Freshwater Fishing Report, Febuary 2021

Freshwater Fishing Report, February 25 Update:

Trout stocking is now taking place quite literally all over the place. If you want to chase some stockers, here are the links to the latest schedules for each state in our zone:

Delaware (downstate ponds)

Maryland

Pennsylvania

Virginia

angler with a winter bass
John tied into this nice bass while kayak fishing. Photo courtesy of Eric Packard

Warm weather this week has us ready for spring and the long-term forecast is looking up, so we’re hoping that the yellow perch bite will take off in the headwaters of the tribs. The sunshine we’ve had in recent days could set them off and kick things into high gear literally any day now. Meanwhile, this week also concludes the Maryland CCA Pickerel Championship. If you’re hoping in to get a few more inches, the deadline is Sunday!

Despite tough weather last weekend, the pickerel brigade was out in force with FishTalk team-members Zach Ditmars and Eric Packard plus friends on the prowl on the Eastern Shore. The bite was a slow one; Ditmars was swinging the high hook in the millponds with seven fish up to 24.75 inches to his credit, but most of the crew only had one or two. Minnow were the best offering and a few bass and crappie showed up in the catch as well. David Rudow reporter a single pickerel and a crappie on minnow at the southern millponds. Returning mid-week, Packard found a better bass and crappie bite but the pickerel bite was still on the slow side.

Spillways in Delaware and on the DelMarVa Peninsula are producing crappie, and while the perch hadn’t started running full-tilt yet, a few reports did come in this week from lucky anglers. As waters warmed quickly with the recent sunny days, ponds and lakes up and down the Mid-Atlantic have provided some better crappie fishing, including in reservoirs such as Loch Raven and Liberty. Other places mentioned as crappie hotspots included the gravel pit ponds at Idylwild on the Eastern Shore, and Smith Mountain Lake on the western side. Most anglers have been using small minnow for bait.

A staggering number of catfish, whose appetites never seem to be filled, are being caught in the rivers. The bite was up and down as some fronts moved through this week but as a general rule, catfish anglers are doing quite well. If you want to target big catfish in specific, blues are the best shot and the place to be recently has been the Potomac. The Tackle Box let us know that channel edges and holes are good spots to sink cut herring or chicken livers on 8/0 to 10/0 circle hooks. The Rappahannock has also been producing some nice catfish catches. Runoff has all the rivers running high but since the rain and melt has been spaced over several days, most areas aren’t quite as muddied up as they might otherwise be.


Freshwater Fishing Report, February 19 Update:

With much of the Chesapeake shut down due to poor weather conditions, many anglers are turning inland to lakes and ponds across the region for their winter fishing fix. Deep Creek, Lake Anna, and the Mill Ponds have been steady favorites throughout this winter. The ice at Deep Creek is still holding strong, and anglers braving the elements are doing fair fishing through the ice there. Yellow perch, walleye, and crappie have been biting, although not as much as one might like for sitting in below-freezing weather. Minnow on tip-ups were producing decent numbers of yellow perch (six to 12 for groups with a couple dozen or more tip-ups out) plus an occasional walleye or pike for those at Deep Creek, while crappie and sunfish on tiny ice jigs tipped with mealworms were a better bet at Rocky Gap, which was also noted as a good area to be this week. Lake Anna anglers have been experiencing similar mediocre results, with more bass and a few stripers in the mix — but anglers are able to actually cast there. St. Mary’s Lake has also been a relative open-water hotspot for anglers targeting crappie and fliers, both are being caught around structure in deeper waters on small minnow and a shad dart. However, we also heard from anglers who braved the weather there this week but came home empty-handed.

massive tiger musky
One ice-catch of serious note this week - angler Casey Kamp managed to elevate this 44.5-inch tiger musky up through the ice of western Maryland. Awesome fish Casey, that's a once-in-a-lifetime catch!

Contributor Eric Packard hit several Eastern Shore millponds this week, catching a relatively thin mix of pickerel and bass. However, he didn’t have minnow and noted that he spoke with other anglers who did, and they seemed to be enjoying a better bite. They also had crappie, in addition to the bass and pickerel.

Catfish hunters on the Potomac, Rappahannock, and James are finding that the catfish bite has been holding up. We heard from a couple of anglers who broke the cabin fever this past week on warm days and caught excellent numbers of mid-sized cats in the Potomac just downriver of DC, on cut bait set on bottom. Rappahannock River angler Bryan Mastrup headed out multiple times again this week, and landed a slew of large cats on vacuum-sealed frozen gizzard shad (yum!). Mastrup landed two cats in the 30-pound range, with the largest being a solid 37.2 pounds, and 43.25 inches long. He also got into a few cats in the 20-plus pound range. Another great week, Bryan! Catch em up!


Freshwater Fishing Report, February 12 Update:

An actual ice fishing season continues at Deep Creek(!!!), where anglers hitting the hardwater are enjoying catches of yellow perch, bass, and walleye. We had one reader who checked in this week to let us know that they’ve been landing between six and 10 yellow perch on trips, as well as one or two walleye. Dropping minnows is great for both species, and yellow perch will take little mealworm-tipped shad darts, as well.

ice fishing at deep creek
William Moniodis and crew had plenty of fun and plenty of success punching holes at Deep Creek the past week.

At Lake Anna, where contributor Eric Packard made a foray last weekend, there were schools of shad near The Splits and also near Dike Three, birds working, and fish on the meter… but the stripers were behaving with a high degree of lockjaw. He heard tell of some fish being caught in the past few days but came up blank and spoke with several anglers singing the same tune. There was chatter that a very early start in the morning — very, very early — was a key to encountering biting fish.

Over on the Lower Shore the Angler in Chief, FishTalk kayak sharpie Zach Ditmars, and Contributor Eric Packard all tried the millponds this past week, with pickerel offering up fair action and quite a few bass hitting as well. Slow-trolling four-inch paddle tails and drifting minnow under bobbers both proved effective. Rudow noted that for whatever reason, the crappie haven’t been cooperative recently and reports that a couple of anglers he spoke with who were fishing specifically for them went home disappointed. Mid-week fishing in difficult weather proved much the same, with a slower bite but pickerel hitting paddletails, minnow, and white/chartreuse Roadrunners. This weekend marks the third-to-last before the CCA Maryland Pickerel Championship closes out — we saw some places change over this past weekend, and are sure the leader board will get shaken up again over the next few weeks. It’s never too late to join the Championship! A couple good fish over the next few weekends could get you on the leaderboard.


Freshwater Fishing Report, February 5 Update:

Well folks, winter weather shut down fishing in many areas this week but opened them up in others as ice fishing became a possibility for the first time in a couple of years. Angler-in-Chief Lenny Rudow headed out to Deep Creek Lake, where after a long day on Pawn starting with nine-degree weather, then a move to the state park area, he found the dreaded ice-skunk (37 hand-augured holes later). Other anglers on the lake found themselves not facing the same defeat, however, and several anglers reported catching a few yellow perch and walleye on minnow, as well as some bass on the jig near shallow structure. Deep Creek was frozen to seven inches in the southern coves, and in the cove at the State Park.

ice fishing kids
Ice fishing was a bust for some, but not for all! Photo courtesy of Bobby Van Dyke

On the Eastern Shore, the mill ponds were covered in a light skim last weekend but opened up late this week. FishTalk contributor Eric Packard hit the mill ponds and found that a few fish were biting. Packard caught eight pickerel up to 23.5-inches on four-inch paddle tails.

We received zero intel from any of the local reservoirs this week, from the Baltimore watersheds to Lake Anna. Same goes on the trout front. Zip. Zero. Nada. Sorry folks, sometimes in February with weather like this, that’s the way it goes.