Cobia Heaven
Cobia have taken center stage in southern Maryland waters.
Chummers using chum logs and cut alewife are setting up chum lines in the lower bay and are catching some beauties. Live eels in the chum lines are attracting plenty of strikes. There are lots of boaters fishing the area from the Target Ship to Smith Point and beyond into Virginia waters. The fish are more numerous and bigger than last season with few below the 40 inch minimum size.
Spoilers in all this are the cow nosed rays (skate) that love to eat the bait intended for cobia. However, the cobia hang around the schools of rays; even thought they can be pesky, they are an indicator that you are doing everything right.
Trollers using big surgical eels are having some success. Trolling allows you to cover a lot of water.
Plenty of big fish.
Bucky and Brent Buckmaster landed lots of cobia this week.
Sot fishing is excellent with the mouth of the Patuxent being ground zero. They are getting bigger. There are more bloodworms in the bait shops this week.
Perch are in the rivers for lure casters along the shoreline. Look for clean water free of nettles. The creeks are not as productive for perch as tide flows have been poor and the nettles are thick. Sea nettles love hot salty water and we have plenty of that this year. We normally see this in August, but the dog days have arrived early.
Spanish mackerel are still on the horizon. Blues are here now in Cedar Point Hollow and at the targets.
Intrepid fisherman Alex Sordowski with his 32 inch striper caught just as the Maryland season ended. Alex fishes at night from the Patuxent shoreline. The season reopens Aug.1.