Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, December 31 Update:
Welcome to the final fishing report of 2021! Here’s hoping that 2022 is a better year, both fishing-wise and otherwise. There are reports of a few big rockfish swimming in the Middle Bay waters, with a couple of readers reporting 40-plus inch fish (all taken on the troll) in deep water between the Choptank and Solomons. Umbrellas did the trick. We also heard from one jigger who managed to catch a few fish in the 20s dropping metal spoons down deep.
The AIC says he want up the Severn early this week to enjoy some pickerel fishing, and in a morning of fishing they caught six pickerel up to 23 inches. White paddletails and jerkbaits did the trick. He also said that Eric and Zach did NOT out-fish him… no matter what those photos showing up on Instagram and Facebook might imply! Anglers is reporting a decent pickerel bite in the Severn, too, and mentions that white perch can be found in deep water to 50 feet over structure in the open Bay. Note: Anglers also says that they’ve kicked their hours back to 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday for the winter.
Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, December 23 Update:
Happy holidays, anglers! Best wishes for an awesome celebration and we hope you and your family are looking forward to a fish-filled 2022. But we have one week of fishing in 2021 left, so: With fishing slowed down as stripers have cleared out and are no longer for the taking, many anglers have shifted their attention to catfish and yellow perch. An angler’s best bet if they want to catch dinner is heading to the Bay Bridge pilings or rocks and dropping small spoons or bull minnow on a bottom rig in hopes of landing some perch, according to Angler’s. This tactic is also working well throughout the tributaries in areas with deep pockets and holes, which are producing perch in steady numbers. Alltackle reported that once anglers are getting into the perch, staying on top of them is often resulting in hefty numbers when they’re around. Although locating them can be difficult at times, finding the school has been worth it.
The AIC went back to the millponds this week and reports a decent pickerel bite plus a few yellow perch and bass, on minnow early with jerkbaits catching the fish later in the day. Crappie were mysteriously lock jawed. On the west side we had a reader report of fair pickerel fishing in the Severn, with fish up to 22 inches hitting small spinnerbaits throughout multiple creeks. Angler’s heard of a few good pickerel catches in the Severn this week, although none have had impressive size on them.
RED ALERT: The DNR announced the immediate closing of the Bill Burton Fishing Pier (the old Rt. 50 bridge in Cambridge) under the "guidance of their engineers" until further notice. Hopefully this is a matter of repairs and not a permanent closure - the notice just came through today, but we'll report more when we know it.
Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, December 17 Update:
As most angler’s attention in the Middle Bay area shifts to upriver tidal action, we had several reader reports this week of pickerel and yellow perch. The Severn was noted as a good bet and small spinnerbaits produced pickerel, while darts dressed with minnow and cast to the docks in creeks triggered the most bites from yellow perch. Contributor Eric Packard launched his kayak out of Greenwell on the Patuxent this week and reported that vertically jigging with pink and blue one-ounce spoons produced a nice mix of white perch and (quickly released) rockfish in water just over 50 feet deep. Angler’s mentioned in their reporting that white perch were around in Kent Narrows and also off Matapeake.
Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow reports heading east to the millponds and finding the pickerel willing to eat minnow fished on white bucktails under a bobber. He says that the fish were sitting deep in the pond’s channels and offerings suspended just over the bottom did best, but recommended checking your rig often because there’s more weed growth than usual still alive and anything within a foot or so of bottom comes back fouled with some regularity.
Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, December 10 Update:
Fare thee well, dear rockfish, we’ll miss you—and we’ll see you again in 2022. For now, however, as of the end of the day today, December 10, the catch-and-keep season in Maryland waters of the Chesapeake Bay is over. We note that that you can continue to catch and release fish for stripers through the end of the year. In Virginia and in the Potomac, the catch-and-keep season continues for the rest of the month. So, if you’d like to take home a fish for dinner you can still head south. Additionally, the coastal season remains open as well.
We heard about what may well go down as the Middle Bay fish of the fall season, a 48-incher, caught on the Heat Wave last weekend in Eastern Bay. The fish hit a heavily weighted red hose trolled down deep. Considering how few and far between fish over 35 inches have been this fall, this one’s a rare catch — congrats, Heat Wave!
The AIC says that he hasn’t been out since last Sunday, and while the day was beautiful fishing was tough. A trip to the powerplant offered up zero speck action — nada, zip, zilch — although he believes he saw them on the meter. And while it was relatively easy to find good rockfish marks near 78 and 78A, 82, and other deep channel edges with 40 to 70 feet of water finding fish willing to bite was a struggle. Sinking jigs down to the bottom did produce a couple of fish in the mid-20s, but just a couple. Trollers pulling their rigs uber-deep seemed to be doing a bit better in the same areas towing umbrellas with white and chartreuse six-inch shad weighted down with 24 or more ounces of lead. Anglers reported that some fish were caught off Chesapeake Beach and Point Lookout jigging heavy metal in the season’s final days, as well.
Pickerel anglers hitting the Severn have enjoyed steady action on minnow. We also had a reader check in after hitting a couple of the creeks off the main river with chartreuse Super Roosters, catching seven pickerel in a short evening of fishing.
Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, December 3 Update:
With the Bay temps falling below the 50-degree mark the action slowed a bit in general this week, and the larger schools of fish have shifted to deep water. Angler’s Sport Center had a few reports from boats that jigged the Bay Bridge, and recommended using white, pearl, or chartreuse soft plastics. Most fish landed were schoolies, but the occasional 19- to-22-incher has been in the mix. Trollers are having some slow days, but hooking up on larger fish. Umbrellas and tandem rigs are standard. Anglers fishing off the mouth of Eastern Bay found some fish deep in the channel, sometimes as far down as 70 feet, where dropping metal jigging spoons produced a few fish but most proved unwilling to eat. Much of the charter fleet was also working deep, trolling heavily weighted umbrellas and tandems just south of Chesapeake Beach in 55-plus feet of water. Contributor Eric Packard reported that dropping spoons in 55-plus depths was doing the trick near 78A, and there were keepers in the mix though most of the fish were undersized. FishTalk team member Zach Ditmars said they caught a handful of stripers including one 26-incher chasing birds early in the day between Poplar and the Stone Rock last weekend, but he said the action petered out fast and it became tough to locate the fish once the birds broke up.
The AIC went back to the powerplant to attempt to find more trout and says the action was tepid, but working at it with five-inch white paddletails on one-ounce heads did produce a half-dozen fish to 22 inches. He said the bites were exceedingly light and hooking the fish is very difficult; some (good, experienced, and properly equipped) anglers on the boat never managed to turn the few mini-taps they felt into hookups. He also noted that you’ll have to expect to find a pretty big crowd there on decent weather days and at times over the weekend it was difficult to line up for drifts. Surprisingly, they didn’t hook into a single striper while there.