As the old saying goes, if we caught fish every time we went out, they’d call it catching instead of fishing.  So, I guess my Friday evening/Saturday morning over-nighter to southern Maryland was a fishing trip, because there wasn’t a lot of catching involved.  Striper fishing has been pretty good around the Bay Bridge and Poplar Island this week.  We’ve been landing our share of mid-20 inch rockfish on light tackle with an occasional 30 incher mixed in, but I was hoping for more of a challenge.  Friday afternoon, I launched out of Shipping Creek and pointed Thunder Road south though Poplar Narrows, past Sharp’s Island Light, around the Jame’s Island Horn and down past Hooperstown to the area just north of the Virginia Line that has been producing big red drum. It’s a 60 mile run – two hours in perfect conditions – but it took me a little longer.  One reason is because I crossed the Bay for a visit with Mike at Buzz’s Marina, another reason is because I hit a pound net, but my biggest challenge was the wind. Here’s the story. Read More!

With Rhonda Vincent singing “Sweet Summertime” on the satellite radio, it was already 7:00 PM when I pulled into the Matapeake parking area.  Due to a heavy work schedule, I didn’t think I’d get to fish at all tonight, but a welcome window of opportunity opened when rush hour traffic inexplicably parted like the Red Sea to reduce our usual commuting time by half .  I took it as divine intervention. With lightning on the horizon, I launched Thunder Road into a ripping incoming tide pushed along by the two-day-old moon and a low pressure system to the south.  Destination: Bay Bridge.  It’s been three weeks since I’ve fished there.  I wasn’t sure what patterns I might encounter, but I had a hunch the unsettled weather would turn-on the fish.  I’ve been meaning to film some instructional video at the bridge for a while, and finally remembered to bring my cap cam.  I started recording on my way to the ramp hoping my self-portraits wouldn’t turn out to be a study in unflattering camera angles (of course, they did).

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Summertime,
And the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high

If I could add a line to George Gershwin’s song, it would be “and the piling bite is on.”  This week marked the start of the summer pattern around the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge.  The migratory fish are long gone, the bluefish are moving in, and the resident rock have set up shop around the pilings.  This is the time of year when it’s well-worthwhile to make a sunset run out of Matapeake to drop a jig around the rockpiles or toss a top-water plug over the Pipe.  Go, even if there’s only a few minutes to fish.  It’s the closest to a sure thing the Chesapeake has to offer. Better yet, the big white perch are out of the rivers and hanging out in the shallow water around the bridge. My wife and I ate fresh fish three times this past week.  Back in the South, we’d call that steppin’ in high cotton.  Here, it’s just a summer week on the Bay. Read More!

When I first learned I would be moving to the Bay Bridge region of Maryland I read as many books as I could hoping to learn as much as possible about area fishing spots. A recurring theme in everything I read was, there is good fishing around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I remember my son Cory saying to me one day as we sat around the dinner table in Knoxville, Tennessee contemplating my move, “Dad, I can’t wait to get up there and fish that bridge.” I was thinking the same thing. Three years and three hundred plus fishing trips later, I still feel the same way. I can’t wait to get out there and fish that bridge!  Fortunately, there are several productive bridges near my house on Kent Island.  Even though the Bay Bridge is my favorite, I like to fish them all.  Here’s my list of the seven most productive bridges within easy driving or cruising distance of the Kent Island/Annapolis area. Read More!

I’ll never forget the first sonar unit I ever saw.  I was only five or six years old when my dad installed a Lowrance Fish Lo-K-Tor.  I was fascinated by the technology. It took two big six volt batteries with springs on top.  There was one knob on the front to adjust the gain and a diagram behind the dial to show the cone angle.  The transducer attached with two suction cups and could be taken on or off anytime. Not only could we read the bottom depth,  but with a little practice we could interpret the red flashes around the dial to find fish.  There was nothing more exciting than seeing that dial light up.  Quick sparks meant bait, solid lines meant fish, wider solid lines meant big fish.   The “Little Green Box” revolutionized fishing.  My dad was always ahead of the game when it came to technology, but I admit I haven’t always kept up with the latest and greatest in gadgetry.  In fact, I was still using a Lowrance flasher on my small boat when I first started fishing the Chesapeake four years ago.  When color graphic screens came out I thought they were nice,  but I didn’t see them as a giant leap forward.  Even though I bought one for my big boat, I still trusted the flasher to put me on fish. Things changed when side-scan sonar became affordable for amateur fishermen.  Just like those Fish Lo-K-Tors in the early 1960s, side-scan has opened a new chapter in 21st century fishing technology. Read More!

Perhaps not for me, but for some fishermen this has been one of the best Decembers on record.  The mid-Chesapeake Bay has been red hot, especially at some of the more challenging jigging locations such as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.  Check out this hawg.  According to the report I got, it was jigged up at the bridge on November 29th.  The fish was weighed in at Anglers Bait Shop and officially checked in at 53 inches weighing 63 pounds.  That’s only 5 pounds short of the state record and easily the best fish caught on a jig I’ve heard of at the Bay Bridge.  Unfortunately, like most truly monumental fish, the details are sketchy.  No matter how it was caught, it’s obviously a fish of a lifetime for the angler who landed it. There have been some very nice fish caught on eels at the bridge recently, with some fishermen reporting 40 inch plus fish.  They are few and far between with most requiring hours of patience to turn up one or two trophy size stripers.  Due to a frantic work schedule, my fishing trips have been extremely limited, but I managed to get out Sunday afternoon for some light tackle fishing at the well-known location I frequently refer to as “light tackle university.”

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