Freshwater Fishing Reports

Freshwater Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, January 14 Update:

Between the cold, the slush, and a pretty sub-par week of angling effort, this week’s report will be as skimpy as you probably guessed. Still, there is a bit of action to report on. Pickerel are a freshwater favorite right now. Eastern Shore millponds that aren’t iced over have had a few anglers on them slow trolling minnows and fishing them under bobbers. Last weekend Contributor Eric Packard reported that some were partially iced but still partially fishable, producing a handful of pickerel and a few bass, but the incoming cold blast is a big roll of the dice on future accessibility.

So… is it time to think about heading west for some ice fishing? As we put the report together Deep Creek still hadn’t frozen over in the main lake but coves have a couple-few inches of ice in many places. The weather report doesn’t call for temperatures rising above freezing for the next week, so the prospects look very good for hard-water angling in the near future.

Sorry folks, but we got zero reports from sources tapping into the trout and/or river fisheries this week. Some minor stocking did take place this week (Morgan Run and the Patapsco in Maryland’s Carroll County); scroll down to last week’s report if you want to click through the links to the different state’s stocking web pages.

Freshwater Mid-Atlantic Fishing Report, January 7 Update:

Welcome to 2022 anglers! As the new year dawns we have plenty of fishing to do despite the chill in the air, though the recent weather has put a bit of a crimp in the gathering intel department. Still, the trout that have been released into Mid-Atlantic waters by state authorities provide a sure-fire opportunity if you check out where the fish have been planted:

• Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission stocking schedule
• Maryland DNR trout stocking map
• Virginia DWR stocking schedule

On the wild trout front, as 2021 closed out Mossy Creek’s final forecast of the year was happy to see all that rain moving in as the increase in water flow should give a boost to anglers casting streamers; prior to the precipitation western stream and river water levels had been low and trout fishing grew pretty tough.

Reports from the Eastern Shore of winter fishing at the millponds continued to be strong right up to the storm, with pickerel headlining the action. FishTalk’s kayak fishing guru Zach Ditmars spent time floating around over there during the holiday and reported that minnow did the trick, not only producing pickerel but also some nice crappie. Contributor Eric Packard gave a similar report, racking up over a dozen and a half fish in an outing with three surpassing citation size on a mix of minnow and jerkbaits. Angler’s notes that a number of their customers have been heading to Unicorn, Smithville, Tuckahoe, and Johnson’s.