Southern Maryland anglers pushed through two inches of rain from Sunday and Monday’s storms to keep landing strong catches throughout the week, with spot once again the most reliable fish in the water, according to this week’s fishing report from Ken Lamb of the St. Mary’s Tacklebox.
White perch were biting early and late in the day, with a strong showing off the Solomons pier for anglers using shad darts or Sabiki rigs tipped with grass shrimp. Speckled trout and bluefish have moved into the shallows around Point Lookout, while bluefish elsewhere in the bay are schooled up, often mixed in with Spanish mackerel, and readily taking trolled spoons and surgical eel lures. Blues have also pushed into area creeks and rivers, where their sharp teeth have been shredding hooks and lures for anglers targeting other species.
white perch from the Patuxent
Cobia continue to respond well to trolled surgical eel lures and to cut bait and live eels fished in chum lines, though Lamb noted plenty of undersized cobia showing up alongside oversized red drum this week — both requiring release under current regulations. Maryland’s red drum rules shifted this year: state fisheries managers adopted a new 18- to 26-inch slot limit with a three-fish daily bag limit, replacing the previous one-fish limit, after the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission approved coordinated red drum management measures across Maryland, Virginia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission last fall. Any red drum outside that slot, including the “over-sized” fish Lamb described, must go back in the water. Cobia carry their own minimum length requirement, set annually through a public notice from Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources in line with the coast-wide cobia management plan, meaning any cobia under that mark has to be released regardless of how good the bite is.
The heavy rain is expected to work in favor of two other species. Snakehead and catfish tend to become more active in freshened, rain-swollen water, and Lamb expects both to turn on in the upper reaches of the Potomac and Patuxent rivers in the coming days. Both species carry no bag or size limits in Maryland, since state wildlife officials classify them as invasive and encourage anglers to harvest them freely as part of ongoing efforts to reduce their impact on native fish populations. Northern snakehead have been established in the Potomac watershed for two decades and have since spread into most major Chesapeake Bay tributaries, making Southern Maryland one of the more productive regions in the state for anglers specifically targeting the species.
Crabbing remains strong across the region, continuing a productive summer for Southern Maryland’s blue crab fishery.
Freshwater anglers have plenty to work with as well. St. Mary’s Lake is fishing well for bass, crappie, pickerel, bluegill and even white perch, with fish responding to a wide range of lures and bait presentations. The 250-acre reservoir, built in 1975 within St. Mary’s River State Park near Leonardtown, has long served as one of the area’s primary freshwater fishing destinations, with a 7.5-mile trail circling the lake for shoreline anglers and enough coves, drop-offs and submerged structure to keep boat anglers busy as well. The lake has carried a trophy bass designation in the past, with special regulations that anglers are encouraged to check before keeping fish, and its population of largemouth bass, crappie, chain pickerel, bluegill and yellow perch draws steady traffic from anglers who don’t want to make the trip out to tidal water for a day on the water.
With rain continuing to influence conditions into the week ahead, Lamb noted that fish may shift their usual patterns somewhat once the weather clears — a reminder that Southern Maryland’s summer bite, while generally reliable, still bends to whatever the sky sends down.
