Middle Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, November 6 Update:
Rockfish remain spread throughout the Middle Bay, with some impressive bird shows producing plenty of undersized fish while anglers working structure are finding better-sized keepers. Light-tackle jigging continues to produce around shoreline structure and shoals, and white perch are providing some additional action around the Bay Bridge and upper tributaries.
The AIC says he found a lot more dinks than he would have expected recently, and slot fish were harder to come by, but other anglers have been encountering decent numbers of rockfish in and just over the slot in the area. Thomas Point light, the north-west side of Poplar, and the mouth of Eastern Bay all had bird shows last weekend with some very large schools of stripers under them, but all of those fish were in the 15” to 18” range. Anglers fishing structure along the bayfront and at Thomas Point shoal caught fewer but bigger fish and FishTalk’s Zach Ditmars reported catching six in the slot plus a few unders and one over while casting jigs in the shallows. That was despite very low water with an outgoing tide. The AIC also reported finding some fish over structure in six to eight feet off the mouth of the West River, but those were all just under or well under the slot. A few fish were also in the shallows at Thomas Point Shoal and although the ones reeled up to the FishTalker were on the small side, they saw a boat fishing there bring in a nice slot fish in the 23” to 24” range. Gray paddletails and avocado-colored BKDs did the bulk of the catching, but there were also some topwater bites in shallower areas.
Reports Editor Dillon Waters took a trip up to the Bay Bridge late last week to see what was biting. He got on the water before sunrise and started casting jigs to bridge pilings and around the rock islands. After fishing several pilings and both islands without a bite, he moved to some pilings on the east side of the westbound span in 30’ of water and caught two slot fish, both around 22”. There were several charter boats working the bridge and there didn’t seem to be many fish being caught. After boxing one of the rockfish, he moved over to oyster bottom near Sandy Point in around 20 feet of water to try for white perch. Bottom rigs tipped with bloodworms provided a steady bite for white perch in the seven to 10” range for about an hour until the incoming tide died out. During that time, he boxed 15 eater-sized white perch. Another reader checked in with a report from late last week. They launched from Chesapeake Beach and fished several spots from there up to Shady Side. Most of the spots had fish, but a few turned up blank. They report that the Holland Point area was dink city, but there were plenty of fish around. After making a move to deeper water, they found a better class of fish, catching around 10 in the 21” to 25” range.
We also got a report from Hallocks-Grace Charters that they also found some white perch around the Bay Bridge. They started their trip by catching a limit of rockfish by live-lining spot at some of the bridge pilings, then they moved to oyster bottom north of the bridge and found a steady, but not on fire, perch bite. Bottom rigs tipped with bloodworms were again the ticket for perch. We have also heard several reports that the perch bite has been good at the mouth of the Patapsco River. Charter boats and recreational boats are catching them in around 20’ of water between Fort Smallwood Park and Hickory Point. As we get later in the season, the perch will move to slightly deeper water, but this bite should last for several more weeks.