April Fishing in Maryland - So far

[Johnsfolly]

Starting this a bit late. I already posted about our shad fishing trip. We had a couple more trips so far and I might get in one maybe two more before May. Spring is definitiely here in terms of spawning fish. Weather has been a bit rougher here as it seems it is also in the midwest. 

13Apr22

Made a run after work to one of the closest lakes to us. Only had about 35 to 40 mins to fish before dark. Park guys kick you out at soon as possible on most evenings. The bank that we usually fish looks like they harvested a lot of the vegetation from the bank. I wasn't sure how that would affect our fishing. I put on the trout magnet jig and targetted sunfish while Livie had her waders on to fish a topwater for bass or possible snakehead.

I go no love along most of the bank where we would normallly get into groups of decent bluegill and redear sunfish. Livie wasn't even getting any follows let alone any real blow ups on the topwater. I did get one smallish chain pickerel on the green and black trout magnet.

Can't complain about the evening. Even the local fire department were checking out their pump systems as the sun set on a nice day.

23Apr22

After our shad and micro trip last weekend, Livie still wanted another shot at the darters in Buck Branch.

We made a day trip with everyone and did some antiquing on the drive up to fish. What a difference a week makes. There were much fewer fish in the creek than last weekend. Maybe it was due to being later in the afternoon or maybe conditions were changing. So hope to getting one of the tessellated darters for Livie looked to be a challenge. We had the one micro rod with a #24 hook (that Livie struggled with last week getting a hook set) and a #26 half moon tanago with worm on the other micro rod. Livie could not get many of the fish to show any interest in the #24 hook. She switched rods and hooked up. I was hurrying over with the catch bag and she kept telling me that I would not be able to guess what she caught. She was right, since she caught a salamander still with external gills. Best we can tell it's a dusky salamander.

While she used the tanago, I fished the #24 rod. She did catch her first eastern blacknose dace of the year, but not one of the coloroful males that were chasing each other around.

I was bouncing the split shot into and in front of gaps and holes between the rocks to see if I could entice a darter to show itself. I did get one to stick out it's head and I called Livie over. She saw where my bait was and as I pulled it from the rocks so she could go after that fish it bit and I caught the darter. It was one of the males in it's spawning coloration 🙄. Well we took a bunch of photos anyways. 

Livie tooks over with that rod and after a couple of different rocks we both saw movement. She was then able to hook and land her first ever tessellated darter and it was also another male! With that the trip was a success.

 

[Johnsfolly]

25Apr22

Took of today wanted to try for more sculpin and darter species. Also see if we could find some morels on the western side of the state.

First spot would be a piece of National Park land from the old C&O canal system along the Potomac. Didn't plan for any fishing in the big river, but had targeted a small creek that should hold some potomac sculpin. Sue went for mushrooms and I put on waders. Below the bridge I found some flat rock with good openings under them. I got a fish to come out from under the rock. I had two shots at it as it hit my bait but failed to get a hook set. Found another rock that was similar setup. Again a sculpin was under it and again I could not get a hook set when it bit. Then it spooked. For the next 30 mins I could not find any others. I did find that the bait had covered the hook point.

I picked up Sue who had some dryad saddle mushrooms and a single yellow morel🙂. She didn't find any others.

We left and got to a second creek. This creek did not have really any rock or structure that would hold any sculpin. Also no darters were seen. Still had one more darter spot. Another 25 min drive amd we were at Catoctin creek. After checking the creek, I saw some small smallmouth bass and redbreast sunfish. I put on a John deere microjig on my Airstream 7' UL rood and 4# Pline. As I got back down to the creek one flyfisherman was leaving and the other had just passed thru the spot with the smallmouth. They spooked when the tiny jig hit the water. Third cast was picked up by a fallfish.

I made several more casts but no love from the smallmouth that came back. Once I threw well ahead of them and with small jigs of the bait I caught my first smallmouth in 2022. Not a big one but he made the list😉. 

I caught a couple of redbreast sunfish and we headed home. No darters or sculpin but a nice day out.

[Toseythecat]

I miss catching Fallfish. Used to catch many in the Ramapo River in NJ but that was many years ago. 

[Johnsfolly]

9 hours ago, Toseythecat said:

I miss catching Fallfish. Used to catch many in the Ramapo River in NJ but that was many years ago. 

They can be pretty aggressive and fight well on light line. What's  not to like about that 😉?