Freshwater Fishing Reports

Freshwater Fishing Report, August 21 Update:

Snakehead fishing remains strong despite fewer fry balls than expected, with Blackwater and Potomac tributaries producing fish around grass and sunken wood. Largemouth bass and crappie are also providing steady action in St. Mary's Lake and other reservoirs, while recent rains have improved conditions for mountain trout and sparked an excellent topwater smallmouth bite in several Shenandoah-area rivers. Blue catfish are another standout, with one Mallows Bay jug-fishing crew boating an impressive 57 fish in just a few hours.

A subscriber hitting the Blackwater for snakeheads said the bite has been great, and an eighth-ounce EWG with a four-inch white or pink swimbait was the hot bait this week. He also noted that he’s been seeing fewer fry balls than expected, but casting around sunken wood structure has been very effective. A reader fishing on a Potomac Tributary this week said that the hot weather had snakeheads active in the grasses this week. They caught eight on one trip while fishing with topwater frogs. They also mentioned that there has been a lack of fry balls recently in several of the areas they fish. Contributor Eric Packard reports a steady bite for bass in the area reservoirs, with eight hookups during a short trip to St. Mary’s Lake early this week. Red dice baits and watermelon wacky worms did the trick. Some crappie were biting too, with small white twister tails tempting them into striking. Packard took another trip to the lake but decided to try catching fish on his fly rod. He caught 10 crappie, a largemouth bass, a yellow perch, a pickerel, and seven bluegill. The fish were caught over grass in four to eight feet of water using a fly popper, a black ghost streamer, and a 1/32-ounce twister tail jig. A subscriber recommended throwing 1/16th ounce jigheads with inch-long Gulp! Minnow on ultralights if crappie are the desired target. He said he’s been pulling up a dozen or so per trip at the Waterworks Park, along with some bass and bluegills.

Mossy Creek Fly Fishing reports that anglers in their area are enjoying the benefits of some recent rain, but that they could use more. The mountain trout fishing has been good in the drainages that have received significant rain, but conditions vary across the Shenandoah region. They report that the Dry River and North River should have fishable waters for a few days. Productive flies are  attractor dries and nymphs with little yellow sallys, ants, and beetles. The tricos are showing up in the morning, and the hexbugs are going strong all day and in the evenings. Hoppers, crickets, and beetles are everywhere, and there may be some streamer fishing opportunities if more rain comes through the region. The smallmouth fishing in the larger freshwater rivers such as the South Fork of the Shenandoah, main Shenandoah, South River, and North River has really turned on the past few days with anglers reporting a good topwater bite. Cooler weather in the forecast will hopefully keep the bites going strong.

Catfishing is a great option this time of year in the brackish sections of our tidal rivers. The Chesapeake Bay tributaries from the Susquehanna River down to the James River all have blue catfish that can be caught in their upriver sections. The most productive rivers for blue catfish are the Susquehanna, Patuxent, Choptank, Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James. General hotspots along these rivers are Port Deposit, Washington D.C., Jug Bay, Fort Washington, Port Royal, West Point, and Richmond. Eric Packard checked in after a day of jug fishing with a few friends at Mallows Bay on the Potomac River. Their group of eight anglers fished for a few hours in the middle of the day near the ghost ship fleet. The jugs were baited with eel or alewife, and the action was swift right from the start. Packard spotted fish on the meter, dropped his first jug, and it immediately took off. Their crew ended up catching 57 blue catfish and a white perch near the wrecks. This style of fishing is a ton of fun, and a great way to remove invasive blue catfish from our waters. Blue catfish in the three to 10-pound range are very active this time of year. All it takes to catch them is some fresh cut bait such as bunker, eel, chicken, or any variety of meat.

Freshwater Fishing Report, August 14 Update:

Snakehead fishing remains strong across the region, particularly around thick vegetation and marsh edges on Potomac tributaries. With another month or so of peak snakehead opportunities ahead, topwater frogs, chatterbaits, and swimbaits should remain productive choices. Our region's ponds, lakes, and reservoirs are producing bass and crappie, while summer thunderstorms could provide the flow increases needed to improve mountain trout fishing in low, clear streams.

FishTalk contributor Eric Packard checked in after a few fishing trips this week. One day, he took his grandson kayak fishing to St. Mary’s Lake. They caught a mix of crappie and bass while casting ⅛ ounce jigs with twister tails and topwater American Snakehead Customs Froglets in Black N’ Blue and Snek Flash. On another trip, he visited Western Branch on the Patuxent River to kayak fish for bass. He got on the water around noon and found water temperatures around 84 to 86 degrees. Packard cast topwater American Snakehead Custom Froglets and their Gold Mine Apex Blade, a Tum Dinger wacky rig in watermelon, and a blue and black single blade spinnerbait. He caught five largemouth bass and a channel catfish. He also mentioned that he had to keep moving locations because he kept running into nine-inch striped bass. There is currently a “no target” closure on striped bass for all Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries for the month of August, so it is best to move areas if you are getting them as bycatch. However, it is good to hear that there are some younger year classes around.

Apex Predators guide service reports that the snakehead bite on the Potomac River has been going strong this month. He has also found more species in the mix, including largemouth bass, channel catfish, and white perch. August is the month when we start getting on the back half  of peak summer snakehead fishing because once the cooler weather starts to roll in this fall, the bite will begin to slow. We should have at least another month of good fishing opportunities for them across the region. Their anglers have been catching fish along the edges of emergent vegetation and over submerged aquatic grass. There are several tributaries on the Potomac River that host great snakehead fishing, which include Mattawoman Creek, Pomonkey Creek, Potomac Creek, Aquia Creek, and several others. The patterns present on the Potomac will be similar to other areas in the region, including the Susquehanna Flats and Blackwater area. Snakeheads will be concentrated in areas with thick vegetation, so topwater frogs are still the top lure choices. Along marsh edges or deeper channels where there is open water, chatterbaits and swimbaits are excellent choices.

Mossy Creek Fly Fishing reports that current fishing conditions have been challenging from the low and clear conditions across much of the region. They reported that the Dry River and North River were up and fishable last week thanks to some of the summer thunderstorms that rolled through. If some of these storms move through areas where the mountain streams are located, the brook trout will be eager to feed when the creeks get a bump in flow. Ants, beetles, and attractor dry flies in sizes 14 to 16 should work. Tricos will continue to hatch on the spring creek, and ants, beetles, hoppers, and crickets will be in play for the next two months.

Freshwater Fishing Report, August 7 Update:

Freshwater anglers are enjoying solid summertime action for smallmouth and largemouth bass, snakehead, crappie, and bluegill across the region. River smallmouth has been particularly active around feeding windows, with topwater and small baitfish presentations producing when conditions are right. Mountain and spring creeks are also offering good opportunities, with terrestrial patterns producing trout as summer flows remain near typical August levels.

Fishing the area rivers has been good, and a subscriber wade-fishing the upper Patuxent said smallmouth, sunfish, fall fish, and a largemouth hit small grubs fished on jigheads. Green was a productive color. Contributor Eric Packard also went up the Patuxent this week and tried casting the new “dice” lures (in this case a small Yamamoto Uni in watermelon/black flake) that have taken off in popularity with the bass crowd. He reports they were quite effective, rigged on a 1/8th ounce Ned rig, for both bass and bluegill. Packard noted that the larger sized Yamamoto got lots of hits and misses from fish too small to eat the lure. Casting a wacky worm rig and a blade-bait also accounted for several bass out of a dozen caught. FishTalk contributor Adam Greenberg checked in after spending an evening fishing on the Susquehanna River for smallmouth bass. He reported that the bite was killer during the hour leading up to sunset. The fish were feeding heavily on shad, and a three-inch white paddletail was getting a lot of bites. Once the sun went down, they didn’t get another bite for three hours. He beat the bank with whopper ploppers, jerk baits, ned rigs, and paddletails without any action. Adam also mentioned that there must have been a recent mayfly hatch because the adults were everywhere peppering them while running the river, and by the time they got off the water, the boat was carpeted in them.

FishTalk contributor Eric Packard took a few more freshwater trips this week as well. One day he fished St. Mary’s Lake, catching 11 largemouth bass, one snakehead, one crappie, and five bluegill while using a four-weight fly rod. He also hooked another snakehead, but it popped off next to his kayak. He caught his fish on Catching on American Snakehead Customs 4” Froglet, Yamamoto Uni dice bait in watermelon with black flake on a 1/8oz Ned rig jig, and a Rapala Shallow Shad Rap. Another day, he fished a pond right off the Patuxent River and caught a 28.75” snakehead using an American Snakehead Customs 3/8-ounce Apex Blade in the Gold Mine color. He also caught a blue catfish on a watermelon-colored wacky worm. Adam Greenberg sent in another late week report and said that he has been hopping around to some ponds in the Annapolis area and Eastern Shore when he can get out. Crappie and bluegill are easy to come by, and largemouth bass are willing to take slower moving baits like senkos and live minnows under a bobber. He has also seen snakeheads almost everywhere he goes, but he has not been able to get them to bite.

Mossy Creek Fly Fishing reported that current water levels are hovering around average for August in their local valleys. This means that anglers should expect flows to be low pretty much everywhere, but that’s normal for this time of year. Mountain streams are flowing much stronger this week on the east side of the Blue Ridge mountains where more rain fell last weekend. Higher elevation streams like Dry River, Skidmore Fork, and North River will have some fishable pools but will fish better after another big shot of rain. The spring creeks have good water flows, and the terrestrial fishing is strong. Ants, beetles, hoppers, and tricos are in play. Rainy days should provide good streamer fishing as well. The bass fishing on their area rivers has also been good, and it should be another two months of peak summer fishing. Topwater action has been solid on stable weather days and prefrontal days, but cold front days, anglers will need to finesse fish with smaller flies and slower presentations.