Maryland's Who's who!

[Basser714]

AHHHH! Good for you. I was stuck on shore roaming the forests. 

[Hellbenderman]

What I caught today could be caught from shore. There were people shore fishing all around me, but it was just kids for blue gills, or people fishing poorly...hahaha. No kidding, up the creek there are plenty of places for shore access, but you have to drive around the lake and get there through the apartments, there are walkways. Do it.

[basspro15]

im going to the tidal potomac tomorrow.  Heading out around 5am.  Im launching out of marshall hall.  Hopefuly the water temp is up n we get into some fish! sounds like hellbender had a good outing! Ill give an update when I return.  Wish me luck! im gona need it!

[basser89]

There is no easy way to say this, but between four and seven this afternoon at BH I caught 16 bass, including a 5.5, a 4.5, a couple 3s , a couple 2s and so forth. All were caught in a 1/4 mile stretch. I have the pictures, which I am going to send to Sean because I haven't the slightest idea how to put them up and he probably does. If you don't want to put them up, Sean, that's ok, too. Just nice to be verified. All you need to know, I told you yesterday. All were caught in under 4 feet of water. The time is now!

Dang! I knew I shoulda went back to BH this evening! Fished the "stick ups" at lunch today and got blanked. Hit the canal at PEPCO this evening and managed one small one on a spinnerbait, no other action. I'll post the piics shortly Chris!    Congrats on your outing! Sounds like fun!!!

Wishing I could get the boat down there this weekend but have to head to PA for Mom's b-day.

[basser89]

Here's Hellbenderman's pics! Congrats again! Oh, and I know EXACTLY where you were!   

[basser89]

Last one. 

[brian_82]

Those are some nice fish. Hopefully I will be able to get out to my local hole this weekend.

[basser89]

Good luck this weekend Brian_82 and basspro15! Catch a couple for me!

btw, there were several more pics Hellbenderman sent me, I just put up the bigger ones!    I believe total, there were about 15.

[Boett43]

What did you get them on Hellbenderman? were they on their beds

[Hellbenderman]

Nothing was on bed yet. Little males were quite aggressive and glued to dense cover. So, they may go on bed soon but just up in this creek. This is a food game, as well as a mating game. It has to be warm enough for plankton to grow before the little minnows come in to feed on it, and then the predators just follow the food. All that food is being concentrated in the warm areas along the shore. It's like an all you can eat buffet. That area is as much as nine degrees warmer than the rest of the lake and the food factory has started. There were minnows all over the place. The food factory has not started in the rest of the lake yet. There is no food close to shore in most of the lake, so there are no fish. I think the temp out in the middle may be around 55-56 by the end of the day, even the lake just outside the creek was 56. Up the creek...63-69. I caught some smaller ones at first and wondered if this was going to be a five dink day, but as time went by, larger ones moved in. I think some cloud cover that moved in helped, and the sun getting low. They want to come to shore and they are aggressive. I used one lure the entire time, but only because it caught the first one, and then it caught another one and then...why switch. It was a weightless senko, but I was dying to try a spinner bait or a fluke. I'd go later than earlier. Have fun.

[Hellbenderman]

ooops...temp up creek was 63-65

[JigMe]

Fished at centennial lake today for 6 hours. man, the weather is so nice but I couldn't land a bass. However, I did manage to "hook" this one with a crankbait.

[Smiths.R]

Fished Loch Raven yesterday and today.  My buddy caught two small ones yesterday, both around 13'' or so.  The sun FINALLY came out today, so I went over and I'm glad I did.  Not much action at all, but I did land an 18'' LM.  She was in about 3 feet of water, near some cover.  Every hit I got today was on a 4'' green Senko.  The water is starting to get warm, so I would assume the beds will start showing up as well. 

[wv]

My son and I got out at Dam #4 on WV side. Caught a decent 16 inch or so LM right at boat ramp. Used a YUM Tube in green pumpkin neon with a split shot. We took pictures...or thought we did. :-[ My son had camera set to take video not picture.  I tried to put them on computer to post and that's when I found out they were video clips. Then I thought I stored them in a file and deleted from my camera. Went back to PC and now there gone. :'( We'll try and get better. River was clear but really rolling. Lots of people both sides. Only saw the fish I caught and another guy caught a SM on a live minnow. Two guys in boat said they caught two nice SM another smaller one. Saw lots of jumpers...thought they were bass but was told they were likely suckers spawning. Still looked like bass to me. Try and get pictures next time. We're going out today to a local pond and hope to see some bedded LM.

[Smiths.R]

Is the Potomac still really high?  Thinking about getting down there this Friday.  Loch Raven is warming up.  Fish are starting to cruise the shallows. 

[basser89]

Is the Potomac still really high? Thinking about getting down there this Friday. Loch Raven is warming up. Fish are starting to cruise the shallows.

I just checked, the Potomac is running about 2-2 1/2' above normal flow. So it's up, but not too bad.

[Smiths.R]

Thanks Basser.

Spawn will be happening soon at the Loch.  Saw quite a few fish cruising the shallows this evening.  Caught a nice one too!  15'' or so...didn't have a tape with me.

[basspro15]

I just got back from fishing the gunpowder.  I launched from mariner point in joppatown.  Water temp was about 65 degrees.  Caught a few small ones, nothing to talk about. Plenty of activity in the shallows but I think they have already spawned in there. I saw tons of small fish swimming around. couldnt exactley tell what they were. Im gona try to get back there tomorrow b4 this front starts coming in on thursday.  I also went to the tidal potomac on saturday.  Water temp was 55.  It was supposed to b sunny n hot, however the sun didnt show up till about 1.  I caught 2 2lb largemouth around 2pm fishing the docks w a green senko.  Sounds like from other post the bass are liking the it. 

[Hellbenderman]

Went back to Black Hills today. Retraced my steps from last time and returned to the left side creek.

Got there about 3. The main lake temp was way up to 67. That's ten degrees since last Thursday. That didn't take long. So I tried a few places along the way but got nada. As soon as I turned that first right hand corner in the creek I picked up two in the next hundred yards...dinks...one more on the opposite side and one more at the big tree after the standing trees...dinks. This took from 3-6. Between 6 and 7:30 I fished the rock pile and beyond. Got nothing beyond, but took eight off the rock pile. They come in late in the day. Most of these were dinks. Three fish out of eight may have weighed 2 lbs. Kept waiting for some bigger ones to move on to the rocks, but it never happened. So, numbers were great, but size was lacking. The rest of the lake should be ready to explode. Lost several senkos to muskies on the rocks. That sucked. Kinda surprised me to find them that far back. So, for awhile I will start using a very fine mire leader. Never seened to hurt in the past, but I haven't really had a problem with muskies the past few years. I did try out a new lure, and was favorably impressed, as it took two off the rocks...a Sebile Magic Swimmer...the hard bait in the 5" size. The first fish wasn't much larger than the lure. What are they thinking? It has a nice snake like wiggle. A bit pricey, but I can see why people like them and it will get some more use. Did not see anything on bed. I got out and walked along the shore a ways, and didn't see any beds yet.

[BrianinMD]

Was at one of the back coves at Black Hills on Monday night after work. Found dozens of male bass up close to shore, and numerous large females cruising around. They were not hanging around any specific cover just cruising around, and multiple times saw groups of females in 5-6 feet of water just hanging under the surface. Problem was they would not look at anything I threw and I watched them swim by bait fish with no reaction to them. I tried everything I could think of and managed a 14in and an 18in. The 14in was on a c-rigged rage lizard, and the 18in was on a slider head with a zoom finesse worm.

Saw several in the 7lb range, would lay the lizard in the area were they were cruising and twitch it when they came close. Got there attention for a couple seconds then they would move away again.

[Smiths.R]

I had a similar situation at Loch Raven today.  Saw probably 20 small males cruising in about two feet of water, and a good number of big females, but they were not interested in anything.  Caught a small bass and a pickerel, and lost three bass.  Beds will be showing up soon I think.

[basser89]

Beds will be showing up soon I think.

With new moon right around the corner and the water temps everyone keeps posting, I'd say this weekend to early next week! 

[BrianinMD]

Will be interesting to see what happens when it cools down to the low 60's friday and this weekend.

Was at my bass club meeting today, one of the other members fish BH today and he apparently did very well including several 3-4 pound bass.

[basser89]

Sweet! Hopefully they keep chuggin away! I'll hit there at lunch time tomorrow (and MAYBE after work).

As of now, I'll be on Black Hills saturday. My brother is coming down from PA to fish it with me. There's a chance he won't make it. If that happens, I'd have an open seat for someone. I'll keep everyone posted on that.

[Basser714]

I worked the Potomac just north of chain bridge during lunch. The river was a bit high and cloudy. In my hour there, I only saw a small small jump out of the water. There were some tiny bait fish near shore at least. There arent many smalls there, but the few i got last year were big.

A buddy reported some action on the BH south side... the water is warming up fast I imagine, but do expect action to slow down just a tad with the cooler weather predicted.