Chesapeake Light Tackle

While I haven’t seen any Spanish mackerel flying around the Eastern Bay recently, I was fortunate enough to find a school farther south tonight.  I fished onboard Fishadler II with Mark, launching out of Queen Anne Marina on Kent Island.  It’s a full moon which usually means increased current, but we haven’t had much incoming tide this week.  Fortunately, the outgoing current has been very strong.  About 3:00 PM – during the last hour of  the outgoing – we found breakers near Sharp’s Island Light and noticed macs in the mix.  That’s about seven miles south of where they were last week.  Although we had trolling gear on the boat, it looked like there might be enough to catch some casting. I started slinging a homemade three-quarter-ounce inline sinker, flattened and rolled in super-fine blue glitter with a treble hook attached.  I think I hooked six or eight macs, but didn’t get them all in the boat.  Casting for macs is a different game than trolling for them.  Even if you can find them and manage to hook one, getting them to the boat is very challenging.  The trick is to keep their nose pointed toward the boat, then sling them up over the side.  If they ever turn and head off in the opposite direction, they’re usually gone. Read More!

“There is but one entrance by Sea in this County, and that is at the mouth of a very goodly Bay, 18 or 20 myles broad…. Within is a country that may have the prerogative over the most pleasant place ever knowne, for large and pleasant navigable Rivers. Heaven and earth never agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation…”  – Captain John Smith, 1608      ♣       I first heard the Chesapeake region called “The Land of Pleasant Living,” when I read it on the side of a Natty Boh can.  I didn’t know at the time that the phrase goes all the way back to the 17th century explorations of Captain John Smith.  While I might disagree with the good captain during the frozen days of February, there’s no doubt that August brings out the very best of the Bay he called, “Chesepioc.” Read More!

“Too slow!”

That’s the two words you’re most likely to hear on Crockett’s Reel these days.  It means someone onboard has accidentally hooked up a rockfish or a bluefish.  When casting for macs with light spinning gear, the second most successful cast is one that doesn’t catch a thing.  Mac casting is one of my favorite summer pastimes because it takes Chesapeake Bay fishing to another level.  For spaniards, you first have to find the blitzing schools of bluefish and stripers, then turn loose of everything you’ve been doing all year, and try not to catch them.  Read More!

Last summer I did a lot of fishing with my friend Bill.  We worked over the breaking fish south of Kent Island pretty good then, but we haven’t had a chance to get out this summer.  Fortunately, the stars aligned this evening so we could go fishing.  We launched about 6:00 PM at the Shipping Creek ramp on Kent Island and ran south in search of working birds.  We found them quickly.  I wasn’t surprised to see my buddy Mark right in the middle of the fish when we arrived.  We said hello, then decided to run a little farther south and out closer to the channel to see what might be happening there.  We found some fish and also ran into my friends James and Michael.  It sounded like they had been catching for a while as well.

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