barbthebarb  02/05/2010 - 12:55  Loch Raven    Hi, I'm new to this site. I'm looking for info on Loch Raven. I usually fish from the shore by the bridge, but will rent a boat every now and then. Does anyone know any good shore spots and what tackle works best there? Any other info you'd be willing to share would be great.

Thanks,
Mike

Steve826  09/25/2009 - 14:24  Trip Reports  Loch Raven  Roll Your Own    My dad and I rented a boat today at the Loch. It was a lot of fun. It was actually our first time fishing from a boat. It is definitely a whole different game then fishing from shore and wading! We fished from 9:30-12:45. While the weather was nice and the boating was fun, the fishing wasn't too good. I caught one 10-inch largemouth on a split shot rigged 6 inch watermelonseed Zoom lizard. The fish hit on the drop and put up a pretty nice fight. We didn't have a fish finder or map of any kind so fishing deep water was tough. We covered quite a bit of ground in 3 hours. Mainly the coves and points near the fishing center but we ventured out into some deep water too. The spot I caught the one bass in was a drop off about 40 or 50 yards off shore. As for lures, we threw buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, tubes, shallow diving cranks, floating Rapalas, lizards, and grubs, with the lizard being the only producer.

davefishj  06/18/2007 - 22:06  Trip Reports  Loch Raven    This past Saturday my wife and kids headed out to visit the Grandparents in Delaware. As part of my Father's Day gift I was directed to spend the day on the lake (driving up to spend Father's Day with everyone on Sunday). It was a most thoughtful and thoroughly appreciated gift. I made the most of the time, spending the morning on Loch Raven and the evening on Prettyboy. Loch Raven was, as expected, quite crowded but still rather nice (thankfully the electric motor requirements keep boat traffic noise to a minimum). I landed six largemouth on plastic worm in heavy grass, with only one of notable size (2lb 6oz). I left around noon and took a break for a few hours, eventually launching the boat on Prettyboy around 4pm. There were far fewer boats and a much more peaceful surrounding. I ended up landing eight smallmouth. Two out of the eight were rather nice fish, one going 2lb 11oz, the other 2lb 10oz. Both were caught near sunset off of points in ~6ft of water on a small, brown finesse worm. The fight that these two fish put up on 8lb-test light spinning tackle was incredible. Smallmouth are feisty, powerful fish that have few rivals in the sportfishing world and were the highlights of a wonderful day. Before landing the first of the sizable smallmouth I happened to notice a couple of river otters playing near the shoreline. With the sun low in the sky to my left and the otters playing to my right I took a moment to take in the picturesque surroundings. Baltimore is fortunate to have such a healthy, natural resource in such convenient proximity.

davefishj  06/05/2007 - 21:45  Trip Reports  Loch Raven    Got out on the water Monday morning at 5:30 and fished until 9AM. The lake is 15 minutes away from work, thus I was in the office and at my desk by 9:30 (one of my favorite benefits of working in the Baltimore area). Skies were a blanket of thick, heavy cloud cover and rain drizzled all morning. It was one of those times where everything just looked "fishy". The bite was steady and I landed eight fish - seven largemouth and one pickerel. The two most notable largemouth weighed in at 2lb 9oz and 4lb 6oz. All fish were all taken on a Texas rig worm fished at the edge of emerging grassbeds on main lake points. The 4lb'er (my biggest fish of the year thus far) on 8lb test spinning tackle was an exciting way to kick off the work week :-)

davefishj  05/10/2007 - 12:43  Trip Reports  Loch Raven    Fished from 6am to 2pm this past Sunday and had one of my best days on Loch Raven. The wind was gusting 20 to 30mph all morning long and while it made it challenging to keep the boat positioned the fish seemed unfazed. I didn't keep a strict tally of fish landed but I'd conservatively guess fifteen, mostly 2 lb+ largemouth with a few dinks and a handful of pickerel thrown in. During the early morning hours I threw a tandem fluke rig with moderate success. It was my first time fishing this type of bait and I was reasonably pleased with the results. For the rest of the day I threw a finesse worm on a stand-up jig head. Fishing this bait rather slow, hopping and dragging along the bottom drew the most strikes and caught the most fish.

davefishj  03/27/2007 - 20:56  Trip Reports  Loch Raven    Spring has arrived and it's a beautiful thing to behold! I ran up to Loch Raven during lunch today and fished from the shore near Warren Bridge where the Gunpowder River empties in. In 45 minutes of fishing I hung three and landed two. They were all largemouth, with one going 2 and the other closer to 3lbs. The fish that got away hammered a spinnerbait in dingy water and made a beeline to the shore where he wrapped me up in a tree. He was a sizable fish, easily going 5lb+. My tackle was relatively light and as such I was never able to put the pressure on and turn him. Once he entangled the line he came to the surface and thrashed around until he threw the spinnerbait. It was hard to watch such a large fish swim slowly back into the depths. In any event it was a fast and furious lunch break and it's whetted my appetite for a full day trip to Prettyboy tomorrow. Pics available at my blog: Dave's Fishing Journal

davefishj  11/06/2006 - 22:49  Trip Reports  Essays  Loch Raven    Fished from 6am to noon and landed three largemouth and one pickerel. The razor-toothed pickerel and pike were in aggressive mode as my line snapped on numerous hook sets. All in all a beautiful day with a gorgeous red sunrise, calm water surface and light winds. The fish were caught on plastic worm at a depth of ~6ft on points with rock structure and thinning vegetation. Water temp was 54°F.

Pics can be found on my fishing blog... http://davefishing.blogspot.com/

Dave

muskalungee  05/03/2006 - 20:40  Fishing  Loch Raven   

This 5lb greenie was picked up by Matt in the "Pocket Aces Fishing Tournament" on April 30, 2006 at Loch Raven. See the full story Here.

ShawnLittle  05/02/2006 - 10:54  Trip Reports  Loch Raven   

After a month of planning the 1st annual Pocket Aces "fishing" tournament was held this past sunday at Loch Raven Reservoir. Six members of our Wednesday night pool team met at Loch Raven this sunday to hold a tournament. 3 Random teams were drawn and to keep it fair an opposing team member was placed on your boat to weigh the fish that were caught. The fish had to be at least 12 inches of length and were weighed, written down on paper, and released. Your top 5 heaviest fish counted towards your total. Five members had a beautiful and awesome day out on the water. Unfortunately the sixth member, which was me, celebrated at a birthday party a little too much the night before and I definitely felt the effects the next day. Nothing worse than having a hangover with very little sleep and getting sea sick on a boat in the morning into the afternoon. Especially when the fish were cooperating like you wouldn't believe. I managed to pull in 5 lbs and 14 oz for my team before I was unable to fish anymore. My boat partner, Matt, who was on another team also went to the same birthday party the night before but did not suffer any effects of the lack of sleep or alcohol. Matt took advantage of basically being the only person on our boat fishing and had a banner day. He pulled the biggest fish caught out of the group as he boated a 5.1 lb largemouth bass (pic included) and I believe 14 other nice fish on the day. I couldn't tell you too much about the winning total on the day because I was just in poor, poor shape by the time the tournament ended. I do know that a technicality led to the team with the most weight not winning. One of rules stated that you had to be back on shore by 3:00 p.m. or it was a 1lb penalty for each minute you arrived late. My boat came in 6 minutes late so Matt's team recieved a 6lb penalty and my team recieved a 6lb penalty. Due to me being unable to fish most of the day my team wasn't in the running anyway but Matt's team took a hit and consequently finished in second because of the penalty. Overall, it apparently was an amazing day on the water for people who were fishing because a lot of quality fish were being caught and I am upset that I missed most of it. It definitely would have been a very close tournament had I been able to keep my head in the tournament. I would put the total countable fish for the tournament in the 50's with plenty of stories of the ones that got away to go around. Looking forward to the second annual Pocket Aces tournament next year.

muskalungee  04/24/2006 - 19:44  Fishing  Loch Raven   

Shawn Little with a real nice Loch Raven Largemouth. See the trip details Here