April-Early May Fishing Report

[Tim Elliott]

Throughout the entire month of April, it seemed that almost every other day, a cold front was moving through the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Looking ahead to this upcoming weekend's predicted forecast, we are to experience some below average low temps for May. I'm curious to hear your input and predictions regarding this weather and how it might impact the fishing. After using the search bar feature to gain insight into how the bay fishery overall has changed in recent years regarding seasonal patterns and conditions, I'm interested in hearing your current thoughts based on experiences.

Like some here, I haven't had many opportunities to take the kayak out recently in April. I hope for that to change this evening. However, I have been fortunate enough to fish from my pier here on a Patapsco tributary, but it's been the same for weeks now. Blue catfish are everywhere and therefore, are easily accessible from shore or kayak. All one needs is fresh bait on a hook and a sinker.

As for white perch, I have been catching them consistently from my pier since late March and the spawn has been on for a while. Last weekend I kept one that had eggs, and caught and released a 9 inch male who was milking as I pulled him up out of the water. Right now, they are still along the edges of the channel but they are slowly moving up. Hopefully they will be moving into the shallows in the next week or so. As for what I'm catching them on, tandem rigged 1/16 oz. jigs rigged with bust'em baits stingers in limetreuse, white, grass shrimp, and blue mackerel. You can't go wrong with bait, and as Ron mentioned in a recent post his, bloodworms or grass shrimp either on a bottom rig or suspended underneath a bobber will catch fish. The bite on the feather jig under a slip bobber has slowed down but it may come in handy with these cooler low temps that are predicted.

It seems that the tidal pickerel are still active. After messing around tossing buzz baits to tune them for future trips to chase bass and snakehead, my neighbor had three hits in 2 days casting in the same general area near his pier. He got too excited and set the hook early before feeling the weight of the fish on his line each time.

That's all I have for now but if something else new or exciting happens, I will update.

[Mark]

Tim,

April has indeed been cool and while we also seemed to have more rain than normal, I checked state records and found we are tracking tracking closely with average rainfall amounts here in central MD as we head into May. Also, temperatures have been normal to above (January was warmer than normal) up until last month. Contrast that to last year (2019) when we had higher than normal precipitation from mid January through the the summer. However temperatures were largely normal during that time.

You can see the weather stats here: https://www.weather.gov/lwx/cliplot_...2019&site=KBWI

I mention precipitation because when it's higher than normal, it leads to flooding which I understand is not conducive to a good striper spawn -- faster deeper waters in spawning areas and certainly more turbidity and chemical runoff.

The 2019 MD YOY Index for stripers was 3.4. The average since 1954 is 11.6. Was that low 3.4 index due to the higher precipitation? Possibly. Although, our rainfall evened out to average by the end of 2019, the spawning months (February into April and May) were above average in rain. Remember also that 2018 gave us record rainfall here in Maryland. In January 2019, the rivers were swollen from excessive rain in 2018 which started in the summer and continued to the end of the year. In fact, 2018 turned out to be our wettest year on record in Maryland with 72 inches, almost double a normal year. Add to that a wetter 2019 spring than normal and I strongly suspect it played a role our low 3.4 YOY striper index.

However, an interesting thing happened in 2018. We had an above average striper spawn. The index that year was 14.8, a good number. Again, if you look at the precipitation and temperature numbers for that year, you'll see that rain was slightly below normal in the key spawning months of March, April and most of May. Also, temperatures were normal during that time. Our excessive rains that year started after the striper spawn.

So, I'm hoping that that our normal weather pattern so far in 2020, especially concerning precipitation contributes to an above average striper spawn this year. Time will tell.

[Big Mike]

We’re baffled by why we’re catching speckled trout down here in St Mary’s so early with the cool water temps. Normally they don’t show in numbers until June but they’re definitely around right now. We got a couple more today.
51401078-77BA-4A39-BE2C-3F05D97C8B4E.jpg

[ski357]

Tim,

April has indeed been cool and while we also seemed to have more rain than normal, I checked state records and found we are tracking tracking closely with average rainfall amounts here in central MD as we head into May. Also, temperatures have been normal to above (January was warmer than normal) up until last month. Contrast that to last year (2019) when we had higher than normal precipitation from mid January through the the summer. However temperatures were largely normal during that time.

You can see the weather stats here: https://www.weather.gov/lwx/cliplot_...2019&site=KBWI

I mention precipitation because when it's higher than normal, it leads to flooding which I understand is not conducive to a good striper spawn -- faster deeper waters in spawning areas and certainly more turbidity and chemical runoff.

The 2019 MD YOY Index for stripers was 3.4. The average since 1954 is 11.6. Was that low 3.4 index due to the higher precipitation? Possibly. Although, our rainfall evened out to average by the end of 2019, the spawning months (February into April and May) were above average in rain. Remember also that 2018 gave us record rainfall here in Maryland. In January 2019, the rivers were swollen from excessive rain in 2018 which started in the summer and continued to the end of the year. In fact, 2018 turned out to be our wettest year on record in Maryland with 72 inches, almost double a normal year. Add to that a wetter 2019 spring than normal and I strongly suspect it played a role our low 3.4 YOY striper index.

However, an interesting thing happened in 2018. We had an above average striper spawn. The index that year was 14.8, a good number. Again, if you look at the precipitation and temperature numbers for that year, you'll see that rain was slightly below normal in the key spawning months of March, April and most of May. Also, temperatures were normal during that time. Our excessive rains that year started after the striper spawn.

So, I'm hoping that that our normal weather pattern so far in 2020, especially concerning precipitation contributes to an above average striper spawn this year. Time will tell.

Mark-thank you for the excellent summary of previous years spawn. Personally, I'm trying to take a more "data driven" approach to fishing and pinpointing trends, but somehow always seem to get sidetracked. Nice catch Mike!

[Fish123]

Nice report. Going to take a stab at some perchin tomorrow hopefully. Looks like it should be a relatively nice day.

[toadfinger]

Re the early western shore specks- these are likely fish that overwintered locally. Specks were caught into the winter months at CCNP, long after they normally move out, and it's likely that the warmer than average winter enabled them to survive locally. And it looks like the mid-Atlantic speck populations are on an upswing in general.

[Fish123]

Re the early western shore specks- these are likely fish that overwintered locally. Specks were caught into the winter months at CCNP, long after they normally move out, and it's likely that the warmer than average winter enabled them to survive locally. And it looks like the mid-Atlantic speck populations are on an upswing in general.

I would love to see specks move up to Annapolis, they are a fun fish to catch. I’ve seen a guy catch one off the Jonas green pier about 7 years ago but that’s it. I loved fishing for them in South Carolina.

[Tim Elliott]

Mark, that was an excellent summary regarding MD's average precipitation in relation to the YOY index. Based on seeing the many photos of trophy rockfish on various Facebook fishing groups, I am hopeful that this year will yield an impressive spawn for our state fish. What I am not hopeful about, is the future of the striped bass fishery, seeing the vast number of big stripers being put on ice. I wish that these folks could see how happy are those who catch and release over-slot red drum, knowing that the big spawners will continue to make many more generations of big fish.

Mike-
nice catches of the early season speckled trout, I'm curious to know if it has to do with an increase in salinity.

I've heard from several fishermen about how great the trout fishery in the bay was back in the 80's and earlier. They were routinely jigged up from the bottom using spoons, as far north as the Bay Bridge. Another story detailed how easy it was to catch 10 pound plus bluefish using poppers at night, from Ft. Smallwood State Park off of the Patapsco River. And in recent years, a good buddy of mine has caught several puppy drum fishing from his community beach in the Pasadena area.

Fish123-
how did you make out perch fishing yesterday?

[mike o]

6 or 7 years ago my friend and I caught 7 mid 20s red drum at Hodges bar which is well north of the bay bridge also caught a 20 inch spec there.

[Fish123]

I ended up focusing most of my time try to figure out my new kayak and how to set up to troll. I tried for about an hour to get some perch on a capt berts perch pounder and managed one 6in striper. Talked to a few other guys on the water and they were fishing with grass shrimp and were skunked on the perch as well.

[Mark]

...Based on seeing the many photos of trophy rockfish on various Facebook fishing groups, I am hopeful that this year will yield an impressive spawn for our state fish. What I am not hopeful about, is the future of the striped bass fishery, seeing the vast number of big stripers being put on ice. I wish that these folks could see how happy are those who catch and release over-slot red drum, knowing that the big spawners will continue to make many more generations of big fish...

I’ve streamed a lot of videos during our forced downtime during this health crisis. I found two that discussed the salmon run on Washington state’s Elwha River. Having only visited that state once, and knowing nothing about Pacific salmon, I had never heard of the Elwha. However, from the videos, I learned that it is a key river system in Washington for spawning salmon, just like the Chesapeake Bay is for East Coast striped bass.

A problem on the Elwha was two hydroelectric dams built in the early 20th century that blocked the salmon from reaching their preferred spawning locations. Add to that wanton commercial and recreational fishing in the 20th century and the numbers of salmon dropped by the year 2000 to the point that many feared the fish would become extinct.

Even after the commercial canneries left for the lack of fish, recreational anglers decimated the remaining struggling stock of salmon. In one video an angler in his 80s showed his fishing journals dating back to the 1940s where he recorded catching many large salmon that had essentially disappeared by the 21st century.

Not as dramatic, but the parallels to our own striper struggles were not lost on me.

Legal and political battles about the dams ensued for decades. The dams were removed starting in 2011. After being blocked for 100 years, and aided by hatchery-raised fish, the salmon quickly returned to their historic spawning areas on the river. It appears a success story is in the making.

There are many links online about the Elwha restoration for those interested.

I believe fish just want a chance to do what they do. If we let them, they reward us with numbers beyond our I imagination. But if we’re greedy, placing our needs always ahead of theirs, they may just leave.

[Fish123]

For whatever reason killing a massive fish makes people happy. It’s sad the state of md cuts off c and r for a month followed with a kill the breeders season.