Tangier, Pocomoke, and Lower Shore 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. Both fish and reports have grown sparse in this neck of the woods, with most area anglers either heading east for C & R striper action or going upriver to fresher vicinities. Fortunately the upriver option is a good one, with a reader report coming from the Pocomoke that the crappie turned back on this week and were hitting minnow fished on shad darts along the channel edges in 10-plus feet of water. Pickerel and bass were also in the mix. AIC Lenny Rudow hit the Wicomico above the dams and reports that the millpond bite was solid in the morning mid-week, with mostly pickerel plus a few largemouth here and there hitting minnow suspended under bobbers. He notes that recently the bite has been shutting down around noon and then picking back up from around 3:00 on. White and purple twitch-baits were also effective on the pickerel.
Tangier, Pocomoke, and Lower Shore 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: Anglers who often frequent the Tangier and Pocomoke are switching gears to hit tribs in hope of landing pickerel, crappie, and perch. The bite in the tribs has remained steady, with plenty of fish coming in for anglers tossing out bobbers suspending minnow, or bottom rigs for perch. Yellow perch and crappie have been on fire recently, crappie especially! Way up the tribs, anglers are finding themselves landing multiple between 10 and 12 inches on spinners and minnow, generally close to structure.
With striped bass still open for catch and release in Maryland water, Sea Hawk reports that some anglers are cruising out of the Sounds and headed for open Bay territory. They had a few reports of fish varying in size, although they did report that the big ones are deeper. Fish were in anywhere from 35 to 60 feet of water this week, depending what part of the channel they were cruising. In Maryland’s lower bay, readers reported (photo verified) also came in of a couple real hammers in the past week, running in the upper-40-inch range. We haven’t seen evidence of a 50-plus incher as of yet, but the 47 to 49 inchers that have been caught will certainly get any striper angler’s blood pumping. Tuesday in particular the fish were in rare form, with some anglers reporting 50-plus fish caught and released with zero dinks among them.
Tangier, Pocomoke, and Lower Shore Fishing Report, December 17 Update:
Rockfish are done in Maryland waters and the reports of specks and reds has petered out completely, so the transition to winter in this zone seems complete. That said, Sea Hawk was reporting some awesome catch and release action on rockfish in 40 to 60 feet of water, with their position indicated by bird-play. Those fish were north of the state divide so off-limits to harvest, however, it stands to reason that plying the Pocomoke with a pair of binoculars wouldn’t be a bad idea right about now.
Tangier, Pocomoke, and Lower Shore Fishing Report, December 10 Update:
While Maryland’s Bay waters are closed for keeping rockfish as of the end of the day today, in Virginia waters the season continues on through the end of the month. And that’s a good thing, because the options in this neck of the woods are dwindling; nada on trout or redfish reports this week. That doesn’t mean you can’t still find a few stragglers if you work hard (and judging by the past few week’s reports, shift your attention to deeper water), but the best of the fall run is certainly a done deal. Sea Hawk has been reporting some rockfish well over slot size have been showing up down south, and some anglers are already turning their attention to heading up the rivers for yellow perch, crappie, pickerel, and bass. All of the above are already being reported from the Pocomoke and Wicomico.
Tangier, Pocomoke, and Lower Shore Fishing Report, December 3 Update:
Beautiful conditions allowed boats out on the water a few days this week as anglers attempted to round up the last stripers this season. Sea Hawk Sports Center checked in to let us know that boats jigging and trolling are getting into fish as they make their way south. Jigging is stealing the show right now — multiple anglers reported that they managed to hook up on multiple 22-to-26-inch fish throughout the day. Generally, best practice has been to leave that depth finder on, scan the channel edges, and vertical jig when fish are spotted. Fish have been holding in pockets, and generally pretty deep. However, anglers casting and retrieving also reported that they managed to score rockfish, although mostly smaller, throughout the day. Likewise, boats that located birds found that many of the fish hitting were on the small side unless they got lures down deep underneath. Trolling channel edges further out with umbrellas and tandems kept deep has been producing fish as well.
Although the specks have thinned out significantly, a few are still locatable off the ESVA with more fish found the farther south you go. Most have moved out of the shallows and into deeper pockets of water and are hard to find, but also of a high grade. We had one angler this week report hooking up a 23-incher on an Electric Chicken soft plastic.