December Meet and Greet -- Unicorn Lake

[Mark]

When: Saturday, December 16, 2017

Where: Unicorn Lake, Queen Anne’s County, MD

http://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pa...s/unicorn.aspx

M&G Coordinators: Mark Bange, and John Rentch

Meeting Time/Location and Directions for Car Pool or “Caravan”: Those wishing to carpool can meet the coordinators at 8:00 a.m. at the parking lot of the Bay 50 Shopping Center, 1544 Whitehall Road Annapolis, MD 21409. The shopping center is just off eastbound Route 50 prior to the Bay Bridge and is east of Angler’s Sport Center on Whitehall Road.

Directions to the Fishing Location: Take US Rt. 50 east to US Rt. 301 north. Turn right on Rt.544 (Mc Ginnis Rd). Take left onto Rt.313 (Sudlersville Millington Rd). Take right into Unicorn Fish Hatchery. Boat ramp and small pier located behind office.

Gathering Place at the Fishing Location: Meet at the boat ramp between 9:00 and 9:30 a.m.

Species of Interest: Pickerel and potentially very cold and very hungry LM Bass.

License Required: Maryland Non-Tidal (Freshwater).

Trip Logistics, Fishing and Other Information:

Timeline: Anglers should plan to begin fishing by 9:30 and should allow for roughly a 3 to 4-hour session.

Lunch: A post-outing lunch at Carletto Pizza and Pasta, 220 N. Church St. Sudlersville, MD 21668 (just a few miles from the lake) will be scheduled where participants can discuss their catches and spend time reviewing the day with their fellow Snaggedliners. Plan on lunch to begin at approximately 1:00 p.m. Please tell the outing coordinators if you plan to attend the lunch.

Miscellaneous: For baseball fans, within blocks of the restaurant in the town center of Sudlersville is a statue to Jimmy Foxx who hit 534 homeruns in the majors and is a member of baseball’s Hall of Fame. Foxx was born in Sudlersville.

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We hope to see you on the 16th. Please let us know if you will be attending.

[BarefootPetr]

Wow I had never even heard about this place until I saw this post. I'm in. Looks like a good spot for some slow streamer fly fishing

[Mark]

Wow I had never even heard about this place until I saw this post. I'm in. Looks like a good spot for some slow streamer fly fishing

It has a good pickerel population.

They'll hit wooly buggers and Clousers all year and poppers in the warm months.

I'm glad you can join us.

[mchottie]

I did a quick google search for Unicorn Lake and came up with the small "puddle" at the end of Groff Road, that probably can't fit more than two yakk's! (and doesnt have a ramp/launch)

GPS Lat / Long for the correct location are 39.247183, -75.859714

Your driving directions are spot-on!

[Mark]

Here's a Google Earth view of Unicorn:

Capture Unicorn.jpg

[Mark]

Here's a Google Earth view of Unicorn:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]22670[/ATTACH]

Here's a few other photos of the lake and launch:

P1020685.jpg P1020696.jpg A.JPG

[harlanbud]

Count me in for fishing, lunch and laughter.

[Mark]

Thanks Harlan!

[johnk]

sounds great - I have to coordinate my son's arrival home from school -

[Mark]

sounds great - I have to coordinate my son's arrival home from school -

I hope you can join us.

[willf650]

I'll swing by as long as it's not raining.

I fish this place once or twice a year going back about 35 years. It gets choked out badly in the summer time with weed growth, to the point you can only fish about 25% of the pond at times.

The spillway in this pond is one of the best I know of to take a kid with a bobber and a worm. It is easy for them to catch tons of sunfish and my parents took me there starting when I was probably 8 years old. The spillway is also the last place I took my elderly parents fishing before they passed away. I pulled my truck over to the waters edge and put out lawn chairs for them to fish from.

In the recent past they have also stocked trout in the creek that exits the pond. The trout stocking seems weird because there is literally only about 100 yards of non-tidal creek before there is a small dam at the edge of the main road where it becomes tidal. The creek itself is probably only about two miles in total before it empties into the Chester river. I don't know how often they do the trout stocking but I've seen the signs stating to keep the trout you need a trout stamp in the past couple years.

[nhunter344]

In the recent past they have also stocked trout in the creek that exits the pond. The trout stocking seems weird because there is literally only about 100 yards of non-tidal creek before there is a small dam at the edge of the main road where it becomes tidal. The creek itself is probably only about two miles in total before it empties into the Chester river. I don't know how often they do the trout stocking but I've seen the signs stating to keep the trout you need a trout stamp in the past couple years.

Welcome to trout fishing Atlantic Coastal Plain style. DNR wants to give anglers the best chance to catch fish. It feels more like fish in a barrel to me. Last time I spoke with someone from DNR, they said due to temperatures, dissolved oxygen and contaminate loads, there are very few streams outside of western Maryland that can support trout year round. They stock them in a manner that ensures the majority of them will be caught because if they aren't caught, they're going to die anyway.

I hope to be at the Meet and Greet. We'll see what mother nature has in store for the weekend.

[Mark]

As a point of clarification, the DNR stocked 600 trout in Unicorn Branch behind the dam in the spring. No stockings were scheduled there in the fall. I mention that because the lake itself is not stocked with trout and you do not need a trout stamp to fish there.

As to vegetation, yes it's thick in the lake in the warmer months.

This was at the boat ramp last May:

P1020689.jpg

Also, the spatterdock was really thick. The spatterdock "fields" are excellent places to target pickerel, like this one I pulled from the edges:

P1020692.jpg

Excessive vegetation will not be an issue this month but there will be remnants of spatterdock which will be good areas to search for pickerel.

[willf650]

As a point of clarification, the DNR stocked 600 trout in Unicorn Branch behind the dam in the spring. No stockings were scheduled there in the fall. I mention that because the lake itself is not stocked with trout and you do not need a trout stamp to fish there.

You don't need a trout stamp to fish in the creek either. You only need it if you intend on keeping the stocked trout.

[Dan the Man]

Sweet- getting permission as i type this

I’m in!!