Freshwater Fishing Report, December 5 Update:
FishTalk’s Zach Ditmars spent some of the holiday weekend hitting the ponds dotting the Delaware section of the Eastern Shore but said the pickerel bite was tepid, and the weather made fishing tough. Only a handful of fish, up into the low 20-inch range, were willing to hit. A reader reported similar results in a millpond on the Shore's southern reaches, where the pickerel bite had shut down cold with the sudden chill in the air. However, he did pick up a nice largemouth on a chatterbait. Contributor Eric Packard checked in and reported that he fished Stony Creek for a few hours last week, looking for pickerel. There was very little tide movement, and he had no bites nor marked any fish on the meter. This week, he fished St. Mary’s Lake with similar results. No luck fishing for pickerel, so he switched to look for crappie. He found several schools of fish in 18’ to 20’, but the bites were light and hard to come by. Packard landed only one crappie after three hours of fishing.
We recently received a few reports from anglers targeting crappie across the region. The bite seems to be good in the tidal rivers up and down the Bay. The Pocomoke River has been fishing very well for crappie and several other species, including largemouth bass, yellow perch, and pickerel. Crappie have been enticed by minnows tipped onto panfish jigs and either trolled behind the boat or suspended under a bobber. Another report of solid crappie action came in from the Northeast River, where the angler caught over 20 on Gulp! minnows tipped on sabiki rigs. Some large bluegill were biting as well. The central Maryland reservoirs would also be good locations to search for crappie during the colder months. As the nights get colder, we may start dealing with ice on ponds, lakes, and creeks, so keep an eye out for that.