Upper Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, May 29 Update:
Trollers are enjoying a slow-but-steady striper bite throughout the upper bay, focused around the channel edges. Most anglers trolling are opting to pull a spread of pink, chartreuse, and white umbrellas, large bucktails, and tandem rigs. While the bite has been slow compared to sections of the Bay further south, trollers are still bringing in fish. Clyde’s suggested hitting Love Point or the Bay Bridge Pilings if you’re opting to jig. The bite in both of these areas has been hit or miss, but good when it’s on. However, our Angler-in-Chief reported that on a run past the Bay Bridge over the holiday weekend he saw crowded conditions and a boat on most pilings, with zero rods bent. One angler reported jigging the sewer pipe and pilings this Saturday resulting in a skunk day. So, conditions very hit or miss.
While chumming is worth the time and anglers are reporting catching, it has mostly been catfish. Podickory Point was swarmed with both boats and cats this weekend. Readers reported an average of three to six cats per trip, with a handful of stripers in the 19 to 22 inch range in 20 to 25 feet of water. My initial thought on this report was eh, what a hassle, but the chummers are catching more fish than anyone else in the Upper Bay by all accounts we’ve heard. More fish but fewer, smaller stripers, and way less gas burned up for those who are local. Choosing what you do this weekend will require an individual cost-benefit analysis.
The water is warming up and white perch are moving into their summer haunts. They can now be found in creeks in greater numbers, and will gladly swallow up the traditional bloodworm or grass shrimp on a bottom rig.
Upper Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, May 22 Update:
Full Disclosure Warning! High winds and poor conditions forced anglers to stay land-locked for most of the week, through much of our area. Due to these circumstances, most of the info in this week’s report comes from over the past weekend and early in the week. If you get the chance to head out, shoot us an email at [email protected] and let us know how you did!
Water temperatures have been s-l-o-w-l-y warming, marking the delayed beginning of solid white perch fishing. they’ve started to hang out in greater numbers throughout creeks and near shorelines, and soon should be an easy target for anglers fishing by boat and from shore. Grass shrimp and blood worms remain the best baits for them. Finding good water is important, however, as much of the Western Shore has been socked in with cruddy, stained water recently. While the perch bite is getting stronger, anglers are finding that catching striped bass might require a run south. We didn’t have a whole lot of positive reports from northern waters this week. A few ranging from 24 to 34 inches were caught just north of the Bridge on trolled tandem rigs, but Fishbones reported that other than those, the pickings were sparse.
Catfish have (sort of) been making up for the gap in the striped bass fishery. While chummers have been hoping for striped bass, most are coming home with all the catfish they can stand. On the upside, the cats have been big this year and fish between 10 and 15 pounds are average. We even had a report (not photo verified) of a 40-pounder this week. They’ve also been widespread enough that anglers are catching them all over the place—off Sandy Point, at the Sewer Pipe, Love Point, Podickory, you name it.
Upper Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, May 15 Update:
While the trophy striper season hasn’t gone off with a bang in the Upper Bay, there were a few reports of striped bass coming in around Podickory Point and Love Point. Most catches are coming from anglers trolling the channel edges and deeper waters, using umbrellas, large bucktails, and tandem rigs. Most reported to Tailored Tackle that they had to cover a lot of ground before catching. Many anglers within range have also been running south to the Middle Bay, where the bite’s been significantly better.
Chummers didn’t have the best luck for stripers this week, but did report that catfish have been taking their baits. Catfish breaking into the 30-inch-plus range haven’t been especially uncommon. Catfish aren’t just hanging around the Bay, either — they’ve been thick in the rivers recently too, available from shore and by boat. Tailored Tackle reported that the white perch catch has been affected by muddied waters due to runoff and is tough.
Angler in Chief Lenny Rudow says that he tried probing the bridge and Sewer Pipe mid-week to see if it would be worth visiting on Saturday when the size limit drops, but didn’t have encouraging results. He did note that the tide was pretty dead, a batch of discolored water was moving through, it was very windy, (yeah, sure, excuses, excuses, Rudow!) and he did see some marks near bottom in the 20- to 30-foot range. Putting all those factors together he says he thinks it may well be worth a return trip and isn’t drawing any negative conclusions from the one attempt.
Upper Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, May 8 Update:
The past week has brought more changes for recreational fishermen across Maryland, giving us more options on how and where we fish – woohoo! As of Thursday, May 7th at 7:00 a.m., recreational fishing activities including catch-and-release fishing opened up again. While this is great, there are still a few restrictions still in place. Anglers are expected to abide by social distancing guidelines, and maintain family groups with fewer than 10 individuals while on boats. Fishing tournaments remain prohibited, but the Department of Natural Resources has reopened fishing piers that had been closed and social distancing must also be practiced while fishing from piers or shore. All normal rules and regulations regarding fishing must be followed, including creel limits, gear restrictions, and seasons.
Opening weekend was a bit quieter than normal, and so was the bite. With no real pre-season fishing, much of the past week consisted of scoping out where the fish are. While some anglers got into them north of the Bridge, the general trend was that more fish are hanging out further south. Most boats that hit the water opening day trolled large tandems and umbrellas along the channel edges in the Love Point to Bay Bridge area. The striper bite tended to be hit or miss for trollers in this area: we heard of as many as four fish in the cooler, but we also heard from plenty of boats that were totally skunked over multiple days of fishing.
Catfish have been ready to snatch baits off the bottom. The mouth of the Magothy and the Podickory Point area produced catches up to a half-dozen or so fish, often in the 10 to 15 pound range, for anglers soaking bunker in hopes of catching a trophy rock. In fact, every single Upper Bay bait angler we’ve heard from since striper season opened has reported catching catfish rather than rockfish.
Snake alert: we had two photo-confirmed snakeheads show up in the Magothy this week, plus one in the Severn.
Upper Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, May 1 Update:
Standard COVID-fishing disclosure, folks: wherever you live, there are probably some restrictions in place and some waterways made inaccessible. Our Social Distancing While Fishing page has links to the different state authority webpages with the latest info and updates on when, where, and how fishing can be done. With many businesses still closed, again we say thanks to all you readers who sent in reports and pictures. Please keep them coming to [email protected].
We know this is what everyone's wondering about, but we don’t have much intel regarding opening day stripers right now (well, none!), due to the fact that pre-fishing hasn’t happened since March. That said, pound netters have certainly been finding stripers in their nets this week so hopefully, the fish haven’t all bolted just yet. One thing we’ll note: with all the rain and mucked-up water, heading south far enough to find clear conditions would seem to be in order prior to setting out a trolling spread. Meanwhile, anglers who headed out this week are reporting that the catfish are running heavily in the Magothy and other Tribs. Clyde’s Sport Shop had reports from anglers who caught numerous cats easily exceeding the 20-inch mark. The bulk of catfish have been caught by anglers fishing the bottom using menhaden and chicken livers. Aside from the Magothy, no particular place has stuck out. Catfish don’t school and seem to be spread fairly evenly throughout the area. The larger fish caught this week were located everywhere from off docks to deep water, and in-between.
White perch are still coming in, although muddy waters muddled up the bite early in the week. Most guys catching them did so after the water settled a bit. They were able to tempt them in with grass shrimp on a bottom rig.