On a frigid, breezy morning in early January, Steve Lay bundled up against the cold and took his boat out from Havre de Grace to the mouth of the Susquehanna River. He dropped a line in the water, hoping to hook his favorite fish — yellow perch.
“I like them better than rockfish,” said Lay, a waterman and outdoorsman who’s been fishing and crabbing the upper Chesapeake Bay for decades. No disrespect to the Bay’s iconic striped bass, but Lay prefers the taste and firm flesh of a pan-fried “cold water fish” like yellow perch.
Now, though, recreational anglers will have to bring home fewer to fry up. Citing a six-year run of poor spawning or survival of young fish, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources on Jan. 8 halved the allowable daily recreational catch from 10 fish a day to five…