Fishing Report for the Week of April 6th, 2018

Perch Fishing

It wouldn’t be Maryland if there wasn’t snow in the forecast for this Spring weekend…what a place! Don’t let it discourage you and your efforts to get out there and catch some fish! We have a warming trend on the horizon and we may just finally make it out of Maryland’s third winter :) The Perch have mostly spawned out depending on where you are fishing. Eastern shore hot spots like Greensboro, Tuckahoe Creek and the upper reaches of the Choptank are still producing plenty of fish, just in different areas now. Look to find larger post-spawn females in the deeper water areas of these creeks/rivers. They’ll be on their way out while lots of smaller males are still being caught in/around many of the spawning areas for White Perch.

The best way to catch these fish is still going to be live bait on the back of a Shad Dart or simply on a top & bottom rig (depending on water depth, you’ll want to use either/or). Live bait such as Grass Shrimp, Bloodworms or smaller Minnows are the best live baits. We have all of these baits in stock!

Hickory Shad & Herring

Over the past couple weeks we’ve been getting some reports of Hickory Shad and Herring being caught in a few different areas. Areas such as Tuckahoe Creek, the Potomac River and the Susquehanna River. These fish are not fully running yet but more and more are being caught over the last week. With water temps still pretty cold, we aren’t saying this bite is fully on, it’s just getting started. We expect this to change over the next week and anticipate the Shad and Herring start showing up in big numbers once the weather breaks next week.

Catch & Release Rockfish

Pre-Trophy Season fishing is going on in catch & release areas around the main stem of the Bay. Anglers are having success in a variety of areas with multiple techniques.

In the upper bay area Anglers are catching decent size Rockfish in the Susquehanna Flats while Trolling and Jigging. When trolling, keep your speed down and try to keep the lures just off the bottom. It’s a delicate balance but it pays dividends. Popular baits to troll right now are the Magnum Shad-Rap. For jigging, use a 1oz-2oz jig head (depending on water depth) with a minimum of a 6″ BKD, or your favorite soft plastic as a trailer. Some other jigs that you may want to check out are the Hard Head Candy Skirted Glow Jigs we just got in. They look like they’re on FIRE! Some other soft plastics you may want to explore are Striper Sniper 10″ snake worms as well as Bustem Baits products.

Trolling the main bay anglers have had success in 35′-40′ of water around the edges of the Falls Channel. We’ve had reports of some mid-30″ fish up to mid-40″ fish!

Jigging around Calvert Cliffs wasn’t too great the past week. We had some windy weather and weird tides/currents with that weather so that kinda messed stuff up. Now that things are getting back to “normal” we’re expecting this area to really start to heat up. Look to hit this area on a nice day and target those big fish early in the morning in the rip currents on the bottom.

New news regarding the Summer & Fall regulations for Rockfish are: The emergency regulations have been withdrawn by the DNR. All existing regulations and requirements (bait, gear, limit and size) for the summer and fall striped bass seasons remain in effect.

To read about this news head over to the DNR page here.

Freshwater

Many of the ponds and lakes are producing Largemouth Bass more and more each day. Water temps continue to rise and Bass are starting to get more active and get ready to spawn. A few of us from the shop went to some eastern shore ponds this week and caught 35 bass in 2 hours on a variety of baits. We were using Whopper Ploppers, Spooks, Dropshot Worms and Chatterbaits.

Liberty Reservoir opens today and it should be a good season! Look to focus on main lake points with deep diving jerk baits, cranks and dropshot worms worked close to the bottom in deeper water.

Anglers looking to catch Snakehead will start to find them as they’re definitely awake! Hot spots like Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and upper Potomoac have been great. Look to use BIG bull Minnows under a bobber or chatterbaits/swimbaits worked slow in shallow water.

Show us what you caught!

We’d love to see your catch! Send your photos with some simple info (your name, location, bait/technique) and any other info you’d like to share to kevin@anglersannapolis.com. By sending your images you are giving us permission to use them online. If there are any children under 18 we need their parents permission before posting any images online!