Upper Chesapeake Bay 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…
The Magothy produced a fair number of pickerel plus a bass for contributor Eric Packard this week, but anglers attempting to fish creeks farther north arrived to discover hard water last weekend. No doubt the storm and warmth will have opened the waters back up but the incoming low temps do not bode well, and ice may be problematic for the near future.
Upper Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, December 18 Update:
Warning: most of our reports came in pre-storm. Naturally, we're expecting that the conditions will have deteriorated a bit in some areas. Although rainy conditions and the end of striper season may have put a damper on Bay fishing, anglers have been hitting the mill ponds and tribs… hard. In the tribs, pickerel are still hitting minnow and swimbaits, while catfish are eating cut fish set on the bottom. The Magothy and Severn both have been producing steady pickerel reports. A few reports of perch in the Beechwood area have also popped up, but we’re still waiting on the perch-explosion of winter. We’re expecting that as other fisheries die down (and our friends on the Western shore tire of driving to the Eastern), we’ll be hearing more about where the perch are and what anglers are doing to catch them. We also had a couple of reports from the Chester this week that mentioned good catfishing and perch.
Angler’s also reported some perch are around the bridge pilings, in 15 to 20 feet of water. There were a few catch-and-release stripers caught there this week as well.
Upper Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, December 10 Update:
Well, striper season’s closed. Many anglers are shifting gears to focus on pickerel in the coming months. If you aren’t already entered, the CCA’s Maryland Pickerel Championship is going on right now, and your perfect excuse to hit the water as much as you can this winter. Tochterman’s, Angler’s, and Alltackle all let us know that the Magothy and Severn have popped up as pickerel hotspots. However, contributor Eric Packard spent a day on the Magothy early this week and after the blow, even at high tide there was extremely low water. He reported seeing sailboats laying sideways in the mud, and only a pair of 19.5-inch pickerel on the end of his line. When the water levels are normal, the coves, creeks, and shallows of these rivers are proving excellent locations to drive up the number of pickerel you’re catching, up to the 25-inch class. For anglers bent on landing a pickerel that’ll boost you to a top-three spot in the tournament early on, hitting the reservoirs, the Eastern Shore mill ponds, or the Eastern Shore tribs throughout the winter are also solid bets. (If you’re reading this report between Friday and Sunday, you can bet our Angler-in-Chief Lenny Rudow is floating around out there somewhere with a bucket of minnows).
Tochterman’s, FishBones, and Alltackle all let us know that the numbers of perch coming from the Magothy and Severn are also strong. In deep holes and grassy edges, there have been plenty of perch caught on spinners. Fishbones mentioned that the white and yellow perch have been separated, so if you’re hoping for a particular species and get into the other, it’s time to move on. They did mention, however, that oftentimes the pockets of fish have been close together, so there’s no need to move far. Tochterman’s and Fishbones also suggested hitting the Middle River, Bush River, and Bird River. All of these areas have had good bites.
Catfish are also abundant throughout the Tribs. Although there are many right now, the weather has slowed them down a bit. There was a slight decrease in the number of fish caught this week compared to last, possibly due to poor weather docking boats, and possibly because the conditions didn’t agree with the fish.
Upper Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, December 4 Update:
Finding stripers has been getting tougher north of the bridge; there are still a few pods of fish in the Chester between Love Point and Queenstown and we had a reader report a keeper and a couple of throwbacks jigging the Sewer Pipe with G-Eye Rain Minnow spoons, but most anglers are making a run down to Bloody or below when they have the time and weather allows. Word from the Magothy, however, is of excellent pickerel fishing that just keeps getting better and better as it gets cooler out. Angler’s notes that the weird tides we had recently slowed the bite down earlier but it’s on the rebound now, a notion confirmed by multiple readers who reported fish up to 24 inches this week with minnow, swimbaits, and Mepps all mentioned as effective.
