Yes, you really can fish for yellow perch in Maryland tidal rivers after March 15. Friday?s column indicating otherwise was wrong, wrong, wrong!
The reality is that there is no closed season in the state on yellow perch, and the Feb. 1 through March 15 period is one that only requires barbless hooks for all yellow perch fishing. Other than that, rivers and areas are open all year round.
The rivers indicated as closed for yellow perch still stand ? these being Magothy, Nanticoke, Patapsco, Severn, South and West rivers.
Mike Slattery, assistant secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, last week told me that the tidal yellow perch season closed on March 15.
He was looking at the DNR Web site, which lists in one column the species size limits, creel limits and seasons.
The one for “perch, yellow” shows a “season” of Feb. 1 through March 15, using barbless hooks only, but that is wrong.
The stipulation of the barbless hook period of Feb. 1 through March 15 should be under “special conditions” on the DNR site, not under the species season/limits column.
Both Sgt. Ken Turner of the Natural Resources Police and Slattery agreed that the site should be changed to reflect greater clarity and the correct barbless hook time period.
“I apologize,” Slattery said of this yellow perch confusion, stating that he would have the Web site changed to clearly reflect the yellow perch seasons (open year round) and special conditions (barbless hooks from Feb. 1 to March 15).
Slattery and I share the blame on this one, although the guy doing the fisheries regulations on the Web site might also want to think about his role in this. Could there be other mistakes or confusion there?
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You might have noticed the big omission about the Diamond Jim Tournament and the Maryland Million Dollar Fishing Challenge in the Maryland 2007 Fishing Guide this year.
That is because whether or not we would have such a whiz-bang event this season had not been decided by the time the booklet was published for January distribution with license sales.
It still hasn?t been decided. DNR biologist Marty Gary said we will have some sort of event this year, but probably one scaled down from the hoopla of last season that had lots of prizes given out in September at the end of the event.
Some people (four) even went home with trucks (two of them, from Toyota) and boats (a center console Sailfish from Boater?s World and Tracker Nitro bass boat from Bass Pro Shops) for some big-bucks prizes.
Right now, the prospects look pretty good for some sort of contest, just one scaled down from last year.
The state feeling is that it showcases Maryland fishing opportunities and also makes for an easy, no-entry-fee contest for all anglers fishing Maryland waters.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally known sportsman and award-winning writer on fishing, hunting, and the outdoors, and is currently working on his 25th book. He can be reached at [email protected].
