Southern Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay
Annette Cook

Fly Fishing in Southern Maryland

Charles, Calvert and St. Mary’s counties have some hidden gems when it comes to fly fishing experiences and the Trail can help you discover them. Maryland's Southern Region offers spots that are kid and family-friendly (Hutchins Pond), big and beautiful (St. Mary’s Lake), historic (St. Mary’s River), unique (Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary and its ship graveyard), ecologically diverse (Mattawoman Creek), and big open waters (Solomons Island). Generations have built their lives around the water in this region and it offers so much to explore.

 

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Fly Fishing Trail Sites in Southern Maryland

White Perch

Fly Fishing for White Perch

About White Perch Ask anyone in Maryland to tell you the first fish they caught, and the most likely answer will be a white perch. (Morone americana). Close cousins to striped bass, they’ll take an artificial lure quicker than a whipstitch on a shad dart. They’re prolific in . . .

Hutchins Pond

Hutchins Pond

Conveniently located just off Route 2 in Calvert County, this small farm pond was donated by Harry and Grace Hutchins for public fishing access. With an open shoreline surrounding the pond, you can easily fly fish all areas of the pond. During the spring, the pond is stocked . . .

Mallows Bay Aerial Image

Mallows Bay on the Potomac River

Fish like to hang out near physical structures, whether it is underwater grasses, undercut streambanks, rocks or dock pilings. So now think about a tidal embayment once filled with many, many huge wooden ships, long abandoned mostly only visible above the tidal waters during . . .

Mattawoman Creek

Mattawoman Creek

Imagine: a long and winding tidal creek, filled with long “S” curves, often surrounded on both sides by wetlands along mostly undeveloped shorelines in the upper reaches; and along the south shore, a widely recognized highly productive tidal largemouth fishery all fed by . . .

Enjoy breathtaking sunsets at Solomons Island. Photo by Southern Maryland Photography

Solomons Island

Located at the mouth of the Patuxent River in Calvert County, Solomons Island is a fly fishers entrance pass into a wide array of tidal water fly fishing experiences. Although a boat is needed to access most of the opportunities for fly fishing, there is a fishing pier . . .

St. Mary's Lake

St. Mary's Lake

There is a true gem in St. Mary’s County when it comes to fishing and that is St. Mary’s Lake. Nested within St. Mary’s State Park’s 2,200 acres of mainly undeveloped lands, the lake encompasses 250 acres of fishing habitat for a great assortment of fish species including . . .

St. Marys River

St. Mary's River

Beyond its rich 400+ year history, St. Mary’s River also provides a unique fly fishing experience on a tidal river which widens with every mile traveled towards its ultimate union with the tidal Potomac River. Sunfish, largemouth bass, yellow perch, white perch and catfish . . .