The summer season is in full swing, and it’s a wonderful time to take the family for visits or take short trips together close to home. Be sure to take our youngest aspiring anglers fishing and start them out with plenty of action.
As a reminder, the Chesapeake Bay recreational striped bass fishery is open to harvest through July 31 and then closed the entire month of August, reopening Sept. 1. This is to help protect our iconic species from the stress of being targeted during times of high temperatures and low oxygen levels.
During the remaining striped bass season, anglers should check the forecast and the Click Before You Cast before setting out.
Forecast Summary: July 22 – July 28
Main Bay surface and river mouth water temperatures are holding in the low 8s and will likely continue to rise all week. Smaller rivers and streams temperatures have risen to the upper 70s and low 80s. With recent storms, bottom oxygen levels should be improving throughout the week. Currently there is adequate oxygen in most Bay bottom waters except near Indian Head to the Wicomico River (Potomac River) and in the Bay from the Sassafras River down to the Bay Bridge area.
Expect average flows for most Maryland rivers and streams. Expect average clarity for most Maryland portions of the Bay and rivers. To see the latest water clarity conditions on NOAA satellite maps, check Eyes on the Bay Satellite Maps. There will be above average tidal currents Friday through Tuesday because of the full moon on July 29.
As always, the best fishing areas could be further refined by intersecting them with underwater points, hard bottom, drop-offs, and large schools of baitfish. For more detailed and up-to-date fishing conditions in your area of the bay, be sure to check out Eyes on the Bay’s Click Before You Cast.
Upper Chesapeake Bay
The Conowingo Dam is on a typical summer pattern of evening power generation. Anglers are enjoying good fishing for striped bass during the morning and evening hours and fishing for a mix of catfish species during the day. Casting paddletails, soft plastic jigs, and cut bait are popular ways to fish for the striped bass. Fishing cut bait deeper will get one into the catfish zone. Chesapeake Channa are always in play at the dam pool because it is a dead end for them in their upriver travels.
Anglers are finding some early morning and late evening striped bass action along the edges of the Susquehanna Flats. The fishing shuts down as soon as the sun clears the horizon, then anglers can shift to jigging along deeper channel edges, live lining spot, or drifting cut bait. As one moves farther down the upper Bay, dissolved oxygen values decline rapidly below 10 feet in many areas. Anglers are reporting striped bass action near the Love Point rocks when live-lining spot or casting jigs.
Blue catfish have moved up the tidal rivers looking for better bottom water quality and can be seen farther upriver than you might think. The mouth of the Susquehanna has good dissolved oxygen values so it is a good place for them to congregate. Current breaks and water depths of about 25 feet are good places to start in your search for them. The August 1-31 striped bass closure is on the horizon for Chesapeake Bay anglers, so fishing for blue catfish can help provide plenty of fishing action during that time.
Fishing for white perch in the tidal rivers can provide some good fishing for anglers. The morning and evening hours tend to offer some of the best fishing opportunities. Fishing with grass shrimp, peeler crab, or bloodworms on a bottom rig in deeper waters is a popular way to fish for them. During the early morning and late evening hours is a good time to cast spin-jigs, spinnerbaits and jigs near shoreline structure.
Chesapeake Channa are active in and near the grass beds of the Susquehanna Flats and the shallower sections in the upper portions of the region’s tidal rivers. Casting soft frogs, chatterbaits and buzzbaits over the grass is a good way to get their attention. Casting paddletails near the edges of the grass beds is another good tactic.
Middle Bay
Anglers fishing at the Bay Bridge may experience some low dissolved oxygen situations below 20 feet or so, depending on the tide. Live-lining spot back to the bridge pier bases is a popular tactic at the 30-foot channel edge on the eastern side of the bridge. Casting soft plastic jigs at bridge pier bases in shallower waters is also a good tactic. Both methods of fishing are best done during the early morning or evening hours on a moving tide. The shallower waters on the west side of the bridge has been a good place to catch spot, croaker, and white perch.
The shallower waters of the middle Bay, where currents are moving and there is structure, are good places to cast a variety of lures during the early morning and late evening hours. Anglers are reporting a few speckled trout and bluefish in the mix. Locations such as the Kent Narrows are also a good place to fish for striped bass by live lining spot, jigging or casting paddletails, depending on the time of day. The Kent Narrows is also a good place to fish for white perch.
Water temperatures in the middle Bay are holding around 83 degrees this week and hopefully will stay in the low 80s for the rest of the month. Hot weather will most likely descend on Maryland again and water temperatures could rise to critical levels. This is the reason for the striped bass closure from August 1 through August 31, due to high mortality rates from released striped bass. In the meantime, anglers are urged to release fish in the water and not expose them to the air. Catch-and-release of striped bass should be minimized and fish brought to release quickly with stout tackle. The DNR website offers best practices for catch-and-release fishing.
Live-lining spot is a very popular way to fish for striped bass this week. Good locations include the east side of the shipping channel from Buoy 83, south past Sharps Island, and the False Channel down to the CP Buoy. Thomas Point is another good location to explore. Bluefish are a major part of the mix anglers will see, especially around Sharps Island. Saving pieces of spot and drifting cut pieces is a great way to catch the bluefish.
Trolling is another good option. A mixed spread of Drone spoons, umbrella rigs, bucktails and surge tubes lures can work for striped bass and bluefish. The spoons, umbrella rigs, and surge tubes lures will need to be pulled behind inline weights.
The blue catfish in the Choptank River and Tuckahoe Creek have moved upriver near Denton and above the Route 328 bridge on the creek, and are providing some of the best fishing this week. Cut bait of menhaden, gizzard shad, or even white perch will work well and a variety of scented baits will do the job.
White perch can be found in the region’s tidal rivers and creeks. Grass shrimp, peeler crab, or bloodworms on a simple bottom rig is a very popular way to fish off docks and boats. In the early morning and late evening, casting small spinnerbaits, spin-jigs along promising looking shorelines is always a fun way to catch a nice grade of white perch.
Lower Bay
There are a lot of varied fishing opportunities this week in the lower Bay for anglers fishing in boats or from shore. Striped bass, bluefish, cobia, red drum, speckled trout, spot, croaker, and blue catfish are all on an anglers play list this week. Spanish mackerel may show up soon.
Striped bass, speckled trout, and bluefish are entertaining anglers who are casting a mix of poppers, paddletails and soft plastic jigs during the early morning and late evening hours along the shorelines of the tidal rivers, bay and Tangier Sound. The mouth of the St. Marys River, Point Lookout, Cedar Point, Hoopers Island, and the shores and creek mouths of Tangier Sound are all good places to explore and fish.
Striped bass are also being caught along channel edges by live-lining or drifting cut spot. Finding the fish suspended along channel edges with depth finders is a key to success. The steep channel edge from St. George Island to Piney Point, Cedar Point, Cove Point, the HS Buoy, and the Target Ship are locations worth exploring.
Bluefish are available throughout the region from the shallower waters to the edges of the deep channels. They range in size from 3 pounds to a whopping 10 pounds! They will come barging in on anglers who are live-lining spot or chumming for cobia, and they can be caught by drifting cut bait along channel edges. Trolling is a good option with spoons or surge tubes lures, which have been very popular lately in a variety of colors including red, green, white, pink, and orange. When trolling with surge tubes lures, one might be lucky enough to pick up a cobia.
Fishing for cobia is good near Smith Point, the Target Ship area, and Point Lookout. Anglers are chumming and drifting live eels to the back of their chum slicks. They are also able to sight-cast cobia swimming near the surface on calm days. A large percentage of the cobia being caught are a little short of the required 43-inch total length.
Large red drum are moving about in the lower Bay and can often be located near Point Lookout, the Target Ship area, and the Middle Grounds. Slicks, troubled water, and marks on depth finders can help locate schools. Jigging with soft plastics is popular but soft crab baits are a welcomed treat to large red drum. At times the large red drum can be caught by trolling large chrome spoons.
Drifting soft crab baits is a favored way to fish for speckled trout at the mouths of the creeks coming from the marshes of Tangier and Pocomoke sounds during the outgoing tide. Casting Zara Spooks and paddletails over grass beds and stump fields during the morning and evening hours is also a good way to fish for speckled trout.
Spot can be found just about anywhere in the lower Bay region this month. The larger ones can be found in deeper waters and smaller ones in shallow waters. Croaker will be mixed in with the larger spot. The lower Patuxent River and the mouth of the Nanticoke, Hoopers Island, and Tangier are all holding spot and croaker. Anglers report the action comes to an abrupt halt when bottlenose dolphins show up. White perch can be mixed in and will also be found in the tidal creeks.
Blue Crabs
Recreational crabbers are seeing better catches as we approach the end of July. The deeper waters of 12-20 feet have been producing the largest crabs. Some may be light and should be released to fatten up. Razor clams are the number one bait but unfortunately are number one with cownose rays. Recreational crabbers are catching crabs in all regions of the Bay, with some of the best catches coming from the middle and lower regions.
Freshwater Fishing
It’s summertime on Deep Creek Lake and with that comes tourists, vacations, and a lot of boat traffic on the lake. Hot weather causes people to gravitate to the cool waters of the lake and can make it tough on fishermen looking for quiet places. The best largemouth bass and smallmouth bass fishing is in the early mornings and just before dark. Points are a good place to fish but are often busy with boat traffic, so many anglers look for coves. Try the edges of the deeper grass with spinnerbaits and small crankbaits. Anglers are still finding bass under docks and catwalks during the day when they can find a quiet spot. The bass tend to be lazy at this time so wacky rigged worms or lizards plopped right in front of their face is what is sometimes needed to get them to strike. Find Deep Creek Lake’s fishing hotspots on the DNR website.
The upper Potomac River is in a typical summer phase of low water flows and relatively elevated water temperatures. Shoreline anglers are wading carefully in areas where they can make long casts out into areas where smallmouth bass are holding near current breaks, boulders, and underwater ledges. Root beer-colored tubes, swimbaits, and small crankbaits are just a few of the popular lures anglers are using. The early morning and evening hours offer some of the best fishing opportunities for anglers to fish from boats or from shore.
Largemouth bass are in a typical summer mode of behavior of feeding during the night and resting wherever they can find cool shade during the heat of the day. The early morning and late evening hours are good times to fish near shallow grass beds, feeder creeks, and shoreline structure. Frogs, buzzbaits and chatterbaits can be good choices when fishing grass. Spinnerbaits, soft plastics, and paddletails can work well along the edges of grass. During the later morning hours, flipping wacky-rigged soft plastics near fallen treetops, shoreline brush, or under docks can be a good tactic. Dropping weighted wacky-rigged stick worms through floating grass mats is another good tactic. When fishing for largemouth bass near or over grass in tidal waters, Chesapeake Channa can be encountered.
Atlantic Ocean and Coastal Bays
Surf anglers that are fishing with small baits of bloodworms, artificial bloodworm baits, shrimp or squid are catching kingfish, spot, northern puffers and flounder. Those fishing larger baits of cut mullet or menhaden are catching large bluefish, sandbar sharks, and large red drum.
Dredging operations at the Ocean City Inlet has begun and will continue till the end of the month, just in time for the White Marlin Open. More information on the impacts for inlet mariners is available online.
At the inlet and Route 50 Bridge area, a mix of striped bass and bluefish are being caught during the early morning and late evening or nighttime hours. Casting soft plastic jigs or drifting cut bait is a popular way to fish for them near jetty rocks, piers and bridge piers. Sheepshead are being caught on sand fleas and flounder are always present.
Flounder fishing in the channels leading from the inlet and back bay areas is very good this month. Drifting the channel waters with various baits, skirted baits, and Gulp baits continues to be good if the bay waters continue to be clear.
Outside the inlet in the nearshore waters, trolling a mix of Drone spoons, surge tubes lures and Clark spoons is a good way to target bluefish and occasional schools of Spanish mackerel. The inshore lumps and reef sites are holding some large flounder, sea bass and triggerfish.
The wreck and reef sites found farther offshore are providing catches of black sea bass, and a mix of triggerfish, flounder, and hake. The areas with lobster buoys are now holding schools of small dolphin, which are fun to catch on light spinning tackle.
Farther offshore anglers are finding additional numbers of the small dolphin near commercial fishing and lobstering buoys. The boats trolling are catching a mix of yellowfin tuna and white marlin at the canyons. Those stopping to do some deep drop fishing are catching blueline and golden tilefish and a few large snowy grouper have also been brought into the docks. Anglers and boat captains are reminded that they must report tilefish catches electronically. The NOAA website contains the information anglers and boat captains need.
“There is something about a boat that is powerful soothing to springtime hysterics; you can also learn a whole lot about yourself. Ain’t nothing like a boat to teach a man the worth of quiet contemplation.” – Robert Ruark, “The Old Man And The Boy”
Maryland Fishing Report is written and compiled by Keith Lockwood, fisheries biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
The Forecast Summary is written by Tidewater Ecosystem Assessment Director Tom Parham.
A reminder to all Maryland anglers, please participate in DNR’s Volunteer Angler Surveys. This allows citizen scientists to contribute valuable data to the monitoring and management of sea.