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Hanukkah ended a week ago, Christmas lies just three days from now and the New Year is coming.
During past Holiday Seasons, Snaggedliners would often post year-end summaries of their individual fishing accomplishments. I haven’t seen any so I will start a thread. But I wonder who’s watching anymore. Traffic has slowed greatly on this site.
I confess to my guilt in that area. I have not posted as frequently as I used to. One reason is because I feel like a bit of an outlier here. I still fish frequently in my kayak but mostly I use a flyrod. There is little interest in that kind of fishing on Snaggedline.
Stripers receive the most interest here. And they should, given their historical, symbolic and economic importance to Maryland. I didn’t troll for stripers or even chase them on the fly this year. I used to target them aggressively when I started kayak fishing 12 years ago. Indeed, it was fun. The stripers were abundant then. They were almost too easy to catch by trolling or by casting lures and flies. But this year, I did not fish for them at all.
However, I still fished in my kayak each month of 2023. And once again I met my goal of catching fish in my kayak locally in each of those months. As usual, I started the year fishing for chain pickerel in our tidal creeks and Eastern Shore ponds. That is how I have ended it. Thank goodness for chain picks. They remain plentiful and they absolutely love to chase flies in cold water.
In spring and summer, I moved to panfish in ponds and white perch in our tidal creeks. The panfish, especially the bluegills, shellcrackers and crappies were great fun. I enjoy nothing more than a warm spring evening on the quiet waters of a pond casting flies to panfish. I don’t keep detailed fishing records but I have no doubt that my catch numbers reached hundreds of panfish this year. Often, I would stay on the water until dark. There’s a magical time just as the sun dips below the horizon when almost every cast yields a fish.
That was not the case for white perch. I found them more difficult to locate and when I did, I never got into large schools like I had in the past. Their numbers were clearly down from previous years. Maryland counts white perch in its annual Young of the Year (YOY) survey. Sadly, the metrics show that white perch YOY numbers in recent years have been heading in the same direction as striper YOY numbers. On the other hand, I caught more yellow perch in the Magothy this summer and fall than I have in any prior year. Their numbers were good. They attack minnow imitation flies just like white perch.
I also enjoyed fishing outside of my kayak. I waded the upper reaches of the of the Patapsco for redbreast sunfish, rock bass and smallmouth bass. The fish are small but they are numerous. The location is nearby and scenic which makes it an attractive spur of the moment outing with a 4-weight fly rod.
I did some shoreline carp fishing again this year with bait. It’s a significant change of pace for me to sit and wait for a fish to bite a baited hook. Relaxing actually. But those carp pull as hard as any fish I have ever caught. They can wear you out. It’s good to have a chair to sit in between bites.
Also, I had three nice trips to VA – one was a canoe float trip with my son on the Shenandoah. The water was low. We dragged that canoe over rocks as much as we paddled. But we each caught dozens of sunnies and smallmouth bass on topwater flies and streamers. Another VA outing was a wading trip to Cedar Creek for stocked rainbows. Some say stocked trout are easy to catch but I struggled to land a few by nymphing. I am not a good trout angler. On my final trip to VA, I visited the Dragon Run Swamp of the Piankatank River and caught a dozen bowfins on conventional gear with plastic worms. Bowfins are a prehistoric-looking fish. They have bony mouths that are hard to hook. But when you succeed in setting the hook, they put up a crazy fight.
Notably absent from my catches this year was a snakehead. It’s not unusual to encounter them locally in our creeks here in the mid-Bay area now while pickerel or perch fishing. But I caught none this year. I hooked one in on a guided bass trip in Mattawoman but lost it in the weeds after a tug of war for several minutes. I never saw the fish but it straightened the hook on the popper I was using.
I made two trips in the spring to FL, one to the Keys and one to the Everglades. In the Keys I got skunked in two days on the water. But it was fun casting flies to swirling baby tarpon and to cruising nurse sharks. I could not place the flies any better. The fish were just not in an eating mood which confirmed my belief that the fish themselves are always the key to our success as anglers. We’d like to believe it’s us, but it’s not.
On my next FL trip, I had excellent success over two days in the Everglades catching a variety of invasive cichlids, largemouth bass and my first peacock bass on flies. I even caught a gar on a topwater fly. That was a wonderful trip with incredible scenery in addition to active fish. Seeing large alligators in their natural setting was enjoyable. I’m very glad I was in a boat, not a kayak!
So, that is my 2023 summary. I look forward to reading summaries of other Snaggedliners. In particular, did you notice any trends in your tidal catches locally this year that differed from past years?
In closing I wish everyone an enjoyable Holiday Season, a Happy New Year and tight lines in 2024.
During past Holiday Seasons, Snaggedliners would often post year-end summaries of their individual fishing accomplishments. I haven’t seen any so I will start a thread. But I wonder who’s watching anymore. Traffic has slowed greatly on this site.
I confess to my guilt in that area. I have not posted as frequently as I used to. One reason is because I feel like a bit of an outlier here. I still fish frequently in my kayak but mostly I use a flyrod. There is little interest in that kind of fishing on Snaggedline.
Stripers receive the most interest here. And they should, given their historical, symbolic and economic importance to Maryland. I didn’t troll for stripers or even chase them on the fly this year. I used to target them aggressively when I started kayak fishing 12 years ago. Indeed, it was fun. The stripers were abundant then. They were almost too easy to catch by trolling or by casting lures and flies. But this year, I did not fish for them at all.
However, I still fished in my kayak each month of 2023. And once again I met my goal of catching fish in my kayak locally in each of those months. As usual, I started the year fishing for chain pickerel in our tidal creeks and Eastern Shore ponds. That is how I have ended it. Thank goodness for chain picks. They remain plentiful and they absolutely love to chase flies in cold water.
In spring and summer, I moved to panfish in ponds and white perch in our tidal creeks. The panfish, especially the bluegills, shellcrackers and crappies were great fun. I enjoy nothing more than a warm spring evening on the quiet waters of a pond casting flies to panfish. I don’t keep detailed fishing records but I have no doubt that my catch numbers reached hundreds of panfish this year. Often, I would stay on the water until dark. There’s a magical time just as the sun dips below the horizon when almost every cast yields a fish.
That was not the case for white perch. I found them more difficult to locate and when I did, I never got into large schools like I had in the past. Their numbers were clearly down from previous years. Maryland counts white perch in its annual Young of the Year (YOY) survey. Sadly, the metrics show that white perch YOY numbers in recent years have been heading in the same direction as striper YOY numbers. On the other hand, I caught more yellow perch in the Magothy this summer and fall than I have in any prior year. Their numbers were good. They attack minnow imitation flies just like white perch.
I also enjoyed fishing outside of my kayak. I waded the upper reaches of the of the Patapsco for redbreast sunfish, rock bass and smallmouth bass. The fish are small but they are numerous. The location is nearby and scenic which makes it an attractive spur of the moment outing with a 4-weight fly rod.
I did some shoreline carp fishing again this year with bait. It’s a significant change of pace for me to sit and wait for a fish to bite a baited hook. Relaxing actually. But those carp pull as hard as any fish I have ever caught. They can wear you out. It’s good to have a chair to sit in between bites.
Also, I had three nice trips to VA – one was a canoe float trip with my son on the Shenandoah. The water was low. We dragged that canoe over rocks as much as we paddled. But we each caught dozens of sunnies and smallmouth bass on topwater flies and streamers. Another VA outing was a wading trip to Cedar Creek for stocked rainbows. Some say stocked trout are easy to catch but I struggled to land a few by nymphing. I am not a good trout angler. On my final trip to VA, I visited the Dragon Run Swamp of the Piankatank River and caught a dozen bowfins on conventional gear with plastic worms. Bowfins are a prehistoric-looking fish. They have bony mouths that are hard to hook. But when you succeed in setting the hook, they put up a crazy fight.
Notably absent from my catches this year was a snakehead. It’s not unusual to encounter them locally in our creeks here in the mid-Bay area now while pickerel or perch fishing. But I caught none this year. I hooked one in on a guided bass trip in Mattawoman but lost it in the weeds after a tug of war for several minutes. I never saw the fish but it straightened the hook on the popper I was using.
I made two trips in the spring to FL, one to the Keys and one to the Everglades. In the Keys I got skunked in two days on the water. But it was fun casting flies to swirling baby tarpon and to cruising nurse sharks. I could not place the flies any better. The fish were just not in an eating mood which confirmed my belief that the fish themselves are always the key to our success as anglers. We’d like to believe it’s us, but it’s not.
On my next FL trip, I had excellent success over two days in the Everglades catching a variety of invasive cichlids, largemouth bass and my first peacock bass on flies. I even caught a gar on a topwater fly. That was a wonderful trip with incredible scenery in addition to active fish. Seeing large alligators in their natural setting was enjoyable. I’m very glad I was in a boat, not a kayak!
So, that is my 2023 summary. I look forward to reading summaries of other Snaggedliners. In particular, did you notice any trends in your tidal catches locally this year that differed from past years?
In closing I wish everyone an enjoyable Holiday Season, a Happy New Year and tight lines in 2024.
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