Rocky Gorge

[Dbrunner]

Did better today only fished three hours and caught three good fish and several dinks. The biggest was 4.5 -3.5 -2.5  all caught shallow on stumps. They were all spawned out females, I think they are spawning  and hanging out by the stumps befor going deeper. I tried triggering strikes with a square bill but that didn't  work  I could only catch them on plastics worked really slow.

[Reservoir Runner]

Thanks for the report. Keep at it, you should still have bass spawning in Rocky Gorge for at least another couple of weeks. Give the flat that is downlake before the turn to the 29 bridge area and all the coves in that area-you should be able to find some big'uns there.

[newbassguy]

how much is ther permit to fish rocky gorge

[bigb201]

5$ a day or 60$ for the season. Went out Saturday and had no luck. Talked to a few people and they said the bass were in 15-20ft. Of water off of points. We fished the shoreline and lay downs for 8 hours with only a few nibbles on senkos. Getting frustrated with this place. The whole reservoir seems to go from 2ft. Deep to 30ft. Within 5ft. Of the shore.


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[Reservoir Runner]

BigB, that is pretty much the standard throughout Rocky Gorge and Triadelphia of water being 2 ft from the shore and 8 ft from the shore it drops deep. Also, that is pretty much the standard movement of the bass after they have spawned. It took me quite a few years to realize that and once I did, I started catching more bass. Since there is no tidal flow for either reservoir, the fish move up and down in the water column during changes in the water temps. As the water temp approaches the 80's, they will move up and down at dawn and dusk to feed, returning to the deep once the sun hits the water warming it up. It takes a while to learn what flats and points will hold bass after the spawn period- The best way to get a good look at how it drops off, walk the shoreline during the summer months during the drawdown. You will see a lot of cover that you normally can't see in the spring when the water is at full pool. Don't get discouraged, I fished the reservoirs from the late 1970's until 2010 when I moved down South to Florida and it took me quite a while to learn the movements of the bass after spawn and to locate cover that held them.

[Dbrunner]

Like res- runner said don't give up. It took me three years to figure out the gorge, now I'm pretty consistent .what he said about the low water is right, you can also study maps that wssc has or md geological survey.i fish usually once or twice a week and I can show you ereas and help you lessen the learning curve.

[bigb201]

Thanks Dbrunner
I would like to take you up on some lessons about the gorge. I can supply the boat and lunch if you'd like. Just let me know what works for you.

Brian


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[T-Bone]

Smallish lures like 4" senkos and hula grubs along the deep edge of the weedline.  You'll need a fishfinder if you have a boat to find the weedline.  Also use white/chartreuse spinnerbaits along drop offs and around laydowns.

[bigb201]

Thanks tbone, been out there twice now and have seen no evidence of weed lines anywhere.


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[T-Bone]

During summer, the water will drop down and you'll see beds of hydrilla grass.  The grass grows until a certain depth where it's too deep for light to penetrate and photosynthesize the plant growth.  They'll be in this area either down near the bottom or suspended (around 22 ft of water).  Shad raps work well or anything that gets down about 10 ft midway down the water column.  Since there's lots of points and coves, there will be saddles at the mouth of coves.  These are normally great areas, especially in coves with streams flowing into them.  There is a big cove on the shore opposite of the stumps that is good.  Do you know how to fish with a carolina rig?

[bigb201]

I've never tried a Carolina rig. But I can YouTube it. I guess I'm confused about what makes a good point? I have the map that they hand out at the visitors center. Am I looking for a gradual drop off? Also I've seen the giant flat area leaving Scott's cove heading for the 29 bridge on the right but where are the stumps?  Thanks guys. Don't mean to be a pain in the ass, just want to catch a couple fish.


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[Reservoir Runner]

Bigb201, If you are talking about the flat that is on the north shore before you get to the bridge, you should be able to see the stumps below the water line, there are quite a few on the flat. You may also want to try the cove across from the mouth of Scott's Cove, the one with the huge rock that juts up to the shore. The water in that cove is about 15 ft deep and there are several underwater trees nearby. My best day on Rocky Gorge was in that cove in May 2010, I caught about 10 largemouth that ranged from 1-3 lbs from that cove on plastic worms-6" Culprit Red shad Texas rigged with 1/4 oz. sinker and a Carolina Rig with a pumpkinseed lizard. Once you come out of Scott's Cove and head uplake to the bridge, there is more cover and coves than you can shake a rod at that produce on either shore of the reservoir. I was never able to fish beyond the Rt.29 bridge, I used to launch at Browns Bridge until they move the ramp from the Howard County Side to the Montgomery side, there was never enough water on the Montgomery side. Good luck , hope you load the boat.

[bigb201]

Thanks for the help. I'm heading out there Saturday and will report back. I'm hoping that the warm temps this week will make them a bit easier to find


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[Dbrunner]

Bigb i am trying to get out for a couple hours on sat normally wouldn't be a prob but I fished a club tx on wed . What kind of boat do you own? One thing is good electronics are a must, I have found  most of my good areas by fishing and constantly looking down and checking the depths. Also a color depthfinder will show grass and stumps. Do you like to fish plastics?

[bigb201]

I have an old 14ft. Fiberglass Jon boat with two swivel seats. I do have a fishin buddy 120 fish finder. It's a decent unit but I can't use it while going very fast, the clamp is not very strong. I usually burn up the water with spinnerbaits lol. I need to find the patience for plastics. The few nibbles I have had at the gorge were on a weight less senko. I was going to try a jig with a craw trailer if the fish are not shallow Saturday.


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[Reservoir Runner]

BigB I had one of those Fishin Buddy clamp ons until it popped off one day and is sleeping in Rocky Gorge. I purchased an Eagle portable from Cabelas for about 100.00 on sale a couple of years ago-it came with the suction cup transducer mount, a 12 volt battery and a power cord to charge the battery. It served me well the last 2 years I fished the reservoir. Some of my best baits at both Rocky Gorge and Triadelphia were soft swimbaits like the Money Minnows,  white and chartreuse spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and of course plastic worms in green pumpkin, pumpkinseed, red shad, and black. If you go to the Bass Pro Shop in Hanover, Jerry Sauter works there and he is always helpful with info on the area reservoirs- I saw him a couple of times fishing Rocky Gorge and Triadelphia and he definitely knows how to catch bass in the reservoirs.

[Dbrunner]

Hey one more thing, did you Know Jerry is really good friends with Roland Martin and I guess they grew up together fishing rocky gorge and triadelphia.

[bigb201]

Yeah, I have heard the stories of the fishin buddies sinking to a watery grave. I have mine tied off to the boat. lol. I think I'm all set for saturday, I have my rods set up with the following
-white spinnerbait
-pearl white swim fluke weighted
-6" green pumpkin senko
-Rapala x rap

I plan on hammering the banks and laydowns for the first part of the morning and then if nothing is biting then I will try the senko or swim fluke in some deep points

how does that sound?

[Reservoir Runner]

Sounds like a pretty good start. You may also want to consider a Jitterbug or Hula Popper early in the day until the sun hits the water. Good luck, let us know how the trip went.

[T-Bone]

You may also want to downsize those presentations to like a 3 inch x rap and 4 inch senko. Rocky gorge has a lot of small baby panfish, threafin shad, and shiners so they may be keying in on smaller profile lures.  I remember a few times out there where my buddy was fishing the 5 inch senko and catching nothing and I was hammering them on the 4.  The smaller shad raps in silver or chartreuse are great too.  You might want to also try senko with a pegged bullet weight in deeper water.  Last but not least don't forget about jigs... Some days the fish will be very deep like 18 to 30 ft so you'll need something that can fish deeper.  Crankbaits and jerkbaits may not really give them a big window of time or space to attack if they are way down there.  You may also want to try the x rap deep diving jerkbaits as well. 

[Reservoir Runner]

Dbrunner, I remember Jerry talking during one of his seminars how Roland Martin cut his bass fishing teeth in the WSSC reservoirs and Loch Raven.  Roland also used to fish the WSSC reservoirs with a gentleman named Lewis Sullivan who could also find big bass every year in the reservoirs and was a legend among WSSC fisherman.

[T-Bone]

Here is a cool report from DNR:

http://dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/fishingreport/single.asp?ID=1807

[bigb201]

Just got back. Caught a few small ones today on spinnerbaits and one on a senko. Lots of big bass cruising around the shoreline but not to interested in anything we had in our tackle box. I found the stumps in the big flat area and there were two monsters around one stump. We tried for about an hour on those two. All in all it was still nice getting out


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[Reservoir Runner]

Thanks for the report.Catch a few of those big'uns for me on your next trip. Dbrunner- Pete also knows both reservoirs very well and does very well there each year.

[Dbrunner]

Who's Pete?