Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, May 1 Update:
Striped bass action in the Middle Bay is providing a mix of steady slot fish and some overslot surprises, with bites coming from bridge pilings, island shallows, and shoreline structure on paddletails, topwater, and trolled plugs—though reports suggest the bite can vary day to day. Meanwhile, big black drum have pushed into the region, with anglers targeting moving fish around current edges and finding success on fresh crab during tide changes, while smaller eating-sized drum have yet to show in numbers. White perch are still hanging in area salt ponds as well, offering consistent light-tackle action despite increasing algae and a predominance of smaller fish.
A reader reported that rockfish were at the Bay Bridge along relatively shallow pilings in 10’ to 15’. Casting chartreuse seven-inch Bust ‘Ems with half-ounce heads on Alltackle “Tom Weaver Special” rigs did the trick. Slot-sized rockfish are still hanging around at Poplar, and a reader said the action was on the slow side last weekend, but they were hitting topwater at daybreak. The Angler in Chief said his latest visit there was slower than last week, but good numbers of fish were still cruising along the north end of the island in small groups and were hitting white five-inch paddletails on half-ounce heads. Another subscriber reported very good action in the shallows of the Choptank early this week, working the shoreline from Cook’s Point down. He mentioned that many of the fish were nice overslots, including fish up to 30”. Another kayak trolled in southern Anne Arundel County waters and had an awesome late afternoon/evening bite—29 fish from 12” to 27” in under four hours—while pulling paddletails and Yo-Zuri plugs. There are still certain tributaries that are closed to targeting striped bass, so make sure to take a look at the striped bass regulation maps to when and where areas open for striped bass fishing.
The Angler in Chief says the big black drum have arrived in the Middle Bay. It was too rough to work the Stone Rock on both recent trips, but fishing fresh (hard) blue crab on 10/0 circle hooks on bottom at the Power Plant has produced three fish in the 40- to 70-pound range. The best bite has been during the last hour of the incoming tide. He said the drum were moving around as the tail of the outflow plume shifted with the tide and locating (very large) marks on the fishfinder, dropping the trolling motor, and Spot-Locking in place was the ticket. They’re usually along the periphery of the moving water and don’t stick around in one spot for long, so after catching one or two it’s often best to go back on the hunt, relocate the fish, then Spot-Lock in place and drop baits again. Drifting works, but since you have to keep your rig dead on bottom, it leads to lots of snags. He also says he hasn’t seen any eating-sized black drum yet (they usually arrive shortly after the bigger fish) and reminds everyone that fish over 20 or 25 pounds are often full of worms—as well as being full of eggs—and aren’t very good to eat, so they should be handled with care and released asap after a quick pic. There were also some 18” to 26” stripers farther up close to the outflow in the fast-moving water, but on Tuesday a couple of friends who were there targeting stripers caught just four fish.
Anglers fishing the area salt ponds report that the white perch are still in attendance. Casting out grass shrimp on shad darts about two feet beneath a bobber, then reeling it back in slowly, generated the most bites. One reader fishing Triton said the majority of the perch were small, but he did catch a half-dozen in the nine to 11” range for dinner. He also mentioned the algae was already thick and cleaning off the rig was critical; the fish wouldn’t bite if there was any goop on the dart.
