This summer I wanted to catch a big rockfish. So this summer, me and my dad learned how to catch them. Our first two times we did not catch any rockfish. But then we figured it out and started to get the hang of it and started catching them. So during the summer my dad and I had a blast. But I still hadn’t caught a big one yet. I asked if I could go[...]

Maryland is celebrated for its access to water. It’s the birthplace, nursery, and playground for many Atlantic fish, teeming with life and migrating animals from all over the world. Because the state’s unique habitats, its marine biodiversity is hard to match. The state’s range of salinity levels makes it easy to see how so many different species of fish thrive here. All these elements and factors have made Maryland a suitable host for just about[...]

Productive winter yellow perch fishing in upper Chesapeake Bay tributaries attracts many anglers. When the days get shorter and the chilly weather comes, yellow perch gather in schools and feed heavily. Yellow perch fishing starts in November and continues into March. After the yellow perch spawn in early March, they scatter and are harder to find. In the meantime, fun fishing can be had from piers and boats. And, fresh-caught yellow perch is tasty and[...]

Lately I’m spending a lot more time fishing the non-tidal streams or floating the millponds in search of my favorite and most familiar species: crappie, sunfish, and perch. Affectionately called “panfish” since they’re small and delicious, these species share a special place in the hearts of anglers because they’re likely the first fish we caught. It might have been on a nearby riverside while dangling a redworm from a cane pole, or maybe it was[...]

In the spring, Maryland’s Chesapeake swells with silver: shad and river herring. Like salmon, these fish are anadromous: the adults run upstream into fresh water to spawn, then return to the Atlantic Ocean to live for the rest of the year. The new generations develop from fertilized eggs suspended in stream currents to swimming fry and then juveniles, feeding and growing over the summer before migrating to the ocean, where they somehow meet the adult[...]

One of the premier East Coast destinations for icing jumbo 12- to 15-inch yellow perch for adventuresome ice-anglers is Maryland’s Deep Creek Lake. At 3,900-acres in Garrett County, the lake also offers a shot at walleyes, northern pike, chain pickerel and huge bluegills once the ice forms. With a 10-fish limit on yellow perch (per angler, per day) the regulation helps to limit the potential for over harvest of these massive, top-end panfish that can[...]

He wrote: “They fasten red wool...round a hook, and fit on to the wool two feathers which grow under a cock's wattles, and which in color are like wax. Their rod is six feet long, and their line is the same length. Then they throw their snare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the color, comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to gain a dainty mouthful; when, however, it opens its[...]