This season the Susquehanna Flats catch and release fishing has been hard to figure out. The River has been in and out of flood stage most of the month. Cold, dirty water makes for poor catching. As Conowingo Dam came out of spill conditions and the water clarity improved, so did the catching. I had a few trips where we got skunked. Then a few days later the Rockfish returned to the flats when conditions were to their liking. When fish were present catching was good. This year, fish over 30″ were rare for me. That doesn’t mean they aren’t there, just means I have not caught them. Admittedly, I failed to do the things associated with catching big fish on the flats. Those things would include fishing “Early and Late”… Low light periods of the day are the best time to fool a trophy Striper. Casting larger than normal lures to entice larger fish. Choosing to fish far away from the fleet of boats and away from the schoolie size fish. The bigger fish are often loners until they gather their bucks for the spawn.  The trips I made to the flats we had guys wanting faster action so we went for numbers on the schoolie bite. Several times we had fishermen new to “Snap jigging” , working on active fish is the fastest way to learn how to jig in a way that will catch. The Flats season closes May 3rd for two weeks before re-opening on May 16th at which time one fish, per person, per day, between 20″ and 26″ may be kept. The water on the flats looked good yesterday, more fish have moved in and it looks to be a great end to the season. Hope to see you on the water or in the shop. Just a reminder, that Ange and I will be in the shop Every Saturday and Sunday all summer. Stop buy and talk fishing and get some in depth info on what’s biting where!