Photo courtesy of Shawn Kimbro
by Capt. C.D. Dollar
Seriously. Try and remember when you’ve seen the striper fishing in the mid and upper bay this good. Five years ago? Ten? Fifteen? My memory card only goes back to early 1990s and I’d say this is the best two-month stretch I’ve seen. Many fishermen I’ve talked with agree.
My biggest hassle has been finding a suitable weather window and dodging thunder boomers when I do get out. You’ve no doubt heard of the saying “Paddle fast, I hear banjo music”, right? Only it’s more like “Holy s*^$! Paddle fast I see lightning strikes and hear rolling thunder!” My top water bite at the mouth of Wye River and along Prospect Bay shoreline has slacked off considerably, presumably from the deluge of fresh water. I expect it to resume by this weekend, or certainly by the beginning of next week. White perch are everywhere it seems, and don’t care much what you chuck at them. Bait, tiny rattle-style swimming plugs, spinnerbaits, shad darts, 1/8 oz. dressed jigheads tipped with twister tails, you name it.
Several reports of nice speckled trout caught live lining spot or on paddle-tail swim baits have filtered over my email. I’m not talking Honga River and shallows of Tangier specks–that bite continues though wind has hemmed anglers in some and with the heat it’s a early or late game. I’m referring to fishermen catching spotted sea trout in the mid bay. As expected the reporters wished to remain anonymous and would not divulge a specific location. I’m down with that; So instead I’ll suggest a few general areas where I’ve caught them: Try inside The Hook, Sharp’s Island Light, Little Choptank River and even up Eastern Bay. Three summers ago my client caught a nice 7-lber. on south end of Poplar Island. In the middle of the day!
I’ve heard nyet on flounder though I’m sure people have caught them (fill me in!), some blues mixed in with the rockfish, and a smattering of puppy drum. Lots of croakers and spot. I supposed folks are laser-fixed on stripers to chase other species. Over the Fourth holiday, crabbing ranged from slow to pretty good on both sides of the bay. Too much fresh water from the storm runoff.
If somehow you didn’t pick up on the thread, yes, the rockfishing remains wide open. Matters little if you jig, live line or troll; you’re bound to catch your striper limit, or at least dinner. For jigging rock try a leadhead jig (1/2 oz. to 1 oz. current dependant) with a sticktail soft plastic (BAs, BKDs and Bust Em baits varying configuration. Fluttering metal jigs (3/4 to 1 1/2 oz) in chartreuse will bring strikes from stripers holding deeper. Those fishermen who prefer trolling are doing pretty good on tandem rigged small swimbaits (5″ and 6″) and billy bars.
Duncan Bradbury of Annapolis has been doing well both rockfish and white perch. He sent me a photo of a nice 33″ rock caught trolling off the West River. Pete Morris, a skilled angler and loyal reader of PT, has been mashing the rockfish from Tilghman Point past Claiborne, finding breakers and then jigging down current of them for a better grade of rockfish.
Other hotspots in Maryland include a decent to good topwater bite in the shallows around the mouth of the South and Severn rivers. Get an 0-Dark-Thirty start. You can catch keeper rockfish by live lining spot around the Bay Bridge pilings, or chumming or jigging the Sewer Pipe, Mud Flats, Podicory, Hackett’s and Swan Point. Dolly’s Lumps,Thomas Point in 35′, edges around buoy 86 and from the black can to the red #2 in Eastern Bay are several more areas holding rockfish.
From Mike Strandquist of Breezy Point Marina I received this report: “Fishing on the east side of the channel edge at the Summer Gooses has been a hot spot for live lining spot for keeper rock. Plenty of spot to catch drifting off C1 Breezy Point using bloodworms, and a few bluefish have been caught on topwater lures. There are nice white perch holding off Holland Point in about 8′ of water.” Mike said Randy Whittington from Davidsonville, MD and his friends Craig Robinson, Chris Cox, and Jon Hancher on board “Cool Beanz” all caught a two-rockfish limit.
Interestingly, of the 400 tagged rockfish, aka volunteers, participating in this year’s “Diamond Jim on the Loose” contest, only two have been caught so far. Ray Caden was fishing with Captain Shawn Brumley on the Deale, MD charter boat “Lucky Strike” when he boated a 19″ striper. And Elena Liddick from Abbington, also on a charter but a separate trip (DNR did not have name of skipper) caught a tagged rock. Both anglers have submitted the tags to DNR and are awaiting verification to see if either, or both, are winning rockfish. The real Diamond Jim is worth twenty LARGE! (that’s $20,000. Sorry, too many Soprano repeats.)
Over on the coast, strong winds have kept many fishermen at the dock. Inshore on the wrecks and reefs and in the inlet, it is sea bass, ling and flounder, and rockfish, flounder and bluefish, respectively. Those who do get out have caught tuna, slammer bluefish and bonita along the 30-Fathom Line. The canyons are where yellowfin tuna, dolphin and tilefish are being caught.
PropTalk contributor Captain Monty Hawkins on the headboat Morning Star (see his ad in our Charter fishing section) has lead his customers to fine sea bass fishing this week, after a fitful week of unsettled weather. He anticipates the species list to expand to flounder, triggerfish and spadefish in coming days. He notes that they’ve also caught more red hake this season than he’s seen in the last decade. Captain Monty also tagged a small cod last Saturday. Speaking of cod, Maryland’s DNR confirmed this week the new sate record for Atlantic cod. Back on May 31, Fred Brungart of York, PA reeled in a 38-inch, 24-pound Atlantic cod. Brungart was fishing with Captain Victor Bunting aboard the headboat Ocean Princess. Congrats to angler and captain on the new state record.
Down in Virginia, Ken Neill of Healthy Gin fame spent his Independence Day morning sight fishing for cobia. Charles and Hunter Southall went with him, and in total they saw 12-14 cobias, hooked 6, and landed 5. Ken says one Brown suit was sacrificed to the grill gods and the rest were tagged and released. He didn’t offer up specific location (and I didn’t ask) other than they found the cobes cruising around the lower Chesapeake. Lots of cobia down there. In general the flounder bite has been disappointing so far, but the speckled trout and puppy drum are in the shallows of the feeder creeks and rivers.
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