Weekend Fishing Forecast—August 9
By Capt. C.D. Dollar
OK, first things first. Can we all agree that, on balance, Shark Week is underwhelming? Seriously, is a morbidly obese, toothless Cajun falling down every 10 minutes in pursuit of some voodoo bull shark the best you guys got? Lame.
What's not lame is the fishing in Maryland's part of the Bay. I continue to hear good things on rockfish though it isn't as automatic as it has been, and fish are holding in a little deeper water. Hotspots are more or less the same: The Hill, False Channel, and Bay Bridge pilings, Sewer Pipe, Triple Buoys and Podickory Point. Don't ignore the lumps off Tolleys Point, Hacketts bar, and Eastern Bay from #2 red to Tilghman Point, and Bloody Point to Gum Thickets as well as West River.
The good news I heard today is that more bluefish and even Spanish mackerel are being caught. Capt. Randy Dean on
Bay Hunter said his group caught four macks trolling planers and spoons near the Bomber. Randy added that Capt. Drew on
The Worm hooked redfish from 24 to 28 inches while trying to catch Spanish mackerel. There's lots of breaking fish south of Poplar to the Stone Rock—usually a nice mix of stripers and blues.
I'm also getting a few scattered reports about puppy drum in the shallows of rivers around Annapolis. For a better shot at these young drum, your best bet remains the barrier islands of Tangier and Pocomoke sounds, though Little Choptank, guts off Cook's Point and bay side of the Honga River have been good in past years and worth fishing. Paddle-tailed lures (either with integrated weights or fished on jig heads) like Storms, Tsunami, Gulp! mullet and Sea Shads worked along marsh points, jetties and underwater humps produce fish as long as the water is clear and the current is moving. In deeper parts of Tangier Sound, you can catch flounder, croakers, spot and kingfish. Chummers off Middle Grounds report catching bluefish and croakers at night as well as the occasional bluefish are also potential catches.
I'm looking forward to August giving way to September and cooler waters. It's not bad now—the topwater bite is improving on the Wye and Prospect Bay. Stealth is key, and if you can find clear water in the top of the tide, and throw in some nervous bait skittering around, you have the ingredients for good topwater fishing. My go-to rig is a Smack-it Jr. with a fly trailer attached with 2' shot of 30 lb. mono or fluorocarbon. It's a first or last light game.
On the crabbing scene, the Wye has big monsters, but it's hot one day cold the next. Elsewhere--the Rhode, Severn and South rivers--are improving.
Today is the final day of the The White Marlin Open and when I checked the website at lunch it was Tom Jones of Severna Park, MD atop the leader board with a 83-lb. white. True, the scales close at 9:15 tonight so anything's possible, but only 38 boats are fishing today with 224 taking a lay day. Otherwise, sources say the flounder and sea bass bite on wrecks and reefs is fair at best. John Unkart tells me anglers seeking bluefin and yellowfin tuna at some of the 30-Fathon hot spots such as the Hot Dog and Jack Spot are catching them on the chunk, and in the canyons it's a mixed bag for yellowfin, bluefin, bigeye, wahoo and dolphin. Keith Lockwood sent his report which included a 225-lb Bigeye that friends this group of friends from the Oxford Fisheries Lab encountered on a 50lb class outfit. It was a long battle that they all took turns to finally wear this fish down and bring it to gaff.
Here's the unabridged report from Ken Neill and the Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman's Association:
The bigeye tuna bite just will not stop. There are decent numbers of yellowfin tuna around. Good numbers of nice-sized dolphin and wahoo are coming back to the scales. Billfish action is good and getting better each week. Close to shore, Spanish mackerel and some big king mackerel are hitting trolled baits along the oceanfront. Amberjack remain available at the southern towers. The coastal wrecks are holding triggerfish and spadefish. There are a lot of nice triggerfish being caught at the CBBT along with some big sheepshead. Flounder fishing has not been good this year. It has been better lately with some limits of fish being caught along with some nice fish. Some of the more productive spots lately have been the CBBT near the 3rd and 4th islands, buoy 42, buoy 36A, and around Back River Reef. Bottom fishing is good with a lot of medium-sized croaker and especially spot seemingly everywhere.
Speckled trout and a nice class of puppy drum are being caught in the shallows from the James River through the Mobjack Bay area and in the bayside creeks of the Eastern Shore. There are tarpon rolling around in the seaside inlets of the Eastern Shore where flounder and croaker make a much easier target.
Cobia fishing is good and sight fishing will only get better as the cobia associate more with structure and continue to pod up. Anglers looking for cobia are also finding schools of large red drum and jack crevalle around the mouth of the bay.
Weekend Fishing Forecast—August 9
By Capt. C.D. Dollar
OK, first things first. Can we all agree that, on balance, Shark Week is underwhelming? Seriously, is a morbidly obese, toothless Cajun falling down every 10 minutes in pursuit of some voodoo bull shark the best you guys got? Lame.
What's not lame is the fishing in Maryland's part of the Bay. I continue to hear good things on rockfish though it isn't as automatic as it has been, and fish are holding in a little deeper water. Hotspots are more or less the same: The Hill, False Channel, and Bay Bridge pilings, Sewer Pipe, Triple Buoys and Podickory Point. Don't ignore the lumps off Tolleys Point, Hacketts bar, and Eastern Bay from #2 red to Tilghman Point, and Bloody Point to Gum Thickets as well as West River.
The good news I heard today is that more bluefish and even Spanish mackerel are being caught. Capt. Randy Dean on Bay Hunter said his group caught four macks trolling planers and spoons near the Bomber. Randy added that Capt. Drew on The Worm hooked redfish from 24 to 28 inches while trying to catch Spanish mackerel. There's lots of breaking fish south of Poplar to the Stone Rock—usually a nice mix of stripers and blues.
I'm also getting a few scattered reports about puppy drum in the shallows of rivers around Annapolis. For a better shot at these young drum, your best bet remains the barrier islands of Tangier and Pocomoke sounds, though Little Choptank, guts off Cook's Point and bay side of the Honga River have been good in past years and worth fishing. Paddle-tailed lures (either with integrated weights or fished on jig heads) like Storms, Tsunami, Gulp! mullet and Sea Shads worked along marsh points, jetties and underwater humps produce fish as long as the water is clear and the current is moving. In deeper parts of Tangier Sound, you can catch flounder, croakers, spot and kingfish. Chummers off Middle Grounds report catching bluefish and croakers at night as well as the occasional bluefish are also potential catches.
I'm looking forward to August giving way to September and cooler waters. It's not bad now—the topwater bite is improving on the Wye and Prospect Bay. Stealth is key, and if you can find clear water in the top of the tide, and throw in some nervous bait skittering around, you have the ingredients for good topwater fishing. My go-to rig is a Smack-it Jr. with a fly trailer attached with 2' shot of 30 lb. mono or fluorocarbon. It's a first or last light game.
On the crabbing scene, the Wye has big monsters, but it's hot one day cold the next. Elsewhere--the Rhode, Severn and South rivers--are improving.
Today is the final day of the The White Marlin Open and when I checked the website at lunch it was Tom Jones of Severna Park, MD atop the leader board with a 83-lb. white. True, the scales close at 9:15 tonight so anything's possible, but only 38 boats are fishing today with 224 taking a lay day. Otherwise, sources say the flounder and sea bass bite on wrecks and reefs is fair at best. John Unkart tells me anglers seeking bluefin and yellowfin tuna at some of the 30-Fathon hot spots such as the Hot Dog and Jack Spot are catching them on the chunk, and in the canyons it's a mixed bag for yellowfin, bluefin, bigeye, wahoo and dolphin. Keith Lockwood sent his report which included a 225-lb Bigeye that friends this group of friends from the Oxford Fisheries Lab encountered on a 50lb class outfit. It was a long battle that they all took turns to finally wear this fish down and bring it to gaff.
Here's the unabridged report from Ken Neill and the Peninsula Salt Water Sport Fisherman's Association:
The bigeye tuna bite just will not stop. There are decent numbers of yellowfin tuna around. Good numbers of nice-sized dolphin and wahoo are coming back to the scales. Billfish action is good and getting better each week. Close to shore, Spanish mackerel and some big king mackerel are hitting trolled baits along the oceanfront. Amberjack remain available at the southern towers. The coastal wrecks are holding triggerfish and spadefish. There are a lot of nice triggerfish being caught at the CBBT along with some big sheepshead. Flounder fishing has not been good this year. It has been better lately with some limits of fish being caught along with some nice fish. Some of the more productive spots lately have been the CBBT near the 3rd and 4th islands, buoy 42, buoy 36A, and around Back River Reef. Bottom fishing is good with a lot of medium-sized croaker and especially spot seemingly everywhere.
Speckled trout and a nice class of puppy drum are being caught in the shallows from the James River through the Mobjack Bay area and in the bayside creeks of the Eastern Shore. There are tarpon rolling around in the seaside inlets of the Eastern Shore where flounder and croaker make a much easier target.
Cobia fishing is good and sight fishing will only get better as the cobia associate more with structure and continue to pod up. Anglers looking for cobia are also finding schools of large red drum and jack crevalle around the mouth of the bay.