C. Boyd Pfeiffer, The Examiner
2008-03-07 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

With the rain Tuesday night making most fishing water too thick to drink and too thin to plow, fishing this weekend might be a tad iffy. That doesn’t mean that there is not clear water, warmer temperatures and choice fishing to come.

With some now-legal seasons, the fish just aren’t there yet. Striper Susquehanna Flats catch-and-release fishing has been legal since March 1, but with the muddy water exacerbated by Tuesday’s rain, mud and cold water, the “real” fishing will come later this month and in early April.

“I usually don’t even book trips until the last week of March,” said Capt. Gary Neitzey, a Centreville light-tackle angler. His Web site (www.flyfishthechesapeake.com) lists his annual trip offerings from the Flats to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. He noted that last year the poor catch-and-release season did not begin until the second week in April.

Neitzey said the best fishing right now is the catch-and-release option at the Calvert Cliffs Power Plant. Department of Natural Resources biologist Marty Gary seconds that opinion.

That’s essentially a small outflow area, with boats drifting through and getting their casts in one at a time, then moving on to make room for others. Flies along with jigs and Bass Assassins are doing the trick. But it’s like musical chairs — be nice and take turns.

There are some yellow perch on spawning sites that are — or were — taking darts, crappie jigs and small spinners. Good areas are the Tuckahoe and more southern Eastern Shore rivers, but the recent rain could have pushed them back down the rivers into a holding pattern. Gary said the balmy days prior to the rain might have set off a trigger for them, which will return with the next spate of three- or four-day warm-ups. Look for this, but be ready to go, since yellow perch are known to be in and out in short order.

Right now, it is a little early for spawning white perch except perhaps in the Nanticoke. Unlike yellow perch, which spawn with a short spike on the bell-shaped spawning curve, white perch will be spawning in rivers continuously for a few weeks from late March through mid-April. That’s good, in case you miss the yellow perch, or if they spawn anyway downriver before getting to the traditional spawning grounds.

“We’ve had surges when we did not have a nice spike in temperature, and they spawned anyway,” said Gary of yellow perch.

Shad fishing for the early hickories should be rolling in around the end of March, with hopefully a better season than last year. American shad, also down last year, will be hitting darts and flies come mid- to late-April. Even though the shad numbers have been a little off, fishermen didn’t seem to notice. With good catches with each surge of water through Conowingo Dam and with catch-and-release fishing anyway, numbers were less important than being there and enjoying the fun.

These drops in fish numbers after some promising — if not outstanding — shad-fishing years are a little strange. After all, mouth-of-the-Bay commercial intercept net fishing was phased out a few years ago. It might take another year or two for the spawning stocks to rebound now that the nets are gone.

Sport fishing has been good in rivers other than the Susquehanna and tributaries. The Rappahannock and Potomac have been producing good numbers of shad, and it is impossible to say with these ocean fish just what will happen this year in the Susky.

For some good bass fishing, now is the time to get away from the big bass in the bank eddies that make up winter fishing. Instead, try the mid-river stacks of stickups, brush piles and such, fishing slow-rolled spinnerbaits. Just remember that in freshwater, it is catch-and-release through June 15.

Another good area, according to both Gary and Neitzey, is the spoils area of the lower Potomac, just upstream of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge. That should be a hot spot. That’s where the record state largemouth — 11 pounds, 2.88 ounces — was caught this past Jan. 26 by Justin Riley of Woodbine.

It’s likely that there are more big bass in the same area, just ready to hit a deep, slow-retrieved lure.

C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting and the outdoors. He can be reached at cbpfeiffer@msn.com