Middle Bay Fishing Reports

Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, April 10 Update:

We have enjoyed some beautiful weather this spring, but a cold front this week brought us back to the reality that we aren’t even halfway through April yet. Despite the colder weather, fishing opportunities are still abundant. A reader reported that the white perch were in the salt ponds and biting strong. At this time of year, grass shrimp are usually the ticket, but he got the job done by floating small minnow under a bobber. Contributor Eric Packard says the bite in the Pax remains strong north of Jug Bay. Bass were hitting a flat-side crayfish pattern crankbait and remained pinned in close to deadfall. Small brown underspin/twister tails drew strikes from a few crappie, white perch, and bluegills. He also mentioned seeing a pair of snakeheads and had his first hookup of the season with one, but it came unbuttoned. The AIC says the recent cold slowed down the action in the upper Patuxent. Midweek, he spotted just a single snakehead which was swimming lethargically and rejected 5" white flukes.  Even the largemouth bass had slowed things down, with only two taking the lures and one of them making repeated short-strikes before hitting for real. A reader reported some very nice keeper yellow perch, and a mixed bag of bullhead and blue catfish using minnows and nightcrawlers on top and bottom rigs in the Choptank. Anglers nearby who had grass shrimp were steady on white perch.

A reader who enjoyed the return of catch and release striper fishing in April tried his luck in Eastern Bay last weekend and said they were tough to find but were there in small schools of mostly 20” to 30” fish, and he caught a few by tempting them with seven-inch lime paddletails on one-ounce heads. Another tried hitting the Power Plant and said it was a bust and fairly crowded, too. He also mentioned seeing porpoises already while at the Gooses. Reports Editor Dillon Waters reports that a productive zone in Eastern Bay for stripers at the end of March has dried up, and two recent attempts have not produced any bites. This is likely due to fish moving up and spawning in the tributaries. Several reports of post-spawn fish have come in from several different areas of the Bay. The spawn is not over yet, but post-spawn fish will likely be heading south for the mouth of the Bay soon. As water temperatures warm, we can expect schoolie resident fish to return to many of their summer locations. When water temperatures exceed 60 degrees, the shallows come alive again, and areas such as creek mouths, shoreline points, and stump fields are all very productive. Warm temperatures in the forecast should heat up the shallow water bite. You may even be able to start catching fish on topwater lures too.

Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, April 3 Update:

Two readers reported a mediocre shad bite after fishing on Mason Springs last weekend and midweek this week, each catching between a half-dozen and 10 hickories (plus a couple of herring and small yellow perch) in a few hours of afternoon fishing. One was using a silver spoon/white-pink-chartreuse dart and the dart was the hot ticket for the shad. Contributor Eric Packard had similar results at multiple spots looking for shad recently, with up-and-down action and seven or eight fish the norm. A small gold spoon drew bites. He also tried a couple of areas on the Patuxent that normally produce fish but drew a blank. He also noted that lots of wind had made fishing tough recently. This week’s warm temperatures should have schools of hickory shad and American shad migrating up the Chesapeake Bay. Large schools of menhaden are arriving along with them, and the striped bass are following closely. Several guide boats are reporting an improved open water bite as striped bass are moving up the Bay. The key in the main stem has been to find the large schools of bait. There have also been some schools of fish moving through the shallows, but locating them is not all that easy. They are often on the move and can move through an area quickly as they are on the way to the spawning areas.

It seems that the yellow perch run may have wound down for the season; the last report of a full stringer on the Tuckahoe came in last week, and since then several readers have reported catching just a few small males there, at Mason Springs, and near 214 on the Patuxent. The white perch should be spawning with the warm temperatures this past week. They will likely have pushed into the upper reaches of the Middle Bay tidal rivers such as the Choptank and Patuxent. The Angler in Chief reports a great bite of mixed species was happening in the Patuxent this week a couple miles north of Jug Bay. Using a mix of grass shrimp and minnow fished on darts and Sabikis, he and Contributor Eric Packard caught a couple of yellow perch, a bunch of white perch, some crappie, a channel cat, and an accidental carp. But the best action came while tossing four-inch white flukes into deadfall, which produced one largemouth bass after the next. He noted that the water was exceptionally low and the panfish were hanging in channels, while the bass were all focused around deadfall being hit by current and were on the up-current side of the structure.