Maryland's Who's who!

[Junger]

Anyone in or near Oxford? I’m here for a week renting a house on the water (S Morris St). Got into some white perch but hoping for some intel to maybe get into some specs. 

[Junger]

Got 5 this morning at Mattawoman after getting skunked there Saturday. White Keitech Noisy Flapper was the ticket today.

 

Best of the 5:

[MountainMan83]

1 hour ago, Junger said:

Got 5 this morning at Mattawoman after getting skunked there Saturday. White Keitech Noisy Flapper was the ticket today.

 

Best of the 5:

Very nice! Looks like a great morning for topwater.

[Junger]

48 minutes ago, MountainMan83 said:

Very nice! Looks like a great morning for topwater.

Thanks, I fished the incoming tide, and then just the start of the ebb tide. I think it could have been an epic morning if I stayed, but my son was getting hot and hangry so we left just past 10AM. 

[newbiedmv]

y'all pobally already know this. I used to fish fom the shore at the Dickerson warm water outlet, before and after it was converted to a kayak training ground. My neighbor is a retired from that power plant. It's basically closed now, converted to Natural gas and only used as backup. This as of June 2020.

 

I have a nice bass boat that I'm finally able to use ( been in the garage since 2006, long story) and I'm getting the hang of it's personality. I am still doing shakedown cruises at d**n #4 and blackhills but it's down to minor adjustments and small annoying things.

Seneca was really bad in March 2020, a foot of mud and tons of downed trees. My neighbor goes to Nolans ferry with a jet boat. I won't but I've seen a lot of proped boats coming up that road.

 

Blackhills as of two weeks ago have millions of 3-4 inch bass minnows. That lake was a puddle awhile back and hasn't seem to recover yet. Been fishing it since 1990 and ALWAYS caught 2-3 pounders at the end of the lake. I caught 3 minnows on lures half their size on that trip.

 

If anyone is headed anywhere give me a shout, I'm retired so everyday is ground hog day.

[Junger]

I had planned a belated Father's Day trip for tomorrow, but instead went this morning to take advantage of the conditions and tide. I ended up with 5 good ones, largest was around 3lbs. I site fished a monster LMB, I saw it stalking some fry, and pitched my toad at it and he slurped it. I have no idea how I missed, but when I swung, all I saw was the lure coming at my face. I saw its gill flare and it headed for the pads. It was huge, the head was the size of a K2 football.

 

My dad got 2 good LMB and a snakehead, which he harvested. He was throwing a modified Molix Supernato hollowbody. It has a lip so it works like a crankbait, but he sanded it down so that it had a wide S-waver like action. Honestly, if he could cast to spots better he would have caught more. Most of the time he casts directly behind the boat, over the pads I just went over...and he still catches.

 

 

[MountainMan83]

13 hours ago, Junger said:

I had planned a belated Father's Day trip for tomorrow, but instead went this morning to take advantage of the conditions and tide. I ended up with 5 good ones, largest was around 3lbs. I site fished a monster LMB, I saw it stalking some fry, and pitched my toad at it and he slurped it. I have no idea how I missed, but when I swung, all I saw was the lure coming at my face. I saw its gill flare and it headed for the pads. It was huge, the head was the size of a K2 football.

 

My dad got 2 good LMB and a snakehead, which he harvested. He was throwing a modified Molix Supernato hollowbody. It has a lip so it works like a crankbait, but he sanded it down so that it had a wide S-waver like action. Honestly, if he could cast to spots better he would have caught more. Most of the time he casts directly behind the boat, over the pads I just went over...and he still catches.

 

 

That's awesome. It was such a beautiful morning too. 

 

I've been targeting snakeheads at a little pond in Columbia for the past few weeks. Two days ago, I got to see something pretty cool I hadn't seen before. They must have just spawned a week or two ago because I followed a fry ball and the parents around the pond and watched the little funnel cloud as every few minutes they would surface. The parents wanted nothing to do with anything I threw at them or dragged over their bodies and through the fry. Hopefully those jaws will loosen up here shortly...

[newbiedmv]

I was told last Wed June 24,2020 that snakeheads are in seneca lake in Boyds MD. That's a little close. Haven't seen anything other than bass minnows. The big ones are staying at the bottom in the grass. 2.5 miles from ramp

[Basaster]

With the quality of public lakes nowadays I haven't fished in them in a while but rather fish in private ponds. I'm looking to come back to a few spots like Little Seneca Lake, C&O around great falls, maybe even Triadelphia. How are they doing?

[Logan S]

2 hours ago, Basaster said:

With the quality of public lakes nowadays I haven't fished in them in a while but rather fish in private ponds. I'm looking to come back to a few spots like Little Seneca Lake, C&O around great falls, maybe even Triadelphia. How are they doing?

Everything public has been hammered this year because of COVID, but prior to that in general I'd say public waters are sort of the same as they've always been...I don't bank fish much so I can't comment on C&O Canal and other stuff like that, but I only fish public waters and up until COVID everything was the same as it's always been mostly.

 

Little Seneca / Black Hill is one place that's definitely more crowded in the past couple years.  More kayaks than anything else.  The fishing is down a bit compared to a few years ago when it was off the charts, but it's still fishing pretty good...It had to come back to earth eventually.  

[Junger]

C&O has been pretty good for consistent small 1'lbers between Swains and Great Falls Park, I've seen some 4lbers lurking in there though. Widewater C&O has been good really early and late, there are some monsters in there and I caught my PB there this spring from the bank. I scouted Triadelphia, and then water looks excellent. I think you'll be dealing with the same thing as Black Hills though, lots of recreational kayakers that will line up at the launch. But fishing-wise, I talked to a couple boaters and they said they killed out there. Gotta remember, Triadelphia has been shut down for almost 3 years so that fishery hasn't been pressured until about a month ago.

[newbiedmv]

Little seneca lake ( Blackhills) in the 90's and early 2000's was incredible!!!! Every time I would catch 4-5 3 pounders. Even caught one on an unused rod with a super tiny yellow spinner hanging a few inches in the water. They would hit on anything and everything all day. Even, in the early 90's the tiger muskie would hit ( I learned to carry a bat after the first one ripped my fingers apart).

 

Now as Kicker said, it's full of kayakers everywhere, I suspect from the massive Clarksburg build up. In the week in the 90's I was the only boat out. Not anymore.

It is very very busy with new rather difficult rangers that haven't learned the lake or procedures yet ( mainly storm warnings, they don't do them anymore). I've come close to dropping the outboard a few times.

So far it's been a bust for me, but all I have it topwater and a few deep diving crank baits, nothing to really get into the hydrilla grass....yet.

 

Good luck

Oh on the weekend, you have to get a few miles out and still your more likely to snag a kayaker than a fish.

[Basaster]

Triadelphia looks great, but unfortunately for a bank fisherman it seems most of the bass hang around the mid lake flats, based on what people have said. Little Seneca looks like a healthy lake as well compared to others, based on the last time I went (>1 year ago). I've fished the whole cove from black hills to the boat ramp multiple times with no bites. Anything I caught was at black hills. Has anyone fished around the Hoyles Mill trail?

[fishwizzard]

35 minutes ago, Basaster said:

Triadelphia looks great, but unfortunately for a bank fisherman it seems most of the bass hang around the mid lake flats, based on what people have said. 

I have never done well there or from RG fishing from the bank for most of the year.  In the fall it can be decent to good, but it mostly depends on how high it is, if they draw it down enough you can fish the entire allowable bank and I have had a few good days throwing a spinnerbait.  

[JeepFisher]

I tried Little Seneca Lake last week and caught my first Snakehead.  Wasnt even targeting them - lol.  Matter of fact, I didnt catch one bass the whole day.  First snakehead, multiple little perch and little bluegills.  Any tips would be appreciated for those that know it. I'll take any size bass at this point - haha.  

 

Re: Trialdelphia/Rocky Gorge - Triadelphia was good to me in late May, but I have struggled the last 4 weeks there and Rocky Gorge.  I hear they are deep and I dont fish deep very well, but will keep trying.  

[Basaster]

2 hours ago, JeepFisher said:

I tried Little Seneca Lake last week and caught my first Snakehead.  Wasnt even targeting them - lol.  Matter of fact, I didnt catch one bass the whole day.  First snakehead, multiple little perch and little bluegills.  Any tips would be appreciated for those that know it. I'll take any size bass at this point - haha.  

 

Re: Trialdelphia/Rocky Gorge - Triadelphia was good to me in late May, but I have struggled the last 4 weeks there and Rocky Gorge.  I hear they are deep and I dont fish deep very well, but will keep trying.  

Nice catch! It's very unfortunate to see snakehead spreading through out Little Seneca. They were pretty much non existent in the lake a couple years ago. 

[newbiedmv]

where in the lake, and on what.... I need to catch one? A guy told me he caught one but I thought it was a fish story. It's disappointing that they got dumped into the lake or streams.

I wonder if the DNR is still paying a bounty for them?

Now I really want to go back out, even if my legs say no I'm going. I'm only 30 min away.

cool pic

[Junger]

Went to Mattawoman 7/11 with @fishwizzard and we were in the water at 5:20AM. Lowtide was at 6:30AM and it was cool and cloudy, so we hit a hydrilla flat with a nice edge first. I pretty much fished a Rico popper the entire time, and boated 11 LMB and a couple dink white perch. Most of the action came right after the tide switch to the incoming. Once the tide was more than half way up, we made our way back to the main creek to a big pad field where Drew got a nice LMB and small snakehead. I think we would have crushed it in the pads too with intermittent cloud cover and a slight breeze, except my trolling motor battery was drained and we got off the water by 11:30AM.

 

I wasn't planning on fishing the rest of the weekend, but my dad calls me Saturday night and says he'd like to go out fishing. So again, we head to Mattawoman to hopefully replicate the action, except the low tide was at 7:30AM, and once the sun came up, it was blue bird skies all morning and got hot real quick. I picked up 6 LMB, but it was not the same furious top water bite. There was also a tourney out of Leesylvania, so there was a lot of boats in the creek, and a few that went up a creek I wanted to fish. We got off the water by 10AM as more boats and kayakers started showing up.

 

 

[fishwizzard]

You will notice no pictures of me holding fish.  I have never been a huge popper fan and Saturday was very humbling.  I have always been more partial to walking topwaters but I think I need to branch out a little.  

[MountainMan83]

10 hours ago, fishwizzard said:

You will notice no pictures of me holding fish.  I have never been a huge popper fan and Saturday was very humbling.  I have always been more partial to walking topwaters but I think I need to branch out a little.  

I've got a whole box of walking baits. Something about getting in that rhythmic groove that's satisfying. I do have more success on poppers for whatever reason, though.

[Junger]

5 hours ago, MountainMan83 said:

I've got a whole box of walking baits. Something about getting in that rhythmic groove that's satisfying. I do have more success on poppers for whatever reason, though.

I'm the opposite, I have a 3600 full of poppers, and maybe 3 walking baits. I've caught maybe 5 fish on the walking baits, and many on the poppers.

 

From what I've seen fishing super clear water with a popper, the bass will examine the popper first before striking. When it's deadsticked, they usually get right behind it and just stare at it. If you don't get the exact right action they want, such as too much of a spit, they will circle off the lure then come back when it's deadsticked again. When you get the action they want, like a slight bloop, or slight spit, they will inhale it. I think that's the key with the popper, it gives them multiple looks to trigger a reaction in their strike zone which is usually close to cover.

[Robsky]

Got some time off tomorrow afternoon, going to Mattawoman to try some bass fishing.  

Any suggestions on where and what to throw this time of year?

 

Thanks 

[Junger]

5 minutes ago, Robsky said:

Got some time off tomorrow afternoon, going to Mattawoman to try some bass fishing.  

Any suggestions on where and what to throw this time of year?

 

Thanks 

You’ll be fishing an incoming tide, hit pad edges and grass edges with paddle tails, senkos. As the water comes in throw into the pads with weedless presentations. Even spinnerbaits come through them pretty good. Frogs and toads in gaps with good water between thick pads and grass.

[Robsky]

52 minutes ago, Junger said:

You’ll be fishing an incoming tide, hit pad edges and grass edges with paddle tails, senkos. As the water comes in throw into the pads with weedless presentations. Even spinnerbaits come through them pretty good. Frogs and toads in gaps with good water between thick pads and grass.

Thanks Junger! Appreciate it.

[JeepFisher]

On 7/9/2020 at 9:48 PM, newbiedmv said:

where in the lake, and on what.... I need to catch one? A guy told me he caught one but I thought it was a fish story. It's disappointing that they got dumped into the lake or streams.

I wonder if the DNR is still paying a bounty for them?

Now I really want to go back out, even if my legs say no I'm going. I'm only 30 min away.

cool pic

Hollow body frog.  I went back out again the next weekend and some protecting their babies as well as some solo ones in the shallow areas.  Look for shallow areas with deep access, thats where i saw these.