Tridelphia Reservoir is back!

[Red_Beard]

Long time follower of the forum, and first time poster. I live in the DC area, and fish a lot on the Potomac, western rivers, and area lakes.

I've been doing quite a bit of fishing at Tridelphia Reservoir since they reopened it to fishing last summer after multiple years of drawdown to work on the dam. Last year I mostly caught dinky largemouth bass as the lake had a very successful couple of year classes as the lake was being refilled. This spring has produced some nicer fish though in addition to the small largemouth. I have caught a number of northern pike in the 18-22 inches range, and landed a five pound largemouth and four pound smallmouth in the last month.

I have found four inch grubs and paddletail jigs to be the best producers for bass, while the pike really love a spinnerbait although they are very hard on them. During my last trip one of them snapped the wire arm on my best spinnerbait like a twig. I expect the pike fishing will slow down as things warm up, but I'm excited to see how big they get in the years to come.

tridelphia lmb.jpg

tridelphia smb.jpg

tridelphia pike.jpg

[Big Mike]

That’s a monster smallie. Very envious.

[Red_Beard]

Got her almost right at the kayak, and it's still the only smallie I've caught there. I was very lucky to catch her.

That’s a monster smallie. Very envious.

[Red_Beard]

I really wish they didn't close the lake down for the winter. I didn't catch any pike over the summer either, but started catching them in late fall.

[gliebig]

Nice feeshes.

[jsnyd86]

Wow! Those are healthy looking fish. Is the best place to launch at the boat ramp? Checking out google maps, the other public launches look all dried up, so Ive never went

[DanMarino]

The place is full of water now that the dam is repaired. All the launches should be available. You can catch fish close to any of the launches. Rocky Gorge is fishing well too.

[Red_Beard]

Can confirm that Tridelphia is at full pool, and all the ramps are open. Its like fishing an entirely different lake compared to last fall.

[therevolution]

Plus all the newly created "cover" in the form of bushes and small trees that sprouted up while the water was low for dam repair. It has really "changed the game" for fishing there. Suprised to see that a lot of the bushes/small trees that are partially submerged are sprouting leaves and continuing to grow.

[Red_Beard]

Yeah, that really blew my mind, especially with some of those trees in 20+ feet of water. I'm not even sure how best to fish cover like that! Its going to make summer fishing interesting.

[therevolution]

Yeah, that really blew my mind, especially with some of those trees in 20+ feet of water. I'm not even sure how best to fish cover like that! Its going to make summer fishing interesting.

Im interested to see how it fishes this summer. I caught a few pike this spring on a spinnerbait over top the submerged brush. This past fall I was finding schools of bass stacked up on the edges of it where it would converge with the creekbed.

[jbrown]

Wow. Nice smaller! Prob 20 in?


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[Red_Beard]

Wow. Nice smaller! Prob 20 in?


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It was only around 18, but it was fat as all get out.

[Red_Beard]

My friends that have tried it lately have mostly been getting pike and small bass. The warm up coming this weekend should get them biting again, and I can't wait to see what happens when the cicadas really explode up there.

[Red_Beard]

Nice one! That's a quality fish on Tridelphia!