Take your pick of fishing adventures. We are right in the middle of the catch-and-release striped bass season on the Susquehanna Flats, and the spring trophy striper season (one fish per angler per day, 28 inches or larger) starts tomorrow. Shad fishing for both hickory and American shad is close to high gear.
“It could be awesome,” said Marty Gary, Department of Natural Resources biologist, about the fishing prospects for the weekend. He postulated great success by perhaps Flats fishing for stripers or wading for hickory shad today, then switching to trophy fishing for big stripers on Saturday and Sunday, the first two days of the trophy spring season. Or, pick trophy striper fishing for one day and catch-and-release Flats stripers for the second.
Even though the Flats fishing for stripers has been in for six weeks (since March 1), the fair-to-good fishing ratchets up to best during the end of the season (May 3) with the water temperature 55 to about 64 ? the range that stripers favor for spawning. Prior to this, the Flats fishing has been a tad off (it always is, early in the season) with erratic catches, mostly on bait.
Then too, turbidity ? and we have had some with Pennsylvania top soil coming down the Susquehanna ? tends to push stripers south and off the Flats. According to Gary, stripers hate turbidity.
While the Flats is a staging area for stripers to move into the Elk and C&D Canal for spawning, fish are there right now. The midweek temperature was about 55 , warm enough to keep them happy. It will yo-yo a tad as cold water is released through Conowingo. And the warmer air temps and no rain ? save for the guesstimate of scattered showers on Saturday ? should help to make this a memorable fishing weekend.
Flats striper fishing ? and catching ? should become steadier, with more fish taken on flies, slowly hopped bottom jigs and Bass Assassin or Slug-Go type lures worked methodically in a grid or fan-casting pattern. And it will only get better.
A DNR 1998 study showed few fish present during April 16?18, a lot showing up during the second survey of April 24?26 and “a ton of fish” found during the May 4?6 survey. Fishing can only get hotter for the catch-and-release guys.
The peak times for shad, according to DNR studies and periodic surveys, should be from about April 5 through April 20 for hickory shad and May 3 through May 8 for the Americans. “I know that for a fact,” said Gary, basing his bet on DNR surveys of catches over the last 15 years. So far, hickory shad have been a smidgen off this year, with some chilly raw days affecting the Susquehanna and tributaries Octoraro and Deer creeks. Some water temperatures have been just too cold to tempt shad into striking darts and flies. But with a few warm days, catches can only ramp up.
This might also be a weekend to take a nice citation-size trout from area streams or a big trophy striper during the spring season to put you into the 2008 Maryland Fishing Challenge contest featuring Diamond Jim.
“It?s basically a citation program,” said Gary of the tournament that is almost like last year but with an earlier start to encourage more entries. That means that as of April 12 through Sept. 1, any angler catching a citation-size fish in the freshwater, Chesapeake Bay or Atlantic Coast divisions has a chance to end up with some great prizes.
That?s 60 different species, from bull head to bluefish, carp to marlin, bass to tuna, all with a chance to win a Toyota Tundra 4X4 truck or a Bass Pro Shops Tracker boat, engine and trailer. Bill?s Outdoor Center in Oakland is again contributing some great prizes. And Boater?s World is offering up to $25,000 in cash prizes for the capture of Diamond Jim. Then, too, there is a Smyth Jewelers? $5,000 diamond for the Diamond Jim catch.
Diamond Jim is a specially tagged striper, one of 21 to be tagged each month starting in June, with “impostor” tagged catches worth $500 each. Catch a tagged striper or citation anything, and you’re in the contest. More information is available at www.dnr.maryland.gov/fishingchallenge.
