Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, June 25 Update:
Though many boats are now running north, trollers and live-liners are enjoying some decent fishing throughout the Middle Bay, scooping up stripers ranging from dinks to keeper size. Angler’s let us know that the bite along the channel edges has been picking up. Trollers hitting the channel edges around Hacketts and Bloody Point are typically pulling umbrellas, Sassy Shads, and large bucktails between 25 and 30 feet. Alltackle reported that the most productive colors have been white, chartreuse, and occasionally pink. Live-lining has been good in the aforementioned areas as well, and spot and small white perch can be located throughout tidal rivers, both near shore and at the river mouths, in 10 to 15 feet of water biting on bloodworms. In the Patuxent, trollers using tandems on the oyster bars and drop-offs are doing well, bringing in a mix of keeper and throwback stripers.
The shallow water striped bass fishery remained rather lackluster this week, through much of the zone. Angler-in-Chief Lenny Rudow headed out several evenings, and reports that the bite is still tough on the western side. Fish can be found if you hit rip-rap and docks and work at it, but it’s a slow pick. He also mentioned that he found keeper fish casting around the pound nets.
The folks at The Tackle Box say it’s better down their way, specifically at the rock pile at the Cedar Point Lighthouse, which has been putting out some brag-worthy rockfish up to 28 inches for early morning anglers casting surface poppers. While this area has been hot, the Tackle Box also let us know that you’ve gotta get up early to get in on the bite. If you wait for sunrise, the early birds will have cleaned them out before you get your boat in the water. Due to high pressure on the fish, the bite is typically petering out after the early hours. They also noted that spot and perch can be found in the Patuxent for bottom fishermen in the mouth of Cuckold's Creek, Kingston Hollow, Sandy Point, Drum Point, Green Holly, and at The "O" club. Moving tides have been producing the best catches, and fishing for them with bloodworms or grass shrimp is a safe tactic. Anglers casting in the shallows have also been picking up a few speckled trout in the Pax. There are also some impressive catfish coming up around the Chalk Point Power Plant and at Benedict. Additionally, Cedar Point Hollow has some breaking blues and rockfish. While many of the fish are small, there’s always the possibility of a surprise whopper.
Land-based anglers fishing at Point Lookout found good spot and perch fishing State Park pier where anglers are catching them on bottom rigs with bloodworms and grass shrimp. More interesting, however, was that a pair of pompano were caught off the pier this week.
Crabbing report: Several readers reported that crabbing is on the upswing, with loaded bushel baskets coming out of the South, West, and Patuxent rivers, and Eastern Bay.
Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, June 19 Update:
Although fishing was a little tough on the Middle Bay this weekend, we’re hoping things pick up after the winds settle down a bit. Most of our readers, Angler’s, and Alltackle in Annapolis reported that the bite has been pretty slow, with a few exceptions. Alltackle heard of a few success stories from trollers who battled the wind this week to cruise the channel edges, pulling umbrellas at down to 30 feet. While the days were slow, a few mid-20s keepers (photo confirmed) were caught late in the afternoon. Angler’s suggested bearing the catfish if you’re looking for dinner, and chumming around Thomas Point; some stripers were caught there over the past week by determined chummers, who battled through a smattering of encouraging bites that resulted in catfish. Angler-in-Chief Lenny Rudow also headed out this week and hit the north side of Poplar, where he found plenty of dinks under birds. However, they maxed out at around 14 inches. Rudow reported that the shallow water bite has been dropping off a bit, with fewer and fewer bites, though he also noted that recent the windy conditions and the presence of rays (enough that snagging can be a problem) have made fishing difficult recently. He said that on an evening trip last night it was wind and rays yet again on the Bay, but inside the river they found that some (undersized) stripers had moved in around the docks. Our readers reported earlier this week that Hackett’s has lots of spot and perch, which have been bait sized. We had another reader report catching catfish, rays, and a few small stripers fishing from shore in the Severn with night crawlers early in the week, as well.
We were excited to hear that a reader caught three speckled trout fishing the shoreline of the lower Patuxent. They let us know that four-inch white paddle tails were the trick. The docks in the lower Pax are holding fair numbers of stripers, too, up into the mid-20s, and hard bottom is holding plenty of perch for anglers dropping bloodworms on bottom rigs.
Crabbing report: Angler-in-Chief Lenny Rudow says he hit the South one evening early this week and loaded up a full bushel basket in one day. Chicken necks on a trotline in five feet of water got ‘em in.
Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, June 11 Update:
Plenty of stripers came in this week, with Angler’s Sports Center reporting that the bite has been so-so for trollers, jiggers, topwater, and chummers. Trollers are enjoying long days relaxing on the boat cruising the channel edges. While they have been doing a lot of steering and sunburning, we hear that when they get a fish on its twice as exciting because they’re spent so long staring that the horizon. Alltackle let us know that most of the bites were committed by schoolies brave enough to attempt to snack on a Sassy Shad, umbrella, or bucktail. On the jigging front, the scene has been slightly better. Bloody Point, Thomas Point, and Eastern Bay continue to give anglers carpal tunnel. Suspended schoolies have been hanging around, and are great action during the early mornings and late afternoons. While most have been undersized or barely making it to the keeper mark, fish breaking 25 inches will occasionally pop up. These areas have also been good for topwater anglers, whose primary catch has been in the shallows as the sun breaks and sets.
Chummers have been parked at Hackett’s recently, reporting good success one day and empty coolers the next; it’s been sporadic, and catfish seem to have slowed up a bit from the bridge south, so there’s no longer a guarantee of action. In some areas rays have moved in to take their place. However, on the bright side several readers let us know that they caught speckled trout in the shallows of Eastern Bay this week. Most were on the small side but were keepers, and the numbers were relatively low (three angler reports, 2-1-1), but we’re hoping that it’s foreshadowing a great opportunity for Middle Bay anglers as the waters heat up.
FishTalk Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow reported that he had one of the slowest days he’s had in a long time last weekend. He had to search high and low to find fish and had to move to avoid pockets of mahogany water at times. He also said he found that the mouth of the Choptank still has some schools, but they're mostly dinks. And again, probing the Stone Rock for black drum proved fruitless. Other than that, most days the evening bite in the shallows on the western side has gone from great to fair-to-middling, with a fish in the 18- to 24-inch class striking around dusk.
Perch fishing continues to pick up and spot are now in the Middle Bay in numbers. We also heard from Anglers Sport Center that one of their customers caught a number of small black sea bass at the Bay Bridge, and then a reader sent in another report of catching one near the eastern rockpile. For all of the above, bloodworms are the top bait.
Crabbing report: Several crabbers reported increasing numbers this week and local pier pots were catching up to a half dozen in a day—it’s looking up in a big way, so grab that bag of necks and start baiting.
Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, June 5 Update:
Well, anglers, the action is on in the Middle Bay. Striper fishing has been hot in the area, drawing the fleet from up and down the Chesapeake. Anglers jigging, chumming, and trolling are all having success. One angler who trolled this weekend reported success pulling six-inch chartreuse and white tandems and umbrellas from the mouth of West River down to North Beach, where they had lots of action. They caught plenty of throwbacks, plus fish up to 28-inches. There was a fleet throughout this area over last weekend and it was necessary to dodge boats a bit. The eastern side of the shipping channel near Bloody Point south past Buoy 83 and south to the CP Buoy has also produced good reports.
Anglers jigging had a good few days south of Poplar Island last weekend, where white BKD’s with the ‘speckled raven’ GI half-ounce jigs were the ticket. A reader reported fishing the area and seeing some birds, plus landing a 16-inch bluefish and having two other bite-offs mixed with the stripers. Our Angler-in-Chief Lenny Rudow visited the stretch between Poplar and the Choptank this week, where he also saw his first school breaking water this season. While he didn't encounter any blues he says there were lots of small rock up top and some keepers up to 22-inches down deep under them. He also notes that there weren't many birds over the fish and because they were up and down, it would have been easy to buzz right by them, so keep your eyes peeled on the water's surface for swirls. The AIC says he hunted for black drum along the Stone Rock but only found rockfish and more rockfish, mostly undersized, unfortunately. He also said multiple evening trips continue to produce handfuls of stripers here and there on white plastics cast in the shallows, but not in nearly as good numbers as last week. Even when few boats have been around the rocks the bite at TPL has been slow, with just zero to three fish per visit on average.
Various readers also reported that the mouth of the Choptank and Solomons have been good spots. At the Choptank, stripers were breaking water and small fish between 14 and 16 inches were up top, but also being caught were fish up to mid-20-inch range by jigging down deeper under the breaking fish. Fishing the shallows of the lower Choptank, we also had a reader report of small stripers plus one speck on white and pink plastics between four and six inches on half-ounce jigheads. Around Solomons, another reader was catching while casting white and chartreuse jigs. While they caught more throwbacks than keepers, they hit their limit on stripers up to 30 inches. There have also been a handful of reports of specks in the lower Pax, in the shallows.
Alltackle in Annapolis and our readers reported that chummers still continue to battle catfish. One reader reported a mix of stripers and cats while chumming the green number one in 25 feet of water.
Angler’s reported that white perch are hanging around tidal creeks, moving into shallower water close to shore as the temps warm up. As usual, blood worms or grass shrimp on bottom rigs will do the trick for them.
Crabbing report: Crabbing has been sporadic, and it's best to head south if you're determined to fill out a bushel. Clams are alleged to out-crab necks at the moment.