Middle Chesapeake Bay fishing Report, September 26 Update:
Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow says things have been a bit weird, but not in a bad way, in his area of the Middle Bay recently. The east winds have bay-frontage zones churned with dirty water and fishing has been slow at best where the water’s discolored. However, up inside the creeks off the South River in protected areas with clean water there’s a lot of bait present and the redfish have been on fire. On a couple of morning jaunts this week redfish out-bit rockfish two to one (with one two-hour burst of action accounting for eight redfish on one trip). Most of the reds have been just under the slot and many of the rock are in the slot, with a few overs and a few unders. White Gulp! four-inch paddletails slowly twitched along bottom on ¼-ounce jigheads in just a couple-few feet of water has been best for the redfish. The rock have been a lot less picky, hitting white or chartreuse plastics of multiple varieties. Anglers Sport Center is also abuzz over the reds, noting they’re in the Severn, Rhode, and other Mid-Bay tribs, and suggests casting the shallows with Perch Hounders, small gold-blade spinnerbaits with a minnow on the back, and light ¼-ounce or 3/16th ounce jigheads with three-inch soft plastics. And in the Pax it’s a similar story, with Contributor Eric Packard noting 20 redfish to 10 rockfish came aboard the boat on one outing this week (plus small founder and some specks). Again, small jigs and Perch Hounders were the ticket.
A reader fishing northern Poplar reported catching mostly under-slot rockfish on jigs early this week, but a few keeper fish also came to the net. A strong falling tide following one of the abnormally high tides we’ve been having lately provided the best bite and pearl was the color of choice. We also heard from a reader who fished the shallows of the Little Choptank and said the bite was good on topwater at daybreak and into the late morning for rockfish from 16” to 24”. Then when the clouds broke up he switched to subsurface jigs and jerkbaits, catching several more rockfish plus two under-slot puppy drum and a (very small) speckled trout.
Editor’s Note: Our intrepid and awesome Reports Editor Dillon Waters is away on his honeymoon this week, and the reports were compiled by the staff in his absence. We send Dillon and his bride Layla our congratulations and best wishes for a wonderful future.
Middle Chesapeake Bay fishing Report, September 19 Update:
Fall is finally here, though it has felt like fall since mid-August with cooler than average temperatures. Most of the folks we heard from this week bemoaned the windy conditions, and Mack Speed Walt reports that the West River washing machine was exceptionally tough to fish this week. Many sheltered spots were barren, but in one he did find some perch, schoolie stripers, three puppy drum, and a weakfish. A tandem tied with a Gulp! and a GobieZ did the catching. Light tackle guide Pete Dahlberg of Four Seasons Guide Service is still having good success on the Eastern Shore. Wind has limited fishing recently, but when he finds protected water, his anglers are catching a steady mix of slot reds, keeper rocks, and speckled trout by throwing paddletails and other artificials near shallow structure.
Adam Greenberg reports a great white perch bite in the Choptank casting small spinnerbaits near riprap. He noted that stripers were few, far between, and acting strangely. A few small speckled trout, croaker, and flounder were also in the mix. In the Honga, a reader casting from the kayak reported tough conditions due to wind but still tied into puppy drum and one slot fish, plus a small striper. Another angler fishing in the Severn River reported that white perch fishing was good near the Naval Academy Bridge. Small bits of bloodworm flavored Fishbites tipped on bottom rigs did the trick. There were reports last week of a good bluefish bite at the mouth of the Choptank, but the fish seemed to scatter over the weekend. A boat fishing at the end of last week boxed a dozen during a few hours in the afternoon. They also saw a small frenzy of mackerel but couldn’t get any to bite.
If you still want to catch some bluefish and mackerel before they head south for the fall, Solomons will be your best bet right now in the Middle Bay. The charter fleet is still catching nice sized blues, the occasional mackerel, and some slot red drum while trolling small metal spoons and rubber hoses. Conditions have not been the best, but they are still boxing fish. The east winds look to be prevalent in the extended forecast which will make fishing tough in many locations on the west side. Protected shorelines with calmer waters will be the best places to fish while we deal with gusty conditions.
Middle Chesapeake Bay fishing Report, September 12 Update:
The weather has been all over the place lately and the bite has seemed to follow that pattern. Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow says the erratic nature of the weather and an odd amount of east wind seem to have the fish confused at times recently, and the bite has been very up and down with unexpectedly tough fishing at times in the past week. One trip probing the shallows of the Western Shore from Tolly Point down to the Power Plant produced decent rockfish action including some over-slot fish, but several others were very, very slow. He also said it seems that some of the productive areas in the South River that have been getting a lot of pressure recently have more or less dried up, and action at the plant itself was way down, consisting mostly of lots of undersized flounder and a rare keeper. A few redfish are still in the mix throughout the entire area, most undersized but a slot fish here and there, with four-inch white Gulp! tails on half-ounce heads producing the best action. However, perch fishing has improved by a substantial margin and casting shad darts with grass shrimp or Sabikis with Fishbites to docks has been producing some up to 13”.
There was a short burst of Spanish mackerel action in Eastern Bay and below Poplar this week, but it was short-lived and most of the reports we got were of catching one to three fish casting small spoons into the frenzy. Readers did report seeing multiple pods of blues breaking water in the vicinity of Poplar midweek, but these were fairly small fish. We also had two readers check in with slot-size red drum casting in the shallows of E-Bay. Light Tackle Guide Steve Griffin of Griffins Guide Service reports that the shallow water bite is heating up in the Eastern Shore shallows. Trips this week produced a lot of topwater action with slot and over slot fish taking Heddon spooks. The bite has been best early and by midday the bite has tended to lull out at least in the shallows. Guide Pete Dahlberg of Four Seasons Guide Service had an excellent week on the Bay catching a mix of speckled trout, red drum, and rockfish. Pete even found some bull reds hanging around open water structure. The schools were small but the fish were big and his anglers landed bulls up to 48 inches.
Middle Chesapeake Bay fishing Report, September 5 Update:
Signs of fall are back in the air as a cool breeze kept temperatures on the milder side for most of the week. Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow says fishing in the South has been fairly good, with a relatively slow bite on rockfish and a half-dozen or so grabbing paddletails during morning or evening trips but most being relatively decent fish in the 20” to 24” range and one to three redfish showing up on every recent attempt. He also noted that some very large white perch and some little flounder have been showing up on the same trips. In the Choptank, reader reports have been good for rockfish with a few red drum mentioned as well. FishTalk intern-turned-fishhead Adam Greenberg backed that up mentioning that early mornings and evenings are best, and he also picked up three small flounder in the Choptank in the past week. And in the Pax readers are reporting better numbers of redfish including more of keeper sized, along with an excellent bottom fishing bite in the lower river including spot, some croaker, and a few kingfish in the mix. While most are small, weeding through them is producing plenty of keeper sized fish of all the above species.
Reader reports of some mackerel mixed with blues have finally inched their way farther north, with catches reported on the south side of Poplar Island this week. Trollers have enjoyed most of the action but we also heard about bird shows (finally!) with the end of the outgoing mentioned as having some action. G-Eye Rain Minnow were noted as effective casting into the fray. The catches we heard about weren’t huge (two to four mackerel plus a smattering of blues) but a good number of anglers got in on the action.
Crabbing report: We’re hearing about excellent success in the Choptank, and the AIC says there are plenty of crabs in the South as well but so many females they’ll strip your trot line before you have much more than a half bushel of males. We also had a good report from the Severn this week.