Susquehanna Catfish (04 Jan 2020)

[Jman]

The warm weather we had recently made me want to try fishing in some new-to-me places. I decided to fish on the Susquehanna river with the intention of targeting Yellow Perch (wanted to see if they were deeper). The fog was very dense, but the winds were light and the water flow felt low. I wasn't entirely sure on how to target the perch and started off ill-prepared for what I would end up catching the rest of the trip. I had really light tackle, especially my leader line (10 Lbs fluoro), but as soon as I realized blue catfish were the main species interested in my minnows, I beefed up my setup. I landed 3 of 4 and they ranged from 26" to about 34".
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[mike o]

Good to see you had some action. I bet that was fun on light tackle.

[ronaultmtd]

No matter what body of water that borders the bay you are fishing, blue catfish are on the menu...we caught blue catfish in the mouth of St. Jerome’s Creek 7 miles from Point Lookout fishing for Speckled trout and Redfish with swim-baits...they are uniformly present from top to bottom of our region. In some bodies of water they make up 60% of the biomass...

[Jman]

Thanks fellas - always nice to get a line wet! If anyone wants to meet up in this area to fish, feel free to PM me or start a thread. I will probably go here more often, since it's closer than the Potomac.

[Nicole]

That’s a very nice catch. Sounds like it was a great trip.


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[CarsonNash]

No matter what body of water that borders the bay you are fishing, blue catfish are on the menu...we caught blue catfish in the mouth of St. Jerome’s Creek 7 miles from Point Lookout fishing for Speckled trout and Redfish with swim-baits...they are uniformly present from top to bottom of our region. In some bodies of water they make up 60% of the biomass...

Interesting how you say they are everywhere, Ron.

I am located right on the Severn, about a half mile down river from round bay. I fished exclusively for catfish from shore multiple times this summer. I caught plenty of catfish, but all of them were Chanel cats, not a blue catfish in sight. I was even catching Chanel cats on my perch spinners.

I would like to catch a blue so I can eat it... that may require taking a trip in the CC to somewhere prone to blue cats.


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[ronaultmtd]

Obviously I have not fished every tributary in the Bay, but going by DNR surveys and fishing reports can be area specific...from Washington, DC south I am comfortable saying blue cats are on the menu...fishing Benedict on the Pax River, I caught as many channel cats as blue cats and that was surprising as was a white catfish- first one I had ever caught...and the channel cats were bigger than any I had caught before. Even caught blue cats in St Jeromes Creek in Ridge six miles from PLO, so from DC as far south as you can go in Maryland we got blues...