Liberty Lake fishing: Largemouth Bass, Channel Catfish, Walleye

Target species: Largemouth Bass, Channel Catfish, Walleye
Best months: Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep for Largemouth Bass
Second window: Jul, Sep for Channel Catfish
Boat: 1 ramp or launch on file for this water.
Start here: Launch at Liberty Reservoir, 1 lane.

The reservoir

Liberty Lake covers 3,042 acres in Maryland, across 2 counties: Carroll and Baltimore. It is a reservoir: 92.9% of it is 90 feet deep or less; the deepest point measured is 142 feet (43.4 m). Our records hold 5 species for this water.

Depth: down to 142 ft at the deepest measured point

Deepest measured point: 142 ft (43.4 m). 92.9% of the water is 90 feet or shallower. We hold 164 depth contours for this water, drawn from 404,727 soundings.

Liberty Reservoir - panoramio.jpg
Mountain Mojo · CC BY-SA 3.0
  • 0–10 ft: 19.5% of the water
  • 10–20 ft: 21.1% of the water
  • 20–30 ft: 14% of the water
  • 30–40 ft: 10.2% of the water
  • 40–50 ft: 8.7% of the water
  • 50–60 ft: 6.8% of the water
  • 60–70 ft: 5.1% of the water
  • 70–80 ft: 4% of the water
  • 80–90 ft: 3.5% of the water
  • 90–100 ft: 3.9% of the water
  • 100–110 ft: 2.7% of the water
  • 110–120 ft: 0.5% of the water

3 target fish, led by Largemouth Bass

  • Largemouth Bass — Best months: Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep.
  • Channel Catfish — Best months: Jul, Sep.
  • Walleye — Best months: May, Jun, Aug, Sep.

Also recorded here: Brown Trout, Green Sunfish.

Water and conditions

Water temperature averages 51°F across the year. The coldest single reading we hold is 32°F and the warmest is 79°F; the warmest monthly average is 73°F. pH averages 7.7. These readings span 2017–2024.

Liberty Reservoir - panoramio (1).jpg
Mountain Mojo · CC BY-SA 3.0

1 ramp or launch on this water

On this water we hold 1 trailer ramp.

  • Liberty Reservoir — 1 lane, restrooms. Off Oakland Mills Road, Eldersburg, MD 21784 · phone 410-795-6151, 410-442-2080 · website publicworks.baltimorecity.gov/sites

The place listed has no fee or opening hours on file: a blank means we hold no such field, not that it is free or always open, and this list may not be complete.

Liberty Reservoir Dam 05.JPG
Bohemian Baltimore · CC BY-SA 4.0

What is hard here

Only 1 public ramp is on file, so the launch decides where you fish. Winter water drops to 36°F, and the warm-water species stop feeding well before you do.

Where this data comes from

  • Maryland Geological Survey — Maryland Geological Survey: depth soundings: class A, a survey of the bottom.
  • USGS RESSED — USGS RESSED reservoir sedimentation database: class B, a depth figure measured and published by an agency, without a bottom map.
  • Webster, K.E., McCullough, I.M., Soranno, P.A. LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0, EDI, doi:10.6073/pasta/64ddc4d04661d9aef4bd702dc5d8984f (CC BY 4.0); Cheruvelil et al. LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0 (EDI) — LAGOS-US DEPTH v1.0: Lake depth for 17,675 lakes in the conterminous U.S.: class B, a depth figure measured and published by an agency, without a bottom map.