Chesapeake Light Tackle

When I wished for more unsettled weather last week, I might have asked for too much.  Back-to-back Nor’easters slammed the Chesapeake region over the weekend drenching us with several inches of rain and even light snow in the upper reaches of the Bay.  Winds have been sustained at 25 knots with stronger gusts since Friday.  In short, it’s been a miserable weekend.  Nevertheless, a few intrepid fishermen are getting out in the rivers and turning up some nice fish.  I’ve heard several reports of big ones in the Patapsco River over the weekend including some 30 inch plus fish in sheltered waters inside the Key Bridge.  Closer to home, I fished Eastern Bay Friday evening with my regular fishing partner Rich and his friend Dan who is visiting from Florida.  We launched in pouring rain out of Kent Narrows into a strong incoming tide and found working birds within a few miles.  Although we knew there would be fish beneath those birds, we ran on farther south to look around the mouths of the rivers hoping to find some schools of big migratory fish. Read More!

In my last fishing report I whined that I ran all over the mid-Bay last weekend, but could only find baitfish that was either too big or too small.  Today, I feel like I’m telling a “Goldilocks” story by reporting that I’ve found some bait that is JUST RIGHT.  Better yet, it’s very close to home.  I’ve only had a few hours on the water in the evenings this week, but the fishing has been very good.  Migratory fish are in the area and it’s just a matter of time before we get trophy-class striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay. Read More!

Looks like we’re settled in to a pretty typical summer pattern of breaking fish over hard bottoms.  The action around the mouth of Eastern Bay has slowed somewhat, but there’s plenty of fish on the west side from Thomas Point Light all the way down Cove Point.  I haven’t seen any huge schools of fish yet, just roving bands of stripers and bluefish.  They’re up and down quickly, so you have to have a good eye and react quickly when you see birds close to the water.  Since bluefish will quickly devour soft plastics, I’m throwing mostly metal jigs but occasionally switching to some of the newer generation plastics that are resistant to being bitten off.   Read More!

The period around the Independence Day holiday is typically pretty tough fishing.  There’s a lot more boats on the Bay than usual, and the fish lay low until things simmer down.  I got out twice this past week.  My first evening was spent with a friend from the TidalFish board, Mark.  I knew Mark to be a good fisherman from what others have told me, and I’ve been looking for an opportunity to get out with him to show him what I know of jigging around the Bay Bridge.  He has previously tried jigging, but had more success by live-lining or trolling. We finally got the chance to go this week.   Read More!

Tuesday was easily the best evening of my four fishing trips over the past six days. We had a flood incoming in the early afternoon, then kept outgoing current for over 5 hours past the predicted low. Outgoing has been the ticket in the area. Found some fish in the old haunts and also some new locations, all in shallow water, never over 20′ and usually 8-12′ Tuesday, it was keeper’s and up every cast, but Wednesday and Thursday we could only find little stripers with some snapper blues in the mix. There are more blues every day and there is a *lot* of bait in the area.

My fishing partners for two out of the three nights were Mitch and Rob. Mitch is my brother-in-law, an organic chemist from Michigan State, and he brought along a colleague. Mitch fished with me last summer, but Rob had never caught a fish before in his life. It didn’t take him long to learn.  He jigged up a mid-20 inch rockfish on his third cast.  We had a very nice evening filled with many fish.  The sunset pictures aren’t posed with fish out of the cooler, it’s when we caught the fish.  Everything we caught was released. Read More!

Memorial Day Weekend marks the start of summer for many Chesapeake boaters, but it means a slow-down in fishing for those of us who have been out all along. All the boat traffic on the Bay can put the fish in hiding, but it’s a tough time of year no matter what. Many anglers blame the slow fishing on may worms. May worms, also called clam worms, live on the shell bottoms of the bay and swarm during late May. The reddish worms can be up to 5 inches long and develop small swimming fins to propel them up from the bottom when they mate during the dark of the moon. I guess they are a tasty treat for rockfish. Some fish you catch this time of year area actually yellow or red tinged because of all the may worm gorging. Read More!