Freshwater Fishing Report, December 2019

December 26, 2019 Freshwater Update:

Happy Holidays and Merry Fishmas anglers - we hope your holidays are full of lake trips, bucktails, and winter water wonderland fishing success stories. This week, the below report is going to be a little light due to the hectic nature of the festive season and much-deserved breaks of tackle shop employees, but we still encourage you to get out and finish out 2019 with your last fish(es) of the decade. Next week when everyone’s back from vacation and we can get in touch with all our usual sources again we’ll be back with the first FishTalk fishing report of 2020!

christmas fish
Ahem... merry FISHMAS, anglers!

While much of the saltwater scene has been suffering a bit of drought, freshwater anglers have been gifted the pleasure of excellent fishing this holiday season. Anglers hitting inland lakes are enjoying a largemouth bass bite in deeper waters, where they’re now taking imitation crawfish and small soft plastics. The crappie bite has been absolutely stellar for anglers tossing bull minnows under a bobber. The Tackle Box noted that the bite at St. Mary’s Lake has been good, with pickerel in the mix too.

Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow checked in to say that the pickerel bite in the Eastern Shore millponds has been hot or not, with periods of inaction mid-day but flurries of action at sunrise and sunset on minnow under bobbers and quarter-ounce chartreuse and white Road Runners. He also said he spoke with a bass angler who had good luck working shoreline structure in the late afternoon, catching a half-dozen in a couple hours of fishing.


December 19, 2019 Freshwater Update:

As the weather and the action in the Bay has tapered off many angling die-hards are turning more towards freshwater options – and with good results. Freshwater contributor Jim Gronaw checked in to let us know that the ponds and lakes in central Maryland and southern PA are providing consistent if sometimes challenging action for crappie, bass, and bluegill, with water temps hovering in the mid- to low-40s. He’s been looking for warmer, sunny days that can heat up a shallow bay or cove a few degrees with afternoon sun. Most of the northern shorelines will receive the benefit of longer sunlight and the addition of a south to southwest wind can push slightly warmer surface water into such areas, thus creating a thermal bank of three- to five-degree warmer conditions. Plankton, minnows and panfish follow and can be vulnerable with sensitive float and fly tactics that utilize 1/64th-ounce jigs tipped with a meal or wax worm. Additionally, any remaining green weed beds can hold fish well into the winter and are worth fishing. He also notes that two trips totaling 35 then 93 fish have happened recently while a few others produced but a dozen or so.

angler with a sunfish
Jim's been getting in on a great panfish bite - these fish don't stop chewing just because it's a bit nippy out there.

Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow has been probing the Eastern Shore millponds (where temps are in the mid-40s) and says the pickerel bite has been on-again, off-again - but when it’s on it’s been excellent numbers of fish hitting minnow suspended three feet under a bobber, with dozen-plus-fish days. He also mentioned that fishing in the dreary, the low-light conditions last weekend, largemouth bass were attacking white jigs with abandon.

In the reservoirs by all reports water temps are still a bit higher (sitting at around 50-degrees or just below in Kerr and Anna, and the mid-to upper-40s at the Baltimore-area reservoirs) than in the surrounding smaller bodies of water, and while fish have moved deep and entered winter mode they’re still hitting well. Crappie are suspended over deep 15-foot-plus structure (bridges are a good bet) hitting small jigs, and vertically jigging spoons is getting the job done for stripers and bass. At St. Mary’s, The Tackle Box is reporting a mix of pickerel and crappie on live minnow. To the west, other than skim in the coves it will be a waiting game for Deep Creek to lock up hard and hopefully allow for an ice fishing season this year; meanwhile, anglers tossing out large shiner weighted down with a split shot are finding walleye and yellow perch along shorelines with points and rocky drop-offs.

What about trout? Water levels are up in the area rivers and creeks (no surprise there!) but since the rain was slow and steady conditions are still good in most areas, providing an excellent situation for stalking and fly casting. There are also still plenty of trout in many of the fall stocking areas, as those not close to major metropolitan areas haven’t seen much pressure since the fish went into the drink, and more went in this week in the Patapsco and Morgan Run. Also, Gronaw mentioned that Codorus Creek in York County and Morgan Run in Carroll County have been good for cold weather, winter time trouting. Indicator nymph fishing and small spinners (where permitted) can take fish throughout the winter. (Be sure to check local stream regulations before you fish).


December 12, 2019 Update:

Crappie remain a prime target for freshwater anglers looking to take home dinner, throughout the region. We heard good reports this week from just about all the waters they live in, from reservoirs to ponds to upper Chesapeake tributaries, with live minnow being the top offering along with fish caught on hair jigs, swimbaits, and small bladebaits. The folks from Apex Predators checked in to let us know that the upper Potomac creeks are producing plenty of fish, including some beautiful slabs. Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow mentioned that crappie harassed his minnow (suspended three feet beneath a bobber) in the Eastern Shore millponds, where there was also an on-again, off-again pickerel bite that was by far best at daybreak and sunset. And Contributor Eric Packard checked in to note crappie, pickerel, and bass biting in the millponds even as it poured down rain this week, as well as at St. Mary’s Lake earlier on. Crankbaits worked well in the millponds, while in the deeper waters of the lake the fish were down farther (13 to 19 feet). That’s something we’d expect to hold true right now in most of the reservoirs and larger lakes in the region and it jibes with the reports from Lake Anna, where jigging deep was responsible for tempting crappie and bass over structure.

fisherman caught some crappie
Crappie are hitting throughout the region. Photo courtesy of Apex Predators.

Anglers fishing in both the Western Shore and Eastern Shore trib creeks also reported a smattering of decent pickerel catches this week, and this species definitely is on a come-back in tidewater areas this season. Again, minnow are a top producer but we also had reports of fish caught on silver swimbaits. The Magothy, Severn, Mattaponi, and Pocomoke were all mentioned as producing chains.

Snake report: we got zero snake reports this week, little wonder with the weather we’ve been having, but remember that a couple nice days and some bright sunshine can trigger a bite in areas that warm up quickly (yes, we’re talking about Blackwater).

Trout report: There are sure to be a few fish still around from fall stockings, and the Maryland DNR continued pouring fish into the water with another 1,550 browns and rainbows going into the catch-and-release area in the Patuxent, in Montgomery County this week. Those ISO wild trout will be happy to hear that the steady precip has brought water levels up, without muddying the waters in most areas. This weekend should provide better conditions than we’ve had in quite a while.


December 5, 2019 Update:

Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow reports that this is a good time to hit the Eastern Shore millponds, where a mix of crappie, bass, and pickerel chewing on minnow suspended two to three feet under a bobber can be hoped for. However strong breezes did make fishing tough at times, and he notes that slow-trolling into the wind (at a crawl) was just about the only way to fish when the wind was up. Good reports also came in from readers probing ponds in southern Maryland and eastern Virginia, where bass were biting strong on Rat-L-Traps, jigs, and Shad Raps.

big largemouth bass
Contributor Eric Packard and friends had a banner day on big bass, in a local pond this week.

Bass in the larger reservoirs have moved into their winter mode of behavior and are now largely in deeper water along drop-offs and structure. Reports from Anna this week indicate a relatively slow bite for bass and stripers, but as in many of the region’s waterways, crappie continue to be an excellent option near deep-water structure for anglers dropping minnow or jigging small tubes. The Tackle Box reported that the crappie bite at St Mary’s lake is fantastic right now, with constant action from fish taking minnows suspended by a bobber. Pickerel are also biting well.

Trout alert: The Department of Natural Resources just keeps on stocking trout in Maryland. 5,350 trout went into Blairs Valley Lake and Greenbrier Lake this week, as well as an additional 900 brown and rainbow trout in the Youghiogheny River.

Snakehead Alert: we heard of few snakes caught this week, but there’s bigger news on this front: the USFW released it’s before-and-after study of fish populations in the Blackwater, comparing pre-snakehead-invasion (2006 and 2007) numbers with current (2018 and 2019) numbers. Read the full report for yourself, but here’s the nutshell version: out of 21 species collected during both surveys, 17 declined in abundance with reductions ranging from 30- to 90-percent. Some species were down dramatically (white perch, killifish, crappie) while there were a few that went up in number (carp, gizzard shad). The bottom-line take-away: “We found significant changes in aquatic community structure for fish and invertebrate fauna in the Blackwater River drainage since the introduction and establishment of the northern snakehead. These changes were evidenced by both significant differences in ranked abundance and relative abundance for multiple species, with differences leading to measurable differences in fundamental attributes of species diversity.”

The study also stated “Efforts to increase mortality of Northern Snakehead will likely need to be taken within Blackwater and Little Blackwater River…” That sound to us like one more reason to try snakehead fishing in the Blackwater.