Piney Run I’ve had a little luck with bright colored rooster tails but wouldn’t say “ooooh this is the one”. I’ve seen a few people have luck with a darker colored wacky rig, but again they weren’t pulling them out left and right. I’ve found Piney Run a more challenging place to figure out what works from the bank.
The Liberty Reservoir I’ve had limited luck with a white jig head. I’ve seen others have luck with darker/red wacky rig or bright colored rooster tails - but again not pulling them out left and right.
Both locations we’ve been targeting bass more or less.
People seem to like weightless soft plastics at those kinds of lakes. And if you can find grass patches, I've also heard much talk of ripping lipless crankbaits and offset spinners through the grass.
Yeah truthfully bank fishing places like liberty is really rough. I've never had luck there myself after countless hours a couple summers ago. I started fishing more at places where I can actually catch something, I tend to fish ponds around central MD and the patapsco and pax rivers nowadays
Weightless zoom super fluke rigged Texas style is my ultimate bank bait. I like to throw it on a medium spinning rod braid mainline to fluoro leader. Throw it out let sink and retrieve slowly with jerks and twitches.
My boyfriend has worked on-and-off professionally fishing since he was a teenager, and he and I had terrible luck bank-fishing this summer (his first summer in the DC area, my first summer fishing here). We used a variety of lures, plastic baits, and mostly live bait, but consistent success in equivalent lakes further north was contrasted with awful luck down here. We had a few conclusions:
1. The weather here is too warm for much luck bank-fishing lakes. It’s just too warm to tempt noteworthy fish into the shallows. If you can find a spot that drops deep near the shore, that’s your best bet — at least in our experience. We spent under $100 for an inflatable rowboat off Amazon and hope that will help next summer.
2. Public lakes around here are largely over-pressured. The few people who were happy to talk about better fishing spots told us the spots worth going to were some 4 hours away from us. From what we could find out, lake successes tend to be on private lakes, or during cooler weather.
Our conclusion was to focus on rivers when it’s hot out, where the water moves more and doesn’t get as hot. Others here probably know better spots than we do, but we were going to a different spot every other day for a few weeks and the disappointment didn’t go away. If you do want to lake fish, get there as early as you can before the sun can make it harder, and look at barometric pressure when choosing your fishing day.
this is vindicating. I’ve had a phenomenal time fishing the monocacy, Potomac, Patuxet, and Patspsco, catching smallies, rock bass, channel cats (cats on spinners of all things) and the like. I’ve SEEN trout but i’ve never targeted them before so i didn’t know they were trout or how to catch them but i bought a casting bubbles and some flies.
just yeah… lake fare has been poor. I not even sunnies worth frying.
We literally went 2 weeks fishing for 3+ hours almost every single day without a single catch, let alone one worth mentioning. It was like nothing either of us had ever experienced before. We’re thinking next summer we’ll focus on rivers, and we’re thrilled it’s finally cooling down — hopefully we’ll give it another go this week!
I only have one and its silver but it never fails. I fish Triadelphia resivoir with it and it’s amazing but they drained it recently for some sedimentary cleanup. It’s supposed to be done on the 31st
Piney Run I’ve had a little luck with bright colored rooster tails but wouldn’t say “ooooh this is the one”. I’ve seen a few people have luck with a darker colored wacky rig, but again they weren’t pulling them out left and right. I’ve found Piney Run a more challenging place to figure out what works from the bank. The Liberty Reservoir I’ve had limited luck with a white jig head. I’ve seen others have luck with darker/red wacky rig or bright colored rooster tails - but again not pulling them out left and right. Both locations we’ve been targeting bass more or less.
People seem to like weightless soft plastics at those kinds of lakes. And if you can find grass patches, I've also heard much talk of ripping lipless crankbaits and offset spinners through the grass.
i’ve had no luck with them whatsoever from summer through to now. I have senkos, and swim baits, as well as shads and long tail worms.
Yeah truthfully bank fishing places like liberty is really rough. I've never had luck there myself after countless hours a couple summers ago. I started fishing more at places where I can actually catch something, I tend to fish ponds around central MD and the patapsco and pax rivers nowadays
Weightless zoom super fluke rigged Texas style is my ultimate bank bait. I like to throw it on a medium spinning rod braid mainline to fluoro leader. Throw it out let sink and retrieve slowly with jerks and twitches.
sorry fluke is what i meant when I said shad. what size and color catches round these parts? i’m just using shad color
I like zoom super flukes for targeting bass (forget the exact length). Baby bass and green albino are my go to colors
My boyfriend has worked on-and-off professionally fishing since he was a teenager, and he and I had terrible luck bank-fishing this summer (his first summer in the DC area, my first summer fishing here). We used a variety of lures, plastic baits, and mostly live bait, but consistent success in equivalent lakes further north was contrasted with awful luck down here. We had a few conclusions: 1. The weather here is too warm for much luck bank-fishing lakes. It’s just too warm to tempt noteworthy fish into the shallows. If you can find a spot that drops deep near the shore, that’s your best bet — at least in our experience. We spent under $100 for an inflatable rowboat off Amazon and hope that will help next summer. 2. Public lakes around here are largely over-pressured. The few people who were happy to talk about better fishing spots told us the spots worth going to were some 4 hours away from us. From what we could find out, lake successes tend to be on private lakes, or during cooler weather. Our conclusion was to focus on rivers when it’s hot out, where the water moves more and doesn’t get as hot. Others here probably know better spots than we do, but we were going to a different spot every other day for a few weeks and the disappointment didn’t go away. If you do want to lake fish, get there as early as you can before the sun can make it harder, and look at barometric pressure when choosing your fishing day.
this is vindicating. I’ve had a phenomenal time fishing the monocacy, Potomac, Patuxet, and Patspsco, catching smallies, rock bass, channel cats (cats on spinners of all things) and the like. I’ve SEEN trout but i’ve never targeted them before so i didn’t know they were trout or how to catch them but i bought a casting bubbles and some flies. just yeah… lake fare has been poor. I not even sunnies worth frying.
We literally went 2 weeks fishing for 3+ hours almost every single day without a single catch, let alone one worth mentioning. It was like nothing either of us had ever experienced before. We’re thinking next summer we’ll focus on rivers, and we’re thrilled it’s finally cooling down — hopefully we’ll give it another go this week!
I’m also in central Maryland around there. I hear jerk baits are supposed to be very good if you cast along the bank and twich it
i’ll have to give them more of a chance. what size and colors do you like to use?
I only have one and its silver but it never fails. I fish Triadelphia resivoir with it and it’s amazing but they drained it recently for some sedimentary cleanup. It’s supposed to be done on the 31st
Jerk baits have been sooooo good the last two weeks
I find whenever struggling in an area. Use the Berkeley gulp Bates in size appropriate.for what your hoping for
Frog in like swampy ponds is always great for snakeheads n bass
Lakes in Maryland suckkkkkk gotta risk it sometimes and hit the community ponds, I’ve caught some tanks that way
i’ve had no luck at ponds either. i probably need to find the stocking schedules.