rondef Posted December 1, 2008 Share Posted December 1, 2008 Has anyone from Maryland fished this river? I did some reading on it and the articles I read state that there is some good smallie fishing in this river near the Buckeystown dam. I am just curious if anyone has tried fishing there and if so how did you do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User BrianinMD Posted December 1, 2008 Super User Share Posted December 1, 2008 Oh yeah, I have been fishing it for a few years. The area from Buckeystown to the Potomac is "trophy" waters, so you cannot legally keep any bass caught. There are a few places to put in and its very wadeable , the dam in Buckeystown is good and also has some nice musky. A popular method for this stretch it is to do float trips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rondef Posted December 1, 2008 Author Share Posted December 1, 2008 Brianinmd, Can you tell me where are some of the better areas to launch a canoe? What is considered a trophy smallie up there (weight/size)? What types of baits are good to use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User BrianinMD Posted December 1, 2008 Super User Share Posted December 1, 2008 Well there is Pine Cliff park, Monocacy Park, and in Buckeystown if you go back Michael's Mill road there is a little park at the intersection with Rt. 80. The parking lot is close enough to take a canoe down. Sure there are others, will have to think about it for awhile As far as trophy, thats just Marylands designation for catch and release areas. I have seen up to 18 in smallmouth, have heard but not seen up to 22 inch smallmouth. The largest musky was 40 inches. The main forage for smallmouth is crayfish, so most baits mimic them deep in the pools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rondef Posted December 1, 2008 Author Share Posted December 1, 2008 Thanks Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Munkin Posted December 2, 2008 Super User Share Posted December 2, 2008 While I do not fish there MD "trophy bass" areas allow you to keep some bass under 11" and one over 15" but none inbetween. What I have found out over the years is these areas do not have any "trophy bass" only dinks and tons of fisherman attracted by the trophy bass signs . Allen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User BrianinMD Posted December 2, 2008 Super User Share Posted December 2, 2008 Munkin, a few area have the allowable keepers, they add a couple areas on catch and release. In addition to this area on the monocacy, there are parts of the potomac the same way. I have found if I stick to the easy areas to get to I don't see much size, however wade away from those areas and things improve..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boomhower Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 Rondef, Every year i fish the Monocacy for smallies and never go as far down as Micheals mill rd., but have done pretty good there tho. If you want to fish the Monocacy for some nice smallies i would recommend that u put in at Creagerstown Park off Rt. 550(which has a boat ramp) and take it all the way down to Biggs Ford Rd. Half way down this stretch of river is a drop that takes it from 3' to 6-9' for about 100 yards. You can see your smallies on this part can run up to 3-4 lbs., but the average on the river is 1 1/2 lbs. I'm sure any part of the monocacy has some good fishin, but from one angler to another...this stretch is my favorite! good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDbassinmike Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 Rondef, Every year i fish the Monocacy for smallies and never go as far down as Micheals mill rd., but have done pretty good there tho. If you want to fish the Monocacy for some nice smallies i would recommend that u put in at Creagerstown Park off Rt. 550(which has a boat ramp) and take it all the way down to Biggs Ford Rd. Half way down this stretch of river is a drop that takes it from 3' to 6-9' for about 100 yards. You can see your smallies on this part can run up to 3-4 lbs., but the average on the river is 1 1/2 lbs. I'm sure any part of the monocacy has some good fishin, but from one angler to another...this stretch is my favorite! good luck! Just wondering, do you wade that far or do you have a kayak or a canoe? If you do float it, how long does it take to fish and float this section of the river? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boomhower Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 No I've never waded in it. i usually take my canoe or my Jon boat. Depending on if u stop to fish some of the holes or go at a steady pace it takes about 8-12 hrs. I have gone down on a section of this stretch in an innertube before and that took three hrs. But it was less than half the distance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Montana Posted September 13, 2010 Share Posted September 13, 2010 Has anyone from Maryland fished this river? I did some reading on it and the articles I read state that there is some good smallie fishing in this river near the Buckeystown dam. I am just curious if anyone has tried fishing there and if so how did you do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeVictor Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Is there access to the Monocacy river north of Thermont to the PA boarder. I'm mostly interested in wading; however I would like to put my kayak in as well. How is the SMB fishing in that stretch of the river? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basser89 Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Is there access to the Monocacy river north of Thermont to the PA boarder. I'm mostly interested in wading; however I would like to put my kayak in as well. How is the SMB fishing in that stretch of the river? Hi Mike, Welcome to THE boards! I believe there's at least one angler (possibly more) that fishes the Monocacy on the boards (not sure of what section(s) that might be). Check out the MD Who's Who thread as well, that's a fairly active thread so you may get some insight on there as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dinneronastring Posted October 2, 2013 Share Posted October 2, 2013 Have been fishing the Monocacy River for the ladder part of this summer. I fish off route 77 between Detour and Thurmont. If you park at the pull off by the bridge and walk the common trail to the river you'll catch an occasional bass, sonnies, red eye bass, crappies, suckers, and cats. BUT, if you wear waders and walk the river to the other side of the bridge and beyond, you'll catch lots of bass. Pulled out a 5 1/2 lb. large mouth and 3 small mouth on Monday. But I did it with night crawlers. I have great luck with night crawlers. It's all in how you set your bait on the hook and reading your line to know what type of fish is running with your line. Or a turtle. This section of river is difficult to access any other way and there for not fished much. Long wide stretches of calm water. Lots of hungry bass! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dinneronastring Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Fished it again yesterday. Six small mouth and three cats! The photo in my avatar are the fish from Monday. Note the smallest fish in the photo is 12 1/2 inches. This river is full of bass. A lot of silt and run off from the farms. I would not recommend eating a lot of them often because of the PCB's but great for catch and release. Also, a lot of water moccasins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dinneronastring Posted November 15, 2013 Share Posted November 15, 2013 Well gentleman, after 40 plus years of not fishing I now have the bug real bad. I find myself charting the river and finding every location where a road bridge crosses it for access points and planning next year. Looking for a canoe, better rods and reals, and lures. having found a good woman my dreams of women have been replaced with great fishing days. I started fishing the finger lakes this summer but went toward the end of summer and the algae was really bad. Studying data on this site will have me prepared as much as reasonably possible and for the first time in my life I have an understanding of lures and how to fish them. The problem is .............. winter is just too darn long to please me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy pharmareaps Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 New to the forum but just fished monocacy for the first time launched canoe around 530am at creagerstown (sp?) Park all the way to pine cliff around 1030pm. All in all well over 100 decent smallies! Biggest around 17 18inch. Brought my 3wt and 7wt and one ultralight spinner. Caught half on the 3wt including about ten over 15inch with one little black bugger with red flakes and the other half on simple light brown tubes on the spinner. Used 7wt to toss Stillwater poppers and streamers bit kept missing the take. Phenomenal will b back again! The further down we went the bigger they were only a few with lesions but still beautiful. Nothing like having a 3lb smallies launching into the air spitting minnows all over my fishing buddy (who used bait and caught one fish the whole trip... stubborn! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy pharmareaps Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 Topwater not Stillwater. Not used to "smart" phones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJH Posted June 2, 2023 Share Posted June 2, 2023 On 10/3/2013 at 1:35 PM, dinneronastring said: Fished it again yesterday. Six small mouth and three cats! The photo in my avatar are the fish from Monday. Note the smallest fish in the photo is 12 1/2 inches. This river is full of bass. A lot of silt and run off from the farms. I would not recommend eating a lot of them often because of the PCB's but great for catch and release. Also, a lot of water moccasins. I know this is a long dormant thread and the specific post is 10 years old, but I'm pretty sure there are no "water moccasin"/"cottonmouth" snakes in Maryland. What was most likely encountered was a Northern Water Snake - (non-venomous). https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Pages/plants_wildlife/herps/Squamata.aspx?SnakeName=Common Watersnake The venomous snakes found in Maryland include the Timber Rattlesnake and Copperhead. https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Pages/plants_wildlife/herps/Fieldguide_OrderSquamata.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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