Maryland Fishing Report
May 24th, 2019
Happy Memorial Day! The weather is looking perfect to get out this weekend and enjoy the outdoors! Main bay water temps this week are hovering just under 70º in most areas with the creeks and rivers just a tad bit warmer. This has fish active from morning until evening, especially on a good moving tide. Crabbing has also been picking up recently which is great news for everyone looking forward to a Memorial Day crab feast! Wether you’re looking for dinner or just a good time, we’ll have everything you need to gear up!
Rockfish
The upper bay salinity levels are extremely low right now. From the Eastern Bay, north, you’re going to find surprisingly fresh water. With all the fresh water from rain and runoff, we’ve seen a significant decline in reported Rockfish catches. We aren’t saying they’re gone. We’re just saying it’s been harder to find them. Anglers have had success around the bay bridge, the sewer pipe just north of the bridge and areas in the Eastern Bay like Bloody Point and Poplar Island.
You’ll find them suspended along the bridge pilings as well as around the rock piles under the bay bridge. Anglers are throwing a 1/2-1oz jig with their favorite soft plastic trailers like a BKD, Bustem’ Bait or Striper Sniper. Popular colors are chartreuse & white and an occasional natural color like Alewife Glitter. If you’re not at the bridge, look for either transition points like dropoffs and channel ledges or hard bottom areas like oyster beds & rock piles.
If you’re chumming or chunking, focus your efforts around Hacketts Point, Thomas Point or Bloody Point. These areas are going to give you a better shot at landing Rockfish rather than Catfish. You will most likely catch a few or a dozen catfish while fishing bait on the bottom. Alewife (LY) or Soft Crab are going to be the best baits with Soft Crab working really well right now.
Snakehead
Snakehead fishing has been pretty good this past week. Anglers are finding them pretty much all over the place now. In the slow moving waters of the upper creeks and rivers like the Potomac, Patuxent, Severn as well as on the eastern shore in areas like Blackwater and the Transquaking River. In most areas, the spawn is still going on so anglers are finding a mix of post spawn and pre-spawn fish. During this time, enticing a bite can be a bit challenging. Trick is to make them mad enough to strike. If you find bedded down fish, keep your distance and make long casts. This will help with the slow bite. Snakehead are easily spooked and can get lockjaw pretty quickly.
Topwater frogs and mice are going to be the go-to lure of choice for many anglers. Pretty much anything that sits on top. Ideally you want to throw weedless lures to get into thick grass and target snakes where they like to hide. If you are fishing open water, look to use noisy topwater baits like a buzzbait, whopper plopper or poppers. Sub-surface baits to use are chatterbaits, spinnerbaits or weedless/weightless white paddletails on a 5/0 superline EWG by Gamakatsu.
Catfish
They’re everywhere. In the creeks, rivers and main bay from Eastern Bay up to the Conowingo Dam. We’re finding big ones in deep holes fishing cut bait like LY on the bottom. Areas like Podickory Point, Love Point and Hacketts Point are all holding big catfish. Other baits that will work well are Bloodworms, Razor Clams, Nightcrawlers, Chicken Livers and if you’re throwing Soft Crab you’ll catch all of them.
White Perch
Anglers are having plenty of success catching Perch in the rivers and the creeks. Fishing shallower structure in the mornings and evenings with slow moving spinnerbaits will work as well as fishing bait on the bottom like Bloodworms, Soft Crab or Razor Clams. White Perch make delicious table fare so catch yourself a couple dozen and deep fry-em up!
Freshwater
Crappie, Largemouth Bass, Panfish and Pickerel are all very active lately. You can find Crappie around shoreline structure with little minnows under a bobber or small spinnerbaits retrieved close to the bottom. For panfish, try nightcrawlers or small spinnerbaits. Largemouth bass are aggressively feeding on all kinds of baits. Topwater baits like frogs, rats or whopper ploppers are all working well. You can also catch them with your favorite worm either texas rigged or wacky rigged with a dropshot. Spinnerbaits and rattletraps are also working well right now.
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!