Freshwater Fishing Report – 04/23/09 Delaware / Maryland

Well, the weather shaped up a little for last weekend and for once we had some break out news for the Delaware fishing side of things. Several Delaware sport-fishing tournament citations were issued at Eastern Marine this week. Father and sun duo Thomas and Jack Oliver sleighed monster Channel Cats in the Christiana River. Tom’s catty weighed in at 11 lbs. even and 31” in length. Son Jack’s channel catfish was 6 lb. 9 oz. and both received citation honors. Thomas said each catfish fell for Bloodworms fished on a top and bottom rig with an incoming tide.
On the non-tidal scene of fresh water, things couldn’t have been better. Reports came in of big Crappie at Lums Pond, good size Chain Pickerel at Penn Cader Plaza, and plenty of nice Brown and Rainbow Trout in White Clay Creek. Jack Fersch fished Lums Pond and brought a nice White Crappie to the scales that weighed 1 lb. 8oz. The big female would have definitely gone more but she had just roed out and still had signs of foiled belly. Fersch said the crappie fell for a twitch bait while he was bass fishing and another slightly smaller Crappie smacked a 3/8 oz. spinner bait. Although Lums gets a bad rap about being fished out and over pressured, I have to say we still issue quite a few citation fish from Lums every spring, most of which are cited and returned to the pond due to our close proximity. At White Clay Creek, Paul Bartelt of Newark did well on Rainbow Trout with an 18” 2 lbs. 2oz. fish, congratulations Paul on your fine catch. The biggest news of the week was the annual Café Local Delaware-Pennsylvania fish off on the Delaware River, Sunday the 19th of April. Participants fished both north and south of the canal and results were fantastic. First place honors were awarded to Chris Vann who landed 9 stripers up to 40’’ long. Second place was given to Stan (THE MAN) Renowski who hauled a pretty 36” 20 pounder to shore and Jimmy Peel won the Calcutta with an impressive 41-½” linesider. Thanks to Chris Vann for his repot on this MSSA event and all of those who were involved that I may have failed to mention. For those that don’t know about the MSSA, I will speak with Chris and find out what enrollment process there is. I believe this is a good organization for all recreational anglers to look in to.
On the other side of the peninsula the MSSA North Bay Chapter had their annual White Perch tournament. Jim Decker won top honors with a dandy 10-3/4” whitey. Larry Gibecks perch measured 10-1/4”, good enough for second place and Margret Freeman placed third with a 10 incher. MSSA meetings for the Northern Bay Chapter are on the last Wednesday of the month at Pier One Restaurant in North East Maryland. Dinner is at 6:00 p.m. and the speakers start afterwards at 7:00 p.m. I encourage all those whose who view this to check-out the MSSA chapter in your local area.
To finish up with some other Upper Bay info, the Striper bite has been phenomenal on the flats. Bruce Crissocoulo hammered trophy sized Stripers to 46” on Still Waters Poppers and Bill Lewis Rat-L-Traps in chrome and blue. The plug and top water bite are on the Susquehanna Flats in force fellas. Turkey Point is still producing big Strippers and jumbo White Perch. Although numbers and locations are kept on the down low, many customers are having favorable results. With a forecast in the 80’s for the coming weekend and no rain in sight this weekend should shape up for the a great time fishing. Until next report tight lines and good fishing.