Freshwater Fishing Report, December 31 Update:
Welcome to the final fishing report of 2021! Here’s hoping that 2022 is a better year, both fishing-wise and otherwise. Contributor Eric Packard hit St. Mary’s Lake over the weekend and reported a fairly show bite, with just a pickerel and a crappie to show for it. Later in the week, however, he went over to the Eastern Shore millponds and found plenty of pickerel and largemouth happy to hit both minnow and jerkbaits. AIC Lenny Rudow hit the Salisbury ponds mid-week and reports that the bite was solid, with mostly pickerel plus a few largemouth here and there hitting minnow suspended under bobbers. He notes that recently the bite has been shutting down around 11:00 or noon and then picking back up from around 3:00 on. Three-inch white/purple twitch-baits were also very effective on the pickerel.
Contributor Jim Gronaw reports that the bite in the northern MD/southern PA zone has been great and that December on the whole has been excellent. He says bass have been hitting blade-baits in the chilly water, and some two-plus-pound crappie hit the same offerings the past week. If you're not familiar with fishing these lures check out Jim's recent article Blade Baits for Winter Bass.
The flurry of trout stocking action we saw through the month took a pause for the holidays. However, a ton of stockers were planted prior to Christmas. Here are your links to the stocking webpages:
- Pennsylvania – Fish and Boat Commission stocking schedule
- Maryland – DNR trout stocking map
- Virginia – DWR stocking webpage
What about Deep Creek? A decade ago we’d have almost certainly been giving the first ice reports of the year this week… instead, the stretch between Christmas and New Years includes lows in the 40s and highs in the mid-50s. Sorry, hardwater anglers. The good news is that the boat ramp remains open (we called to make sure and park rangers say it will be open as long as possible, but caution that it may be closed if the lake ices up and conditions become hazardous) and you can now enjoy some seriously good walleye and perch action without one single PWC or tube-tower zinging by through the course of a day. Dropping minnow and/or jigs along deep drop-offs would be the move. In other lake news, jiggers going deep at Lake Anna with metal and resin spoons are taking stripers plus bass here and there. We also had a reader report from an undisclosed Baltimore County lake that casting live shiners from a shoreline point produced largemouth bass.
Anglers seeking to put a big bend in their rods with exceedingly large fish should absolutely, positively head for the upper Potomac, Rappahannock, or James rivers. For several weeks now there’s been a steady stream of monster catfish reports, many photo-documented, of fish from 30 pounds clear up to last week’s gigantic 79.9-pounder (congrats again to Mike, Lou, and Jeff!!). In all cases, the simple method of putting cut fish (choices range from gizzard shad to bluegill, though many swear that the bluegill will work best if fished alive) on bottom in deep holes and along channel edges is doing the trick.
Freshwater Fishing Report, December 23 Update:
Happy holidays, anglers! Best wishes for an awesome celebration and we hope you and your family are looking forward to a fish-filled 2022. But we have one week of fishing in 2021 left, so: We heard little from the reservoirs this week, but what we did hear was good with bass hitting jigs fished deep and stripers in Lake Anna going after metal jigging spoons, also fished deep. The millponds are in their usual winter form, and the AIC reported that between three boats fishing in the Salisbury area the average catch was around a dozen pickerel plus a bass and/or yellow perch or two. Minnow produced most fish but when the bite slowed mid-day jerkbaits began doing all the catching and the minnow went untouched. Red/white tube jigs also accounted for a few of the fish. Contributor Eric Packard managed to hook into a 26.75-inch pickerel, putting him into the lead in multiple categories in the CCA Winter Pickerel Championship.
Oddly, crappie fishing was off for some anglers over the weekend for some reason. Not only were they MIA in the millponds, other anglers Packard and Rudow spoke with who had been to multiple spots including on the Wicomico River as well as in the ponds said it seemed impossible to get a bite. Hopefully that case of lockjaw was a very temporary thing. We did hear of them, however, in some of the Bay tribs later in the week, especially on the Eastern Side. Reports from way up the Pocomoke and Tangier were all-go, and there were some reports of GREAT crappie from anglers using both spinners and minnow. (Yep, we know this seems contradictory - these are fish we're talking about, folks!) Yellow perch could frequently be found alongside them. Some anglers are now beginning to hook up on the yellows, but they haven’t really showed in great numbers.
Trout stocking continues at a fast clip; check the DWR stocking webpage for the specifics in Virginia, the DNR trout stocking map for Maryland, and Pennsylvania’s December stockings can be found at the Fish and Boat Commission stocking schedule.
Freshwater Fishing Report, December 17 Update:
The Angler in Chief says he made the transition to freshwater this past weekend and found that despite high winds the millpond pickerel and bass were more than happy to pounce on minnow fished on white bucktails under a bobber. He noted that the fish were sitting deep in the pond’s channels and offerings suspended just over the bottom did best, but recommends checking your rig often because there’s more weed growth than usual still alive and anything within a foot or so of bottom comes back fouled with some regularity. Contributor Eric Packard visited Idylwild (spot #4 in our 10 Top Shoreline Fishing Spots article) and reported a good bass bite in the ponds on quarter-ounce under-spins and four-inch paddle-tails. Other anglers there were catching a mix of bass and pickerel on minnow. He also hit multiple millponds mid-week and caught good numbers of pickerel, though he noted that everything willing to bite in Unicorn and Tuckahoe was on the small side.
On the trout front, Maryland made a mass deposit in the past week by planting a whopping 6000 golden and rainbow trout split evenly between Lake Habeeb and Greenbrier Lake, 3000 in Blairs Valley Lake, 2000 in the Casslman River, and 3500 in Deep Creek. Then later in the week another 3200 fish hit the water when the Patapsco and Catoctin got their doses. Check the trout stocking map for all the details. Virginia has also been stocking this month in a larger number of varied waterways (too many to list out here) including several urban areas; check the DWR stocking webpage for the specifics. Pennsylvania’s December stocking has been a bit less intense, but you can check the Fish and Boat Commission stocking schedule here to see if any areas near your neck of the woods have received fish lately. For the most part the western rivers and creeks continue to run low and slow presenting rather tough conditions, so chasing these stockers may be an easier task than searching out wild fish at the moment.
We didn’t hear from anyone hitting the northern reservoirs this week, but a reader checked in after fishing Lake Anna, where he found that it was possible to locate schools of stripers on the meter then vertically jig over them with one-ounce spoons and enjoy solid action. We also heard from a reader who hit Deep Creek and said the bite was slow, but just before dusk he caught a couple of walleye bouncing jigs along a sheer mid-lake drop-off from 10 to 30 feet.
Freshwater Fishing Report, December 10 Update:
The action has been up and down over the past week in some freshwater venues, with several readers bemoaning the multiple fronts pushing through and a difficult bite on some species. We had a reader report that even the catfish fishing in the Potomac got tough recently, with low water levels, little current, and bright sunny skies tamping down the bite. We also had two reports from the millponds of lackluster action (five pickerel for one angler, two pickerel and a bass for the other) over the weekend. Later in the week the millpond bite picked up, though, and contributor Eric Packard had a great day on a mix of pickerel of 20 inches and up plus bass while fishing minnow on darts.
In the upper tidal areas of the tribs there are catfish biting, plus catfish and even more catfish. Some are downright huge, and this week we received multiple epic-level reports and pics of fish in the 30- to 50-pound range. As usual we heard the best news coming from the Potomac and the James, but these cats can be found in all the tribs clear on up to the Susquehanna (where there were also good reports this week from the Perryville area).
Also on the river front, though a good piece farther up-river, Contributor Eric Packard turned west instead of east one day early this week, hit the Little Patuxent, and reported low, crystal-clear water and a big, fat skunk. A reader also checked in from the Shenandoah’s south fork and said the water there is low and clear as well and the fish are spooky, but a few smallmouth were willing to slurp up his swimbaits.
Freshwater Fishing Report, December 3 Update:
The millponds proved rather slow following the fronts passing through last weekend, with Contributor Eric Packard reporting that pulling live minnow produced five bass and three pickerel on a mid-shore lake. Other anglers on the lake caught a few bass and pickerel as well, tossing jerkbaits. A reader fishing one of the ponds farther south on the ESMD caught five pickerel up to 23.5 inches, all on minnow. Packard also hit the upper Pax this week and reported a lack of smallmouth, but several trout and fallfish were willing to come out and play.
At Lake Anna, some of the first walleye this season have been caught around rocky areas and Dike Three. Soaking minnows is the most common way to get them out of the water. Minnow are working for crappie as well, which are putting on just an incredible run for anglers right now. We’ve had great reports of them from throughout Maryland and Virginia, on both the eastern and western shores. Generally, crappie have been hanging out along submerged brush, bridge pilings and suspended over creek channels. Largemouth bass are also present in deeper water and off points, moving into cold-weather patterns of behavior. Jerkbaits, Sassy Shads, Hopkins spoons, and jig 'n pigs are all popular for getting them in the boat.
Excellent crappie and largemouth reports came in from the Baltimore area reservoirs this week, as well. Tochterman’s mentioned that largemouth have been highly active and crappie are in no sort of short supply. The reservoirs haven’t been holding up on the pickerel bite, however— multiple anglers headed out this week only hooked up on a couple or totally struck out.