The Anglers Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report has ARRIVED!

Upper and Middle Bay

  • With Striped Bass being closed to fishing until August, Anglers have moved to targeting Snakehead and Blue Catfish mainly. The Conowingo Dam Pool offers plenty of opportunities to get both! More shallow areas along the shore of the Susquehanna are home to grass beds provide excellent opportunities for Snakehead. Anglers are catching them on anything from Minnows to paddle tails!
  • The mouth of the Susquehanna is providing tons of opportunities to get lots of Blue Catfish. Anglers are reporting success using cut bait such as Soft Crabs and Bunker. Blue Catfish are invasive, so there’s no creel limit or closed season for them. They also put up a fantastic fight, so they make the perfect substitute for Rockfish.
  • Spot, White Perch, and Croaker are being caught all around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Anglers are finding luck jigging with Chesapeake Sibiki Rigs tipped with either Bloodworms or Lugworms around the pilings and at Dropoffs!
  • The Bluefish and Spanish Mackerel bite is red hot this week! Bluefish and Spanish Mackerel have been seen breaking the surface in large numbers! Anglers Pro Staff Ben reports that he found the best success casting a 1oz Rainminnow or Trolling a 1/30 oz G-Eye Jighead with a Chartreus Zman Minnowz!
  • Captain LJ of G-Eye Jigs reports Spot, White Perch and Speckled Trout are being caught all up and down the Chesapeake Beach area!

South Bay

  • White Perch are being found all around the shallow waters inside the Southern Bay tidal rivers! The key is to pull spinners past underwater structure such as docks, fallen trees or oyster beds! For deeper waters around structure, a Chesapeake Sibiki Rig tipped with either Bloodworms or Lugworms will net you bigger perch!
  • Anglers are finding Speckled Trout all along the shore of the Eastern South Bay! Areas around grass beds or stump fields are key to getting on some good sized Specks! You may even find a good sized Reddrum or Striped Bass mixed in with the Specks as well! DNR reminds Anglers to release any Striped Bass caught as quickly as possible as fishing for them is closed.
  • The mouth of the Potomac River is home to some of the best Blue Catfishing in the bay! Areas around Fletcher’s Boathouse are also home to catching some huge Blue Cats as well! Anglers are finding success on anything from small paddle tails to cut bait such as chunked bunker or soft crabs!

Additional Information

  • Remember Anglers, fishing for Striped Bass is closed until August 1st! Then they’ll return to their normal 19-31 inch slot with a limit of 1 Rockfish per day, per Angler.

See you next week, Anglers!