Freshwater Fishing Reports

Freshwater Fishing Report, March 6 Update:

Pre-spawn bites are starting to shape up, but the up and down weather patterns have made for a finnicky bite at times. Contributor Eric Packard reports that a recent trip to St. Mary’s Lake produced a mix of pickerel, crappie, and bass. A jerkbait and a tandem rig with small bucktail jigs and plastics proved effective in the chilly water, which ranged from 42 to 46 degrees. The eight to 16’ of water range was best, with many fish holding deep. FishTalk’s Zach Ditmars spent a couple of days at the Eastern Shore millponds in the Salisbury area last weekend, and said the fishing was surprisingly slow in multiple ponds. He had to work hard to catch a couple of bass and four pickerel up to 24” while fishing minnow on underspin jigs and Tin Man shad darts. X-raps, paddletails, and spinners garnered no bites. He spoke with several other anglers who had either skunked or caught just a fish or two. Water temps had actually dropped after a slight warmup last week, so a few warm days should hopefully turn that slow action around.

The perch runs are getting started across the state, and this week we heard that white perch are moving up the rivers of the Eastern Shore. There have been scattered reports of white and yellow perch coming in from the Choptank and Chester rivers. The warm temperatures in the forecast for this weekend and early next week are sure to kick things into high gear. Trout stockings continued this week with several previously stocked ponds and lakes receiving a second round of stockings in Maryland. Virginia trout stocking operations are also keeping their crews busy as they get fish out across the state. As the weather turns warmer, these fish will provide excellent opportunities for anglers of all skill levels to get in on some high percentage catching. Trout fishing is an excellent way to introduce young kids to the sport because they are relatively easy to catch and usually eager to bite. We had a few reports from an angler fishing in the southern region of Maryland where he said gold spinners have been the hot lure. They also mentioned that Berkley Powerbait Floating Mouse Tails seem to be the preferred bait for casting out and letting your rod sit. Good ole fashion Powerbait will work too, but the mouse tails seem to be the hot item. The start of meteorological spring was on March 1st, and daylight savings is this Sunday, March 8th, so we are finally kissing goodbye to winter and looking onward to bigger and better fishing opportunities.