With 2023/2024 Duck season closing January 31st it time to start thinking about fishing. We had a good season and saw plenty of ducks out on the flats and up river. We did have a few sketchy days fighting with the fog & ice both at the ramp and on the water but overall had a nice season and even managed to get a few.
Striped Bass 2/5/24
I saw some guys down by the Susquehanna River yesterday evening from New Jersey and asked what they were fishing for this early? They said “Striped Bass” and “that I should check my internet”. Seems kind of early with water temps in the low 30s but we have gotten them in years past when we had warm winters in late February. So it’s its totally possible there are a few around but i would think they would be very slow and not aggressively feeding yet until the water temps get into the 40s. Has anyone else heard anything and know of Rockfish caught in the past week or so?
Yellow Perch 2/10/24
Yellow perch bite is on in the Chesapeake Bay tidal rivers and Potomac, Susquehanna Rivers. BAIT – tipping jigs with night crawlers or silver buddies depending on water clarity. We like a dropper rig with double hooks 3/4 – 1oz lead depending on depth, wind and current. Water temp hovering around low 40s this should be a good week for getting them since its supposed to warm up a bit. Also there was a report of a few White perch mixed in. We found them fairly deep 40′-50′ range last week (2/10/24)
2/19/24 – NRP at Conowingo Dam
Saw a number of guys slinging BKDs today at the Conowingo Dam. Didn’t see any hookups however I did see “the man” Maryland Natural Resources Police checking guys so make sure you have a current Maryland fishing license. This guy had a bucket full of mud shad I don’t know if he got a citation or not maybe for his method of snagging them… didn’t look like he wrote him up. He seemed like he was being nice about whatever he stopped him for.
Hickory Shad in the Octoraro Creek
Took a walk today at the park that borders part of the Octoraro Creek and noticed some herring breaking the surface of the water. The is a good sign that the Hickory Shad are coming soon. A tell-tale sign that the hicks are in is when you see the Herons stationed all along the creek that is my signal each year the the hicks are in the house. I’ll be spending the next couple of days making Hick flies for the run to start maybe in 2 weeks. I have a fly pattern that I love for Hicks which is super easy and quick to tie I’ll post a photo and quick tutorial next week… stay tuned.
3/28/24 HICKORY SHAD UPDATE – I did notice a couple Herons perched on the rocks in the Octoraro Creek but they look pretty hungry. I’ll check again this weekend. I haven’t made the Hickory fly tutorial yet but I will be posting it soon. Here’s a pic of one of the flys that are very productive for the shad run here in Maryland.
4/14/24 – HICKORY SHAD UPDATE – Finally was able to get some time Sunday evening to throw a fly at the hickory shad in the creek. Loads of fish around busting the surface but the bite was slow. I caught 6 in an hour or so which is slow for “hicks”. I was using a 5wt 9′ rod with slow sink line and a pink fly pattern which usually work well. The guy across the way was spinning and did about the same maybe a fish or 2 more.
Opening Day of Pennsylvania Trout Season 4/6/24
As a family tradition I usually get together with my step dad and brother to fish the Opening Day of Pennsylvania Trout Season each year, which I did this past Saturday and Sunday. Fortunately it’s not really about catching trout but more about hanging with my family that lives in PA for the weekend, the heckling, breakfast at some greasy dinner, and getting outside together. Truth be told I’m really bad when it comes to catching trout. I usually spend more of my time retying tackle with 4 lb. test line and number 12 hooks which I can barely see, and hiking round to find a spot where there are less people, than I actually do fishing. On Saturday we started out at Blooming Glen below the covered bridge. Parking lot was packed as expected but we hiked to a spot down stream where they crowd thinned out some. I caught 3 Rainbows right away Pop caught 3 as well then it shut off. I did the usual impatient rookie thing trying different spots and colors of power baits and spinners with no success. Went back to my first bait Berkley Powerbait Bubble Gum Floating Trout Worms which caught the first 3 and got 3 more changed spots and got 2 more before heading home. All were released alive for someone else to catch. Day two started with a minor problem with Pops 1999 Ford Bronco which we got resolved, then went to breakfast at The Coop in Quakertown and got to a branch of the Perkiomen Creek in Palm PA at about 10am. This location was much less crowded than Blooming Glen the reason being it was pretty much fished out. A disgruntled local guy told us that it was shoulder to shoulder the prior weekend for Mentors day “with more mentors fishing than kids” as the reason for being fished out on day 2. Not to be discouraged my brother and I hiked up stream away from the parking area and found a nice deep hole with good current seams that looked very promising after working that area for about an hour we ended up with 5 fish 4 rainbows and 1 beautiful brown trout all were released alive. Pop and my brother continued fishing and I headed back to Maryland. Great weekend and even greater company more memories to add to the annual family fishing tradition and be recounted next year.
White Perch bite is on in the Susquehanna
Went out for Snakeheads this week with water temps in the low 70s we thought for sure we would put some “snakes” in the boat. Didn’t see any and tried topwater, flies, shiners and no bites. We decided to head down river to deeper water and get some white perch. We caught them about every drop but only kept the larger fish 10″ and up. Ended up keeping a half dozen 10-12 inch range. Great eating and lots of fun on the ultralight tackle.
Snakehead being renamed Chesapeake Channa
In an effort the kill more snakeheads the Maryland senate is proposing a bill to rebrand the Snakehead as Chesapeake Channa hoping that new label will make them more desirable for diners. The thinking is if the demand goes up, more snakeheads will be harvested by commercial anglers with the ultimate goal of completely eliminating this invasive species from the Chesapeake Bay and tributaries. To us it doesn’t matter what you call them they are fun to catch and one of the best eating fresh water fish I’ve ever had. For the best cooking results the way you harvest and handle the Snakeheads is the key to creating a gourmet fish dinner. FIRST – catching them for me is the hardest part. I’ve only ever caught 2 of them. One was by-catch while rock fishing with topwater and the other was targeted using fly gear. They seem to be pretty smart and very difficult to catch with artificial lures. The best and most productive bait seems to be live minnows or small panfish. NEXT – USE A FISH GRABBER or NET to land them they are a mouth full of sharp teeth with powerful jaws. We like to use a fish grabber and cut the gills immediately while they are alive and kicking holding them in the water to properly bleed them out. After they bled out put them on ice until you can get them filleted. COOKING – doesn’t matter how you cook them if you get them fresh bleed them out and keep iced down you won’t be disappointed. We prefer to pan sear, blacken or fry them. Don’t know if that plan to rename the snakehead will work or not but we will keep catching and enjoying this species as long as they are here!
Fishing Cape Hatteras North Carolina – May 2024
The fishing was very good the second week of May 2024. We caught a Drum blitz at Cape Point which gets the blood pumping when you see 3-5 people hooked up at the same time with big drum. So much fun to get in the mix and try to put one on the beach. Most of the fish we saw caught were over slot in the mid to high 30 inch range. Only saw one slot fish come up. Also caught a chopper blue which I haven’t seen caught in Cape Hatteras in quite a few years going in May. We also had a good sea mullet day caught on shrimp in Frisco NC and finally my favorite speckled trout on the sound side. The day we fished the sound I saw guys getting there limit of trout and good sized too high teens to low 20s. After missing a few I did manage to put a 22″ on the stringer. It was a great trip I considered a Cape Hatteras fishing success when you get Drum, Specs, Blues and Sea Mullet. Hope for the same next year.
18th Annual Lower Susquehanna Rockfish Tournament – Port Deposit Maryland
This one is kind of a family tradition Tyler and I have been participating in this local event for the past 10 years. Saturday June 1st started out with just perfect weather in the low 50s with light NW wind and finished the day in the low 80s with the wind strong and out of the SW (ugh). That in no way put a damper on the fishing after finding bait at around 5:30 we headed up to our favorite tournament spot up river. Mostly to get up in the rocks where fewer boats can navigate safely. Not to disappoint, our spot was red hot! We had 3 keepers in the box by 8:45am. One just under 24″, one exactly 24″, and one 23″. We assumed with the lowered cap there would be allot more competition at the scale this year since mid 20s Rockfish are fairly easy to find this time of year. Last year with the cap at 30″ it was much harder to find fish in the high 20s” that had a chance at making the leaderboard. Well of course the opposite was true for us. We kept getting over slot fish even had a couple of 32s. Anyway we probably brought 20 Rockfish to the boat 3 blue cats, some channels and no snakeheads. Our heaviest fish was 5.3 lbs which did not make the leaderboard missing out by just 3 ounces. We had figured with the lowered slot it would come down to fractions of ounces, which it did. Aside from the G. Hershey first place weighing 5.8 lbs slots 2-6 all weighed 5.6 lbs. Not sure how they determined who got which place whether it was length or which angler weighed first as they did not include the fractions of ounces on the board. The rules do state the “largest fish will be determined by weight only”. All in all a wonderful fishing day and a huge thank you to Port Deposit Chamber of Commerce for hosting the event again this year and congratulations to the winners.
Dont forget to get your 2024 Maryland Fishing license here’s the link
https://compass.dnr.maryland.gov/dnrcompassportal