Weekend Fishing Report

The weekend will prove that angling opportunities have burst out all over. Fish are biting no matter where you go, and only heavy rains can spoil an outing.

Now there are croakers in a number of places, and if you play the game properly and study your boat’s depth locator you should find heavy-duty black drum on the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay at Stone Rock and Sharps Island. Not to be outdone, the first fairly reliable catches of Norfolk spot are made; rockfish are beginning to respond to chum lines, white perch are hitting small spinnerbaits in many of the feeder creeks, and the largemouth bass in the upper tidal Potomac River are very cooperative.

Fifty specially tagged rockfish (aka striped bass) will be released Thursday at various locations throughout the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. One of the 50 will be fish named Diamond Jim — worth $10,000 cash if you catch it by midnight June 30. The other 49 tagged stripers, all of them Diamond Jim imposters, could earn you $500 each if caught during the annual Maryland tourist promotion gimmick that begins Friday and runs through Labor Day, Sept. 7. Any angler who catches a citation-qualifying fish will be eligible to win one of the official sponsor grand prizes, including a boat, motor and trailer from Bass Pro Shops and thousands of dollars in merchandise and fishing trips from Bill’s Outdoor Center.

For more information about the prizes, rules and where to fish, visit www.dnr.maryland.gov/fishingchallenge.

(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 water is muddy from heavy rain runoff up above, but I think by the weekend the fishing should be okay for stripers and some really big catfish. Downriver from Fletcher’s, largemouth bass, northern snakeheads, along with blue and channel catfish, are available from the Hains Point and Fox Ferry Point area upriver down to western Charles County and Virginia’s Prince William County and beyond. Look for massive milfoil and coontail weed beds in the main stem or in the feeder creeks and start your day casting weedless topwater grass rats or — if you can find an open pocket — a Pop’R or Rico popper. Then switch to crawfish-style plastics in green pumpkin or junebug colors. Our favorite continues to be a 1/4-ounce or 3/8-ounce Chatterbait, its hook holding a Shadalicious swimbait or some kind of split-tail trailer. We’re catching a mix of small and decent-size bass in the Occoquan and Belmont bays, Neabsco and Powell creeks, as well as Potomac and Aquia creeks on the Virginia side, but also from the Wade’s Bay area on the Maryland shore up to the Chicamuxen and also from Pomonkey to Broad creeks.

WICOMICO RIVER: 55 miles (**) — It’s hit-and-miss as far as croakers are concerned, and George Quade of Quade’s Store in Bushwood blames the heavy freshwater rain runoff from the headwaters of the river. However, right around the corner, in the main stem of the Potomac at the new lighthouse of St. Clements Island, croakers have been striking crab, bloodworm and shrimp baits. Evevning hours have been best.

MATTAWOMAN CREEK: 40 miles (***) — This creek would be heaven if only those irritating and bothersome bass tournaments would go away forever. A local resident who wants to take his kids fishing here and outside on the Potomac doesn’t have a prayer competing with $40,000 glitter bass boats. Weekdays are best, and a broad assortment of lures work on the bass inside the creek amid the milfoil, spatterdock, shoreline wood and upcreek gravel bars.

SOUTHERN MARYLAND LAKES: 40-50 miles (***) — Gilbert Run Park’s Wheatley Lake (Route 6, east of La Plata) shows bedding bluegills, some bass and a few crappies. Upper lake end has seen bigger bass. At St. Mary’s Lake (south on Route 5, past Leonardtown, to Camp Cosoma Road) the bass have been biting better than last week. Plastic finesse worms, small crankbaits and spinnerbaits do the job. If you like fat bluegills, this is the place and right now the sunfish are on the beds, which is ideal for flyrodders’ popping bugs.

LITTLE SENECA LAKE: 30 miles (***) — Black Hill Regional Park (off Route 117 near Boyds, 301/972-9396) and the nearby Seneca Creek Lake (Clopper Road, Gaithersburg, 301/924-2127) Bedding sunfish and flyrod poppers go together like hot dogs and mustard. Now is the time. Bass are showing an interest in slowly retrieved spinnerbaits and super slow-fished plastic worms in sunken brush and along weed edges.

WSSC RESERVOIRS: 20-30 miles (***) — (Triadelphia, off Route 97, or Route 650, in Montgomery County; Rocky Gorge, off Route 29 in Montgomery County) Jerry McDowell, who lives in Montgomery County, said he fished for crappies in Rocky Gorge within sight of Route 29. He’d found a sunken brushy area and used only a 1/16-ounce white/green shad dart 3 or 4 feet under a bobber. “I whacked ‘em,” he said. He also had a bass strike the little bucktailed dart. Elsewhere, fine bass are being hooked in the backs of deep coves of both lakes. Senko worms in green pumpkin have been working well.

BALTIMORE AREA RESERVOIRS: 50-75 miles (***) — (A lake guide is available by calling the Baltimore City’s Reservoir office at 410-795-6151. A $50 annual permit is required from the Baltimore City Department of Public Works. Prettyboy Lake is on Route 137; Liberty is on Oakland Road in Eldersburg, Carroll County.) Smallmouth and largemouth bass have been fooled by plastic imitations of crawfish in both lakes. Some of the female bass are still on the beds, but the smaller “buck” bass aren’t bashful.

PATUXENT RIVER: 25-60 miles (***) — Some folks already are live-lining Norfolk spot and are catching rockfish around Cedar Point, while a mix of croakers, spot and rockfish is available from just inside the mouth up to Helen’s Bar and beyond. White perch are beginning to strike Beetlespin lures in the lower feeder creeks.

OCCOQUAN RESERVOIR: 25-30 miles (***) — In the Fountainhead Park (Route 123, Fairfax County) portion of the reservoir, ranger Smokey Davis said if all those predicted thunderstorms don’t happen the bass fishing will be fine this weekend. Add to that a fair number of crappies, bedding sunfish and fat catfish, and you can see why this reservoir continues to be a Northern Virginia favorite.

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