Mid Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay - Sunday, Mid-Bay Fishing Report

Fishing was good, not great but good. Put in a long day, fished from 8:15 to 3:30. Ended up with 7 keepers, had 3 throwbacks. One decent, 24” rock spit the hook at the net AAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHH. Largest fish was right at 30”, some nice 24s and a couple of barely 18s. Had a feisty 12 incher hit a 6” shad. Biggest tragedy of the day was a new to me rod I bought off of THT got hit twice and the 80# braid popped at the rod. First time, we thought it just might have been a chafe from rigging up, so we re-spooled and put it out again. Not 10 minutes later same deal, but this time we got about 50 feet of line back before it popped. Closer inspection with younger eyes found a broken guide about 4 from the end was cutting the line like a razor knife. Good news was, the way back line caught the lure! Have had that happen each trip this year. First trip, I was testing out a new rod holder for clearing the boat rods to net fish. And the new holder failed the whole damn rig went over, rod and all, next rod out caught it and we got it back!

Early, deep rods were the ticket, bottom bouncer with tandem storms in bunker color. Afternoon it was just about all roof rods. The “Carter Rig” I devised last year was hot again. Actually stole the idea from B-Faithful from tidal fish last year. Small 4 arm umbrella, a three way swivel behind the umbrella with a 2' and 4' leader to small bucktails. Try to find the bucktails with at least 5/0 hooks cuz I lost a real nice 38+ fish at the boat last year to a hook that snapped! The bucktails just guessing where about 1 1/2 and 3 oz sizes to get seperation. Have experimented with longer leaders but it leads to more tangles. Double headers are common with this rig in the fall.

Nicknamed it the Carter rig cuz that was the name of a fella getting married that I took the whole gang of fellas out from a bachelor party weekend and had a great trip. Caught probably 30 fish and that rig was responsible for 9 or so.

Have one like this in white and one in chartreuse. Both catch but would guess that the white one outfishes almost 2 to 1.

Fished pretty much right out in front of Breezy - 35 to 45 feet seemed to hold the most fish. A littler farther north than I usually go, but will hit that spot again. Seemed fishy. Just ran straight out of the Choptank, because that < 10 knot wind was closer to 20, blowing right down the ‘tank and we had to throttle back for the ride out. That much wind against a pretty fast tide really stacked the solid 3 footers up. Boat needed washing anyway.

Think the lull from the May worms is about over…..next couple of weeks should have some good fishing. Good marks and fish were everywhere, though the rock are not really schooled up just yet. I tried to find some spot from a seller that one of my guest knows, but he said he is not trapping yet and the marks I saw were really not concentrated enough to drop spot on anyway.

This is my 8 year old cousin with one of the nicer ones. Biggest fish he ever reeled in. Pretty sure he's hooked.

Have any trouble with grass on your lures? After that storm the other night there are rafts of grass floating in my creek. This time last year had the same thing with a lot of grass the first couple of weeks in June.

No trouble at all, in fact was worse two weeks ago.


Fair amount of floatsam out there though, nothing big that I noticed and most was on East side of channel where I ran out.


There is tons of grass in rivers and creeks I frequent this year, mostly in the Choptank. Most I have seen in 5 years, it's good and bad news. The cow nose rays will dig up tons of it.

Is that a Persian Rug in your cabin? :)

Why the "hinge" on the air intake vent?

Sure is, great for hiding dog hair and spilled foodstuffs :)

Boat customizers prerogative. I hinged that vent and mounted a camlock hookup to the washdown/livewell pump in the bilge. Not using, unhook the hose and no obtrusive or ugly spigots or hookups.

One of the few ideas I had that worked without major reworkings. Sometimes, like with fishing, you just get lucky.

Had planned a latch, but it fits just snug enough to keep itself closed.

Nice report. My umbrellas have caught a lot of fish with a short tandem behind them. Glad to see that the water looks "blueish" behind you! We have brown water up by the bridge and fishing has been tough. I did the light tackle tournament this weekend and ran out of Sandy Point. We didnt have very good fishing. We mustered some unders that the largest may have gone around 18, a cow-nose ray, and I managed to snag a big bunker which were everywhere by us. I didnt see a ton of grass as Mikie noted but I did see trees, logs, boards, etc floating down the bay on the ebb after the big flood tide we had Saturday morning. Be careful out there as I am sure some of the debris will be on the water a few days.

Dang, that was quick BF...guess I will have to give you some residuals from my patent.

Ha, couldn't swipe your idea without giving you some props.

Water is so clear that a buddy that crabs just off the mouth of the 'tank says he can see the crabs on the bottom in 5' of water.....making it real tough to net them.

Great report....thanks for posting.:thumbsup:

Nice fish!

thanks and keep it up. see you out there tomorrow.

I wish, but WILL be out there Saturday for a PM trip. Have to work til noon-ugh.