Way South Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, August 15 Update:
There were several days this week with calm winds, which offered good opportunities for anglers to target sheepshead at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. The bite hasn’t been red hot, but with enough patience (and bait) you can catch some solid fish. We heard of two reports this week from anglers who caught their limit, and the bigger fish they caught were close to 10 pounds. Flounder are also being caught around the CBBT islands and at the Kiptopeke concrete ships. Bucktails or jigs tipped with Gulp! baits are great options to bounce bottom along the edge of the ships. You will likely catch weakfish too.
In the James River around Newport News, puppy drum and some striped bass are being caught around docks and rip-rap shorelines. Paddletail swimbaits in the three to five inch range have been noted as productive. Shrimp lures will also start to come into play soon as we approach the time of year when big schools of shrimp arrive to these waters. September and October is a great time of year to keep a cast net handy to throw along marsh edges and in small tidal creeks. Fresh shrimp is one of the best baits to use for our inshore species, and you can also keep them to eat for yourself too. The tidal tributaries, including the Elizabeth River, Lynnhaven Inlet, Rudee Inlet, and Fisherman’s Island, will all be excellent locations to fish for red drum from now through the fall.
Large schools of red drum are still hanging around the CBBT islands. Weekdays are much less crowded on the water and offer a better chance at catching drum. Weekends have been busy, but you can still catch them. Just make sure to get an early start. Live croaker are working very well right now. It is also beneficial to have a good set of electronics with side scan or livescope to help locate the drum schools. In the main stem of the Bay, cobia are still the primary target. Catching them has not been an easy task lately, but tower boats are reporting that they are seeing a fair amount, they are just being finnicky.
Way South Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, August 8 Update:
Bull red drum have been a highlight around the first and second islands of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. A lot of boats have been targeting them, but weekdays are usually less crowded. Live croaker has been the hot bait, but boats locating them with livescope are having success with soft plastics when placing the bait into the drum school. Sheepshead fishing has been so-so recently. By this point in the year, they have been pressured a lot, but fiddler crabs are still catching fish at the CBBT pilings. Slack tide has been best, and covering a lot of pilings has been the key. If there are sheepshead where you are fishing, you should get bit quickly. A jet ski angler reported having an excellent day on the Bay this week despite windy conditions. They caught and released five cobia up to 41 inches, which is one of the better recreational cobia fishing reports we have seen lately. The cobia are around and anglers are spotting them on the surface but getting them to bite has been more challenging.
There has been a good weakfish bite for anglers bottom fishing and jigging near the Wise Point bridge and the Kiptopeke concrete ships. Fishbites will catch them along with croaker and spot. Jigging metal spoons or jigs also works very well for weakfish, and flounder tend to bite them too. The flounder have been caught near the concrete ships, around the islands of the CBBT, and in the coastal bays along the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Persistent NE winds have been plaguing the mouth of the Bay recently and Sea Hawk Sports Center reports that they have really cut down on opportunities both near and offshore. Even inside the inlets of the Virginia Barrier Islands, sheltered waters still offered immense challenges that were influenced by turbid water, high tides, and lots of grass to foul up your rigs. The steadfast and stubborn anglers who refused to surrender to the elements were able to boat a few flounder. Bluefish have been abundant at the CBBT, especially around the rocky islands. Casting artificial jigs or crankbaits has been working well near the third and fourth islands.