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This was my first time visiting St. Mary’s Lake, at St. Mary’s River State Park, Maryland. McIntosh Outfitters hooked me up with a great deal on a 15ft canoe rental for the day, so my fishing buddy and I took advantage of the beautiful weather to paddle around this 250 acre lake, said to hold trophy Largemouth Bass.
By 6:00am, we were in the water and heading west, with the goal if hitting the western shallows before sunrise. Our lures of choice for the morning were senkos, Texas rigged, and a live nightcrawler, trolled behind us on a 2ft travel rod.
Along the way, we stopped to boat a small crappie on the trolling line, and we took a break to check out the shoreline on the southern bank. We casted around the stumps and clusters of grass there without much luck. I was moved by the rising curtains of wispy mist over the water, so I snapped this photo (which does the sight no justice at all), and soon afterwards my friend boated our first bass:
St. Mary’s Lake is a remarkable place to be at sunrise. Everywhere we looked, we could see Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets erupting from the curtains of mist, belching throaty baritone screeches to their mates in the trees above. I mentioned to my buddy that they sort of look like Pterodactyls. He laughed. We fished on.
We had nearly reached our destination when something hit the trolling line very aggressively. A 10-12” Pickerel took the nightcrawler, and I fought it to the boat before it jumped and threw the hook at the last second, bumping our canoe before disappearing into the depths. I switched to a bubblegum senko, and missed two or three strikes around the drop-offs a few feet offshore. We discovered that the sluggish bass would only hit our lures once, never coming back to seal the deal with a committed strike. This day, these fish would give us no second chances. Good thing my buddy was paying attention:
It wasn’t even 8am yet, and we were getting consistent strikes by casting into large disturbances on the flat surface of the lake. The bite was good and I lost two small bass to thrown hooks within half an hour. At one point we both went after a rolling fish, and my friend set into a small bass that threw the hook with a jump about 6ft from the boat. At the same moment that his fish got loose, something very large at the bottom hit my senko with enough force to yank out a length of drag, before spitting it out in less than a second. I frantically dropped my bait back into the area of the strike, but whatever lunker that had been lurking there was already gone. No second chances.
The fish stopped biting around 9:30am. We paddled for hours around the lake’s many small inlets and shaded lagoons, working our way east. Surface activity was rare to nonexistent. I tried a small spinner with a light tube worm in some large lily patches, and soon found that most of the shallow areas were absolutely loaded with masses of suspended vegetation. I had a difficult time keeping my baits out of this stuff. I also tried a live nightcrawler on a flicker spoon hook, but found no action beyond a few small nibbling pan fish. Eventually I went back to a pink senko, but the inlets seemed deserted. These shallow lagoons are no deeper than 3-4ft at their center, and the average depth is closer to 2ft. Water clarity was high on this day, with the bottom visible at depths up to 8ft. Worth mentioning is that nearly every time we left one of these areas, we were seen off with a hearty *splash* by some unseen fish in the pockets where we had been only moments before.
By 2pm, we reached the eastern arm of the lake, north of the dam. We brought in a 4” bluegill with the trolling line, so I hooked it through the top lip and trolled it behind us on a bobber. It swam or was taken beneath a large branch after about ten minutes and came off the hook. We decided to head back for the day, plunking around in the deeper water while we drifted with the wind back to the boat ramp. We got back to land around 3pm. After 9 hours in a two-seater canoe, it sure felt nice to stretch our legs.
Overall I was extremely pleased with this day on the lake. I particularly enjoyed watching the wildlife. There were Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Belted Kingfishers, woodpeckers, and ducks around every turn, among the multitudes of other wetland species who call this beautiful place home. I also learned a lot on my first day out there. For starters, early morning seems like the only way to go in the summer time, as most of our hits happened before 8am. Also, we figured out the hard way that weedless lures and heavy line are a MUST for this lake. We lost more than half a dozen hooks/senkos to underwater snags. Despite this, we had a pretty successful morning and managed to put some fish on the boat! I can’t wait to go back.
Our canoe outfitter was AMAZING. Jim from McIntosh Outfitters took our reservation less than 12 hours in advance, and he was at the lake with our canoe waiting at 5:45 am. He only charged us $50 for the day (9 hours!!), and was very reliable with drop-off and pick-up, asking only for a 30min heads up when we were ready to come in. He charges $40 for half day canoe rentals (4hrs) and even less for kayak rentals. Contact Jim from McIntosh Outfitters @ (240) 577-3971. As far as I know, he has the best rates in Southern Maryland for canoe and kayak rentals.
By 6:00am, we were in the water and heading west, with the goal if hitting the western shallows before sunrise. Our lures of choice for the morning were senkos, Texas rigged, and a live nightcrawler, trolled behind us on a 2ft travel rod.
Along the way, we stopped to boat a small crappie on the trolling line, and we took a break to check out the shoreline on the southern bank. We casted around the stumps and clusters of grass there without much luck. I was moved by the rising curtains of wispy mist over the water, so I snapped this photo (which does the sight no justice at all), and soon afterwards my friend boated our first bass:
St. Mary’s Lake is a remarkable place to be at sunrise. Everywhere we looked, we could see Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets erupting from the curtains of mist, belching throaty baritone screeches to their mates in the trees above. I mentioned to my buddy that they sort of look like Pterodactyls. He laughed. We fished on.
We had nearly reached our destination when something hit the trolling line very aggressively. A 10-12” Pickerel took the nightcrawler, and I fought it to the boat before it jumped and threw the hook at the last second, bumping our canoe before disappearing into the depths. I switched to a bubblegum senko, and missed two or three strikes around the drop-offs a few feet offshore. We discovered that the sluggish bass would only hit our lures once, never coming back to seal the deal with a committed strike. This day, these fish would give us no second chances. Good thing my buddy was paying attention:
It wasn’t even 8am yet, and we were getting consistent strikes by casting into large disturbances on the flat surface of the lake. The bite was good and I lost two small bass to thrown hooks within half an hour. At one point we both went after a rolling fish, and my friend set into a small bass that threw the hook with a jump about 6ft from the boat. At the same moment that his fish got loose, something very large at the bottom hit my senko with enough force to yank out a length of drag, before spitting it out in less than a second. I frantically dropped my bait back into the area of the strike, but whatever lunker that had been lurking there was already gone. No second chances.
The fish stopped biting around 9:30am. We paddled for hours around the lake’s many small inlets and shaded lagoons, working our way east. Surface activity was rare to nonexistent. I tried a small spinner with a light tube worm in some large lily patches, and soon found that most of the shallow areas were absolutely loaded with masses of suspended vegetation. I had a difficult time keeping my baits out of this stuff. I also tried a live nightcrawler on a flicker spoon hook, but found no action beyond a few small nibbling pan fish. Eventually I went back to a pink senko, but the inlets seemed deserted. These shallow lagoons are no deeper than 3-4ft at their center, and the average depth is closer to 2ft. Water clarity was high on this day, with the bottom visible at depths up to 8ft. Worth mentioning is that nearly every time we left one of these areas, we were seen off with a hearty *splash* by some unseen fish in the pockets where we had been only moments before.
By 2pm, we reached the eastern arm of the lake, north of the dam. We brought in a 4” bluegill with the trolling line, so I hooked it through the top lip and trolled it behind us on a bobber. It swam or was taken beneath a large branch after about ten minutes and came off the hook. We decided to head back for the day, plunking around in the deeper water while we drifted with the wind back to the boat ramp. We got back to land around 3pm. After 9 hours in a two-seater canoe, it sure felt nice to stretch our legs.
Overall I was extremely pleased with this day on the lake. I particularly enjoyed watching the wildlife. There were Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Belted Kingfishers, woodpeckers, and ducks around every turn, among the multitudes of other wetland species who call this beautiful place home. I also learned a lot on my first day out there. For starters, early morning seems like the only way to go in the summer time, as most of our hits happened before 8am. Also, we figured out the hard way that weedless lures and heavy line are a MUST for this lake. We lost more than half a dozen hooks/senkos to underwater snags. Despite this, we had a pretty successful morning and managed to put some fish on the boat! I can’t wait to go back.
Our canoe outfitter was AMAZING. Jim from McIntosh Outfitters took our reservation less than 12 hours in advance, and he was at the lake with our canoe waiting at 5:45 am. He only charged us $50 for the day (9 hours!!), and was very reliable with drop-off and pick-up, asking only for a 30min heads up when we were ready to come in. He charges $40 for half day canoe rentals (4hrs) and even less for kayak rentals. Contact Jim from McIntosh Outfitters @ (240) 577-3971. As far as I know, he has the best rates in Southern Maryland for canoe and kayak rentals.
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