Chesapeake Light Tackle

Rich joined me for an exploratory trip to the mid-Bay Sunday evening. We launched Crockett’s Reel off Kent Island, passed on some small blitzing fish in the Eastern Bay, cut through Poplar Narrows, and started fishing just north of Sharps Island Light. It was dish calm so we could see anything that moved on the surface. There was lots of bait, plenty of young gulls skimming rain minnows, and some isolated pods of very large bunker. We found several schools of breakers consisting of small blues and dink rockfish.  As we moved farther south, we caught heavier blues but we had a tough time finding anything any size with stripes.  We need 2-4 inch menhaden (peanut bunker), but I haven’t seen too many since spring. Hopefully there are some in the rivers but bait that size has been rare this year. Read More!

Due to work and other obligations I’ve only fished twice this week, both early morning trips to the Bay Bridge.  Monday morning I fished with Mark on his boat.  We got to the bridge about 6:45 AM and fished the early incoming current.  I popped a few mid-20 inch fish pretty quick, then Mark hooked-up with one that was probably over 30, but it came off.  It can be tough to land big fish around the bridge because we’re fishing in depths that are often less than 10′.  The fish have nowhere to go but out, and they often wrap up in the pilings.  We messed around with some decent-sized bluefish while we waited out the slack tide, but could only land another fish or two on the first hour of the outgoing tide.  We saw a couple of hook & line professional fishermen using bait who were not catching fish, so I felt pretty good about our morning even though it was a tough bite. Mark caught a twenty-three incher on the proverbial “one last cast,” and I held him to his commitment.  We left on that high point just after 9:00 AM.  Read More!

After a long weekend fishing and picking in the hills of East Tennessee, I finally got an opportunity to get back out on the Bay for a few minutes this morning.  It was a little tough to get up when the clock went off because we were out late last night in Annapolis. My son Daniel was in town performing with the Lovell Sisters at Rams Head.  If you haven’t caught up with this band yet, you might want to –  three gorgeous sisters from North Georgia who can flat out play and sing.  They’re just coming off a stellar festival season and two recent appearances on the Grand Ole Opry.  They’re on a short run through Phily and NYC, stopping at Annapolis last night then on to Roanoke tonight.  That left us about two and a half hours this morning to fish. Read More!

There are a lot of things that get in the way of fishing, but rain should not be one of them.  Some of my most productive days on the water have been when skies are drizzly and gray or even when it’s pouring.  In the Chesapeake, where fishing pressure has a significant impact on fish-feeding behavior, rain keeps the crowds at home and opens up those over-fished hot-spots where the bite can be impossible when the weather is nice.  This weekend however, out-fishing the crowds was not part of the equation.  My boys and I had planned a stream fishing trip in the East Tennessee Mountains, and we were not about to let a little thing like a forecasted 4-inch deluge stand in the way.

It may seem out of context to post a southern Appalachian stream-fishing report to a website dedicated to fishing in the Chesapeake Bay. I hope you’ll grant me the indulgence because most of the techniques I use to fish the Chesapeake were honed over many years of fishing in the southeast. One of the most important secrets to my Bay fishing success has been using the tidal currents to my advantage.  I learned to do that in the rivers and creeks of the mountains.  For example, Read More!

A wise fisherman once said, “If you don’t like the weather, stick around, it’ll change.”   Unfortunately, it also changes even when you LIKE it.  Gone are those dreary, rainy, unsettled afternoons that brought us such good fishing last week. Temperatures have climbed back into the 80s and prevailing winds have shifted back around from the south.  That’s more like the typical summer pattern in the Chesapeake.  As a result, the bigger fish have gone back to their usual hazy lazy dog-day ways.   I fished two days this week.  Monday evening looked like the best choice, but I had a commitment to speak at the Broadneck-Magothy MSSA meeting at the American Legion Hall in Arnold.  Since it’s deer season and nice weather, I didn’t expect too many people to show up, but I was surprised with a packed house.  Thanks to everyone who turned out.  I gave a “chalk-talk” about what a typical fishing trip to the Bay Bridge might be like.  Most of my speech was about jigging the pilings, but I finished by advising a shot at top-water fishing in low-light situations.  That’s what it took to get the fish this week. Read More!

Big fish are rare in mid-September, so it’s somewhat surprising that we’re turning up a few.  I’ve had at least one fish over thirty inches long in each of my last six jigging trips to the Bay Bridge. As long as that’s happening, there’s no need to fish anywhere but right here at home.  I made it out to the bridge the past three evenings. The water has cooled to the mid-70s and the recent unsettled weather has the fish thinking about feeding up for the winter.  Tuesday, my friend Rich was nice enough to pick me up below the bridge on my way home from work.  The tide was slack when we started, but picked up to a strong flow just before dark. We broke the 30 inch mark on two fish, lost a couple more when they wrapped around the pilings and broke off,  and I hooked into something huge and slow. It might have been a skate, but it felt more like a fish, possibly a big drum. Read More!