Freshwater Fishing Reports
Freshwater Fishing Report, April 3 Update:
The shad have arrived to the rivers and will offer plenty of catch and release fishing opportunities over the next two months. A reader reported a mediocre shad bite on Mason Springs last weekend, catching seven hickories (plus a couple of herring and small yellow perch) in a few hours of afternoon fishing. He was using a silver spoon/white-pink-chartreuse dart and the dart was the hot ticket for the shad. Contributor Eric Packard had similar results at multiple spots looking for shad recently, with up-and-down action and seven or eight fish the norm. A small gold spoon drew bites. At a couple of areas on the Patuxent that normally produce fish, he drew a blank. He also noted that lots of wind had made fishing tough recently. The shad bite has also been mediocre in Virginia on the upper Rappahannock and James. Hickory shad and a few American shad are being caught near City Docks on the Rapp and near Richmond on the James. One angler reported that a traditional red and white shad dart worked well this week while another angler had success on a gold spoon. The color and lure preferences of shad can change from day to day, so it is best to bring a variety of options with you in your tackle box. We cover all the basics you need to know in our Spring Shad Fishing article.
Eric Packard also spent some time at different area ponds early this week but said the bite was oddly off. Other than a small crappie, he didn’t have any action. Other readers reported similar results in a southern Maryland pond where the spring bite is usually great during warm fronts. Instead, they only managed to catch two crappie and three bass while fishing with minnows. A reader reported good smallmouth action in the Patapsco. They had expected to find some stocked trout, but instead the smallmouth were jumping on their spinners. Mossy Creek Fly Fishing reports that the smallmouth bite has been good on the western rivers as water temperatures have now reached the mid to upper 50s. Now is one of the best times to catch a trophy smallmouth as the big fish are coming out of their wintering holes. Historically productive spring smallmouth baits include suspending jerkbaits, ned rigs, and small swimbaits.
The spring perch runs are in mixed stages as we head into April. The yellow perch spawn is just about wrapped up, but the white perch are now pushing into the upper reaches of the tributaries getting ready to spawn. The Angler in Chief reports a great bite of mixed species was happening in the Patuxent this week a couple miles north of Jug Bay. Using a mix of grass shrimp and minnow fished on darts and Sabikis, he and Contributor Eric Packard caught a couple of yellow perch, a bunch of white perch, some crappie, a channel cat, and an accidental carp. But the best action came while tossing four-inch white flukes into deadfall, which produced one largemouth bass after the next. He noted that the water was exceptionally low and the panfish were hanging in channels, while the bass were all focused around deadfall being hit by current and were on the up-current side of the structure.
