It was two weeks after our inaugural trip, and our boat was hitting the waters of Liberty Reservoir just as the sun was rising. Although it was mid-April and it was snowing the previous week, this day’s forecast showed bright, clear skies and mild temperatures. Yet it was only in the mid-40s as we made our way north from the boat ramp. Event thought the water temperature in this deep area was only reading 52 degrees, the surface was rife action as walleye were breaching left and right.
Our first stop was near the buoys at Plumber’s Point (3), where the fish were jumping all over the place. Unfortunately we could not figure out what they wanted. We tried throwing poppers, drop shots, plugs, jigs, and swimmers. Not even a single bite. It didn’t appear that the fish were going after food, so why the breaching? Perhaps this has something to do with the walleye’s spawning habits?
We decided to keep going. We rounded the corner and headed west down Morgan Run towards Route 32. About a quarter mile past the first outcropping, we found a shallow shelf that jutted out about 150 yards from the southern bank. The water was no more than 12 feet deep and very clear. We could clearly see some very large walleye that would turn tail when we got too close.
Again we tried throwing a variety of lures, and again ended up without a bite. However, the spot showed a lot of promise, and will certainly be hot with action once the summer weeds grow in. For now, the water temperature was still only about 54 degrees, so we decided to keep moving on to warmer waters.
We kept moving westward and finally came into view of the Sykesville Road Bridge (9). It was a sunny day and the air temperature had gone into the 60s, so there were plenty of fishermen along the shorelines. We dropped in our trolling rods, now with brand new Penn reels, and used out trolling motor to pass under the bridge. We stayed along the north-east shoreline as the reservoir took a turn northward. Finally the water temperature was hitting 58 degrees.
The action was all very close to the shoreline, so the shoreline anglers were likely having some luck. We started throwing Senko lures in a variety of configurations: Texas rigs, jig heads, drop shots. There were a few bites, but nothing landed yet.
We eventually crossed over to the western shoreline, and found a great spot (10) where we both finally started pulling up some small-to-medium sized large mouths. They were all around 13 inches and probably no more than 1.5 pounds, but still fun to catch.
After an hour or two, we decided not to press our luck with the motor range this week and started heading in. We only stopped a few more times, once to help a shoreline angler get his lure out of the trees (we’ve all been there).
Overall, it wasn’t an amazing day of fishing, but we did manage to land a few. From the few people we talked to, it sounds like everyone else had about the same luck as we did. However, we both enjoyed this western branch of the reservoir much more than the eastern side. We will certainly return as the fishing season quite literally heats up.
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