Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report: March 8th, 2024!

This past week we have seen the peak of the yellow perch run in most of the Lower eastern shore river to the middle section of the Chesapeake in the Severn and Magothy rivers.  Most are catching a mix of yellow perch and white perch with whites becoming the most common catch as the yellow perch start to move out of the spawning areas.  Some of the hot spots over on the eastern shore have been Tuckahoe Creek, Choptank river, Marshyhope creek and the Nanticoke River. Over on the Western shore area the Patuxent River from Jug Bay north has seen a good amount of Yellow perch and some White perch, Allens Fresh had a good run of yellows as even some crappie. Live minnows, Grass shrimp, and blood worms have been the baits of choice for most anglers enjoying perch run and if fishing with artificial lures is your preferred way to fish the Bust’em Baits stingers paired with a small 1/32Oz-1/16oz jig head has worked really well specially on the natural-colored plastics.

Striped bass fishing has been great with the warmer water temperatures this week. water temperatures have gone up to the upper 40s’ and the striped bass are on the move to the spawning grounds and feeding heavy on their way to spawn. fishing from Chesapeake Beach to Eastern bay has producing some good fish with lots of upper 20-inch fish to some upper 40 inch and even heard of some 50-inch fish been caught around the area.  Most are jigging over top of schools feeding striped bass or around bunker schools using 6-to-10-inch soft plastics like BKD, Zman, and NLBN been the most popular. don’t forget to carry different size jig heads! we recommend having 1oz, 1 1/2oz, and 2oz jigs to have every scenario covered since you could be fishing anywhere from 15ft of water to 50 plus foot at times. some of the hot colors for plastics have been more natural-colored baits like the NLBN Green back color,  Zman Pearl and Bust’em bait Dry ice.

Fishing around the Blackwater region on the lower eastern shore was hot this past week with the warmer temperatures pushing the water to the lower 50s. we saw the first few snakeheads of the year with some nice size crappie and bass also been caught. most where using small chatter baits, inline spinner baits and paddle tails on a weedless screw Lock hook.