trout – Jay's Real Estate Blog

The Southern Maryland Chronicle

As the signs of spring begin to appear across Maryland, anglers are preparing for a variety of fishing opportunities throughout the state. From trout season openings to striped bass pre-spawn runs and white perch spawning runs, Maryland offers something for every angler.

Trout Season Opens in Maryland

One of the most anticipated events for Maryland anglers is the opening day of trout season, which falls on Saturday, March 25 this year. The state’s Department of Natural Resources hatcheries have been working hard to ensure generous stockings of healthy trout in put-and-take management waters across the state.

According to the Department of Natural Resources, Maryland has over 100 stocked trout streams, with many of them located within an hour’s drive of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. These waters are stocked with rainbow, brown, and brook trout, and anglers are allowed to keep up to five fish per day.

Maryland’s trout season typically runs from March through May, with some waters open for catch-and-release fishing throughout the year. To ensure a successful fishing trip, anglers should check the DNR’s trout stocking website for the latest information on stocking schedules, maps, and other trout fishing information.

Pre-Spawn Striped Bass in Susquehanna Flats

As spring arrives in Maryland, the state’s water temperatures are warming, making it a prime time for gamefish like striped bass to spawn. Anglers are expected to be out in full force, casting large crankbaits and soft plastics for pre-spawn striped bass in the Susquehanna Flats catch-and-release area.

According to the Department of Natural Resources, the Susquehanna Flats area offers some of the best striped bass fishing in the state. The area is a shallow-water spawning ground for striped bass, and anglers are required to use artificial lures only and practice catch-and-release fishing to protect the fish population.

Anglers should also be aware of the regulations for striped bass fishing in Maryland. The minimum size for striped bass is 19 inches, and anglers are limited to keeping two fish per day. In addition, the main part of the Chesapeake Bay is closed to striped bass fishing from April 1 to May 1 to protect the striped bass population during their spawning season.

White Perch Spawning Runs

Spring is also a prime time for white perch spawning runs in Maryland’s rivers and streams. Anglers are picking away at post-spawn yellow perch as these fish move downriver from their spawning areas. Lip-hooked minnows will be the best bait to use. The second run of white perch is occurring in spawning rivers, and the top half of the flood tide usually offers the best fishing for them.

According to the Department of Natural Resources, white perch are one of the most popular gamefish in Maryland, with the largest populations found in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. White perch are known for their hard fighting and delicious taste, and can be caught using a variety of baits and lures.

Anglers should be aware of the regulations for white perch fishing in Maryland. The minimum size for white perch is 9 inches, and anglers are limited to keeping 25 fish per day.

Catfish, Crappie, and Pickerel Fishing

Maryland’s rivers and streams also offer plenty of opportunities for catfish, crappie, and pickerel fishing. A mix of blue and channel catfish are entertaining anglers in the upper Bay and tidal rivers, while crappie are very active this week and can be found near structure in moderately deep waters. Using small marabou jigs or small minnows under a slip bobber is an excellent way to fish for them.

Freshwater Fishing

Moving on to freshwater fishing, Saturday, March 25, marked a significant day for put-and-take trout anglers all across Maryland. The state’s Department of Natural Resources opened waters that were previously closed to trout fishing at 5:30 a.m. for those who wanted to try their hand at trout fishing. The stocking crews had been working overtime to place healthy trout in these waters, ensuring that anglers would have an enjoyable experience.

Warming water temperatures have caused many freshwater species to become more active this first week of spring. At Deep Creek Lake and the upper Potomac River, smallmouth bass and walleye are entertaining anglers. Largemouth bass are becoming more aggressive in their feeding habits as they enter their pre-spawn bulk-up of body stores. They can often be found holding near structure in moderately deep waters – sunken wood, fallen treetops, rocks, bridge piers, emerging grass, and drop-offs are all good places to find them. Working wacky rigged or dropshot rigged soft plastics and stick worms is a good choice to entice a pickup. Casting grubs, crankbaits and jigs near structure is also a good choice. On sunny afternoons, the shallower waters are good places to cast spinnerbaits, soft plastics, jerkbaits, and lipless crankbaits.

Crappie are very active this week and can be found near structure in moderately deep waters. Using small marabou jigs or small minnows under a slip bobber is an excellent way to fish for them. Fallen treetops, marina docks, bridge piers, and most any kind of submerged structure are good places to look for them.

Chain pickerel are still very much in play for anglers casting paddletails and other lures near shoreline structure. Sunken wood is a favorite ambush hangout for chain pickerel. Bluegill sunfish are active this week and can be caught on a variety of small lures or a simple worm and bobber combination.

Atlantic Ocean and Coastal Bays

Finally, in the Atlantic Ocean and Coastal Bays, there have been a few unconfirmed reports of the first flounder being caught in the back bay regions of Ocean City. Flounder are starting to show up at Wachapreague, so flounder should be showing up in the Ocean City area now or very soon.

Anglers are fishing for tautog at the inlet and Route 50 Bridge area this week. Most of the fish being caught are reported to be just shy of the 16-inch minimum, but there is plenty of action on sand fleas. Other anglers are casting soft plastic jigs around bridge and jetty structure and catching a few striped bass, but most are not making the 28-inch minimum.

The boats and anglers wishing to head out to the wreck and reef sites in search of tautog are finally seeing calmer seas. Many anglers have been catching large tautog, with some exceeding 20 pounds. These are true trophy fish, and most anglers respect how old they are and release them. White legger crabs tend to be the favored bait for these large fish, but other anglers are having good luck with jigs on smaller fish.

In summary, anglers all across Maryland have plenty of options to choose from this week. From trout fishing to chasing trophy tautog in the Atlantic Ocean, there is something for everyone. The warming temperatures and increasing daylight hours will only make for more active fish, so it’s a great time to get outside and enjoy all that Maryland has to offer for anglers.

Each year, to the delight of anglers, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources stocks 131 streams and ponds with trout raised in the state’s four trout hatcheries in Garrett and Washington counties. The Baltimore Sun spoke with Marshall Brown, cold water production manager at the Albert Powell Hatchery in Hagerstown, about the spring stocking process that runs from February through May.

You place trout everywhere from the Gunpowder River to Deep Creek Lake. Who chooses the sites?

Brown: That was determined years ago by fisheries biologists. Occasionally, we’ll add or subtract a site because of changing water quality conditions or in the accessibility of a stream through private property.

How many trout will you stock this spring?

Brown: About 338,000 rainbow, golden rainbow and brown trout. Our hope is that 95 percent will be caught because most won’t survive year-round. When water temperatures get over 70 degrees, trout start to suffer.

Do hatchery fish mix with brook trout, which are native to Maryland?

Brown: Typically, we don’t release them in streams and tributaries where brook trout are prevalent.

Do avid fishermen wait at creeks and lakes for your arrival?

Brown: Some do. We publish a stocking schedule each week. Some people wait outside the hatchery and follow us to the sites. Yesterday, we hauled fish up to Wills Creek, in Cumberland, and one guy followed our tank truck all the way (70 miles).

So fishing starts on your arrival?

Brown: About 60 percent of streams are open year-round. But about one-third of them will be closed from March 6-25, during stocking, and the rest are closed March 19-25. (For more details, go to http://dnr.maryland.gov/Fisheries/Pages/default.aspx.

Do anglers themselves visit the hatcheries?

Brown: They come in daily to see the fish. Some will point to a trout and ask, “Where are you stocking this one?”

How many eggs do you purchase?

Brown: About 600,000, nearly 99 percent of which hatch.

What does each fish cost?

Brown: It’s well below the commercial rate of $2.85. For us to raise the same trout costs around $2. It’s paid for by trout stamps (which fishermen must buy) and federal funding.

Will trout eat each other?

Brown: They can cannibalize smaller fish, so we try to keep them graded by size at the hatchery.

What other perils face trout in a hatchery?

Brown: Parasites. Bacterial gill disease. Last year, we lost 20,000 fish from an outbreak of ich (white spot disease).

How do you move the fish from tank truck to streams?

Brown: Mostly, we haul buckets of trout, by hand, to the water source. Once in a while a fish (escapes), but we pick it up and go on.

Do the fish wriggle off right away?

Brown: It depends. If it’s fast water, they’ll swim; in a pool, they may sit there awhile.

Are native species smarter than hatchery-raised trout?

Brown: People who work with native ones will tell you so. For the most part, hatchery-reared trout are aggressive fish that are used to human interaction because they are fed daily. But once in a stream, they adapt quickly and avoid you — golden trout, especially, are very elusive.

How large are the fish you release?

Brown: Most are 1-year-olds, averaging 10 to 12 inches and one-half pound. But 10 percent of each load are “holdovers,” or 2-year-old fish nearly double that size, which gives fishermen a variety. We’ll also throw in a few “trophy” fish, which are 3- or 4-year-olds averaging 5 to 8 pounds each.

Do you remember the trophy fish?

Brown: You get familiar with some of them from their different color patterns or body features, like fin erosion or missing scales.

Over four years, you must bond with some trophy fish. Ever name them?

Brown: I remember one we had years ago named Steve. He was a big one, but I’m sure he’s dead now.

Tag: trout

Maryland Trout Season Opens to Anglers on March 25

DNR to stock streams and ponds with trout raised in hatcheries

for more information, click here.

My Location

Deep Creek Media

Stay Connected