Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report

Time really does seem to fly when you’re having fun! Can’t believe October is on our doorstep…especially since it’s been so hot! This weekend looks like it’ll be a bit nicer with temps in the 60º-70º range! That means the fall transition will be in full effect. Topwater will be picking up even more and everything seems like it’s on the move getting ready for winter.

Northern Bay Area

In the northern section of the Bay, near the Susquehanna Flats, the topwater bite continued to pick up even more this week. Focusing on the edges of grass flats and channel edges with topwater baits like plugs and walk-the-dog baits produced a good amount of fish. Once the sun came up, light tackle trolling was the ticket with chumming/chunking also catching a decent amount of small to keeper sized Rockfish and Channel Catfish.

Middle Bay Area

The fish are spread out but they’re there! The sizes were considerably smaller this week with a few 35″ fish being caught in the Love Point/Swan Point area. The majority of the fish were definitely smaller, though. The key to finding the larger fish is to first find the birds then you find the bait. Once you find the bait, focus on the bottom of the school, casting toward the down-tide section of the school using heavier jigs like Sting Silvers. There were a considerable amount of 5-10lb Bluefish mixed in with these schools. If this is the case, you’ll definitely want to use a metal jig like a Sting Silver so they don’t rip your baits in half. If you do decide to use a regular 1/2oz.-1oz. jig with a trailer, we recommend using the Z-Man StreakZ in natural color like Pearl or Smokey Shad.

Podickory Point produced a decent amount of fish this week. Jigging and trolling were the most productive techniques during the day. If you’re out there early morning, you’ll definitely want to try using our “Chesapeake Topwater Rig” which is a popper with a feathered jig trailer. This is an effective lure around breaking fish because any fish that doesn’t hit the popper will hit the jig. It also produces quite a few double-ups which is always fun! Another great topwater bait is the 130 Whopper Plopper in the Loon color.

Hacketts Point, the Bay Bridge and the Eastern Bay were all holding decent fish this week. Anglers had success jigging, chumming or live-lining all three of these areas. Of the three, the better spot was in and around the Eastern Bay. Topwater fishing around Poplar island, jigging the Hill with the new Savage Gear Squish Jig and trolling the area with the Addiction Baits tandem rigs has been landing nice fish.

 

Perch Fishing

There have been Perch caught all over the place this past week. Perch can be found in shallow water near structure and in deeper water holding tight to the bottom. Anglers are having success using Bert’s Perch Pounders in the Electric Chicken color around Piers, Bulkheads, Rip-rap and submerged structure. When fishing areas like the Bay Bridge, anglers are jigging the 1/2oz. feathered jigs and also using live bait like Bloodworms, Razor Clams or even Soft Crab on the bottom.

Shore Fishing

Romancoke Fishing Pier was the most productive spot for shore fishing this past week. A variety of species were caught there including Bluefish, Rockfish, Grey Trout, Perch and Channel Cats using baits like Soft Crab, cut LY, cut Spot and Razor Clams. Some other good locations were The Narrows, Sandy Point State Park, Jonas Green Park and Thomas Point Park.

Question of the week

Q: What would be a good alternative to using treble hooks on my topwater baits? I feel like I’m tearing the fish up and want to put less stress on the fish. Is there a good alternative that you can recommend?

A: We carry the VMC In-Line 3/0 hooks which are high quality durable hooks. It puts less stress on the fish and is much easier to remove from the fishes mouth. The only down-side is your hook-up ratio can go down using a single hook but we still caught quite a bit of fish using these hooks.

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