8/12/22 Lower Marlboro

[paxmule]

Put in at just before 11 on low tide, rode it south, found a good ledge showing fish on bottom, anchored up, On first drop a 27 inch blue had it before it hit bottom. Stuck around and then realized I was drifting south. My anchor had come unspooled! Thought it was a goner so I paddled north just a bit and drifted the ledge. All of the sudden I drifted right into my anchor line floating on top with the current, pulled it back in and got back to business. Nothing doing after that for a while so I went up to the hole just off the pier. Landed a nice 31 inch blue. Then up to the first bend north and a 25 incher but it went dead after that. Went back to the hole at the pier again and then my anchor got snagged on a trotline. This time it was really done for. Tried for a while to get it unsnagged but it wasn't happening. Whoever put a trotline right off the pier now has a 5 lb claw anchor to deal with attached to it. I'll remember that one for next time. It's a shame because that's a nice hole with a steep ledge. I'm not very fond of trotlines being in such a high traffic area.

[Jigsup]

Wow! I’m all geared up to go out in the am. Plan is to not venture too far but stay in the vicinity of the pier. Hopefully I can get into them like you did.

That’s unfortunate about loosing the anchor. Specially to a trot line which I’m not understanding why someone would put one in that area anyways. Current is way to fast and full of snags. That whole area around the pier I call snag city. Lord only knows how much tackle is hung up in that area. You have to be very careful fishing that place.

There are a lot of nice holes in lower Marlboro. All can produce big blues and respectable channel catfish. Great to see someone having success there.

What are you using for bait?

[paxmule]

Hey, hope you have some good luck out there! I've been using cut bunker mostly. Gizzard shad has been tough to find for me around here.

[dsaavedra]

Great report and nice fish! A friend of mine fished the Patuxent in that general area yesterday and caught several blues hovering around 20 lbs. Seems like a good time of year to get them. The water looked worse than chocolate milk in the pictures he showed me

[paxmule]

They are in post spawn mode right now so they are biting aggressively to pack on the weight they lost in the spawn. Ya, the water there is pretty dark. Doesnt matter for catfish, they can always find food regardless of water clarity. With them it's mostly about finding their comfort depths and structure in my experience.

[Jigsup]

Made it out this morning at 7am. Hour later than I wanted to start. Saw good marks just north of pier. Sat on it for about 30 minutes with nibbles and two stolen baits.
Moved north to first bend. Caught a good eating size blue that went into cooler. Fought the anchor for what seemed like an hour. Couldn’t get situated so opted to start drifting. Paddled up stream to about 30 feet. Saw good marks high in water column. Dropped two baits down to bottom. Gave them both two cranks and set them in holder. Drifted over 35ft and left rod went down very hard. Fought fish for about 45 seconds and it came unhooked. Tried resetting course. Current was too much. Headed back in at 10am.

Beautiful morning. Nice to have a break from the sun and heat. Wish I had more time to fish. Time definitely got away from me while out there.

The water was really dirty. Some areas you can see the sediment stirring up in the water. But the catfish don’t mind it at all. They are hungry.

[paxmule]

That's pretty much the same area that I have had the most luck up there. That area in the outside of the first bend north in 30-40 feet. I had some problems with losing fish and started using a "stinger" J hook just under my bait hook and its helped.

[Slackdaddy]

Lower Marlboro warf is my home turf,, we live 1/2 mile from it.
Sis In-law loves to target catfish,, we typ duck into the creeks and set up,, but typ get 1-3 lb cats out of them.
We go up river, hard left bend, then just before the hard right is a decent creek mouth that we call "Catfish Ally" ,, mostly 1-3 pounders.
The tide can be a bear through that section,, we picked up two peddle yaks,, a game changer.
We have not tried anchoring in the main river,, not sure I trust the gals with "Rope and weights" on a kayak.PHOTO_20200627_192415.jpg

[paxmule]

I've seen that creek mouth, with the water temp in the 80s still, I'm targeting deep water for the big ones. When the water cools down they'll likely move into those shallows. I'm selective about anchoring in the river. I find I do need it most of the time or the current will just shoot me over the fish at 2mph. On weekends, with boat traffic, I'll only anchor in ledges that are highly visible on both sides just to be safe. Today being Tuesday, and as early as I was there, I never saw any pleasure boats so I anchored in a more preferable spot. Anchor isn't needed so much on incoming tide but that outgoing tide is just a bit too fast.