bluefish1928

current can be the issue a lot of times....... and open water

I live in Annapolis- out of here in a few months. However, with the bay striper bite dead for shoreline fishing until April, I would like to do some freshwater fishing for bass and crappie. The bulk of my Maryland fishing is casting lures for stripers. I grew up doing some shoreline bass fishing back in South Carolina and still enjoy hiking and casing lures. For blue cats, I hit up Fletcher's in DC and take out their rowboats.

this is going to vary depending on your striper technique.... I fish the Chesapeake Bay and was amazed at the diversity of techniques for one darn species.... light tackle jigging 2500 or 3000 spinning reel with 150 yards of 10-20lb braid on a medium heavy or heavy fast action graphite rod- think of your typical bass fishing outfit. I have landed 30 inch+ stripers in under 90 seconds despite the "light" tackle. lure of choice- .5 o 2 oz jighead with a 5-10 inch plastic jerkbait. topwater/big paddle tail lures 4000 or 5000 size spinning reel on a 7-8 ft medium action rod- Shimano Teramar is my favorite. lures- 1-2 oz topwaters, 4-6 inch swim shads live-lining A lot of people have different outfit preference. Fish near structure- go heavy like 30-50# braid. Open water- jigging outfit will be enough. I still think a medium heavy 7ft spinning rod with a live liner reel is the way to go. Stripers do not really fight that hard compared to offshore topwater species. In open water, a 30 pounder should be able to be landed in under 5 minutes on light jigging tackle. However, near structure and bridges, heavy tackle may be required.

roadrunner and beetlespins- they seem to catch everything else as well!

I go with "saltwater conventionals." I use a Daiwa Seagate 50 and Penn Fathom 40 for heavy duty catfishing. They have way more line capacity than you will ever need and powerful drags pressure settings. The only disadvantage is that they will be heavier than typical freshwater baitcasters. Since it is bottom fishing, I do not care about weight. Futhermore, I do a lot of saltwater fishing as well. For spinning reels, I recommend the Penn Fierce. It is perhaps the cheapest full metal frame spinning reel on the market today.

Any recommendations of lakes/ponds of public access in Maryland are are generally productive for bass fishing?