Weekend Fishing Report

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Trophy striper fishing seasons are under way in the Maryland and Virginia portions of the Chesapeake Bay, but catch reports are beginning to fluctuate between great and only fair.

In the upper and middle portions of Maryland's Chesapeake, the fishing can be good one day, poor the next. But good numbers of trophy rockfish continue to be seen as you head toward Southern Maryland, the lower Eastern Shore, as well as the Northern Neck of Virginia.

Don't worry about the biggest stripers being around. When they finish spawning, they head south. It's a normal occurrence. Smaller specimens will take their place, but rest assured that there are plenty of fish out there.

The upper tidal Potomac River once again will be a busy place this weekend as the New Jersey State Bass Federation is holding its championship tournament. Expect to see many bass boats come out of Smallwood State Park in Charles County. That's not counting all the many little club tournaments that will be held. Hoo boy!

Virginia's freshwater fisheries and environmental departments are investigating findings of dead fish and fish with lesions in a 50-mile stretch of the South Fork Shenandoah River. For nearly a month now the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has received reports from river anglers about seeing some dead fish. These reports ranged from upstream of Elkton almost to Front Royal.

Though healthy populations of fish were observed, there were about 20 dead bass and sunfish. Many of the live fish captured had sores, parasites, lesions or fin rot. Roughly half of the 50 smallmouth bass collected had sores or injuries. The cause of the fish sores and deaths remains unknown.

The DEQ says the distribution and timing are not consistent with a spill, a single discharge or an incident involving a toxic chemical. The agency's preliminary determination is that the symptoms are consistent with disease or infection. There is no information to determine whether there is a connection between these incidents and similar occurrences in April and May 2004 in the North Fork Shenandoah area.

To me, it appears that someone, somewhere, is dumping a harmful substance into the river. The investigation continues.