Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report

This has been an active week fishing this week. The White Marlin Open is wrapping up in Ocean City and what a week it was! Currently Mike Donohue aboard the Griffin sits in 1st place with an 86lb White Marlin worth $2.6 million! Good luck to everyone fishing in today’s final day!

 

Rockfish

Fishing in the middle bay area this past week has been good. Trolling in the area has produced some nice fish around the deeper drops with 1oz.-1.5oz. Hard Candy skirted jigs. The most productive fishing has been live-lining again this week. Anglers are having success around the Bay Bridge pilings drifting with weightless live Spot. Jigging the area has been pretty decent as well. The large concentration of fish we’ve been finding around the Swan Point/Rock Hall area has spread out now. We’re finding them mostly around Love Point, the Bay Bridge and around Podickory Point. Jigging chartreuse colored BKD’s around deep structure has been great this past week.

Chumming has been especially good this past week around Hacketts Point. Bigger chunks of alewife fished on the bottom during a moving tide has really done well. Moving a little further south, anglers are limiting out pretty quickly in the mouth of the Eastern Bay specifically around The Hill. We’re hearing reports of both Chumming and Live-Lining working really well on a moving tide later in the evening in both of these locations. Bigger chunks of alewife and soft crab have done well and live-lining spot has also been hot.

The topwater bite at Thomas Point has moved to more of an evening bite but it’s still been good. The 130 Loon Whopper Plopper has been a hot lure to try this past week. The topwater bite around this area is really starting to pick up as well. Early in the morning and later in the evening around the Magothy and Patapsco rivers has been great for topwater fishing for Rockfish. Look to target structure both above water and submerged structure like rock piles and sunken timber. North Point has been on fire with topwater bites nearly all day long this past week in 2′-6′ of water near structure.

Moving south in the Bay we’re finding way more Bluefish, Spanish Mackerel and Cobia than we are Rockfish. There are still plenty of Rockfish to be caught and a good place to target them is near the gas docks around Cove Point. Another good spot to try would be the Patuxent River bridge near Solomons with some live Spot. Fishing Soft Crab has also done well in both of these areas.

Anglers fishing from shore this past week have really done well at Jonas Green Park. We’ve had many customers coming in reporting nice catches on soft crab fishing the pilings under the Rt. 450 bridge. Quite a few keeper Rockfish, nice sized Croaker, Spot of all sizes and White Perch are all being caught here. Matapeake fishing pier has been hit or miss this week but more anglers are having success fishing Soft Crab and bigger chunks of Alewife later in the evening once the sun goes down. Romancoke has been busy this past week with many reports of decent fish being caught on a transitioning tide later in the day. White Perch, Rockfish and Channel Catfish are all popular here. Kent Narrows has been good this past week fishing 6″ Tsunami Swim Shads in Lime color. Reports of 22″-28″ Rockfish are being caught with the swim shads by jigging for suspended fish around the pilings there. The evening bite has been the best there. The ever popular Sandy Point has been good this past week with more and more reports of keeper sized Croaker up to 11″ in the evenings. Some decent Rockfish have been caught here as well using cut bait like Alewife.

White Perch

Been a good week on the Perch front. Anglers are having success fishing for them on oyster bottoms with Razor Clams on top & bottom rigs. Fishing shallow structure during a transitioning tide with spinner baits like the Mepps Spinners or Capt. Bert’s Perch Pounders has been great. If you haven’t done so, you should head over to the White Perch Open page on our site and sign up for the 2nd annual White Perch Open that is on Sunday August 20th. Anglers can fish anywhere in the bay (from shore, boat, kayak or your favorite pier) and bring your best 5 fish to the weigh-in at Podickory Point at 2pm. The scales officially open at 2pm and will close at 3pm. The top 3 anglers in each division (Adults and Children, 12 and under) will win some nice prizes with the weight of their best 5 fish. It’s sure to be a great time and we hope to see you there!

Southern Bay

In the southern bay area there have been many reports of White Perch, Croaker, Spot, Bluefish and Cobia being caught off the Solomon’s Island Fishing Pier while bottom fishing. Another good spot has been in the Little Choptank near Watts Island. Some reports of nice sized Redfish as well as Spanish Mackerel on size 1 or 2 planers w/ drone or clark spoons.

Trolling the area around the target ship has produced quite a bit of Spanish Mackerel. In the Crisfield area the Speckled Trout fishing has been great. Targeting the marshy grasses with topwater has been really good. Fishing for Cobia has been the best when anglers are Chumming. A few are also having success with release floats and eels.

Coastal Fishing

The White Marlin Open is ending today and we expect there to be lots of excitement at the scales around 4pm today. If you’re in the area, you should definitely head down there and check out all the happenings! Fishing the back bays has been slow this past week. Tons of throwback Flounder, Kingfish, Spot, Croaker and snapper sized Bluefish are all being reported this week. The top spots this week have been the Inlet, Rt. 50 bridge and some of the piers in the O.C. area.

Surf fishing has been ok with plenty of Kingfish in the wash and a decent number of Shark/Stingrays in the deeper surf with large chunks of fish.

Crabbing

Crabbing has slowed and we’ve been hearing reports of a couple dozen per week now in commercial pots. The main time to bait would be just before a transitioning tide so your baits are nice and fresh during this opportune time. Crabbers should target the 4′-10′ range and use baits like Razor Clams, Chicken Necks, or frozen Alewife.