Weekend Fishing Report

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By Gene Mueller

It doesn't matter whether you prefer fishing for smallmouth bass in the mountainous portions of our rivers, going after their largemouth cousins in ponds, lakes and tidal creeks, chumming for rockfish in salty waters, dropping a bait for croakers or fighting a tough amberjack in Virginia's offshore waters -- the fishing is good just about everywhere.

Let's begin with croakers, which have been biting well in the mouth of the Choptank, as well as the Patuxent and lower parts of the Potomac rivers. Flounder have taken drifted minnows in the mouth of St. Jerome's Creek, the Cornfield Harbor area of the lower Potomac, and a good many portions of the Tangier Sound.

Stripers in the 18- to 23-inch range are hooked in the Chesapeake Bay by cummers, trollers, bait drifters and lure casters who find action from the Bay Bridges down to the Point No Point lighthouse area and then into the lower Potomac.

The upper tidal Potomac River's bass continue to bite well in the main stem and the feeder creeks, where early-hour top-water baits are followed by mostly spinnerbaits, plastic worms, craws and "creature" baits after the sun climbs high.

By the way, after the recent Mattawoman Creek bass kill -- which no one doubts was caused when a large bass tournament group released its catches and 601 bass died within a day or two after being turned loose -- you'd think other tournament groups would learn. But they're not nearly the great conservationists they like us to believe they are. This weekend, another 150- to 200-boat tournament is coming out of Leesylvania State Park on the Virginia side of the Potomac. For shame. We expect more dead bass, caused by warm water conditions and severe stress.

(Ratings key: ****=Excellent fishing; ***=Good; **Fair; *=Poor)

AREA 1: D.C. AND VICINITY

TIDAL POTOMAC RIVER: 0-35 miles (***) -- At Fletcher's Cove (Georgetown, off Canal Road; call 202/244-0461) Ray Fletcher said: "The river is in good shape and the big blue catfish continue to provide most of the action. Some bass hooked, mostly on the Virginia side of the river." Downstream, the bass fishing continues at a brisk pace. Early-hour top-water lures, followed by a variety of soft plastics, spinnerbaits -- even shallow-running Chatterbaits trimmed with a split-tail trailer or a Shadalicious swim bait -- result in good action from the tidal bass. On the sad side, yet another big bass tournament is being held out of Leesylvania State Park this weekend. Will these selfish people ever learn that conducting "live release" bass contests in hot weather amounts to nothing more than "the bass die later" tournaments. Have these people never heard of delayed mortality, after the fish have been stressed severely in livewells and been handled extensively? The state should outlaw these tournaments at least when water temperatures climb above 78 degrees. Elsewhere, the croaker and spot fishing in the saltier parts of the Potomac is on again, off again. It ranges from pretty good to pretty lousy. Not much is happening from the Route 301 Bridge downstream to St. Clements except some decent rockfish catches are possible if you troll with bucktails along the deep channel edges. Croakers, spot and flounder are definitely possible from Piney Point to St. George's Island and on to Cornfield Harbor. A mix of bluefish and rockfish is possible in the lower midriver parts.

WICOMICO RIVER: 55 miles (**) -- Up-and-down success rates for croakers. Some find action during gthe dark hours in the Bushwood sector, but others complain that they can't even catch a cold down here.

MATTAWOMAN CREEK: 40 miles (***) -- The final count of dead bass seen by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources was 601. All this happened after a release of tournament-caught bass a few weeks ago. Will anybody listen when we say that hot water and bass contests do not go well together? Meanwhile, bass are possible in grass and on sunken wood, as well as marsh shore drop-offs. Plastics and top waters are the main producers.