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Home › Waters › Maryland › Deep Creek Lake
Lake · Garrett County, the Allegheny highlands of far western Maryland, a long many-armed lake at roughly 2,400 feet around McHenry, Thayerville and Oakland · Maryland

Deep Creek Lake Fishing Guides

Maryland's largest inland lake, high in the Garrett County highlands, with a long shoreline of coves and points holding bass, walleye, pike, yellow perch and stocked trout.

A dock and moored boat on a misty reservoir at sunrise
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Deep Creek Lake

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About the Deep Creek Lake

Deep Creek Lake is the largest inland body of water in Maryland, lying at roughly 2,400 feet in the Allegheny highlands of Garrett County. It was created in the 1920s as a hydroelectric project and has grown into the state’s principal mountain resort area, with the communities of McHenry, Thayerville and Oakland around it and a shoreline that runs for something close to sixty-five miles once every cove and arm is counted. That shape is the key to the fishery: the lake is long and narrow with many branching arms, so there is an enormous amount of shoreline relative to surface area, and an angler can nearly always find water out of the wind.

The species mix is unusually broad for a single lake. Smallmouth bass hold on the rocky points and the deeper shoreline, largemouth bass occupy the weedier backs of the coves, and both support a real tournament scene. Walleye and northern pike give the lake a cool-water fishery that most of Maryland cannot offer, with pike in the shallow weedy arms and walleye along the drop-offs. Yellow perch are abundant and are the backbone of the winter fishery, which includes genuine ice fishing in colder years. Trout are stocked and hold over in the deeper cold water. Chain pickerel and bluegill round it out. Summer brings heavy recreational boat traffic, so serious fishing happens early, late and in the off-season.

The USGS gauge near Thayerville reports lake elevation, water temperature and storage, and both of the first two matter here. Elevation is managed for hydroelectric generation and for downstream releases, and the lake is drawn down through autumn and winter, which changes dock access and exposes shoreline. Water temperature is what governs where the cool-water species sit through the season and when the trout retreat to depth. Read them together with the recreational calendar, because on this lake the difference between a quiet morning and an unfishable afternoon in July is not the water at all.

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The photo at the top of this page is not Deep Creek Lake.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

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If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

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We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

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Pool right now

2,459.83ft NAVD88
  • 24 hours+0.01 ft → steady
  • Water temperature56 F

Reading taken 58 min ago at USGS 03075871, DEEP CREEK LAKE NEAR THAYERVILLE, MD. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Deep Creek Lake.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Deep Creek Lake ft (NAVD88)

Now: 2,459.83 ft pool elevation, read 5:00 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 03075871, DEEP CREEK LAKE NEAR THAYERVILLE, MD).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

McHenry - the resort community at the north end, with lodging, marinas and the ski area.
Thayerville - the community near the gauge and the middle of the lake.
Oakland - the Garrett County seat south of the lake, with full services.
Deep Creek Lake State Park - the main public access on the east shore, with a boat launch and beach.
Deep Creek Lake Natural Resources Management Area - public land with shoreline and trail access.
Wisp Resort - the ski and golf resort on the north shore, and a base for many visitors.
Youghiogheny River - the river the lake discharges toward, with its own well-known fishery.

Seasons

Spring: the best fishing of the year, with bass and pike shallow, walleye on the points and stocked trout easy to reach.
Summer: heavy recreational traffic pushes fishing to early morning and evening, and the cool-water species move deep.
Fall: the lake quiets, bass feed hard before winter, and the drawdown begins to reshape shoreline access.
Winter: yellow perch and pike through the ice in colder years, with the lake at its lowest pool and very lightly used.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Deep Creek Lake?

Anglers target Bluegill, Brown Trout, Chain Pickerel, Largemouth Bass, Northern Pike, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye, Yellow Perch on the Deep Creek Lake in Maryland.

Where can you access the Deep Creek Lake?

McHenry - the resort community at the north end, with lodging, marinas and the ski area. Thayerville - the community near the gauge and the middle of the lake. Oakland - the Garrett County seat south of the lake, with full services. Deep Creek Lake State Park - the main public access on the east shore, with a boat launch and beach. Deep Creek Lake Natural Resources Management Area - public land with shoreline and trail access. Wisp Resort - the ski and golf resort on the north shore, and a base for many visitors. Youghiogheny River - the river the lake discharges toward, with its own well-know...

When is the best time to fish the Deep Creek Lake?

Spring: the best fishing of the year, with bass and pike shallow, walleye on the points and stocked trout easy to reach. Summer: heavy recreational traffic pushes fishing to early morning and evening, and the cool-water species move deep. Fall: the lake quiets, bass feed hard before winter, and the drawdown begins to reshape shoreline access. Winter: yellow perch and pike through the ice in colder years, with the lake at its lowest pool and very lightly used.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Deep Creek Lake?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Maryland agency site: https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/pages/regulations/index.aspx