Whew! What a great week of fishing we had fishing Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Using Ange Harclerode’s  house as home base  we have been chasing the fish in the Chester River all winter. Larry Gorski joined us for 4 days of Great fishing. On Monday Ange  and I fished the Creekboat scouting for White Perch. It took awhile to find them but once we did it was fast catching and in less than an hour, we put 17 keepers in the box. Larry found a few up river from shore,also. Every fish has it’s own time in the creek. The Yellow Perch are first, then the Pickerel and Crappie followed by the White Perch. The first push of white Perch often holds the biggest fish of the year. We fish the creek often monitoring the conditions of the creek trying to anticipate the run of big fish. Tuesday morning we found that push of big fish… it was worth all the scouting trips to make this happen.

We chose to wade the river on a sand bar that sits on a “pinch point” a place where the river narrows and the current has gouged out a deep trench in the river bottom. the Perch were stacked up in there and biting fast. In 3 hours we put 30 big white perch on the stringer. They wanted small plastic baits in “Salt&Pepper” color. When the bite would slow down we would add a LIVE GRASS SHRIMP to the jig and the bite would pick back up. Most of the time we did not need the shrimp. Great Fishing! The three of us were giggling like little kids. This just might be the fountain of youth! Old men acting like kids…

On Wednesday, the fishing was even better, if you can believe that! I missed most of the day being sick but caught the couple hours of the bite. When I got there Ange and Larry had 20 fish on the stringer and were grinning from ear to ear. We put 20 more in a bucket to give to my friend Gerald Eldreth whose work did not allow him to fish with us. Ange had this Giant of a Perch and Larry was catching fast on a hair jig I tied for him the day before.

There are still a few Yellow Perch and Crappie to be had also…

Thursday, I fished with my son Adam and his stepson Kyle. The cold front that arrived the night before sent many of the White Perch running for deeper waters. They were hard to find but using the Creekboat we were able to find a school holding on the sunny side of the creek in a deep narrow trough of warm water with moving current. Fifty degree water temps were key to finding active fish.  This is the similar pattern to what we had on Tuesday. This has been the pattern. Remember, Think Patterns not places…

With the warming weather forecast this week more White Perch will be pushing up the creeks on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Look for Warmer days to be most productive. When it is too windy to fish the open bay try White Perch fishing in a creek as plan B… We have Live Grass Shrimp which really are the fastest way to get a bite. After the scent is on the plastic no shrimp is needed. If the bite slows down add a shrimp on the jig. If you want to catch quality Perch in the Creeks using live Grass Shrimp is the easiest way to do it!

Next week, Walleyes in the River and Stripers on the Flats!

See you on the water!