Cover Image: Left: Chris caught this nice rockfish using a live spot! Right: Chaz caught this snakehead in the Severn River using a Z-man Diezel Minnow on a G-Eye Jigs jig head.
Rockfish: This week is the last opportunity to target rockfish before the summer closure starts next weekend! The schools of bigger rockfish in the main have pushed very far north, from Rockhall to Pooles Island, up to the Susquehanna Flats. More locally, there are still opportunities to target schoolie sized fish, with some keepers in the mix in local rivers such as the Patapsco, Severn, Magthoy and Chester. The early morning and late evening bite has been best, using 4 inch paddletails, jerk baits, or top water spooks in shallow water. Out in the bay, areas such as Hackett’s Point, Thomas Point the Seven Foot Knoll, Eastern Bay and Poplar Island have also been good at first and last light and are very fun places to fish top water! If you are live lining or jigging any of the points in the main bay have potential, but the fish are pretty spread out so check your electronics and don’t spend to much time in one spot if they aren’t biting! If you are fishing from shore or from a pier, soft crab, peeler crab or fresh alewife will be your best bet. Again, very early morning or late evening will be your best time to fish. The bottom line is that regardless of location or tactic, you want to be on the water before sunrise!
Speckled Trout: This week there have been exciting reports of Speckled Trout being caught as far north as Eastern Bay! Anywhere from Eastern Bay down to the mouth of the Choptank and Little Choptank and towards Hoopers are good places to target. With rain in forecast this weekend, the bite will definitely be impacted. Trout are harder to catch in cloudy water and will most likely push a little bit deeper from the shoreline. Try using a chatterbait style jig head to create vibration in that muddy water. Jerk baits can also work well!
White Perch & Spot: White perch fishing has definitely picked up in most of our rivers! Bottom fishing with fishbites, razor clams or lugworms, and casting spinners in shallow water are both working well. In the main bay both perch and spot can be caught around any structure, with the bay bridge piling being especially productive. Small pieces of soft crab or peeler crab work very well! From shore, some good places to target perch and spot are Jonas Green, Downs Park & Fort Smallwood.
Snakehead: Hot weather and warm water makes fishing for snakehead in shallow water more difficult. Places like the lower eastern shore will be best at early morning and late evening. On hotter afternoons consider fishing places where the water will be deeper, like western shore rivers such as the Severn, Magothy and Bush. Try chatterbaits or live minnows.
Lower Bay: Bluefish continue to move up the bay. They are biting pretty consistently in the Point Lookout area, but we’ve heard reports even as far north as Romancoke pier in eastern bay! We hope to see Spanish Mackerel moving in soon. There are still reports of Cobia being caught in the middle grounds around the target ship, and some schools of bull reds as well.