The rebound of the upper Chesapeake Bay's largemouth bass fishery is one of the most significant success stories in this part of the country.

Healthy populations of largemouths are present in many tidal rivers, fish that commonly reach impressive proportions. The bass fishing there heats up in a couple of months, perfect timing to warrant a five-hour drive to help shrug off the winter.

Tidal portions of river sections feeding the Chesapeake, such as the famed Susquehanna Flats, support hearty populations of bigmouths, chunky fish that often average 3 pounds or so.

While the Susquehanna is by far the largest (and most famous) tidal bass water, many rivers in this region contain good numbers of bass. The Bohemia River is a good example.

The Bohemia River is located in Cecil County, Md., south of Elkton. The Bohemia joins the Elk River, an excellent tidal bass river in its own right, near the town of Hollywood Beach. The Elk empties into Chesapeake Bay several miles southwest of the mouth of the Bohemia.

"The Bohemia boasts a strong largemouth bass population," said Rick Shaefer, a fisheries biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. "The thing about the Bohemia is it typically is full of vast beds of aquatic vegetation The fish will be scattered in the weeds, especially during the summer months.

"Now in spring and fall, when the weeds are not present, they will be concentrated on structure," he added

During an early spring outing, look for channel edges to hold fish during low tides. When the water is up, fish often will migrate onto flats to forage on the vast amounts of baitfish.

A good strategy is to cover water quickly during high tides with a fast-moving horizontal lure like a buzzbait, spinnerbait or Ratt-L-Trap.

When the tide falls and fish slide down into cuts and pockets along channel edges, it's time to pitch a flippin' jig or similar bait to dig out the big ones.

And the Bohemia has lots of big ones, as well as little ones and in-between-sized ones.

Areas of the Bohemia that hold largemouth bass vary from year to year, as well as within any particular season. Two of the factors that influence fish location are weed growth and levels of salinity.

Shaefer said that when weeds are scarce — and levels of weedgrowth do vary from year to year — more fish can be found farther up the river on hard structure. The same can be said in relation to the amount of rainfall experienced.

"Last year, for example, we had very high levels of salinity in the Bohemia River, which has pushed fish farther up the river," he said. "It was horribly dry last summer."

Shaefer added that it's somewhat of a mystery as to just how salty an environment largemouth will tolerate before heading upriver.

"We are restricted in the use of our electrofishing gear, as to how salty of water we can sample," he noted. "While we know there are some fish out in those (salty) areas, we can't sample those places with the gear we have."

The Bohemia River is formed by the merger of Great Bohemia Creek and Little Bohemia Creek, which is found just east of the Route 213 bridge.

Scotchman Creek joins the Bohemia just downriver of the bridge, near Hacks Point. A private boat ramp is available near the southern end of the Route 213 bridge. Public accesses can also be found in the Elk River.

There is no closed season on tidal bass waters, but there is a 15-inch minimum length limit in force from mid-March to mid-June. This coincides with the closed season found on Maryland's inland bass waters.