Maryland & Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report
Sailing out of West Ocean City, Captain Monty Hawkins of Morning Star Fishing Charters reported a slow start to Tuesday mornings trip despite marking a ton of sea bass piled over the reefs below. Eventually, the bite picked up for all but one angler, who had unusually bad luck while others wailed on sea biscuits with jigs. James, who has fished with the skipper for over 30 years, took home the pool. The day’s bycatch consisted of tons of red hake, and even a quality flounder. The next day’s trip (Wednesday) see incredibly calm and pleasant seas, but the day started with a slow pick of short sea bass before things finally picked up after the turn of the tide. At that point, however, they were running short on time, but were able to land enough keeper sea bass along with another keeper flounder, so everyone went home with some meat for the table. Check out their website and call ahead to reserve your spot on an upcoming trip!
Anglers Sport Center Fishing Report – Annapolis, MD
The Anglers Sport Center fishing report is written by Anglers Fishing Manager & OTW Columnist, Alex Gallardo-Perez.
As we get into the heat of the summer, we are starting to see more migratory fish from down south show up in the Middle Bay and Upper Bay areas. We got reports of a good amount of puppy drum showing up to the middle Bay Area, from the South River to the Magothy, and most of them are in the 15- to 20-inch range with a few creeping into the low slot size. Most anglers are fishing for the puppy drum, meanwhile, others are perch fishing shoreline structure with small spinners and swimbaits.
Perch fishing around shorelines has made a good comeback with fish up to 12-inches long, but most importantly, the quantities are back on the rise with anglers catching 20 fish or more; we’ve even heard of some local anglers catching 80-plus fish an outing. Mepps spinners, Beetle Spins, jigs with curly-tail grubs, and small pet spoons have been the ticket to get them to bite.
Striped bass fishing from the middle to upper Bay area is turning out to be an early morning and sunset bite. The topwater bite in the Patapsco River is still good with most anglers trolling small spoons around channel edges, or live-lining bait around structure. Love Point seems to be holding some fish around the rock piles, especially when the tide is moving at a steady clip.
The Anglers Sport Center fishing report is written by Anglers Fishing Manager & OTW Columnist, Alex Gallardo-Perez.
Maryland DNR Fishing Report
Maryland DNR Fishing Report is written and compiled by Keith Lockwood, fisheries biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
For anglers who catch striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay, remember that summer heat can be deadly for fish that are not keeper sized and must be released. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources provides a weekly striped bass fishing advisory forecast during the hottest months, using “warning flags” to let anglers better plan their fishing to help protect our state fish.
Upper Bay
The Conowingo Dam is releasing water for power generation on a typical midday to evening summer schedule this week. The cool water is of course attractive to many kinds of fish, including resident walleye, smallmouth bass, flathead catfish, blue catfish, and the striped bass that move in and out of the lower Susquehanna. Anglers can catch an interesting mix at the dam pool and the river just below the dam pool. It is getting a little warm for walleye, but a few can be caught, and the smallmouth bass are active and taking small crankbaits, spinnerbaits and jigs. Flatheads and blue catfish are being caught on cut bait.
Chesapeake Channa (snakeheads) are being caught in the dam pool and in the grass of the Susquehanna Flats. Most anglers who are targeting them are casting paddletails in open water and using frogs, chatterbaits, and buzzbaits in the thick grass. Fishing for them has been very good in many of the western tidal rivers of the upper Bay, with many large ones being caught by the anglers.
The cool waters of the lower Susquehanna are attractive to striped bass this month and anglers are finding them in good numbers from the dam pool, in the river and the edges of the flats down to Spesuite Island. Casting a variety of paddletails, soft plastic jigs, crankbaits, and jerkbaits, are working well, as is drifting cut bait. Anglers are advised to be careful when practicing catch and release since the absence of any salt in the water is very stressful for striped bass and the added stress of angling can add to mortalities, especially for striped bass above the maximum slot size of 24 inches. Hot weather is in the forecast and will only make matters worse.
Lower Bay
The lower bay region is experiencing some low dissolved oxygen problems this week, but they tend to be localized. The east side of the shipping channel off Hoopers Island south to Smith Island shows areas where there are poor oxygen levels below 10 feet to 20 feet. The west side fares better with adequate dissolved oxygen levels to 35 feet and the tidal Potomac above the Wicomico shows poor dissolved oxygen levels.
Anglers are enjoying good fishing in the shallower waters of the lower Potomac and Point Lookout area for a mix of striped bass, speckled trout and slot-sized red drum. Anglers are casting a mix of topwater lures, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, soft plastic jigs and paddletails. Grass beds and shoreline structure are good targets.
The Patuxent River offers good fishing for striped bass, speckled trout, and slot-sized red drum in the shallower waters; trolling has been an option also with small spoons and medium-sized bucktails. The Cedar Point rocks has been a good spot to explore, and the shallow water areas are most productive in the morning and evening hours.
Tangier and Pocomoke sounds are offering good fishing this week, as water quality is good there. Anglers are catching a mix of striped bass, speckled trout, slot-sized red drum in the shallower waters. Topwater lures are an excellent choice over grass beds and stump fields. Drifting peeler or soft crab baits in current areas at the mouths of marsh creeks is an excellent way to target red drum and speckled trout. Bluefish are becoming more common and can be found in the more open waters near channel edges.
In the more open waters anglers are spotting schools of large red drum and black drum and jigging with large soft plastics for the red drum or both can be caught with soft crab baits. Cobia season is now open, and anglers are out chumming for them and fishing with live eels in the back of their chum slick or sight casting. When sight casting, large soft-plastic jigs or a live eel are cast to surface-roaming cobia.
Atlantic Ocean and Coastal Bays
Surf anglers who are fishing large, natural baits continue to catch some large striped bass and red drum this week; most are over the maximum slot lengths, but offer a real trophy catch even if they must be released. A mix of inshore sharks and stingrays are also part of the mix. Anglers fishing with smaller baits are catching kingfish and spot on bloodworm baits, flounder on squid, and a few bluefish on finger mullet.
At the inlet and Route 50 Bridge area, a mix of striped bass and bluefish are being caught by casting soft plastic jigs near the jetty rocks and bridge piers. At night anglers are having good luck by drifting cut bait in the current form the bulkheads and the Route 50 Bridge. A few sheepshead are being caught near the jetty rocks and bridge piers on sand fleas.
Flounder fishing has been very good in the back bay channels, boat traffic has become a menacing problem so be careful out there. Sinepuxent Bay offers less boat traffic and in front of the airport is always a good place to fish for flounder. Anglers are reporting Gulp baits are catching the largest flounder. The shoal areas outside the inlet are also producing some good flounder catches.
Black sea bass catches have generally been good at the offshore wreck and reef sites this week. At times it takes moving from one site to another to find engaging fish. Flounder have been part of the mix. Farther offshore at the canyons the yellowfin tuna have finally arrived and boats that are trolling are enjoying good catches this week. Deep drop fishing for blueline tilefish has been good and helps round out many a canyon fishing trip.
Maryland DNR Fishing Report is written and compiled by Keith Lockwood, fisheries biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.