Fish Lines
Hall's Restaurant in Ocean City is again hosting the Ocean City Reef Foundation dinner. It is May 4 from 5 to 8 with an all-you-can-eat dinner. There will be silent and live auctions with a vast assortment of items, the proceeds of which help fund the foundation's activities. For more information, visit www.ocreeffoundation.com/main.html.
Two boats tied up in West Ocean City at Fisherman's Marina are scheduled to be towed out and sunk as part of the Reef Foundation's ongoing program. One is a very robust steel Army T-boat that should provide excellent habitat for tautog and sea bass. The other is smaller at 45 feet but will serve equally well. The latter was ballasted with four cubic yards of concrete, which means the tide will never drag the wreckage away. What is unique about these boats is how they'll be sunk. The Coast Guard is going to use them for target practice.
What's the Catch?
Washington & Vicinity
TIDAL POTOMAC RIVER -- It was a great week of largemouth bass fishing, primarily in the river's District of Columbia segment and some creeks to the south. Mattawoman Creek, mouth of Aquia and Chickamuxen creeks, Bryans Cove and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge area produced largemouths ranging from 12 to 18 inches. Tube lures, spinnerbaits and shad imitations and crankbaits have been most effective when fished early and late. Look for major spawning activity this week if the weather remains warm and dry. White perch and hickory shad arrived in the faster-moving waters near and above Fletcher's Landing, both of which can be taken while casting small shad darts and streamer flies. Washington Channel and some nearby creek mouths provided anglers with good numbers of channel catfish to 10 pounds. Nearly all were taken on bottom-fished cut herring baits, chicken livers and night crawlers.
UPPER POTOMAC RIVER -- While the river is still well above normal, water quality during the past few days has improved. Another week of relatively dry weather should provide anglers with good smallmouth bass action at Whites Ferry, Edwards Ferry, Lander, Point of Rock and the deeper pools near Brunswick.
SUSQUEHANNA RIVER (PA.) -- The river is still high and a bit muddy in the main stem, but fishable at the mouths of major tributaries upriver of Harrisburg. Much of the past week's smallmouth action came from the Juniata River's mouth where dark-colored tube lures enticed strikes from smallmouth bass to five pounds and walleye to four pounds.
Maryland
TRIADELPHIA AND ROCKY GORGE RESERVOIRS -- Jerry Sauter of Baltimore was casting a Bass Assassin in Triadelphia Reservoir when he hooked and landed a 10-pound 1.5-ounce tiger muskie, and a 12-pound 8.5-ounce striped bass. The upper reaches of both impoundments have cleared nicely. Fair numbers of spawning crappie can be found in the coves and white perch should become active soon.
LOCH RAVEN RESERVOIR -- Sunday's boating anglers returned to Loch Raven Fishing Center with good reports of catch-and-release fishing for largemouth bass and chain pickerel from the larger coves, locations where tube lures, spinnerbaits and shallow-running crankbaits were effective. Shorebound anglers fishing with live minnows suspended beneath small floats caught crappie to 12 inches while working the waters just above Dulaney Valley Bridge and just downlake of Warren Bridge. These fish are just beginning to spawn and fairly easy to catch if you're lucky enough to find patches of open bottom where they spawn.
MARYLAND TROUT STREAMS -- Trout fishing really picked up. Traditional baits such as night crawlers, whole kernel corn and Velveeta cheese rolled into pea-size pellets produced the lion's share of rainbow trout ranging from 10 to 15 inches in length. A few fish were taken on artificials as well, but water temperatures will have to climb a few more degrees to trigger good aquatic insect hatches, which should improve fly-fishing catches.
Virginia
LAKE ANNA -- While largemouth bass action was excellent in most of the impoundment's larger tributaries, big fish were a bit scarce until this past week. The shallows seem to be alive with bass, fish weighing two to seven pounds, many with bloody tails from fanning out nests and most are extremely aggressive. Allen Carter of Fredericksburg caught two bass weighing five and six pounds, respectively. Jeremy Repa of New Market, Va., was plugging the shallows when he caught one that tipped the scales at 6 pounds 4 ounces. Striped bass action was fantastic last weekend. Water temperatures climbed about five degrees, triggering a feeding binge that put lots of five- to nine-pound stripers in the coolers of anglers fishing near Jett Island, The Splits, mouth of Contrary Creek and several other uplake locations. Most were taken on four-inch, pearl-colored Sassy Shad rigged to half-ounce leadheads and cast to depths of eight to 15 feet close to shore during the early morning hours. Those who fished in the middle of the day opted to troll deep-diving crankbaits, which at some locations lured the largest fish of the season. Local angler Dan Trimble nailed a 16-pound 9-ouncer last week.
KERR RESERVOIR -- The impoundment is beginning to get back to normal, crappie are still schooled in the shallows, and local youngsters had a ball catching slabsides to 12 inches while suspending small minnows beneath floats and fishing near submerged brush piles. Trollers managed to sink their hooks into a few stripers over the past weekend, while plug casters working the larger coves with spinnerbaits, shallow-running crankbaits and small topwater plugs caught some largemouth bass to four pounds.
SHENANDOAH RIVER -- Conditions were good for smallmouth bass and panfish action near Bentonville Bridge, locations where anglers drift-fished the river in canoes, inflatables and jonboats last weekend and reported moderate success. Most caught smallmouth bass to two pounds, catfish of similar sizes and a mix of sunfish and bluegills.
Chesapeake Bay
UPPER BAY -- The Chesapeake's upper reaches are still quite muddy, however, weekend anglers managed to overcome the conditions by striper fishing with live herring at the Susquehanna Flats near Red Point, Turkey Point and the deep trough in front of the VA Hospital at Perryville. The North East River's upper reaches provided anglers with a mix of channel catfish to 12 pounds, plus fair numbers of crappie to 10 inches, most of which were caught near Town Park Pier. Anglers fishing from the shores of Elk Neck State Park caught lots of white perch ranging from six to 15 inches while dunking bloodworms. Similar-size perch were also found in the C&D Canal as far east as Chesapeake City, the mouth of the Bohemia River and the Susquehanna River's lower reaches just above I-95 bridge. Hickory shad entered the mouth of Deer Creek and some have been seen, but not caught, swirling below the decks of Stafford Road bridge. Water temperatures in the creek should be high enough by midweek for fly rodders to begin hooking these tiny cousins of tarpon. Chester River anglers caught lots of channel catfish to 10 pounds while dunking chunks of cut herring beneath Chestertown's Route 213 bridge, and downriver near the mouth of Langford Creek. White perch to 10 inches are still schooled near Millington, where bottom-fished bloodworms, night crawlers and pieces of clam snout proved productive.
BAY BRIDGES AREA -- The bay is still muddy here, but there were some scattered catches of white perch reported in the Magothy River's upper reaches, and across the bay in Kent Narrows, locations where bottom-fished bloodworms and live minnows lured perch to 12 inches.
CHOPTANK RIVER AREA -- Good numbers of white perch were caught at Wye Mills and Tuckahoe, most of which were small males that hit bottom-fished bloodworms, night crawlers and shad darts fished in the shallows. Local charter captains fished the bay's western channel edge with large umbrella rigs trimmed with white and chartreuse Sassy Shad, lures that lured striped bass to 40 inches. A 57-inch striper estimated at 60 pounds inhaled a piece of cut herring intended for catfish in the Choptank River just above the town of Choptank. The fish was released immediately after being photographed.
