We are now settling into to the summer patterns of fishing in the Maryland Chesapeake Bay waters. Striped bass have left the river systems from their spring haunts are and now chasing bait in the main portion of the bay offering light tackle and fly fishing anglers some fun chasing breaking fish. Anglers are still doing the trolling thing, however most anglers who are not fishing artificals on light tackle or the fly have taken up live lining now that the spot have moved up the bay in good numbers. Some anglers have started chumming, but from the reports it seems more anglers are opting for live lining right now. Schools of striped bass have been sharing the waters with feisty bluefish, some with some size on the lower Maryland Chesapeake waters. Black drum fishing has dwindled from the few good weeks we had, but their not so distant relatives, although smaller, croaker have invaded most of the area. In the lower Maryland waters there have also been good reports of keeper flounder being caught. On the Atlantic Coast off Ocean City there are reports of yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, lots of bluefish and some dolphin.

Maryland Fisheries News
I have been out west in Idaho working on a conservation project with the Henry’s Fork Foundation over the last ten days. The Henry’s Fork is part of the Snake River and has a famous section they call “The Ranch” which over the years has experienced diminished fishing. The Henry’s Fork Foundation in conjunction with the Idaho Fish and Game and with Marine Ventures Foundation has come together and launched the Caldera Project to try and understand angler opinions as well as study what is going on in the system. Fisheries management in the west has an added dynamic to what we experience in the east in that land owners have water rights, so water flows are controlled by what the land owners need. This means in the winter there are minimal flows because the dam managers need to save water for the spring, summer and fall growing season which means the rivers can come to a trickling halt leaving first year fist to the ospreys, eagles and other birds that prey on them. If you want to read more on the project check out the Caldera Website or the Marine Ventures Blog.

Weekend/Upcoming Fishing Events
The Coastal Conservation Association Maryland (CCA MD) has scheduled its first white perch tournament in the Patuxent River for Saturday June 28 from daybreak to 2 p.m. The tourney is being sponsored by CCA MD and two chapters, Patuxent River and Southern Maryland.

Participants must be a CCA member, and there is a $25 entry fee per boat. Fishing will take place in the Patuxent River and its tributaries. Weigh-in will be at the Sea Breeze Restaurant, just south of Cat Creek, where participants will also be able to purchase lunch and drinks. Prize money will be award to the heaviest perch and the five heaviest.

More information about the tournament and entering can be obtained from Brooke MacDonald, 1-888-758-6580.

For other happenings in the Chesapeake region check out the TidalFish.com Calendar of Events

Maryland Fishing Reports

Upper Bay Region (Susquehanna River/Flats to Bay Bridge Waters)
Fishing for striped bass in the Susquehanna River and Susquehanna Flats has cooled as the water temperatures have risen with the hot weather we have had. Anglers are mainly fishing early morning or late evening and having some success. Some anglers have also reported live lining white perch, and spot if they can find them, and having good success. With the warmer water temperatures anglers are also finding largemouth bass and plenty of catfish in the area. It’s almost pot luck if you decide to fish during the main day hours.

A little further down the bay just north of the Bay Bridge area anglers are finding some fish, but the hot weather is also putting a damper on things. Breaking fish can be found early and late from the Sandy Point area over to the mouth of the Chester River, however this has been a hit or miss deal. Anglers chumming out of Rockhall in and around Love Point as well as the Swan Point area have had mixed results at best. Some of these angler are opting for live lining spot and doing well. Live liners have also been doing OK at the bay bridge pilings. The key is moving around until you find what piling the school is hanging out on, so keep moving if you do not get them right away.

Skipperwork had a good day just above the Bay Bridge and reported, “Two times in a row so far I’ve got two pretty fish above the bridge. We caught the last bit of the outgoing and got 1 nice one and two other keepers. Once the tide stopped at 7pm the fish just shut off. All fish caught on storms in 35ft of water. 120-140 back 10-6 ounces. Here’s Ryan with the nice one.” Click here for the full report: http://www.tidalfish.com/forums/chesapeake-angler-original-board-maryland-angler/236698-upper-bay-holding-some-nice-fish.html

Mid Bay Region (Bay Bridge to Honga River Waters)
The middle Chesapeake Bay area has been bustling with action over the last week with strong appearances of breaking stripers and bluefish which has made the light tackle and fly fishing guys happy. Spot are in abundance now which has made the live line anglers happy.  The stripers are also holding on offshore structure such as bars, edges and humps, which has live lining just about in full force now. Croakers have also invaded the area and anglers have been having most of their catching in the evening hours.

Richie Gaines from Angler’s Connection Guide Service reported that he is now fishing the area from Brewerton Channel up to the Bay Bridge. He has been seeing a ton of bait in the area and is fishing the channel edges and underwater humps with this light tackle and fly anglers targeting humps in 20-25ft of water. He reported that the key if you want big fish is that you need to find a hump where the top of it is 10-12ft below the surface. When he finds humps like this with some moving current he has been catching the biggest fish. If you find a hump that comes up to 13-16ft below the surface you’ll find some stripers, but usually not as large.  The reason for this occurrence is that with the water temperatures rising, (it was 77 degrees at Thomas Point today) we are seeing low levels of oxygen deeper in the water. Fish need oxygen and are basically driven up from the deep water to find it; thus you can find these bigger fish that need more oxygen on the tops of these humps. Take a look at your charts in this area and you will find some structure to hit. Richie also had a really good bite of big fish the other day on Belvedere Shoals targeting the same shallow water hump tops. Lures have been chartreuse and albino BKD’s on ½ to 2oz jig heads depending on the strength of the current and 2 to 4 inch chartreuse clouser minnows for the fly.

Captain Walleye Pete Daulberg of Four Seasons Guide Service reports that he has moved to fishing more of the western shore since his eastern shore shallow water fishing has greatly slowed with the rising Honga and other river temperatures which are approaching 80 degrees. He has been concentrating his fishing from Parker Creek south to Cedar Point and finding breaking striped bass in the 18-26 inch range with some bigger 30 inchers from time to time. Many of the breaking fish in the Parkers Creek area have been found in water shallower then 40ft.

If there was one thing that Pete emphasized this week it was if you want to get into some good fish you better get up early. The bite has been before sunrise at day break.

Pete has also been doing some live lining once the morning bite has slowed. He has been concentrating and has had good success in and around the Gas Docks area.

Other good reports from Tidal Fish Anglers live lining have been coming from the mouth of the Choptank River area, the False Channel  as well as in and around the Breezy Point area..

Jumbo1 made his weekly Wednesday fishing excursion in the middle bay area and had good success, “Finally had all the conditions right…incoming tide…5-10 (though I prefer 10-15)….and a day off… Headed out to the Midbay area on John henry’s Seahunt 23…..wasn’t long before we had working birds in 35ft of water. We had as many as 8 pods of fish at a time….until the slack tide at 9:30 we bailed fish all morning using 3/4oz BKD’s and dropper flies….Once the tide started rolling again so did the bite…we ended the day with at least 150 fish….4 over 28″ and 2 over 30″ with the biggest being a nice 33″er……….
Majority of the fish were 23-25″ fish….very good grade for summer breakers….all fish very very healthy and a real blast on LT…Talked to Skip..(Dark side trolling)..Andy (Grandpafish jr) and heard a few other TFers on the water….but very few boats. water temp was a nice 76.2*….really nice day to be on the water.can’t wait till next Wed” Click here for the full report.

Old Bird had a good trip out of Breezy over the last week, “Stopped at Tyler’s in Chesapeake Beach for some good bloodworms
Headed out of Breezy Point on Dan’s (Oldsi) boat “3’s The Limit” and thought we would try and find some spot. But we really didn’t have much faith in finding any on our side of the bay cause all reports had been to go to the Choptank for spot, But we went over to our usual spot spot, out front by the green can. As soon as the first bloodworm hit the bottom we had spot on. Got the livewell going and put about 20 in. We thought most of the spot were a little big for livelining, but were going to try them.
Sent out a call for other TF’ers in the area, Skip answered, he was south of us trolling, at the time he had 10 in the box. Then we thought, WOW maybe we should be trolling. Told him about our spot catch and that we were heading out to see if anybody wanted them.
We headed out to in front of the Radar Towers by 79, the area was lookin’ good, fish breaking, lots of birds, but nobody wanted our spot. Trollers came by, Man they have fish on. Maybe we should go to Plan B and troll.
Well lets pull anchor and putter around and see if we mark anything. Headed South East and then the screen lit up, dropped the spot over and drifted. Dan’s line starts running and he’s smilin’, let him run, OK, Fish On! He boared a nice 28″er, but before he got it in, Mary is hollering mines running, set the hook but it keeps reelin off line, let him take it we yelled, don’t tighten the drag, she had a good fight. We netted it and the clip broke loose, it had straighten it out. 32″ Big Boy. We were poppin ‘em. Got our limit of 6, and released 4. and lost a few. Lessons learned: Big Spot Catch Big FishIce in livewell make Spot Lively” Click here for the full report.

Some anglers are still trolling and 27 Sailfish had this hot trolling report from this past week, “A good friend (Fred) wanted to catch some Rock from Breezy Point and we watched for a good weather day.I decided to troll rather then chance livelining.Could hardly sleep- the darkside voices kept me awake. Wednesday looked best but there was a slight problem- his boss (Harry) wanted to go.No problem- then the boss wanted to bring his dad (Harry Sr) still no problem, boat can handle 4 guys.Then my dad wanted to go- never a problem but then-two of Fred’s co workers wanted to tag along.Six people and me is tight but I roll with the punches and figured it would be fun.Left Breezy at 6:30 am and ran south/east about 3 miles.Set out a easy spread of 9 boat rods off the silver ball (blue water tower) and worked the 35 foot contour.Fellow Tfer Catman (Leon) had given me good advice about his fishing on Monday.No one else was around as we trolled south.Had a good hit on the 5/0 size red/white Cripple Alewive set at 30′ on a downrigger. The fish got away just short of netting- it looked close to 19 inches. Turned west towards Parker’s creek and started marking alot of bait.The 150′ back with 8 ozs and a Golden Mullet Storm got hit.Fat 20 ” Rock was iced down. The bites came fast- 200′ with 2 ozs and a white Tsunmai , 100′ with 12 ozs and Golden Mullet, 100′ and 16 ozs and a bucktail/6” shad all were getting fish. Jumbo answered a Tidal Fish call over the VHF and said he had bigger fish out in 50 feet. He gave me GPS numbers that ended up being 1,678 miles away but then we saw he was only 2 miles NE of us.We headed that way but picked off a few more fish along the way.Small umbrella (chart) at 30′ on downrigger got a nice 31 incher and a Tony #17 (silver) back 180′ with 4 ozs got a fat 30 incher.We worked a big circle between Parkers and the #78-78A marker picking fish up at a nice pace.Got into a few breaking pods and had 3-4 rods going off. We ended with our limit (14 fish) and tossed back about 12 that were under 19 inches ( own size limit, just to be safe).The guys with Fred only fish freshwater and were amazed at the Rays/Crabs/baitfish we could see in the clear calm water.The water off Parkers is nice compared to the water near Sandy Point.At 80* surface temp.- it was inviting tio go diving but time was too tight. Snagged one Ray and had what looked like a Blue jump off the spoon rod.The only other boat near us was Jumbo- there was a few boats north off the radar screens. Most of the Rock were 22-24 but 5 were over 28″. Turned out to be a great day- wish I had the boards. We had a few minor cross over “tangles” but nothing bad.Other then an hour dull time at the tide change- it was a steady bite.” Click here for the full report.

Lower Maryland Chesapeake Bay (Honga River down to the Maryland /Virginia Line Waters)
Mike and Christy  from Buzz’s Marina in Ridge reported that the fishing is wide open with stripers, huge croaker, bluefish and well as a few red fish. The croakers have been monsters Christy said, some bigger then the bluefish. The croakers have been biting day or night. Hot areas have been buoy 72 and Corn Field Harbor. If you hit buoy 73 expect to find a few charters there, but after about 3pm they are done so you will have the place to yourself. The Woodrow Wilson bridge reef Christy said has been hit or miss lately, but when its on its on. Christy said there have not been a lot of boats out probably because of gas prices. It’s a bitter sweet thing, fishing businesses need business, but one thing is for sure, if you do make it out down in this area you’ll have a lot of fish to yourself.

Ocean City Offshore Fishing Report
Ocean City Fishing Center Reported: “June 20, 2008  Ocean City Offshore Fishing Report
If variety is what you are looking for, book with us. We have seen Bluefish, Sharks, Bluefin & Yellowfin Tuna, Dolphin and a few White Marlin released this week. Capt. Willie Zimmerman aboard the “Playmate” came in yesterday with 23 gaffer Dolphin. The smallest was 9 pounds and the largest was 23 pounds. Capt. George Merrick on the “Ursula-Priscilla” came in with Bluefish and a Bluefin Tuna. Capt. Mark Sampson on the “Fish Finder” caught 2 Bluefish, 1 Bonita and released 1 Sandbar shark, 1 Spinner shark and 1 Hammerhead shark.

June 21, 2008 Ocean City Offshore Fishing Report
We saw an amazing sight yesterday. 11 Yellowfin Tuna!!! They arrived via Capt. Joe O’Boyle aboard the “Mojo”. We also had a few private boats bring in Yellowfin Tuna. Bluefishing is still going good as is the shark fishing. Capt. Mark Sampson on the “Fish Finder” released 1 Dusky Shark, 1 Spinner Shark, 2 Hammerheads, 2 Tiger Sharks and 4 Sandbar Sharks. They also caught and kept 1 Bonito.

June 21, 2008 Ocean City Offshore Fishing Report
Today was the day for catching BlueFISH & BlueFIN. Capt. Willie Zimmerman aboard the “Playmate” came in with a really nice Bluefin Tuna weighing in at 89 pounds. They also caught another Bluefin Tuna and 15 Bluefish. Capt. Dan Cook on the “Fortune Cookie” also came in with a nice Bluefin Tuna weighing in at 83 pounds. They too had a smaller Bluefin and lots of Bluefish. Capt. George Merrick on the “Ursula Priscilla” came in with 1 Bluefin Tuna, 60 Bluefish and 1 Bonito. Capt. Mark Radcliffe aboard the “Fish Bonz” brought to the dock 1 Bluefin Tuna, lots of Bluefish and released 6 additional Bluefin Tuna. Capt. Jeff Powell on the “Mugger” came in with 1 Bluefin, many Bluefish and released many more Bluefin Tuna. Capt. Ed Kaufman on the “Jade II” limited out on Bluefish on their Inshore trip. Capt. Anthony Thomas on the “Skirt Chaser” brought to the dock 1 Bluefin and 2 Bluefish. Capt. Ken Tackett on the “Daydreamer” released 6 Hammerhead Sharks and 1 Dusky Shark. Capt. Mark Sampson on the “Fish Finder” released 1 Sandbar Shark and 2 Spinner Sharks. They kept 1 Dolphin and 1 Bonito. Capt. Nick Clemente aboard the “Get Sum” came in from their half day bay trip with 1 keeper Flounder, a Bushel of Crabs and released many throwback Flounder. We also had a few private boats out fishing today. Capt. Steve Pfeiffer on the “Game Over” came in with 3 Dolphin. Capt. Chuck Wenzel on the “Martini Time” released many Flounder, 1 Dogfish and a Toadfish.

June 23, 2008 Ocean City Offshore Fishing Report
Not as many boats out today as there were yesterday, but we still had fish brought to the docks. Capt. Frank Mattes of the “Playmate” was on a fun trip and came back with 1 Bluefin Tuna and 1 Dolphin. They also released many more Bluefin. Capt. Joe O’Boyle on the “Mojo” came in with 2 Bluefin Tuna and also released others.”

Ocean City Inshore Fishing Reports

Sue Foster from Oyster Bay Tackle and Fenwick Tackle reported: “Fishing this week was good on flounder. Locals found a good bite in the bay behind Assateague. One local Ocean City man caught himself a trophy 10 pound flounder!  Night fishing is up and down with trout, stripers, and blues. Tautog are tappering off in size as the water temperatures rise. Lots of sharks and rays in the surf with a scattering of kingfish and the first signs of croaker. Bait Spot are showing up in the bay. Offshore, sea bass bite is good, but there’s lots of small ones to weed through. Further offshore, dolphin, bluefish and tuna are biting.

Assateague surf saw big rays up to 40 pounds, lots of sharks and some kingfish, the catches of kingfish   were on bloods and Fishbite Bloodworms.  Sharks were taking cut bunker, whole squid, and chunks of finger mullet. Striper fishing from the Rt. 50 has only been fair this week with a few keeper stripers and a few keeper trout. Some nights were good on shad and blues.  Anglers use  Swimming Shad lures for the best results fishing from the Bridge at night for stripers. J.J. says tautog are still biting good from the end of the pier during the day though they are running smaller now. There’s been little sea bass and a few spot for the kids to catch with bloodworms, little pieces of squid, or Fishbite bloodworms. Flounder fishing was good this week but for some, keepers were hard to find.

At Fenwick Tackle and Oyster Bay Tackle in Delaware, we heard of mostly sharks caught and released up to 4 feet. These sharks were described as sand bar, sand tiger, and dusky sharks. Most were caught at night or early in the morning on cut bunker or finger mullet. The higher tide seemed to be best. We heard of a couple bluefish, some kingfish, and a few croakers. Kingfish bite on bloods and  Fishbite Bloodworms.  Some anglers said the flies were bad on the West winds, so be sure to take bug spray!

Clark from Old Inlet (302-227-7974) reports on the 17th:  “Flounder, tautog, and striped bass!! That’s right the 2008 fishing season got started over the weekend. Several reports of stripers up to thirty inches on the  beach. As expected, bloodworms were the bait of choice. Just north of the Inlet is the hotpsot. Had a couple reports of the first summer flounder of the season from the Indian River Inlet. Capt Sonny Croll had a keeper on Friday. Then Jim Elliot, of Glen Mills PA, brought in a 9 pound 8 ounce doormat on Sunday morning. Jim was fishing a bucktail on the rocks during the outgoing tide. The fish measured just shy of 30 inches. Nice fish!! The current flounder regulations are 18 inches and 4 fish a day.”

I hope everyone has a great week and I look forward to reading everyone’s reports if you make it out on the Maryland Tidal Fish Chesapeake or the Tidal Fish Mid Atlantic Offshore Message Board.

Until next week, good times,and good fishing

Brandon
Chief Angler

Trackback URI | Comments RSS