DNR Helps Build New Public Access Site On Elk River
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has awarded a grant to Cecil County to construct a new boating facility on the Elk River and dredge the adjoining channel. The facility will provide recreational boaters with access to the Elk River and Chesapeake Bay, and other residents will enjoy the landside facilities.

“Everyone at the federal, state and local level pulled together to make this project happen,” Said DNR’s Boating Service Director Bob Gaudette. “This new boating facility will be enjoyed by local residents as well as boaters throughout Maryland.”

The Elk River Park Boating Facility was substantially completed and opened in July 2009 with $437,700 in Waterway Improvement Funds. The entire project, including dredging, will cost just over $2.3 million and also includes funding from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Cecil County, and Program Open Space. $86,000 in Program Open Space funds helped provide landside park facilities including a picnic pavilion, barbeque pits, and a swing set. Boy Scout troop 131 designed and installed the pavilion and swings.

The facility boasts a new two-lane boat ramp with a 5 feet by 60 feet floating dock, two ADA accessible car/trailer parking spaces, and a new access road and turning area. Additionally, DNR included Continue Reading »

Waterkeepers Chesapeake of Maryland and Waterkeeper Alliance (collectively “Waterkeepers”) today filed a detailed, 58 page petition seeking major changes in the way Maryland operates and enforces the Clean Water Act in order to better protect the Chesapeake Bay.

The petition asks the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw Maryland’s delegated authority to administer the Clean Water Act’s (CWA) pollution permitting program for dischargers in the state. Under the CWA, EPA retains ultimate authority to monitor and control point source discharges of pollutants across the nation through its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program; the Agency typically delegates this authority to the states for implementation. In the petition, filed on behalf of the Waterkeepers by the University of Maryland Environmental Law Clinic, Waterkeepers request that the EPA evaluate the systematic failure of Maryland’s Department of the Environment to properly and effectively administer and enforce the CWA’s NPDES permitting program.

Organizations represented in the petition include: Anacostia Riverkeeper, Assateague Coastkeeper, Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, Chester Riverkeeper, Choptank Riverkeeper, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, Patuxent Riverkeeper, Potomac Riverkeeper, Sassafras Riverkeeper, Severn Riverkeeper, South Riverkeeper, West/Rhode Riverkeeper, and Waterkeeper Alliance.

“If you want to see proof of the failure of Maryland to enforce the CWA within its borders, look no further than the spiraling health of the Chesapeake Bay,” said Michele Merkel, Waterkeepers Chesapeake regional Coordinator “Over the last twelve years, MDE has failed to properly administer the CWA in Continue Reading »

A good article on what the EPA is doing to determine where we need to clean up in the Chesapeake Bay first, i.e. where are the most polluted areas. Check this link for audio and the article.

Anglers in the Annapolis area will soon have another NOAA buoy to consult for near-real-time wave height & direction, wind speed & direction, current speed & direction, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and other measures, as well as information about its place on the Captain John Smith National Historic Trail, the ecology of the area around the buoy, and what is going on in the water around it in each season of the year.

Access to the information the Annapolis buoy puts out comes the same way as from the NOAA buoy off the mouth of the Patapsco and the other five up & down the Bay–1-877-BUOYBAY and www.buoybay.org.

NOAA plans to launch the buoy this Wednesday afternoon (11/11–Veterans Day), just outside Greenbury Point in the mouth of the Severn, after a reception at the Annapolis City Dock (2:00-2:45 PM). Sen. Ben Cardin, Rep. John Sarbanes, and some other folks will speak briefly before going out to watch a USCG tender deploy the buoy. The public–anglers especially–are encouraged to attend.

BTW, look for two more NOAA buoys in the spring, one on the Upper Potomac, just below the Wilson Bridge and another on the Gooses/Dominion Reef.

A friend and I needed our fix of a real Chesapeake crab cake so we flew down to Tangier Island for lunch yesterday. It’s a great little island with some fantastic scenery. I took my camera along and took some shots that I thought you might enjoy from the ground and air. You can click on each image for a larger version of the image. Enjoy!

Welcome to Tangier Island

Home of the future Tangier Island airport terminal

A sign of the times

Tangier Seafood Restaurant

Cabbing is the main stay of industry on the island

Shot from where we ate overlooking Tangier harbor entrance

Continue Reading »

This is a picture of Randy with his Uncle and the 39 inch rockfish Randy caught at the mouth of the Choptank River (Chesapeake Bay) while trolling recently.  For those reading this not from the Chesapeake Bay area, we get a spring run of these trophy stripers every year. The season usually opens in the middle of April and it’s game on in search of these beautiful monsters. While some light tackle and fly fishing anglers chase them, the most effective method is trolling umbrella rigs, bucktails and spoons.

The Lateral Line hat Randy has on is cool, but it pales in comparison to that trophy striper. Way to go Randy! (click on pic for larger version)

Our friend Nicole Darland  recently hit the airways with co-host  Jed Fiebelkorn with a fishing show that is a comprehensive instructional fly fishing series. Nicole is based out of Seattle, WA and is a outfitter/owner of Xclusive Xpeditions, an adventure travel and fly fishing business specializing in trips to Patagonia.  Jed is a  former professional hockey player and is now a full-time flyfishing guide on the waters in and around Missoula, MT.

Nicole and Jed  take you to fly fishing locations through out the world and teach you what you need to do know to flyfish freshwater, saltwater, tidal and non-tital waters. The show airs on the Sportsman Channel several times a week. The series will also be aviable on DVD.

And hey, while you are watching the show you might recognize Jed’s fishing shirt as Lateral Line’s Crisfield Shirt in a few episodes, thanks for the airtime Jed and Nicole!

You can check show times on thier Fly Fisherman TV hompage here.

Tons of fishing reports this week from all over the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake. Reports from different tributaries around the Maryland bay region suggested a large amount of spawning activity took place. Once these striped bass “do their thing” in the tributaries, it generally means the stripers are hungry and heavily feed as they make their exit out of Chesapeake. This most likely is what we can account for the hot bite that has been happening up and down the bay.  We received our first reports from some light tackle jiggers who found good concentrations of stripers below the Choptank River. Trolling anglers have been having their best luck with fish hitting in the upper part of the water column and fishing in less then 40ft of water.  (in the pictures Paul S and his friend George took their daughters fishing. They fished out of Breezy Point and managed to catch some nice fish and as importantly had a great day on the Chesapeake with their daughters. Click on the image for a larger version. Check their full report.)

Weekend/Upcoming Fishing Events
The MSSA Spring Fishing Tournament is in full swing this weekend with over 600 boats entered. Also this weekend is the Rod and Reel Fishing Tournament.

Maryland Fishing Reports

Upper Chesapeake Bay Region (Susquehanna River/Flats to Bay Bridge Waters)
The Susquehanna Flats season is winding down ending on Sunday May 3, 2008. There were many reports that the stripers were spawning south of the flats area in the main part of the bay in shallower water on the western shore and the eastern shore in the Elk River all the way down in and around the Sassafras River. Usually this is good news in that after the fish spawn the males will return to the flats to feed for a day or two to fuel up before heading back to the ocean. The females on the other hand will also head to the flats to feed, but generally only stick around for one or two tides and then head back out to sea. This pattern has not played out as much as anglers have hoped with some slower then expected catches. There have been moments of excitement with anglers catching a good pod of fish they have been able to catch with plastics, swimming plug, flies and in some cases top water lures.  Remember, fishing on the Susquehanna Flats ends on Sunday when it is no longer legal to target striped bass.

There are reports that the hickory shad are in and around Deer Creek and up ni the Susquehanna River. I had lunch with a friend yesterday who has been going up to Deer Creek on a regular basis and he said the shad have really been thick, so thick that he said it was hard not to snag them. Small flies in chartreuse, rootbeer and off white have been the trick.

Striped bass fishing just above the Bay Bridge has been steady. Most anglers are fishing the Continue Reading »