March 1st, 2019

Yellow perch

The yellow perch fishing has picked up this week with more reports of perch been caught in the middle to upper parts of the tidal creeks and rivers. The middle section of Tuckahoe creek is holding perch both white and yellow. They are holing a little deeper so find the holes that average anywhere from 10′-15′ of water and you should find them. The rest of the eastern shore rivers are in the same stage with most of the perch just holding on the deeper holes waiting for the water to warm up so they can push shallow. The best bites we heard all week came from the middle part of Tuckahoe creek, Choptank river from Denton up to Greensboro, Nanticoke river, Middle river, and the Susquehanna river.

Dave McCollum with a beefy Yellow caught with an XR-10!

The best baits to use for Yellow perch will still be minnows and grass shrimp. If you want to catch some of the white perch that are mixed in, use blood worms. Float-and-fly with micro jigs and small plastic trailers has been producing perch and some pickerel.

Crappie

Pro Staffer Alex Perez with a nice stringer full of Crappie! Nice fish Alex!

The crappie fishing is heating up in most of the ponds, creeks, and rivers, especially those on the eastern shore. Find deeper water and concentrate on the drop-offs if your fishing ponds, and deeper holes without much current in the rivers. The Pocomoke river has been producing some outstanding crappie fishing with a lot of fish in the 9-12-inch range. Most of the crappie in the ponds will move in a little shallow when the temperatures go up so if we have a warm day or two try fishing in shallower water near structure.

Minnows under a bobber are the best bet for them if your fishing ponds or slower moving water in the river, if your fishing deeper and faster moving water use a tandem rig with two 1/16oz jigs and use minnows or a plastic of choice.

Pickerel

Author & Owner of Chesapeake Light Tackle, Shawn Kimbro shows off a PB Pickerel at just over 26″! Nice fish Shawn!

Pickerel fishing has been great the past week. We’ve received numerous reports of anglers catching nice Pickerel, especially on the eastern shore. Some of the better spots have been the Pocomoke river, Nanticoke river, Tuckahoe creek and in the Marshyhope creek.

Look to use a minnow under a bobber in 2′-6′ of water. Target submerged structure like brush, docks or rip-rap. Slow sinking jerkbaits like the Rapala X-Rap, or even a tandem shad dart rig tipped with minnows have also been working well.

Trout

This young man was all smiles when he caught his first trout a few days ago! Photo courtesy of John Sweeny.

Anglers taking advantage of the put-and-take trout management system are having good success! For updated information regarding when and where they’re stocking trout, head over to the DNR trout stocking page.

Rockfish

We are still waiting for more fish to move up the bay. There are some resident fish in the area and they’ll become more active during the warmer days. Most anglers have been reporting fish been caught in the hot water discharge areas of the Patapsco river and Calvert cliffs, and also the bay bridge pilings.

Share your catch!

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