2008 year in review

I've fished the upper bay my whole life and I can honestly say that the Striped bass fishing is better today then its been in the last 30+ years. Sometimes I don't know if Im just becoming a better fisherman or if the Striper fishing is better, but I think its a combination of both. (I wish I could say the same about some of the other species). I've had over 100 trips this year and over 50 of them I targeted Rockfish, And I've rarely ever had a problem catching lots of them, many trips I've caught fish 30" and over, with a few over 40". I've also had some good trips targeting Large mouth Bass, Pickerel, yellow perch and large White perch.
But overall, my best days of fishing has been targeting Rock. I sometimes miss the fishing years ago when we would bail Large horse Croaker for hours at spots like Belevedere Shoals, Snake reef and Love pt. We even got into them a few times at Pooles Island and Man o war. Back then you never knew what you were going to catch next, almost every trip was a surprise ( Specs in the patapsco, flounder at pooles and love pt, weakfish at Rocky pt. ect..) But I can't complain to much because the Striper fishing has just been off the hook this year from start to finish. Actually one of my worst trips of the year was when I went to the CBBT in mid December, I caught some fish in the mid 20" range, but it was nothing like the great fishing that I experianced in the upper bay during the spring summer and fall, and I didn't have to make the long drive or work near as hard to catch them. Every year just seems to get better and better

Nice beginning for fall

The summer fishing has been really good in the upper bay. I've rarely had a problem finding plenty of fish, but the fall fishing has started out to be even better for me. There has been a fairly large school of Stripers around the 30" range cruising around, and if you are lucky enough to find them, you are in for some fantastic fishing. I've actually been finding schools of Rockfish from the mid 20" to lower 30s all summer long, but they would usually just pop up for a short time and then be gone, they normally would be near the smaller Rockfish, Bluefish and white perch, but they would rarely be mixed in. Throughout the summer I would usually find them by hearing their splashes while they were attacking baitfish. The smaller fishes splashes sound like short snaps, but the larger fishes splashes are (of coarse) larger. It got to the point that I knew I was on the bigger fish as soon as I heard their splashes, There was no mistaking them, And they have been giving themselves away like that all season. All through the summer they were moving around a lot, I was finding them in a different spot almost all summer, But my last three trips they have been at the same spot. I actually found this spot a couple years ago, I past it by and didn't see any fish on the finder, but I thought it could one day be productive so I put it in my GPS, I would occasionally stop by and fish there and sometimes catch a fish or two, but recently it has been loaded with big fish, all of them around 30"!!

When I first found this school I was hooking up with a fish on every cast of my Spoofer spoon, they would hardly even give the spoon a chance to hit bottom and I could feel big fish nailing it.


The next time I went to the spot It didn't look to pomising, there were fish on the finder but it looked like Bluefish, I jigged for a while with no luck, But then I would sometimes notice Big swirls on the top of the water from the corner of my eye, (It actually wasn't as much swirls as it was just slightly disturbed water, where the fish would come near the surface to chase a baitfish that was on the surface). I grabbed my other rod that was already rigged with a surface popper and started popping it across the top of the water, and the fish were slamming it on almost every cast.

The next time out they were there again, once again I noticed the big swirls and started catching them with poppers again. Stealth was the most important ingredient in finding these fish, If I didn't approach the area quietly, I would had never even known the fish were there, they would had almost certainly shutdown or even left the area. I've caught lots of Stripers on poppers in the past, but I usually only topwater fished in the evening, the fish were usually smaller and I rarely ever caught more then a few in an hour or so, But this was no doubt the best topwater fishing I have ever experienced. If the rest of the fall is even half as good I will be happy

Catfish hitting lures

Its been a strange summer for fishing in the bay for me. I've been catching plenty of Rockfish, Big perch, blues and spot under breakers in the Bay, but I've also been catching lots of catfish in the same schools of breaking fish. I've caught them while jigging spoons, casting swimming shads, I even caught one with a spinner bait, I casted to a fallen tree where I often catch Large mouth bass and the catfish hit the lure on top just like a bass would. I've caught a few catfish with lures over the years, but nothing like this year, In 6 of my last 9 trips I've hooked up with them, A few of the days I,ve caught 2 and 3 catfish per trip on lures. There's been a lot of peanut bunker in the bay, and the catfish are taking advantage of it along with all the other fish. I guess that old belief that catfish have poor vision was just a myth. They are just opportunistic feeders. During the Rockfish moritorium I loved fishing for Catfish with bait, I was basically a Catfish addict, they are great fighters, plentiful and they taste pretty good to. I think its great to be catching so many now because I've often thought about targeting them once again, and getting them on lures is that much more exciting. I actually think catching a Catfish on a lure is much more rewarding then catching a rockfish on a lure, because its so much more unusual.

Trophy Striped bass season

I haven't been able to fish as much this spring as I want. but The few times I've been able to get out in the Upper bay it has been good for Upper bay standards. I'd much rather fish the mid or lower bay during trophy season. the fish seem to want to stop and hang out down that way for a spell during their migration, but its so much more easier to not have to travel far (especially when fishing solo). I've been mostly trolling and getting a couple fairly nice fish regulary in the 40" range. Some people don't like trolling but I think it can be very relaxing, kind of like sailing or bank fishing, just kick back and enjoy the Bays natural beauty until you hear a fish pulling drag.
One of my best trips so far was on may 1, 2008
I got through the cut at around sunset and tried jigging at a few spots without any luck, then I headed a few miles farther south to try some trolling. I put out my spread and literally seconds after putting my fifth and last rod in the rodholder, it doubled over and I reeled in a 40" fish


Right after taking a pic of it, another rod doubled over, This fish looked to be about an inch or two shorter but it fought a lot harder, right after boating that fish two rods went down at once, I released that fish quikely and I grabbed the rod that looked like it had the biggest fish and brought that fish in, meanwhile the fish on the other rod got off. by then my arms were tired. I started trolling in the direction of my homeport and put two of my deeper lines back in, about 15 minutes later I caught another mid 30s fish. It started to get a little to rough for my 17' boat, plus my arms were tired so I decided to call it a day. I looked at my watch and it was still only 8am, a lot of fishing in a short amount of time!! The way I like it..

Upper Chesapeake bay trophy pickerels 2/3/2008

The Winters freeze that caused The ice in the upper bay finally thawed because of a break in the weather, The days temperature was rising to over 60 degrees.
I hit the water at noon hoping that the warm spell would trick the fish into thinking it was spring (fish don’t have calendars).We also got over 2” of warm rain the day before, I wasn’t sure if that would hurt or help me in catching fish. I had a few spots I wanted to try but first I thought I would try a spot near hart/miller island where I did good with yellow perch last spring, it was actually a good spot throughout most of the summer until the salinity rose from the drought which made them harder to catch. The water is basically shallow, and I was hoping there would be fish there because it may warm up quicker. I started casting a mini spinner bait, working it very slow. After about twenty minutes I hooked up with a good fighting fish that put my ulta light setup to the test, at first I thought it was a striper or a large mouth bass until I got a better look at it and saw it was a big pickerel, I was actually confused at first because I’ve never seen a pickerel that big before, Even though I knew there were no Northern Pike in the Upper bay, I had to look at it for a few seconds to verify that it was a pickerel
I took a couple pictures then measured it and it was just a hair under 26”!
After releasing that fish I was smiling from ear to ear. I’ve caught plenty of pickerel in loch raven Reservoir and a few in the upper bay rivers, but I don’t think many were over 20” if that ( I’ve never bothered to measure them) and I’ve never caught them in the Hart/Miller island area before. It crossed my mind to head in early because I didn’t think I would top that, but a few minutes later, about 50’ away I hooked up again. This fish was slightly over 27” and even fatter!!
A little while later I got another fish on that felt like a pickerel but it got off..
I knew the 27” was a trophy (To me anyway) but when I got home and looked up the state record Pickerel for the bay I was shocked to see it was only 6lbs 8ozs
I think its possible it could had been a record fish. ..My camera takes terrible pics when its sunny but I had a double whammy this time because the fish started going nuts while I was setting up the camera and I got slime all over the lens