Hopkins spoons, and jig 'n pigs are all popular for getting them in the boat. The same tactics are working at the Suffolk Lakes. Western Branch has a killer bass run right now, and Lake Meade, Lake Smith, Lake Prine, and Lake Cohoon are all producing reports of large-to-citation sized crappie.
From the Baltimore area reservoirs, we had one report of some small pickerel caught at Loch Raven below the dam and crappie plus a rockfish being caught at Liberty on shiners. However, the boat ramps have been closed at all the Baltimore reservoirs (allegedly because of Covid… really? Close the boat ramps?) though shoreline fishing remains allowed.
Freshwater Fishing Report, December 10 Update:
The heavy rains of last week definitely beat up the Eastern Shore millponds a bit, with several anglers reporting difficult conditions. FishTalk production manager Zach Ditmars and contributor Eric Packard hit a mid-shore pond to discover cloudy, stirred up water, and a tough bite. Only a few crappie and one pickerel decided to eat. AIC Lenny Rudow traveled a bit farther down the DelMarVa Peninsula to discover more of the same, catching a mere two crappie and a white perch for all his efforts. We also heard from one reader who made a similar attempt at the ponds and caught three crappie and one small pickerel. The windy conditions we’ve been having on top of last week’s rains surely haven’t helped, but hopefully the waters will calm a bit by the weekend, and thank goodness it’s been dry for a few days in a row now.
Last week’s rains also managed to muck up much of the streams across Western Maryland — waters were running high and dirty. As such, trout fishing this week was a bust for many anglers who didn’t locate clearer conditions. In inland Virginia the rain had varied local effects and some parts of the Shenandoah were on the high side early this week, but have been trending back down towards normal. Anglers targeting stocked trout are still finding a few and although many bodies of water (especially those near large metro areas) are a bit picked through at this point, we did have a reader report three trout on his stringer after fishing a Calvert County pond with a Mepps spinner. Also, note that the Maryland DNR reported unexpectedly releasing an additional 4500 rainbows this week, into the waters of Lake Habeeb, the Casselman, and the Youghiogheny.
Snakeheads seem to have firmly entered winter mode, and the only report we have for them this week comes from bow-hunters who continue to skewer a couple-few fish per trip (no locations specified). That said, remember that a couple warm, sunny days will being them back to life in shallow areas and late this weekend is looking good for a potential resurgence of action in the Blackwater if the weatherman’s right.
Freshwater Fishing Report, December 4 Update:
The storms early this week washed out some areas and left others untouched, leading to varied levels of success depending on location. Generally speaking, the western areas of our region took less of a hit and trout anglers are doing okay with the weekend looking good — if we don’t get washed out. The Gunpowder was running about twice average levels early in the week but had returned to normal mid-week, the North Branch Potomac remains high but steady, and Mossy Creek is reporting steady back-to-normal flows and good conditions in central VA rivers and streams. However, Contributor Eric Packard let us know that multiple Eastern Shore millponds were hit hard and had murky conditions that let to fairly unproductive fishing mid-week, and a full day of pickerel fishing resulted in just a couple of fish.
Reports from the reservoirs were a bit better, with a reader report of a 36-inch pike among several smallmouth and yellow perch (live shiners were the ticket) at Deep Creek, and The Tackle Box noting that pickerel, bass, and crappie all remain active at St. Mary’s Lake. Lake Anna anglers are enjoying great fall bass action as proven by the Winter Series producing a 9.2-pounder; water temps have dropped to more seasonal levels (sort of, in the upper-mid 50s) and crappie are still chewing around bridge pilings so filling the cooler also remains very do-able.
Angler’s Sport Center is reporting that the pickerel bite in the upper Western Shore tribs is rebounding with one report of almost two dozen fish in a day, and in the Eastern Shore tribs yellow perch fishing is just beginning to crank up on minnow and small jigs with plastics. They also note that minnow under a bobber should produce pickerel and crappie in the millponds; hopefully the incoming rain won’t hit them too hard and conditions will return to normal by the weekend.
While we heard only one confirmed snakehead hook-and-line report this week (from the Corsica), we did hear from a couple of readers who bundled up and went after them with bows at night with solid success in the Potomac waterways, including a 33-incher for one snake-hunter, and eight fish on the deck for another.