An Unusual Fish Showed Up!

One of my services is to help anglers split the cost of a trip and to enjoy the company of another angler.  Yesterday's trip was just that as Wayne Thomann, from NC, and John Kapral, from MD, enjoyed a day of light tackle fishing on the Chesapeake Bay.

It was a flood current in the morning making catching fish on lures tough. After lunch things changed around and with a swift ebb current catching became more productive.

Wayne was casting a ZMan 5 inch, Scented Jerk ShadZ, in Shiner, rigged on a BKD, 3/4 ounce jighead and the rod doubled over. I watched the line ripping off the reel and hoping it wasn't a cow nose ray. It wasn't as Wayne was able to retrieve some of the fiber line. I thought it was a nice striper, but Wayne said it didn't feel like one. Unfortunately he was right as I netted a large channel catfish. It put up an excellent fight and is excellent table fare.

It wasn't long before John's rod was bent to 90 degrees with the line going under the boat. The striper finally came up after taking drag and putting up an excellent fight.

Nice Catch John

Most Productive Lure: ZMan 5 inch, Scented Jerk ShadZ, in Shiner, rigged on a BKD, 3/4 ounce jighead

Most Productive Technique: Jigging the Bottom - Cast the lure.  Let it drop to the bottom, then lift your rod tip swiftly from 9 o’clock to 10 o’clock while taking up the slack line.  Repeat this again and again, until the lure is back at the boat.  Striped bass normally take the lure when it stops or starts to fall.

Fly Fishing on the Chesapeake Bay For Striped Bass - They're Starting to Show Up

Fly Fishing on the Chesapeake Bay has been a rather unpredictable this year. I've been fishing, except when there was ice on the Bay.   Until last Sunday locating striped bass while fly fishing on the Chesapeake Bay has been difficult. It now appears that the schooled stripers are starting to show up at the locations tas hey do each year in the Upper and Middle Chesapeake Bay.

This past Saturday, 05/16/15, I was joined by 2 father and son teams who were fly and light tackle fishing for striped bass.

Chris Johnson, Mark & Jeff Whitting, Don Johnson

Staying out of the south wind allowed everyone to fish at the same time. The mouth of the Severn River gave us some protection on the western shore.  Catching was possible, but difficult, due to the limited number of past productive locations that had been fishable.

Sunday turned out to be a productive trip for fly fishers from England. They were in DC for a conference and wanted to take a trip on the Chesapeake Bay and catch a striped bass. It would be the 1st for both of them.  George broke the skunk on his second cast by landing a nice 19" striper.

George's 1st Striped Bass

By the end of their trip they had caught a few doubles, and a good number of stripers.

Alistair Makin & George Webster - English Fly Fishers

There have been some good reports of nice stripers just south of Chesapeake Beach. They should be on the move to around the Bay Bridge and above....lets hope.

The Last Cast Payed Off

David Heath and I enjoyed a 6 hour light tackle fishing trip on the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. We launched at Buzz's Marina and headed southeast to the east side of the shipping channel where the Potomac River dumps into the Chesapeake Bay. We started picking up small bunches of stripers, which we call wolfpacks, on the sonar unit in 45 to 55 feet of water where most were locked to the bottom.

No birds were working all morning. The stripers ranged from 17 inches to 26 inches in this location.

Most Productive Lure: Butterfly Jig, 3 ounces, in gold & silver - Tochterman's Fishing Tackle

Click Here to Enlarge

Most Productive Technique: Vertically Jigging the Bottom - Open the bail until the lure comes in contact with the bottom. During the drift, jig the lure off are as close to the bottom as possible. 

David wanted to check out the Potomac River after lunch so northwest we headed and started running structures until the sonar unit lit up...

Water Depth 42 Feet

Sonar Bottomed Out on the Top of the Stripers 27 Feet

Click Here To Enlarge

Some of the stripers caught on the Potomac were in the upper 20 and low 30 inch class. They had sea lice on them and put up an excellent fight. I almost got spooled one time.

What a Way to End the Trip (read the title)

33" with Plenty of Sea Lice Hanging On

Click Here to Enlarge

If you would like to book a trip to fish this area of the Chesapeake Bay please call or TEXT me on 433-690-3164. I will be booking trips from now until the fish leave normally some time in early January.

If you are looking to do a Walk-On Trip, please call Capt. Brady Bounds at 301-904-0471.

Do Fish Swim in Historical Waters? (w/pics)

I picked up Frank and Marcia Stonebarger, from Stockton CA, at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, on the promenade just west of the U.S. Constellation at 6:00am sharp. It was still dark out and the bright red Domino Sugars lit up the water as we headed west on the Patapsco River.

This Sign Has Been Here Since 1920

The air was cool and the water temperature was 78 degrees, just right for some topwater action in the skinnys.  Frank had 3 blowups before this nice striper finally took the fly in historical waters.

Click Here to Enlarge

After the sun came up we left the River and headed south on the Chesapeake Bay.  After trying a few structures unsuccessfully, we moved to Love Point where a strong outgoing current was ripping out of the Chester River. This was the 2nd time since I've been guiding where there were no fish on the ledges or up on the Point.  No problem.  We just kept heading south and once we hit the Bay Bridge there were plenty of stripers in the 16 to 17 inch class to be caught on a 3" Half & Half, blue and white, using sinking fly line.  The majority of fish caught throughout the day were stripers with a few nice bluefish mixed in. All and all everyone had a very enjoyable day on the Chesapeake Bay.  

With the days becoming shorter and the night longer, some nice stripers should start moving up the Bay, so don't winterize the boat or put the tackle away. The upcoming months can be the best fishing during the open season. 

I will be at the on Sep 27, 2014 giving Seminars. Please see: http://capttomhughes.com/Seminars/Seminars.htm

Fly Fishing on the Chesapeake Bay

With outstanding weather over the holiday, I had the pleasure of guiding John Pietropaoli and his friend, Mark Arden.  We started by visiting some of the local hot spots, but with slow current we moved to 'the ships' anchored in the middle of the Bay.

John was fly fishing and is an excellent caster.  He was the 1st client this year to catch a keeping size striper on the fly.  He was using a 9 weight Helos rod, Mirage reel spooled with 350 grain depth charge sinking line.  The striper took a 3" half and half.

John Holding a Nice Striper 

Monday I had the opportunity to watch a father, Jim Reading, and son, John, team up to fly fish at Poplar Island and on Eastern Bay.  They normally fly fish freshwater for trout, but you would never known that after watching John cast sinking fly line.  He had no problem rolling the fly over about 60 to 70 feet from the boat.  Achieving that distance is a real plus when fly fishing 'the salt'. It allows you to catch more fish for 2 reasons; the fly covers more water, and this keeps it in the strike zone longer.

John Caught His 1st Striper Ever on a Fly

Most Productive Technique:
Short Striping Sinking Line (with sinking line)-Cast the fly out and count it down to the desired depth.  If the line gets tight during the countdown, get additional line in the water.  To accomplish this, put the rod tip just above the water and figure 8 the tip putting more line in the water.  This allows the fly to sink where it hit the water.  Start stripping the line in 1-foot increments, swiftly, back toward the boat.

Most Productive Fly:

Tommy Mattie 3"/4" Half and Half

For those who were nice enough to book a live lining trip there are no spot available at this time. They normally show up after the 1st week of June.  I will contact you then.

Educational Video-Light Tackle Fishing for Striped Bass with a Suspended Jerkbait

Click on Above Picture to View a Short Video
Explaining Who to do this Technique

NEXT MONTH

Click on the Above Picture to See the Agenda

Information on Winter Fishing

Click on Current Chart to see Full Size.

Fishing Current (and when and where) will be covered during my Lecture Series.

Click to see a short video.

Taking Your Best Buddy Fishing

Curt planned a fly-fish outing for his best fishing buddy, Bruce, who was also his father.  They have fly-fished many exotic locations throughout the years and wanted to add one more location, the Chesapeake Bay.  Their plan was to catch some hard fighting striped bass and other saltwater species.

The weather during both days was outstanding; not too hot or humid, with a slight breeze keeping the waves low on the water.  There hadn't been much topwater action in prior days, so a 9 weight fly rod, teamed with sinking fly line, and a 3" sinking clouser fly, were used and were very productive during the entire trip.

Nice striper caught by Curt on the 1st day

Click to Enlarge

A little variety

Click to Enlarge

It's always a pleasure to show my clients some of the Chesapeake Bay jewels.

Thomas Point Lighthouse

Click to Enlarge

Unfortunately I always have to call 'last cast'.  When I did Bruce made one of those casts all fly anglers like to make, right up to Sandy Point Lighthouse.  On the 1st strip it was fish on.  The outing finished with Bruce catching a nice 23" striper, tying up the score of 140 fish (70 each) for the 2 day outing.

Curt and Bruce - 'Best Fishing Buddies'

Click to Enlarge