Way South Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, July 29 Update:
Anglers: with both sorrow and joy, we inform you of the departure of our Fishing Reports Editor Mollie Rudow. Mollie has begun a different chapter in her life with a new full-time job and will no longer be the driving force behind our angling intel. We wish her all the best, and thank her for four years of compiling the FishTalk fishing reports. We do have a new die-hard angler lined up to step in and fill the void – stay tuned for next week’s big announcement!
In the inlets and lower Elizabeth some slot reds are being caught, but par for this time of year the bite’s mostly limited to early in the morning, late in the evening, and night fishing. Unfortunately, the news of redfish from the ESVA this week is bad news… The July 5 Omega fish spill left lines of dead bunker from the shores of Silver Beach down to Cape Charles, and this week they managed to cover the beaches not only with dead menhaden, but dead red drum as well. See Emergency Angler Alert: Dead Reds, Courtesy of Omega, for the full story – but prepare yourself to be depressed.
Hampton correspondent Chuck Harrison checked in after hitting the CBBT, and said the triggerfish were biting. He also encountered some blues and a 20-inch Spanish mackerel, though he noted that lots of eel grass floating around made trolling rather difficult. Anglers dropping crab baits have been scoring a fair number of sheepshead up against the Bridge-Tunnel structure, too.
Oceans East is reporting that cobia are being caught in decent numbers and some schools of bull reds are roving in the vicinity of the CBBT islands, as well. If you want to target the cobia this is certainly the zone to head for, as they haven’t worked their way northward in large numbers anything like they did the past few years; tossing live eels is the move.
Way South Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, July 21 Update:
Cobia retain top billing in this zone, with the best catches throughout the Bay by a longshot. Sight casters did well this week especially during the calmer, sunny days, with some reporting catches of a half-dozen-plus fish and many more sighted. The sight-to-bite ratio does sound to be well under 50-50 though with many fish turning their noses up at multiple offerings and live eels drawing the best action. Oceans East is also reporting that the redfish bite remains strong around the third and fourth islands of the CBBT.
Flounder reports are on the uptick as well, mostly from the channel edges near the CBBT. A reader fishing Lynnhaven reported that it’s become a bit tougher to catch reds there and traffic is high, but shrimp under a cork produced a 22-incher for him last weekend. Sea Hawk Sports Center reported that flounder fishing on the seaside has been especially good. Trollers, meanwhile, are picking up lots of snapper blues, Spanish mackerel, and more cutlassfish have moved inside the bay from the ocean as well. Small Clark and Drone spoons are the ticket for the blues and mackerel, and lipped diving plugs running 10 to 15 feet down are reported best for the cutlassfish.
Way South Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, July 15 Update:
We checked in with Ocean East this week, who confirmed that there is plenty of action going on. Sheepshead are heavy around the CBBT and islands and have a very productive bite. Ocean’s East mentioned that while all sorts of crustacean baits are working, fiddle crabs have been performing best of all. Red drum are also in the Bay, and particularly around the Fourth Island. They’ve been really active recently, with a good bite in the inlets and strengthening bite up the Chesapeake as they move further into it. A variety of soft plastics and other lures are working for them. Those ISO slot reds will be happy to know that a reader checked in from the mouth of the York fishing the Yorktown area this week with a limit of fish in the boat. He did note, however, that specks had been MIA recently.
Flounder are also seeing gains: they mentioned that the bite was on the upswing this week and are accessible in the inlets, where squid strips and soft plastics bounced off bottom are working. There are also good reports of Spanish mackerel and ribbon fish caught by anglers trolling inside the Bay as well as along the oceanfront. They suggested Clarks spoons for the Spanish mackerel, and Rapala CD MAG 18 rigs for the ribbonfish.
The cobia bite has remained excellent and although there don’t seem to be many whoppers around this year, we have few complaints about the number of those big brown cows lazing on the surface.
Way South Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, July 8 Update:
Spanish mackerel are providing numbers on the uptick daily. While anglers fishing for them ocean-side have been seeing good numbers for a while now there’s been a notable increase in the Chesapeake waters as they stream in and this is the second week in a row we’ve heard of dozen-plus-fish catches. Generally, the mackerel are taking spoons and Drones. Both gold and silver are working, although most boats seem to be springing for the silver. Ribbonfish are making their way up the Bay alongside them, and hitting just about anything you might troll (at slower speeds, generally speaking). We had one report from an angler who was surprised to hook up nearly exclusively on ribbon fish while trolling a channel edge within sight of the CBBT — given how good they taste though, no complaints were made.
Speckled trout are providing some fun action in the salt marshes and inlets, and although they aren’t around in huge numbers and are in a bit of the summer doldrums, they have been fat this season. 22- to-24-inch specks are being reported with surprising regularity. Anglers targeting them are frequently opting for four- to-six inch curly and paddle tails in pearl, electric chicken, chartreuse, white and pink. A few readers have checked in over the course of this season SWEARING by electric chicken. The inlets are also holding puppy drum, which have been offering up some action for dedicated anglers, but these fish also seem to be in a slight summer slump and we heard from readers who came up blank when trying for them this week. Many sharpies have switched over to the night bite for this species.
FishTalk Contributor Patrick Spehnkouch authored “Bluefish in the Chesapeake: You, My Yellow-Eyed Girl,” and put his own advice to work this week kayak trolling along the CBBT. He found both the blues and the Spanish very cooperative and loaded the yak with dinner then released more, but noted that until the tide kicked in things were slow. He tried dropping some fiddlers on the pilings to no avail and said that the Lesner Bridge was slow, too, though there were some small flounder around. He also reported that other kayak anglers he spoke with said the bite was slow fishing the pilings last weekend, overall.
Cobia fishing remains good but not great — while we’ve heard of some catches, the big brown cows atop the water seem to be slimmer fare than last year and one reader reported spotting several but finding them unwilling to smack his jigs. Hopefully, we’ll see some better catches soon as summer progresses.
Way South Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, July 1 Update:
There’s tons of action in this region right now as summer species move in and up the coast. Notably, Spanish mackerel bites are increasing by the day and in many areas they’re accompanied by ribbon fish. Generally, the mackerel are taking large spoons and Drones and the ribbons are hitting just about anything you might troll (at slower speeds, generally speaking). Dozen-plus fish days are being reported with some regularity. In the inlets, action is concentrated on the speckled trout and puppy drum bites. Some readers have begun fishing the inlets at night for redfish — successfully — as the daytime crowds and summer mid-day slowdowns have arrived. One noted catching them on the fly, using small brown and orange crab flies with some tinsel (thanks for that tip, Tim!). Anglers targeting the speckled trout are frequently opting for four-to-six inch curly and paddle tails in white and pink.
Cobia action is happening and the fish are most dense in this zone of the Bay thus far, as they’ve been thinner to the north and seem to be taking it a bit slower to move in that direction than in recent past years. Fishing for them with live eels in a chum slick is common right now. Some boats are choosing to rig with menhaden chunks on the hook, but this is producing sharks and rays galore. Sight fishers are doing well, too, and Ocean’s East is reporting that casting bucktails and live eels is doing the trick. The excitement can get amped up when schools of large red drum get spotted, which is still happening quite a bit in the vicinity of the CBBT islands. We heard from two reader who found beastly drum this week, one of whom caught three from the same school one after the next casting a white bucktail with a chartreuse twister trailer.
The CBBT pilings are producing reports of some spadefish (clam baits) and sheepshead (crab chunks).