Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, June 28 Update:
The AIC says the south winds continued to put a damper on last weekend and even perch fishing was difficult, but casting shrimp on a shad dart and Perch Pounders kept things active and some rockfish can still be found around the Middle Bay and tributary piers. He noted that when the wind finally turned, he found that on evening trips lures pitched or skipped completely underneath the piers might or might not get hit but those falling a foot or more shy of the shade line were completely ignored 100-percent of the time. The summer heat has fish seeking cooler water and shaded areas. Fishing in the low light hours is usually more productive this time of year as a high sun and blazing heat can shut down the bite at times. Perch fishing in the rivers has been good with the perch following the same pattern as the rockfish by holding close to shaded areas and structure.
Scattered reports of puppy drum are still coming in with fish being caught as far north as the Magothy River, but most of the mid bay catches have come from the South River, West River, and Solomons areas. Scattered speckled trout have also shown up occasionally in these same zones.
In the Pax there’s a steady drumbeat of reports of good bottom fishing with spot providing the lion’s share of the action, and many are big enough to put in the box. Bloodworms and Fishbites bloodworms are top producers. We note that with the current pricing, buying a bag of real bloodworms may cost more than your mortgage payment. Lug worms are also being used as an alternative. It seems some cutlassfish have arrived in the lower river areas, too, as Contributor Eric Packard reports bringing in lots of chopped plastics when casting for rockfish in Mill Creek.
The Honga has been providing a steady pick of slot drum and keeper specks, but the bite has not been on every day. Covering lots of territory and finding clean water has been the ticket to locating fish. The early bite has also been best, and we saw a report from an angler who caught a monster 29-inch speck on a soft plastic swimbait. He also reeled in a 19-inch trout shortly after. Water temps are warming quickly, and fish may soon retreat to slightly deeper water to escape the heat. Make sure to have a few different areas in mind to fish when hitting the water this summer.
Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, June 21 Update:
The Angler in Chief says the south wind has been a problem recently, keeping the shallows riled up and off-color and making accurate casting difficult. Between gusts there’s been a striper bite ranging from great to nonexistent from day to day, with the best action generally coming at dawn or dusk. He also mentioned that redfish are scattered through the west side tribs from the South River down, mostly in the 16” to 17.99” range. He hasn’t seen a keeper-size red come on the FishTalker yet but had reliable intel from readers and friends of two that broke the magic 18” mark. A reliable report of a slot red also came in from the West River this week. It seems that there are definitely some slot reds around, but you might need more luck on your side than skill to find them among the under-slots. We should see more drum move up the Bay as summer progresses and the fish that are just undersized now should grow into the slot range by the end of summer. A reader fishing the West River this week was able to locate some perch and rockfish. The bite was slow until the sun got up and then fishing shade edges and larger docks with shade produced a steady bite. They were able to box over 40 white perch and two slot rockfish with another angler on the boat. Tossing live minnows on 1/16th ounce jigheads to the shaded areas produced all the fish. As the hot summer temperatures set in, focusing your fishing efforts on shade will often lead to good results as fish will be looking to get out of the sun.
Reader reports from the mouth of the Choptank came in of a solid bite on fish in and above the slot, with white or chartreuse five-inch paddletails on 5/8-ounce heads doing the trick. The AIC visited this neck of the woods this week as well, experiencing a poor sunrise topwater bite in the lower portions of the river but finding some small rock, a slot, and a nice speck willing to bite when the outgoing began flowing strong. White paddletails worked but a red/white three-inch Rapala jerkbait caught the best. He also noted finding a lone bluefish in 12’ of water at Sharp’s Island. As has been the case recently, fishing very early and fishing very late has been the ticket to success. Interestingly, we also had a reader report of blue catfish all the way down in Harris and Broad creeks.
A boat fishing the Honga during the week struggled to find willing fish to bite as they worked the shallows with four-inch paddletails and small spinners. Grass beds and docks produced a handful of under slot stripers and a white perch, but the target species of speckled trout eluded them. They also mentioned that cow nose rays and stingrays were all over the shallow grass flats. These are notorious for shutting off the bite in areas where they are cruising around in.
Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, June 14 Update:
We have officially made it into prime fishing/boating season for the year as the official start of summer is only a few days away. Boat traffic is something we should expect from here on out, especially on weekends. The best way to describe the fishing across the board in the middle Bay is “sporadic”. The AIC says the hot-cold striper bite in the Middle Bay zone has continued, with most of his luck coming on the west side docks and shallow water structure. High water and low light have been the winning combination, with fish willing to hit paddletails, stick baits, and lipless crankbaits. He noted that a three-inch gold/white diving stickbait that ran about four feet deep was particularly hot recently and mentioned that an attempt on low water at midday produced a skunk trip. FishTalk intern Adam Greenberg reaffirms the low light ticket, noting that topwater between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. has been red-hot in the Choptank shallows, but then it shuts off like a light.
Eating-sized spot have moved up and are now available in good numbers from the lower Patuxent up to Deale. Anglers fishing bloodworms or Fishbites bloodworms on Chesapeake Sabiki rigs report catching them by the dozens, often with a few perch and/or small croaker in the mix (no reports of keeper-sized croaker yet, though). Good areas to search for these fish include the mouth of the Patuxent, Chesapeake Beach, Holland Point, and areas just north or south of the Bay Bridge. Anywhere from five to 15 feet of water is generally a good zone and the spot tend to hang out where the crab pots start along the bayfront. The hot perch bite that was happening at Holland Point has slowed down considerably this week with one reader reporting a skunk trip last weekend. He heard from a close friend that a morning trip a day later only produced a half dozen eating size perch. Let’s hope the schools move back in, because perch fishing is something many anglers enjoy during the summer.
Over on the Tred Avon River, a shore angler reported that his usually reliable perch fishing spots in the river are being overrun with catfish, both channel and blue. It is a good thing they both taste good, but they can be pesky when searching for more desirable species.
Crabbing report: Fair to good action is being reported in the Middle Bay tribs, with one crabber reporting three-quarters of a bushel in the basket despite trot-lining in a very stiff breeze one day this week. Another said he got a full bushel, but it took most of the day to do so and many were barely-legals.
Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, June 7 Update:
Summer is knocking on our door as June has finally arrived. Striped bass have been a big target for anglers now that the entire Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries in Maryland are open to targeting as of June 1st. Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow says the striper bite in the Middle Bay zone remains on and off, with hot trips followed by cool ones at spots including Thomas Point, Poplar, the mouth of the Choptank, the power plant, and in the South River. He noted that while the bite was slow at the power plant there were a few very nice fish there including a pair of 31-inchers. He also mentioned that the shallows were riled up by wind on several recent trips, and fish were completely MIA where it was churned and off-color. Crazy catch report: he also mentioned catching a snakehead of around eight pounds in Ramsay Lake, after it was spotted on the surface 10’ away while he was cleaning fish at the marina!
Fishing for white perch has offered a more consistent bite for Middle Bay anglers. The smaller creeks off the main rivers have perch holding in their summertime hangouts. They can be found near docks, riprap, and shoreline points in the shallows. There has been a lot of grass in the Middle Bay rivers this spring, but much of it is starting to die off and floating grass has made it tough to fish some areas. Finding zones with open water, structure, and current will put you in a good place to catch fish. Holland Point in Herring Bay has also been a perch hotspot this spring with multiple successful trips reported recently. Bottom fishing in deeper water with Chesapeake sabiki rigs tipped with bloodworms or Fishbites has led to steady bites on perch, spot, and the occasional undersize croaker. In shallower water around the point, casting spinners and small paddletails have been the go-to for many anglers. If you have trouble finding the fish, trolling baits around the shallows is a good way to locate a school. One reader fishing there at the beginning of the week reported a VERY slow bite in the afternoon until an hour before dark. Once the sun began to go down, the bite turned red hot, and they put over 60 eater sized perch in the box within an hour. They also caught two keeper striped bass on their perch gear.