Upper bay Summer fishing

Summer is now over, But what a great summer for fishing the upper bay it was. Even with a record heat wave with water temps from 80* to over 90* in some parts of the upper bay, there was still some awesome fishing for White perch, Catfish, Croaker and Rockfish, I had many days of constant action.
once the temps started to cool down the fishing even got better, especially for Rockfish. I had some incredible days fishing for them. Every year just seems to get better and better with Rockfish, I never would had thought that this summer could had topped last year, but it did, I never thought last year could had topped the year before, and so on, but they did..I had many days where I caught one Rock after another until my arms got sore, A couple times I caught and released over a hundred legal sized Rock and I rarely fish longer then a few hours. A couple of my more memorable trips I caught more then twenty fish measuring near or over 30"!! Truly a year to remember. On one trip a DNR boat was approaching me while I was hooked up with a fish, I desperately wanted to release the fish before they got closer, but then the fish made another run and I was boating a 35" Rock right as they were pulling up (size is a guess,I didn't measure it). I told them that I was concerned that they would ruin my spot by reporting it in the DNR fishing reports and they said they wouldn't, they kept their word but must had told a few people because there was about 5/6 boats fishing the area after that. I guess it could had been worse, but I will have to learn to watch out for them better.

On Another trip my friend Tom came along, We got into some nice fish in the evening jigging metal jigs and he ended up catching the big fish of the day. He said it was his biggest Rock. Not bad for this time of year.

The fishing should only get better as the water cools.

We just recently had some major flooding around the Chesapeake area, Hopefully it won't ruin the fishing. I think I will at least have to start from scratch to relocate the fish. Most likely the fishing will be slow for a while, Hopefully the whole Fall season won't be a blowout

Schooling fish

We finally had a few days and nights of cooler weather and I'm starting to see the larger resident Rockfish schooling up some, the water is still pretty warm at about 77 degrees so the morning & evening is still the best time.

This past Sunday 8-29-2010 I hit the water just before sunrise and found a nice school of Rock from about 20" to 32", they were hitting my sea striker casting spoon only seconds after jigging it off the bottom. I caught about 15 fish in a short amount of time, once the sun came out the bite died down, so I went after the white perch and caught lots of them jigging a Hopkins shorty. That has basically been the way the Rockfishing has been all summer, except during the hot part of summer the Rock weren't schooled up, so I would only catch one or two before it died.

One spot that I fished often this summer was also a spot a guy that was chumming would also fish, he would routinely get a limit and head back to his port not long after the sun came up, it usually took me a little longer to catch a couple with lures, Chumming and trolling was a big advantage since they weren't schooled up. but since I rarely keep any fish It didn't matter much to me. the white perch and catfish would usually bite throughout most of the morning and I liked catching them also.

Soon the water should cool more and the Rockfishing should get really good, then I will be catching all I want throughout the day. It does supposed to get hot again for the next few days which will probably raise the water temps again, but its just a matter of time before the weather gets cooler and the fishing gets hotter

Hot summer fishing

Its been a hot hot summer. After working outside all day in temps over 100 degrees, I don't want to do anything but get home in the airconditioning and rest, but I have been getting out on the water a couple times a week on some evenings and the early morning hours on the weekends, luckily with the high water temps that's been when the fish have been most active also, especially the Rockfish, they don't seem to be taking the unusually warm water very well lately, And some of the ones I've been catching haven't looked very healthy. there seems to be good numbers of them in the Upper bay, but they aren't schooled up like they usually are, they seem to be mostly scattered. I think it must have something to do with the warm water, they seem to be conserving their energy and not running around in packs looking for food. In some areas of the bay (especially the very shallow spots) I have been seeing temps as high as 90 degrees! That's why I haven't even been targeting the Rock to much, but I am still usually getting a couple keeper size Rock while targeting mostly Catfish and White perch. One of my favorite ways of targeting them lately is by jigging a Hopkins spoon with a piece of gulp bait on the hook as a trailer. The Catfish especially love it. Once I find the right spot at the right time, its been some great fishing with constant action. I'm also still getting some Croaker with the same method

Upper bay coming to life

This may and June in the part of the upper bay that I usually fish has been basically typical, Not much fish, Didn't even mark much on the fish finder until recently. Usually you can still find good fishing in the rivers for Large mouth bass and perch, but the main stem of the bay was pretty much barren unless you travel farther south. Love pt. has always been a favorite place at this time of year, but I can rarely make the 30 mile rountrip by boat, so its a waiting game for me. You never really know how the years fishing will be. most fish school up and theres no telling where they will be, but it looks like its going to be another good year of fishing. The bait fish have started schooling in good numbers and Jigging for White perch is getting really good with a lot of big ones in the 12" range. this is really one of my favorite times of the year because the perch are so plentiful and put up a nice fight on ultra light tackle, plus they are my favorite to eat. I've also been getting some nice size Channel cats on jigs, they can put up a great fight, I think much better then a Rockfish of similar size. The Catfish pictured above hit a 1 oz crippled herring, I always mistake them for Rays at first because they stay low in the water and move around a lot, the only difference is that they don't peel drag as long. I also caught a keeper size croaker near hart/miller island, the first keeper size croaker I've caught this far up the bay since back in the 1990s when we would find big schools of horse croaker from 15-18". But I would probably catch more if I used bait instead of lures..Actually when I caught this Croaker I put a squid gulp on my Hopkins spoon out of curiosity, and he hit it right away.

There's also plenty of small Rockfish around, I haven't caught any keeper sized ones in a while, but thats normal for this time of year also, It shouldn't be much longer before they show up for all this bait in the water, you never know in nature though, the early heat wave this year has the bay temps up to 82*, there's a lot of dead fish floating around which isn't unusual when the bay gets this warm. And from most the the reports I've read the Stripers are mostly in the lower and middle bay, I can't see them moving very much until the water cools a little..but who really knows? not me

Trophy Rockfish season ending

Its normal in the Early spring to have a lot of windy days. One of my biggest problems at this time of year is being able to get out in my 17' boat, especially when most of the best fishing is atleast 20 miles away. but this year seemed to rarely have a day (when I was able to get out) that wasn't windy. But the few times I was able to make the long boat ride I did very good, the catch and release season just before the Trophy season started was actually better then the open season, because of the unusually warm spring, The Stripers spawned a lot earlier then usual. Since I rarely keep any fish it didn't matter to me anyway, and the fishing is a lot more fun when its not as crowded. Usually It didn't take long at all to start hooking up with big fish once I started fishing, on one particular day I caught 5 big Trophies in less then one hour!!
Now most of the Trophy Stripers are long gone and way up in the New England states where they spend their Summer. The bay is now in a transition faze. The Smaller schoolies are not quite schooled up yet in the Upper bay, but I have started to find breaking Stripers, which is really early for this time of year. The White perch are schooling up on the lumps and ledges already also, they are fun to catch jigging with smaller lures, it shouldn't be long before the Stripers start schooling up in bigger numbers and I will be doing my favorite kind of fishing, Jigging!! Eventhough the fish are usually smaller (but not necessarily;-). Its fun to catch them with lighter tackle.
shouldn't be much longer before it gets good :-)