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Alan Klotz, Fisheries Biologist - Total Reports: 48
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Posted on May 12, 2011 | Permalink
It's Time to Fish Deep Creek Lake!
Type: Freshwater
Region: Western
Location: Deep Creek Lake
The Western Region Fisheries Management staff conducted spring-time surveys in Deep Creek Lake this week, and now is a good time to fish for a variety of freshwater fish species. The shallow cove areas in the southern end of the lake are loaded with spawning golden shiners that are attracting walleye, largemouth bass, northern pike, and chain pickerel. Panfishing should also be good as the lake’s temperature in the coves is about 60° F, and we collected many yellow perch in the 8 – 13 inch range, pumpkinseeds, bluegills in the 8 – 9 inch size class, and brown and yellow bullheads that weighed about 2 lbs. The rocky shoreline areas showed good numbers of smallmouth bass in the 10 - 14 inch size class, along with a good numbers of rock bass. If you are into carp fishing, try the Green Glade Cove area, we observed some specimens there that were simply too large to fit in our dip nets.
Posted on April 26, 2011 | Permalink
North Branch Potomac River Delayed Harvest Trout Fishing Area
Type: Freshwater
Region: Western
Location: North Branch Potomac River
The Western Region Fisheries staff recently rail-stocked the North Branch Potomac River Delayed Harvest Trout Fishing Area bordering the Potomac State Forest. Working cooperatively with CSX Railroad, we were able to distribute 2,000 Rainbow trout into the remote sections of this special trout management area. Anglers wishing to experience this “get away from the crowd” type of fishing – I suggest parking at the access areas at Lostland Run, Laurel Run, and Wallman in the Potomac State Forest, and start hiking to enjoy this scenic river.
Posted on April 20, 2011 | Permalink
Annual Deep Creek Lake Walleye Abundance Survey
Type: Freshwater
Region: Western
Location: Deep Creek Lake
The Western Region Fisheries staff recently completed the annual Deep Creek Lake walleye abundance survey. The survey results showed a high abundance value at 210 walleye per hour of electrofishing. Most of the adult fish were in the 15 – 18 inch size range (a few fish pictured in the live well are still stunned from the electrofishing, but recovered rather quickly). The season on walleye in Deep Creek Lake opened up on April 16, and one of the best locations to fish for these tasty gamefish is along the state park shoreline from the beach area right up to the boat ramp. The walleye are in very shallow water just after sunset, and casting Rapalas or Husky Jerks should produce action. We also collected some nice-sized chain pickerel, smallmouth bass, and jumbo yellow perch.
Posted on April 4, 2011 | Permalink
Stripers stocked at Broadford Lake
Type: Freshwater
Region: Western
Location: Broadford Lake
Broadford Lake in Garrett County received about 270 advanced fingerling striped bass recently. These fish were hatched out at the Manning Hatchery, reared at the Chalk Point Aquaculture Center, and then transferred to the Department of Juvenile Services’ Meadow Mountain Youth Center in Garrett County for the final stage of rearing. The young men from the Youth Center helped stock the fish, and we will be conducting fish population surveys this fall to determine the success of this stocking effort. Any angler fortunate enough to capture a striped bass in Broadford Lake are asked to contact my office at (301) 334 – 8218.
Posted on April 4, 2011 | Permalink
2,730 brown trout
Type: Freshwater
Region: Western
Location: Casselman River
It is still pretty much winter out here in Garrett County, however we are still in full swing with the spring trout stocking schedule. Today we stocked the Casselman River Delayed Harvest Trout Fishing Area with about 2,730 brown trout. This was the third stocking for the Casselman River this spring, so the river has plenty of fish to offer up. Despite today’s cold weather, we observed some winter stoneflies hatching, and the flow was ideal.
Posted on March 22, 2011 | Permalink
Brook Trout
Type: Freshwater
Region: Western
Location: Garrett County
My son Kyle and I celebrated the first day of spring by fishing for brook trout in a remote Garret County stream. We had a great day catching and releasing several beautiful fish and hiking through the forest. We observed a good hatch of brook trout fry in the calmer stream edges.
Posted on October 5, 2010 | Permalink
The Youghiogheny River Catch and Release Trout Fishing Area
Type: Freshwater
Region: Western
Location: The Youghiogheny River Catch and Release Trout Fishing Area
The Youghiogheny River Catch and Release Trout Fishing Area was surveyed at Hoyes and Sang Run stations to document the status of the trout population. Cursory results showed that the river was supporting a high quality trout fishery (more than 2,000 trout per mile), with many quality-size brown and rainbow trout in the population. Brown and rainbow trout greater than 20 inches were collected during the surveys. We stocked 6,137 warmwater rainbow trout fingerlings after the surveys were completed. Temperature and flow enhancement in the river is made possible from the permit agreement with the Deep Creek Lake Power Plant, allowing Inland Fisheries to manage the river as a high quality Catch and Return Trout Fishing Area. Thanks to Western District II, Planning, and Garrett College’s Fisheries Management class for providing the workers to conduct the surveys.
Posted on September 24, 2010 | Permalink
first time I've been out for a while
Type: Freshwater
Region: Western
Location: Yough River
My son Kyle and I took so time to fish for the first time in quite a while. We fished the Youghiogheny River Catch and Release Area and had a phenomenal evening! The river's flow had increased from a recent rain, however flows are still very low. We started fishing a deep hole with wooly buggers - and before long I had a 20 inch rainbow trout on the end of the line, and she put on quite a fight! We landed several more trout, including some bright-colored browns before trout started rising everywhere. As I mentioned in last week's report - always be prepared for an ant swarm on warm early fall days - and that is just what happened. There were some very small ants, about a size 20, and some larger ones about a size 16 falling on the water. I had the best luck using the smaller size on 7X tippett, landing about 25 trout as well as a few smallmouth bass. As late evening approached, so did the bats, so we called it a day.
Posted on August 27, 2010 | Permalink
North Branch of Potomac River water release this weekend
Type: Freshwater
Region: Central
Location: Northwest Branch
There will be a Water Quality release from Jennings Randolph Lake on August 28-29, 2010. We plan to release a flow of 850 for about 30 hours beginning on Saturday morning and continuing until early Sunday afternoon. The ramp up of flows will begin about 6:30 AM on Saturday, with a full release reaching the Barnum gage by about 9:00 AM. On Sunday the flow reduction will begin at about 3:00 PM.
The 2010 release schedule for Jennings Randolph Lake has been posted on the public website: http://www.nab-wc.usace.army.mil/northBranch.html
This page also includes three day projections for daytime release rates for Jennings Randolph Lake and Savage River Dam. Scroll down to find the release schedule.
Posted on July 21, 2010 | Permalink
Savage River Tailwater Fish Sampling Survey
Type: Freshwater
Region: Western
Location: Savage River Tailwater
We just finished two stations on the Savage River Tailwater – one station within the Fly Only Trophy Trout Fishing Area and one station within the Artificial Lures/Fly Trophy Trout Fishing Area. This was our first fish sampling effort after the Savage River Reservoir was drained last winter to replace the release gates within the dam. The amount of wild trout collected within our sample stations was amazing! I did some quick analysis of the data and calculated that there are about 860 adult trout per mile in the Fly Only Area, and similar densities in the Artificial Lures/Fly Trophy Trout Fishing Area. This density is about 70% of the adult trout population density prior to the reservoir draining in 2009. Brown trout were the dominate species, with many of the fish in the 12 to 16 inch range. Brook trout comprised about 10% of the numbers, and most were in the eight to ten inch range. Most all trout exhibited excellent body condition. Spawning success, however, was poor due to the extreme measures the river experienced during the egg incubation period. With an abundance of large mature trout and good spawning substrate throughout the river – we can expect a good hatch next year.
