Permit for Columbia Lakes?

[DanMarino]

I miss Triadelphia by the way. Triadelphia is my go to spot for quick trips since I am only 1 mile away from it.

[nhunter344]

Most of the lake to the left of the launch is aesthetically appealing, but I have had little luck catching bass there because it's very shallow.

I used to swim in a centennial a couple time every year and by June, the area to the left of the launch has pretty heavy vegetation, but once you get to the island its completely choked with SAV. This is what I've noticed in my experiences there anyway.

[mhossom]

I've had great luck catching bass off to the left. Swing around the right side of the island and toss a weigtless senko hooked "weedless". Caught 13 of them in one morning in the middle of August. Curiously, I have never had any luck over by the dam.

[bignose]

Bignose, I went back and read that thread, lots of good info in there. Am I correct in understanding that Centennial lake does not require the permit? That was the only one I really was interested in kayaking in, the rest don't seem good enough to be worth the bother, given that RG is closer to me than any of them. Is the info from that thread still applicable? The office is close to a parking access to the Little Pax I have been meaning to check out, so I will get one at some point.

As several others have already replied about Centennial Lake, I'll give you my opinions about the Howard County lakes:

Centennial: decent for bass and crappies. It get's very busy/crowded /noisy on the weekends (not to mention triathlons). I used to teach in the immediate community, nothing worse than trying to get a couple of hours of down time on a pond, only to have your students hollering at you from the shore. (At least they weren't throwing rocks. Lol). It has a significant hydrilla problem by mid summer.

Kittamaqundi: it was a surprisingly good and rather under fished pond for bass (most of the shore fishermen are bait dunkers), and then about 10 years ago it got dredged and reconfigured. It hasn't fished well since then. It becomes filled with weeds and trash after the 4th of July fireworks. It has showed some signs of improving, but there is very limited cover and structure, right now it's better for carp then bass. Lot's of traffic noise from Route 29. It is almost an urban fishing pond surrounded by businesses and hotels. Access has improved but is up to the discretion of Whole Foods.

Elkhorn: nice pond for bass with a mix of weeds and cover. The houses are set a little further back from the pond. It gets rather snotty with weeds by midsummer, the dredging of several years ago did nothing to alleviate the problem. I'd rate this as the most consistent of the Columbia area ponds. It receives a trout stocking in the spring, but by the end of April the worm dunkers aren't a major problem. During the summer there are canoes full of campers at times during the week.

Wilde Lake: my home water and pet peeve. There have been times that the fishing has been awesome, in the late 1990's I was consistently catching 5-7 pound bass that looked like little footballs. There was a gizzard shad population explosion, and the bass were very well fed.

But as explained before, because the State stocked trout there until the early 1990's, fishermen got a terrible reputation for trash and obnoxious behavior-there were conflicts, and the homeowners got the Columbia Association, under the guise of "waterfowl habitat protection" to come up with restrictions that essentially cut the lake in half with the best fishing on the off limits side. The boundaries were not marked.

I successfully arranged a compromise with them in 1996 (most of the rules reflect this) or so, but in 2008, the homeowners rewrote the rules, once again severely limited access to some of the better parts of the lake. Attempts at having these rule revised have fallen on deaf ears, so far, as there aren't enough organized fishermen/residents to make difference. CA has a couple of pictures of me fishing as a part of their display, taken in the late 1990's, my location where these pictures are taken is now off limits. Go figure.

Most of the residents are pleasant, but there are a couple who view this as "their pond" and will video you, harass you, and call CA to have some enforcement from their Open Space Management personnel. CA can charge you with trespass-it's private property- and have been known to have the police waiting for you at the launch. One very good reason to register and have your sticker on the boat.
I think that the wording of some of their regulations make them unenforceable, but getting arrested for fishing isn't my idea of fun.

I only fished there twice last year, and managed to snag a whale of a carp that dragged me around the lake for several minutes.
At this point in my life, I would rather load the canoe on the car and drive 45 minutes to fish Weems Creek and other small tidal creeks than to put up with the nonsense of fishing at Wilde Lake that is 3 blocks from my house.

There are also a couple of smaller ponds that are fishable. I have been known to fish Jackson Pond in Long Reach from a canoe once or twice. Nothing posted about fishing from a canoe there.
So-so fishing.

I have also launched into two of the Sewell's Orchard ponds. They used to be decent, then had a feral goldfish explosion, and from what I gathered HOCO Parks and Rec had the ponds poisoned. They also added aerators to cut down on the weeds. The ponds haven't fished worth a darn since then.

There is a Park and Rec pond off Briar Oak Court in the Rockburn area near Ellicott City that has fished well in the past but now by mid May is nothing but green slop, and Warfields Park Pond, a Park and Rec facility. While it would be fishable from a craft, it would be a long carry from the parking lot. This pond has also had aerators added, and the fishing has gone downhill since then. I saw the largest bass I have seen in HOCO in this pond several years ago, that hit a bluegill I had caught on the fly rod. I figure this bass was 10+ so you know how that went!

[nhunter344]

As several others have already replied about Centennial Lake, I'll give you my opinions about the Howard County lakes:

Centennial: It get's very busy/crowded /noisy on the weekends (not to mention triathlons).

The company that put on the triathlons went under so you at least you wont have to worry about that aspect this year.

[bunnielab]

Wow Stu, thanks for all that info. I am able to fish weekdays most of the time so the crowds are never an issue for me. It sounds like Elkhorn is worth getting the permit for, I have had enough luck there from the bank and have never seen a kayak in there during the week. It's such a short drag too.