Over the last week air temperatures have ranged from the high 20ºs to low 40ºs. Water temps in the Chesapeake Bay bridge area are hovering in the low 40º range with current water temps at 40º at Thomas Point. The forecast for this week is snow showers starting Saturday evening through Sunday with clear/cold conditions Monday-Tuesday and cloudy/cold conditions the rest of the week.
Fishing for Yellow Perch, Pickerel, Largemouth Bass, White Perch and Rockfish have all been good as of late. Freshwater fishing Eastern Shore lakes/rivers has been really good. Trolling for big C&R rockfish in the southern bay area has been picking up as of late with some nice fish being caught recently.
Yellow Perch
Anlgers are having good success catching neds in the upper reaches of the tidal creeks and rivers as well as some of the area’s freshwater lakes. Targeting structure in the 3′-10′ range with either a float and fly or live bait under a bobber worked well this week. Some of the better spots for yellow perch were the upper reaches of the Chester River, Tuckahoe Creek, Marshy Hope Creek, and Beachwood Park in the Magothy River held a few.
Some good artificial lures to catch yellow perch are Johnson Spoons (bare or tipped with a minnow), Mepps Spinnerbaits, bladebaits like the Johnson Thinfisher, or live bait such as minnows, blood worms or nightcrawlers.
Pickerel
Many of the Eastern Shore lakes/creeks were on fire this past week. Nice size pickerel are biting on everything from shallow diving jerk baits to live minnows under a bobber. Good areas this past week were Unicorn Lake, Wye Mills, Tuckahoe Lake/Creek and the Wicomico River.
To catch some nice Pickerel, target shallow structure in 1′-6′ of water. Look for structure such as submerged brush, fallen trees, weed edges, cove points or creek mouths. Pickerel don’t usually socialize so if you land one or two in a single area, look to move on to the next area to find more.
Baits that have been working well this week have been shallow diving jerk baits like the Rapala X-Rap perch color, chrome black back rattletraps, fire tiger spinnerbaits and some 3″-5″ natural shad color swim baits.
Largemouth Bass
During the winter months, largemouth bass fishing becomes more finesse style with slow moving baits. Obviously the fish are cold and slow but they’re still biting when a delicious opportunity presents itself. Many times, anglers catch their biggest bass in the winter months. This is because these fish have spent the past two months gorging themselves on bait preparing for these next few cold months ahead.
The key to fishing for these guys is low and slow. They’re holding close to the bottom looking for an easy meal so work your baits accordingly and be patient!
Some good artificial lures to use to catch Largemouth Bass this week were suspending jerk baits, ned rigs, rattletraps and dropshot stick worms. Live bait such as minnows or nightcrawlers also worked well.
Share your catch!
We’d love to share what you catch! Send your photos with some basic 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!