Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report

Been a busy week in the shop this week! We’ve been getting ready for our big St. Croix event this Saturday from 5am-5pm. It’s going to be a good time! A very relevant seminar brought to you by the Legendary Charlie Ebersberger and our resident fish whisperer Alex Perez starts at noon. We’ll have free hats for anyone who buys a St. Croix rod and anyone who does will also be entered into a raffle to win one of seven very nice St. Croix rods! Lots of good times to be had! We’ve also been busy catching fish while we aren’t getting the shop in shape! Let’s get into that now…

In the Upper Bay region we’ve seen the fall transition in full effect. Lots of breaking schools of fish, especially in the early morning. You’ll be able to catch these fish in a variety of ways. Jigging in the schools of breaking fish has been really good this past week. Some other techniques that have had success have been topwater with buzzbaits, Whopper Ploppers, wake baits and walk-the-dog baits like the Shimano Coltsniper. Focusing on the grass edges in the flats has been a good area to start. You’ll catch a mix of Rockfish, Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass in this area. Trolling the channel edges up north has also been doing well. Near the Port Deposit/Deer Creek area anglers have had success with smaller jigs (1/2oz. w/ a 6″ BKD in natural or chartreuse color), smaller topwater baits and even some crank baits.

Moving a little further south in the bay we get to the Patapsco River which has been good near the Key Bridge area. The pilings are still holding some keepers it seems. We’ve seen success live-lining Spot here with anglers limiting out in no time. Jigging and topwater has been good there, more so in the evening. Focus on submerged structure and drop-offs. This is where the fish will congregate looking to ambush bait.

Podickory Point has been decent this past week. We’ve seen bigger schools of fish here with sizes in the 30″-35″ range. Chumming has been working pretty well here. Fishing soft crab or cut bait like Alewife on the bottom while chumming this area has been producing nice fish. If you come into some breaking fish, look to throw a jig, some sting silvers or epoxy jigs right over the school and work it through the school. If you use a heavier jig like 3/4oz.-1oz. you can target the bottom of the school which is where the better grade of fish will typically hang out. Trolling this area on a transitioning tide has been good as well.

In the Love Point area we’ve seen schools of smaller Menhaden or LY running around near the mouth of the river. This would be a good area to target with 1/2oz.-3/4oz. jigs with or without skirts and natural or chartreuse colored BKDs. You can also chum and fish with soft crab here as well.

Trolling in general this week has been pretty good. Anglers are using double drop or single umbrellas with 6″ chartreuse colored sassy shads. You can also use spoonbrellas with an inline weight and a size 17 chrome Tony Spoon. You’ll want to target the mouths of the tidal rivers in this area. The Patapsco, Chester, Magothy around Baltimore Light, and the Channel edges near the Bay Bridge.

Moving further south we hit Hacketts Point. In this area Chumming has been really good this week. Some anglers are also have success fishing topwater plugs like the Smack-it Jr. with a trailer hook producing some double ups! Nothing more fun than doubling up at the same time on topwater! Another good spot in this general area has been the mouth of the Eastern Bay near “The Hill”. Live-lining produced quite a bit of fish this week and it was also really good near Poplar Island, Thomas Point & Thomas Point Lighthouse.

In the Solomons Island area and a little further south we saw a nice mix of Bluefish, Spanish Mackerel, smaller Rockfish and Puppy Drum this week. The Target Ships to the middle grounds were great this week producing Drum, Spanish Mackerel, and Rockfish.

If you’re in the Chrisfield area, we saw quite a few keeper Speckled Trout, some Redfish, smaller Rockfish and Blues mixed in as well.

Anglers fishing from shore in the middle bay region was best from Sandy Point at night this week. Anglers fishing at night with soft crab or cut bait like Alewife were catching a mix of keeper sized Rockfish and Channel Catfish. Romancoke was decent but a little slower this week.

White Perch

Perch fishing this week has been fantastic. Anglers are having great success targeting nearly any structure in the bay. Bridge pilings, bulkheads, rip-rap, deeper water on hard bottom have all been good places to target them. In our opinion White Perch are some of the most delicious eating fish out there. Some of the best ways to catch them are with top & bottom rigs with bloodworm, razor clams or with the infamous Perch Pounders. We’re selling these online now! Check them out at the bottom of this report! The best performing colors seem to be the Electric Chicken, Chartreuse/Silver and Jamie’s Halloween. Believe it or not, this lure also catches nearly everything else that swims in the Bay. We’ve had anglers send us photos of huge Channel Catfish, Rockfish, Puppy Drum(below) and even Flounder!

Crabbing

Crabs season is coming into its prime right now. The big Jimmies are looking for food to fatten up for the winter so you’ll start to see some really nice crabs here in the next few weeks. As always, a transitioning tide in 4′-8′ of water has been the best time/place to go. As far as bait goes, good ol’ chicken necks and razor clams are good. Frozen bait like Alewife, Perch or Spot also work well.