Way North Chesapeake 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…
Hrumph… well, these should be perch around Perryville and plenty of catfish in the river (any deep water within sight of the 95 bridge tends to be a good bet) but we weren’t able to get any first-hand intel from the area this week. Sorry folks, we’ll try not to let that happen again!! We did hear from one reader who caught a yellow perch in the Gunpowder (yes, we said “a”) on a Beetle Spin.
Way North Chesapeake 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. The brakes may be on as far as striper fishing goes in the northern reaches of the Bay, but yellow perch reports are already trickling in from the lower Susquehanna and the North East River. Anglers soaking minnow in deep water are having the best success, but we haven’t yet heard of action we’d call “hot.” Reports of cat action were thin this week, but we also have to note that thanks to the weather, effort was depressed – to say the least. And Angler’s has been reporting some big ones in the river; no doubt they’re still around in the dam pool and deep areas just waiting for someone to drop cut bait on their heads.
Way North Chesapeake Fishing Report, December 10 Update:
Striper season is out, and perch are in. While all of our sources mentioned that the difficult weather this week made getting out tough, they also let us know that anglers who were able to hit the water got into fish. Clyde’s and Herb’s pointed us towards the grass beds on the Susquehanna Flats. Here, yellow perch have been schooling up. They’ve primarily been taking little spinners and baits, and will bite throughout the day. In the more trafficked spots, getting there early has been a must-do. With stripers no longer pulling anglers away from the popular honey holes, we’re expecting an influx of traffic to shoreline and perch spots. A couple of reports of bass on the Susquehanna Flats and nearby shoreline came in this week as well; the bass were primarily caught on blade baits. White perch are also around, although they’ve been in far deeper waters. Captain Bones pointed out that locating them has been challenging at times, especially this past week when the water conditions were poor enough to affect the bite. However, they suggested popping around and trying new spots for a bit — they mentioned that anglers on the move have often been locating schools that make their day.
Aside from perch, we only had a few reports of other species. Tochterman’s reported that they had a confirmed report of a walleye from inside the Conowingo Dam Pool, however, this seems to be an isolated incident. Tochterman’s, Herb’s, Clyde’s, and Captain Bones all suggested targeting catfish. The bite was a little slow this week, possibly due to the conditions, however, there are plenty of bulky fish leaving the water on less turbulent days. Dropping chicken liver, cut menhaden, or clam snouts has been popular.
Way North Chesapeake Fishing Report, December 4 Update:
Anglers can still get stripers slinging jigs in the dam pool, but most are throwbacks. Somehow the heavy rains mostly missed northern and western areas so while flow levels have come closer to normal, they’re still on the low side. Out on the flats as temps have been dropping the fish have been steadily shifting to the channels and deeper areas. Many anglers have been running south to troll the waters of the Upper Bay, but this week we did get a photo confirmed reader report of a nice rock coming from the North East, as well. We didn’t get any solid reports on cats this week but there’s no reason to believe there shouldn’t still be nonstop action in the rivers and especially within view of the Route 95 bridge. Note: Herb’s Tackle has cut back to Saturday-only hours, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., for the winter.
