Maryland's Weekly Fishing Report - July 5, 2017

The holiday weekend is but a memory now and I hope your memories are good ones. It was a scorcher in many areas of Maryland and people flocked to the water for relief. It did my heart good to see fishing rods peeking out through mini-van windows or in the back of pickup trucks as folks headed to their waterside destinations. The summer will tend to move along now and before we know it we’ll be starring Labor Day in the face so don’t put off spending time with family and friends fishing.

The Lower Susquehanna River continues to give up a fair amount of striped bass for those willing to be at the Conowingo Dam pool at sunrise. The power generation releases usually begin before daybreak and continue into the afternoon. Casting heavy swimshads with surf casting gear into the most turbulent parts of the pool has been a great option. Others are having success casting topwater lures in the boulder fields farther down river at sun up.

A few striped bass are being caught around the edges of the flats but most of the action in the upper bay is focused from the Rock Hall area south. Chumming has taken center stage at Swan Point, Love Point and Podickory Point. It has been a good idea to locate suspended fish on a depth finder and anchor up and allow chum and baits to drift into the deeper edges of the channel. As always a good tide is essential. As usual, the chum slicks are being swarmed with two and three year old striped bass that are less than twenty inches in length so it takes some strategy to get to the larger fish that often are 28″ or better. Allowing baits to get to the bottom and in the back of the slick has been the best tactic, and sometimes it takes a squeeze on weight of a half-ounce or so a couple of feet in front of the bait. Surface water temperatures are now around 82 degrees so the larger fish will like to stay deep and mornings will usually offer better fishing results. Channel catfish can be part of the mix when fishing baits on the bottom.

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