Left: Captain Chris Daniels caught this Black Drum on his friend Derek Crone’s pier in Chance MD this week. It measured just over 48 inches! Right: LJ of G-Eye Jigs caught several Hickory Shad in southern Maryland using Bust ‘Em Baits stingers on a 1/32 oz jig head. Orange was the hot color!
Shad: The shad run is on right now, and they are a surprisingly hard fighting, fun fish to catch! The areas that you want to look for Shad are the same areas where we typically see perch spawning; in the upper parts of rivers and creeks. The Upper Potomac and Patuxent have been hot, along with Eastern Shore rivers and creeks! Use stingers on light jig heads (as demonstrated by LJ above) shart darts, or a shad dart and a spoon rigged in tandem. A straight retrieve works well, with maybe just a little bit of a twitch to it, and they’ve mostly been biting closer to the surface of the water.
White Perch: The white perch bite has certainly slowed down, but you can still find them using minnows, bloodworms and grass shrimp in the upper parts of many rivers and in creeks.
Snakehead: The snakehead bite has picked up significantly. We’ve weighed in some excellent fish for our Monster Snakehead Hunt tournament so far! The action is still primarily sub-surface, and a nice slow retrieve will do the trick. Use a chatterbait or a swimbait on a weighted hook. Minnows, of course, work well too! Lower Blackwater, the Transquaking and the Chicacomico River on the Eastern Shore have been the hot spots, but western shore rivers like the Upper Patuxent have been heating up too!
Catfish: While Rockfish season is closed, taking a bag of fresh alewife and some fish finder rigs to Sandy Point or out on a boat is a fun alternative! You can really fish for them anywhere in the main rivers or bay, but the mouths of the rivers are especially productive. Try the mouth of the Magothy, the Severn, and Patapsco, and Podickory. Point.