The Bay is Heating Up

Erick Packard reports bass, pickerel, and crappie are biting at St . Mary's Lake.

A four-day heat wave has pushed the bay temperature to 61 degrees which is only 2 degrees below a ten-year record for April 20. However, a sharp drop in daily heat starting Sunday and continuing through Tuesday will cool things off a bit.

Warmth and a return of normal tides have improved fish activity. Crabs are beginning to invade the shallows. Tiny crab sheds are along the shoreline as molting has begun. Some early trot liners have had modest catches.

Deandre Watkin caught perch on a yellow Perch Hounder lure at Elms Beach on Saturday.

Pound netters had their first catch of alewife this week near Point Lookout. This is a good sign as the bait fish were mostly absent last year. A small, speckled trout was in the nets too, the first of the year.

There are reports of croaker in the lower bay below Reedville. There are some quantities in all sizes heading our way. 

A yellow Perch Hounder was a favorite lure this week.

There were big bull reds chasing bait at the Bay Bridge Tunnel area south of Cape Charles last week. Black drum are in their normal haunts from Cape Charles to Pocomoke Sound and all the way up to the Honga River.

Big stripers in either pre- or post-spawn mode are still in the shallows all around. Lure casters have caught and released many big fish this week. There was a May worm hatch in the mouth of St. Jerome's Creek last week with big stripers on the gorge. Striper season is closed except for catch and release until May first when harvest begins in Maryland Bay waters excepting spawning rivers. The Potomac opens May 16. 

Anthony Selby leads the Tackle Box big catfish contest for April with this 30-inch blue catfish. The catfish took a piece of cut bait near Dahlgren in the Potomac.

White perch are in the creeks for bait fishermen and lure casters.

Catfishing is steadily improving. There have been catches at Bushwood Wharf in the Wicomico River off the Potomac and at Benedict in the Patuxent. Fresh cut alewife is an excellent bait.

The fishing season has liftoff and will be orbiting soon. 

Plentiful largemouth bass at the lake.