Conowingo Dam and the Lower Susquehanna River

Conowingo Dam, where US 1 crosses the Susquehanna between Harford and Cecil counties, stops every fish swimming up Maryland's biggest river, and its turbines chop up gizzard shad into an all-you-can-eat buffet. The result is one of the state's most varied fisheries: striped bass in the turbine wash, huge blue catfish plus flatheads and channels, walleye and smallmouth, spring shad and white perch, and snakeheads. The river below the dam is legally tidal, so you fish it on a Chesapeake Bay license.

When to fish

• Winter: big blue catfish hold in the dam pool and in deep holes downriver, including the deep water below the railroad bridge near the mouth; yellow perch share those holes.
• Spring: hickory and American shad run in April (catch and release only), with American shad gathering in the dam pool; white perch, including big females, move into the lower river. Striped bass are off limits upriver of the Abbey Point–Worton Point line in April and May, but bass and catfish fishing continues.
• June and July: striper harvest reopens; the best striper fishing is at dawn and dusk, while catfish bite all day.
• August: striped bass are closed to all fishing baywide, so switch to catfish and snakeheads.
• Fall: as the water cools, stripers return to the turbine wash, and walleye, smallmouth and blue catfish get more active into December.

Where to fish

• The dam pool and turbine wash at Fisherman's Park: the main event, where stripers hold just below the churning water.
• Deep holes in the lower river: blue catfish and winter yellow perch, including below the railroad bridge.
• Grass flat edges in the lower river: stripers early and late in summer.
• Rocky, fast water below the dam: smallmouth and walleye.
• Octoraro Creek and the mouth of Deer Creek: spring shad.

How to fish it

At the dam pool, DNR says most anglers wade in no deeper than their knees and make long casts to the turbine wash with medium surf spinning rods and braided line, throwing paddletails, soft plastic jigs, jerkbaits and topwater lures. Drifting cut bait in the pool catches blue and flathead catfish and some stripers; menhaden, gizzard shad or eel pieces, chicken and scented baits all work for catfish. For shad, fish shad darts (heavier ones in the pool), often in tandem with a small gold or silver spoon. For white perch, cast small jig heads with grass shrimp or minnow, or fish a bottom rig with grass shrimp or bloodworm. Use non-offset circle hooks with bait whenever striped bass might be the target.

Getting there

Fisherman's Park, below the dam in Darlington, is run by the power company, with shoreline access and car-top launching only. Water levels rise fast when the turbines run, so call the dam's generation hotline before you go, don't wade out into the pool or around the fence, and watch for submerged rocks. Downriver, Susquehanna State Park's Lapidum ramp and the town ramps at Port Deposit, Havre de Grace and Perryville give boat access. The lower Susquehanna has its own striped bass season, with a full closure in April and May above the Abbey Point–Worton Point line, and no stripers may be kept aboard between midnight and 5 a.m. You need a Maryland Chesapeake Bay and Coastal Sport Fishing License (or free registration where license-free); Octoraro and Deer creeks need a nontidal license.