Maryland & Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report
Sailing out of West Ocean City, Captain Monty Hawkins of Morning Star Fishing reported a few days of “mahi mayhem” over the weekend, with plenty of chicken-size dolphin to go around. On both Saturday and Sunday, they managed to pick up a handful of mahi at almost every spot they hit, with only a few fishes drifts to show for it. When the water temperatures reach the low to mid 70s, mahi fishing typically takes off, and that’s what’s happened for the Morning Star crew as of late. Despite not targeting sea bass, they managed to land one random knucklehead amid all the mahi on Saturday before doing it all over again on Sunday under calm conditions. Don from Philly took the pool on Sunday’s trip and the high hook went to Big Jon, who was just one catch shy of his 10-fish limit.
From Ocean City, Taylor Bakke of Always Bent Fishing OC was inshore for a change this week and reported catching a mix of bluefish, striped bass, and speckled trout. On Sunday, he came across a school of bluefish blitzing near the inlet and was able to capitalize with a pencil popper. Then, while jigging paddletails on light tackle in the back bays on Tuesday, he and a friend got into a mix of speckled trout and schoolie striped bass. He said they managed to get one bass on topwater too. Taylor relayed that the action is picking up as water temperatures begin to cool from their late summer peaks, and there’s a noticeable uptick in the amount of bait around, which is a positive sign for the remainder of the fall fishing season. For detailed and localized inshore and offshore fishing reports, check out the Always Bent Fishing OC website.
Maryland DNR Fishing Report
Maryland DNR Fishing Report is written and compiled by Keith Lockwood, fisheries biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Lower Bay
A mix of striped bass, slot-sized red drum, and speckled trout are taking center stage in the lower Bay. Anglers are enjoying good shallow water fishing along the shorelines of the Bay, the lower sections of the region’s tidal rivers, and especially the lower Potomac River. Casting a mix of topwater lures, paddletails, and spin jigs is a great way to get in on the action. The morning and evening hours offer the best fishing opportunities on a running tide. Drifting peeler crab baits at the mouths of tidal creeks or channel areas is another way to target red drum, striped bass, and speckled trout.
Live-lining spot is an alternative, especially later in the day. The 30-foot edges of the channel in the lower Potomac between St. Georges Island and Piney Point, as well as off Cove Point and any channel edge where striped bass can be spotted on depth finders, are good places to give live lining a try. The warm water discharge at the Calvert Cliffs Power Plant has been another place where anglers report catching speckled trout, striped bass, and even a flounder or two by live-lining spot on a drift.
Spanish mackerel are being caught by anglers this week but unfortunately the run of these fish has not been what many had hoped for this year. Speculations abound, but it may have been that the Spanish mackerel had other ideas about how far they wanted to come up the Bay this year. The mouth of the Potomac River and Tangier Sound are two of the best locations lately to find Spanish mackerel. One thing is clear though, the bluefish had no trouble making the trip. Anglers have been catching chunky bluefish all summer in the lower Bay, by casting into breaking fish, trolling spoons and surgical tube lures behind planers, or chumming and drifting cut baits in a chum slick along the edges of the main channels.
Fishing for a mix of spot, croaker and kingfish is good this week. The spot are getting about as large as they’re going to get before heading south towards the end of this month or early October, depending on the weather. The croakers are mostly undersized but there are some larger ones being caught. They do hold promise that we will return to the wonderful croaker fishing we experienced in the late 90’s. The lower Potomac neat Point Lookout, the mouth of the Patuxent, and the Tangier and Pocomoke sounds hold some of the best fishing opportunities. Spot of course love pieces of bloodworm or bloodworm alternatives, croaker will bite on peeler crab.
Fishing for white perch offers plenty of fun fishing in the tidal rivers of the lower bay region. Fishing close to the bottom with peeler crab near structure is one of the most popular ways to fish for them. Fishing along shoreline banks with deep water is a great place to fish peeler crab, grass shrimp or small minnows under a bobber is another fun alternative. Those who enjoy casting, tossing small spinnerbaits, spin jigs and small soft plastic jigs will find plenty of action along shorelines during the morning and evening hours. Small red drum will be part of the mix when casting lures.
Atlantic Ocean and Coastal Bays
Surf anglers fishing the beaches of Assateague report catching good quantities of spot and kingfish in the surf on bloodworms or bloodworm alternatives. Anglers say the best fishing success usually occurs during the morning and evening hours. Flounder and blowfish are being caught on squid. Anglers might consider fishing at least one line with sand fleas for pompano. This is the time of the year that they infrequently visit us.
At the Ocean City Inlet, bluefish and striped bass are providing some fun fishing for anglers casting soft plastic jigs during the early morning and late evening hours. Jetty rocks, bulkheads, and pier pilings and bridge piers are good targets. Most of the striped bass are undersized, but not by much so they tend to give a good fight. There are some sheepshead being caught on sand fleas and peeler crab, mostly near the South Jetty but bulkheads and pilings should also be targeted. Tautog can be part of the mix also.
The back bay channels offer plenty of good flounder fishing as long as the bay waters stay clear. The Thorofare and East Channel are long time favorites but most any channel is a good place to drift including in front of the Ocean City Airport. Drifting with live spot or similar baits will attract the attention of the largest flounder as will Gulp baits in pink and white. Traditional baits of squid strips and bull minnows will always be a popular flounder bait.
The boats venturing outside the Ocean City Inlet and trolling are finding a mix of false albacore and skipjack tuna in the vicinity of the 30 Fathom Line. The boats intent on fishing the offshore wreck and reef sites are finding good numbers of black sea bass, but captains admit they sometimes need to move to several different locations to find black sea bass willing to bite. The same holds for finding schools of small dolphin which provide thrills and smiles for those onboard. Anglers who are targeting flounder on some of the wreck and reef sites are doing extremely well, with large flounder.
Farther offshore at the canyons, deep drop anglers are enjoying some exciting fishing action with blueline and golden tilefish. London Anthony recently set a new state record for blueline tilefish at 20.6-pounds.
The anglers who are trolling the canyons have been bringing a mix of large and small dolphin and reporting white marlin releases.
Maryland DNR Fishing Report is written and compiled by Keith Lockwood, fisheries biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.