Fall catfish bite

[Big Mike]

Nice catches

[dsaavedra]

Those are some brutes. Your consistency in catching these big cats is impressive.

[paxmule]

This time of year it doesn't even take much foresight to find them. They are aggressively feeding to prepare for winter. The oxygen level is consistent everywhere so they don't have specific zones really right now. I still just find channel ledges on bends where the current breaks typically, but yesterday I was also catching them right in the swift current in the middle of the channel. One thing i did notice is that there were no fish on the big shallow flat between lower marlboro and white landing but i have actually never picked up any fish on the fish finder on that flat. It must be some sort of a dead zone. Basically my normal formula is to pick a spot on an outside bend where i see a current break, slowly creep toward the bank until i pick up the ledge on the fish finder, back up and drop my anchor and position myself so that im right on the ledge or just inside of it on the deeper end, and drop my baits on a carolina rig with a 10/0 circle hook straight down (not casting) until i feel the bottom, reel up just 1 turn and set it in the yakattack omega rod holder. When the fish hits it, the rod end goes down hard and i just pick it up and start reeling. When i have the fish next to me, i grab the leader, give a little slack, set the rod in the rear flush rod holder, grab it by the mouth (with a glove on) and haul it in.

[clm]

I hit the lower Marlboro pier today...fished for a few hours only as the tide was going out...really tweeked my shoulder carrying my Hobie over the guard rail and down the ramp. I won't be doing that again anytime soon....the guard rail is just to narrow to wheel the kayak and cart through. I only managed two blues. Small guys, 3 and maybe 6 lbs. The older gentlemen from the pier happily took them, and my left over garlic chicken breasts I had for bait. The FF was chock full of fish....he said he was catching large alewife...so, I guess that's what we're so abundant. I had only brought the bottom rigs. Beautiful day for fishing though. No wind, no sun. The current kept dislodging my anchor chain and I ended up drift fishing quite a bit. No skunk, and I made another fisherman happy.

[Jigsup]

Clm, thanks for those fish! I wasn’t the older gentleman that you gave them to but that was a friend of mine who gave me the fish. And yes he has caught a couple alewives off that pier. Caught off a cut piece of alewife. A first for me. Never thought you could catch them hook line and sinker on cut bait. That area is loaded with bait right now.

[paxmule]

Sorry you had so much trouble getting in the water there. My bonafide fits just barely on one side of the guardrail to wheel through. You can go down to clyde watson boat ramp and its easier to launch down there. It's just like a half mile from lower marlboro pier. That's wild that people are catching alewife on hooks. I thought they were filter feeders only

[paxmule]

In the short time I have lived here, I have done quite a bit of research of the habits of blue catfish in these tidal rivers and today I was bored and came up with a theory. Looking at past posts here, and in other reports, it seems that folks don't catch a lot of quality blue cats in the upper patuxent river in the spring time. I have, however noticed from reports that people DO catch them in the lower areas of the Patuxent and potomac in the spring. At my bait shop for example, there is a photo of one of their workers with a slew of large blues they caught in march all the way down near solomons island. After reading about changes in salinity levels between spring and fall, I came up with this theory: Blue catfish have been studied and found to be able to live in salinity levels only up to 17 PPT. In the spring, snow melt and rain water push the salt downstream, freshens the lower river, and the catfish are able to move to a wider downstream range and even out into the bay. (which is how they were able to expand their invasive range out of the james and potomac and into all the other rivers). Blue catfish in the mississippi drainage are known to travel as many as 70 miles before the late spring/early summer spawn. I believe that in the spring prespawn feeding period here in the region, they mostly move downstream and feed all along the way and can be caught more often south of benedict down to the bay. When the water hits 70 degrees in late spring/early summer, they will spawn and will mostly be not feeding at all for 1-2 months. After that, as the summer moves on, the salinity comes back up the river and pushes catfish back upstream during their post spawn feeding and they end up north of benedict which is where the salinity zone eases up and becomes mostly less than 17 PPT. Here, they become trapped in the upper patuxent and go into fall feeding mode until the water gets down to 40 or so degrees and then go mostly lethargic in the deepest areas for winter until the water temp rises and spring comes again. This is very similar to how the mississippi drainage blue catfish annual pattern goes but with the addition of salt in the water moving up and down the rivers. Just a theory i have. I will have a few years of fishing here to prove it or not.

[clm]

Hey, Jigsup, glad you got them. That's great. Paxmule, I looked at the map afterwards, for the Watson launch ...much closer to me, coming from Waldorf. Lots of good info and great people making reports.

[paxmule]

I'll be up there fishing Sunday morning. Probably clyde watson.

[Jigsup]

Paxmule,
That’s pretty much how it works. During the spring season you can fish pretty much anywhere in the Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries and catch blue catfish. The last few years trollers have been catching them trolling for trophy rockfish off of 12 inch shady shad in the main stem of the bay! First time I heard it I couldn’t believe it. Then came the pictures and I had no choice but to believe it. But as the summer goes on and the water warms up along with salinity they retreat to fresher water.

[paxmule]

Got up to the spot later than I wanted to today and missed the tide I wanted so I wasn't able to get up to the area I wanted to be in. Decent day overall though. Biggest fish was a 21 lbr, caught on a filet of a channel cat I had caught earlier. Other fish were decent, averaging around 10 lbs. Water was 56 degrees, outgoing tide was ripping so I was sticking to current breaks. Caught 6 fish. Less than average but not bad.
20221030_103412.jpg

[Slackdaddy]

We call the LM kayak launch "The Calvert Kayak Obstacle course"

I hit the lower Marlboro pier today...fished for a few hours only as the tide was going out...really tweeked my shoulder carrying my Hobie over the guard rail and down the ramp. I won't be doing that again anytime soon....the guard rail is just to narrow to wheel the kayak and cart through. I only managed two blues. Small guys, 3 and maybe 6 lbs. The older gentlemen from the pier happily took them, and my left over garlic chicken breasts I had for bait. The FF was chock full of fish....he said he was catching large alewife...so, I guess that's what we're so abundant. I had only brought the bottom rigs. Beautiful day for fishing though. No wind, no sun. The current kept dislodging my anchor chain and I ended up drift fishing quite a bit. No skunk, and I made another fisherman happy.

[paxmule]

I probably wouldn't put myself through the challenge of launching there so often if it weren't so close to what I think is the best catfishing area on the river. I don't use the intended little launch with the handrail on it. I found it much easier just to roll my kayak down the ramp and push it straight off the dock and get in.

[Slackdaddy]

I probably wouldn't put myself through the challenge of launching there so often if it weren't so close to what I think is the best catfishing area on the river. I don't use the intended little launch with the handrail on it. I found it much easier just to roll my kayak down the ramp and push it straight off the dock and get in.

The "handicap launch" is to skinny for any of my kayaks.
Oddly enough,,, while I live 1/4 mile from the LM Warf,,, I did not go out from it this year. Odd year, work and obligations stole to much time, and when we did go out,, it was below 231 on the PAX,, as the wife likes to crab from her kayak.
My SIL is the "catfish Queen",, she has been following your posts.


What are your "Go To" catfish baits for this area ?

[paxmule]

I use cut bunker, but last Sunday my biggest was caught on a filet of a small channel catfish I had caught. Any fresh oily baitfish will do best. Shad, bunker, mullet, etc. Ive also seen carp breaking the surface there and if one could catch a couple, they would make good. I find bluegill doesn't work as well as the oily fish but it does work. If one could catch a snake head, it would probably also be useful for cut bait.