Western Region:
Fishermen at Deep Creek Lake are enjoying some very good fishing for smallmouth bass and walleye lately. The smallmouth bass have been very actively feeding on crayfish that are moving
from the shallower areas of the lake into deeper water. The walleyes are schooling up and are also providing some excellent fishing opportunities. More than a few area fishermen are talking about ice fishing and getting their gear ready.
The upper Potomac River water levels have come up a bit recently but are still rather low which can make for some easy fishing. The water temperature is down to about 45-degrees and the smallmouth bass and many other species such as walleyes and crappie are very active as well. Tom Waldrop holds up a nice Potomac crappie for the camera before releasing it back into the river.
Central/Southern Region:
Fishermen in the central region are still seeing low water levels in the water supply reservoirs and probably will for quite a while. The boat ramps at Rocky Gorge have been closed for some time now and anyone wanting to fish from a small boat must drag or carry it about 100 yards to the waters 
edge. Peter Schumacher dragged his canoe down the reservoir to sample some of the fine fall fishing that is taking place due to cooler water temperatures. Peter mentioned he caught several nice largemouth bass on deep diving crankbaits and caught and released this nice 32” striped bass on a 7” swimbait near a point on the reservoir.
The fall fishing opportunities extend to a lot of other types of fishing in the two regions. Fishing for channel catfish continues to be very good in many of the regions tidal rivers and cooler water temperatures are causing chain pickerel to be very active in the upper reaches of the tidal rivers. Smallmouth bass are very active in several reservoirs such as Prettyboy and Liberty and can be caught on shallow running crankbaits or spinnerbaits near rocky bottom. Crappie are schooling up in reservoirs such as Loch Raven and can be caught near deep structure. Yellow perch are also very active this time of the year; Erin Horgan holds up a nice one she caught at Loch Raven Reservoir recently while fishing with her dad.
Fishermen on the tidal Potomac River are finding largemouth bass schooling up near drop-offs and the remaining grass beds and are finding the bass are moving into the shallows on sunny days. Crankbaits tend to be the choice of baits in the mornings and spinnerbaits as the day wears on.
Regional fisheries biologist Mary Groves sent in this short report of some field observations. The tournament season in winding down now, but anglers fishing the Potomac are still hooking up with some nice bass on the wood and even in the shallows along the dying grass beds. An interesting find during one of our electro-fishing surveys was a group of small blue catfish that were schooled up in less than 3 feet of water in Piscataway Creek. Blue catfish are typically a deep water species and we normally find only larger fish (greater than 5 pounds). The school we found in Piscataway consisted of fish less than 5 pounds. It’s not uncommon for anglers to find more blue catfish than channels in the tidal Potomac now, a big switch from 10 years ago.
Eastern Region:
The ranks of fishermen have been thinning as cooler weather sets in and other outdoor activities such as hunting interfere with fishing time. Most anglers that do go out on the water can’t help but notice that they usually have the water to themselves. Cooler water temperatures have largemouth bass and other freshwater species such as chain pickerel in a very active feeding stage. Many of the extensive grass beds in some of the tidal rivers; especially those on the upper eastern shore are breaking up and largemouth bass are schooling up in more open water. Shallow running crankbaits and spinnerbaits have been popular choices recently around the remaining grass beds and shallow wood during the day. The largemouth bass have been holding to deeper wood and channel edges during the early morning hours and tend to move to the sunnier sides of rivers and creeks as the day wears on.
Fishing for channel catfish and carp has been good in most rivers along with yellow perch and crappie. Many of the regions lakes and ponds are seeing grass beds thinning out and cooler waters have chain pickerel aggressively cruising open water for anything that moves.
Click here to view recent bay satellite images at mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/NASAimagery/EyesInTheSky.cfm
Reservoir Bathymetry information:
The Maryland Geological
Survey has bathymetry maps on their website:
Links to freshwater flows:
Latest real time stream flow for
Gunpowder Falls near Parkton.
Latest real time stream flow for
Gunpowder Falls At Glencoe.
Latest real time stream flows on
the
Potomac at Paw Paw, WV
