Fishing Report
Chesapeake Bay (upper), VA
Summary: 4/16/26 - Upper Bay: Anglers are enjoying fun catch-and-release fishing for hickory shad in the lower Susquehanna River at the Conowingo Dam pool, the mouth of Deer Creek, numerous shoreline access areas, and Octoraro Creek. Various brightly colored sinking flies, shad darts and flashy spoons are popular, and preferred colors can change due to water clarity and sunshine. White perch should be arriving in the lower Susquehanna River, and warmer tidal rivers are now seeing post-spawn white perch. The Magothy, Chester, Gunpowder, Bush, Patapsco and Sassafras are all good tidal rivers to look for white perch. Small jig heads tipped with grass shrimp are popular baits. Blue catfish are active and can be found in the lower portions of the region’s tidal rivers. The lower Susquehanna, Chester, Gunpowder, Patapsco and Magothy rivers are excellent places to fish for them. Many of the blue catfish being caught in these areas are quite large. Any oily cut bait or scented baits make good baits for blue catfish. Anglers are urged to use circle hooks when fishing for blue catfish since there is a chance a striped bass may be accidentally caught. Anglers are fishing for striped bass as catch-and-release season continues this week. The northern boundary of the catch-and-release area is a line drawn from Abby Point to Worton Point. Trolling lures with barbless hooks is popular as is jigging with large soft plastic jigs.