Chesapeake Bay & Tributaries Fishing
Reports
Upper Bay:
The season for striped bass opened on the 1st. of June
and certainly created a lot of excitement for fishermen
who have been watching these fish for several months.
Many anglers will be live lining white perch in an
effort to catch some of the larger striped bass in the
Susquehanna River area. Fishermen have been doing very
well catching white perch in the Susquehanna on shad
darts dressed with a 2”-3” grub tail.
Striped bass action in the upper bay has been generally
very slow throughout the region. The fish have failed
to take up residence on traditional fishing grounds,
such as the Lumps, Belvedere Shoals or off Love Point.
A few fish are being caught trolling and anglers have
been seeing schools of 6”-12” striped bass breaking
water in the mouth of Eastern Bay. Phil Krautz sent in
a report from his fishing trip on Saturday. I got out
fishing Saturday morning. The plan was to travel to
Sandy Point Bar and work my way back north drift
fishing the bars looking for hardhead, perch and the
occasional rockfish. Did not work that way.
It was breezy, so we stopped at marker number 13 of
Craig Hill Channel and worked the structure to the
inshore side of the channel trolling stretch 25's
because it was rough enough that I did not want to
anchor up or drift. We did not catch anything trolling
there. We then broke out the rest of the gear and
started trolling spoons and bucktails along the channel
edges back up towards the mouth of the Patapsco. No
luck there either.
It calmed down about 10-11, so we started drift fishing
with grass shrimp, bloodworms and soft crabs back at
Green 13 and caught a few small perch and a 5- inch
rock. We then moved to 6-Foot Knoll and then tried
Man'O'War Shoals. The best size fish were at 6 Foot
Knoll, but the action was slow everywhere.
Mid Bay Region:
The latest
report from the mid- bay region still has the striped
bass spread out along the channel edges. The fish are
throughout the water column and seem to be moving
slowly north. The boats that are trolling are making
the best catches on #17 and #18 Tony spoons. Captains
related to me that the best setup seemed to be a spoon,
200’ behind the boat with one ounce of lead and 60’ of
wire with sixteen ounces of lead. Captains are also
reporting that the water in the mid-bay region is
rather dirty. One Captain reported that he went on an
“around the world trip” to check out things out and
tried a little chumming on some of the traditional
grounds such as the Gooses, the Diamonds, Cook’s Point,
the Choptank River at Buoy #4, James Island at Buoy #2
and came up empty except for one croaker.
Croaker
fishing has been fair to good in most areas. Boats
fishing the Gooses at night are making good catches,
but limits are few and far between. The Choptank River
areas have been fairly good from Clora Point out to the
mouth of the river. The best catches are being made on
about 25’-35’ along the channel edges. A pod of
bottle-nosed dolphin have been seen wandering around in
the Taylor’s Island, Choptank River area, and also a
few large loggerhead sea turtles. The dolphin are fun
to watch, but if your croaker fishing, you might want
to move. It has been my experience that croaker seem to
“head for the hills” when the dolphin are around and
feeding on them. The Choptank Fishing Pier reports that
fishermen are catching a mix of white perch, catfish
and croakers. The white perch fishing in the tidal
creeks and around structure such as docks has been very
productive as the perch move into these areas for their
summer time residence. This can be some fun fishing in
the evening with a light spinning rod and small grub
tails, or using grass shrimp with a small weight.
Lower Bay:
The
southern end of the bay continues to be where it’s
happening, in regards to striped bass. The water seems
to be a lot clearer in this portion of the bay and a
lot of school- sized striped bass are holding along the
channel edges. Boats that are chumming and using
menhaden and razor clams for bait are catching their
limits in short order. Ken Walker Sr. & Jr.
caught
from
Buoy # 72 south to Buoy #68 on the eastern side of the
channel. An interesting note has been, that
recreational boat sightings have been very scarce in
this area. Joe Sullivan of Annapolis is shown
with the first reported bluefish of the season caught
while chumming near Buoy #72. The cow-nosed rays are
starting to become more common, as they move up the bay
and always provide a little unexpected excitement, when
they pick up a bait.
TANGIER
SOUND MAP -
CLICK THE MAP ICON FOR A LARGER VIEW
The croaker
fishing has been very good and limit catches are not
uncommon. The reports from Tangier Sound are of good
croaker action in 20’-30’ of water. The best bait in
this region seems to be clams and the fish are
averaging around 14”-16”.
We have added a new link to some very
valuable information for Chesapeake Bay Anglers. DNR's
"Eyes on the Bay" website has data coming in from
remote sensing stations in the Chesapeake Bay and
tributaries. It is well worth checking this out. Click
on the map below.
