July 8th, 2020 - As Good as it Gets
Spot, Cobia, Rockfish, Perch, Trout, are all in the mix for fabulous fishing in Southern Maryland.
Main Image: Rheanne Turner and her 11 inch white Perch.
The spot are thick in the mouth of the Patuxent. When they get going on the change of tide, the only limiting factor is the amount of bait and exhaustion. The spot are covering the bottom from the mouth of the river to Benedict and beyond. There are some tiny croaker mixed with the spot in the northern regions; put them back carefully; they are the future.
Cobia are now ranging from Hooper's Island Light to the mouth of the bay and are in very good numbers. Techniques for catching include trolling with surgical eels, chumming or chunking with alewife, drifting live eels, and sight casting.
Rockfish are in the shallows for casters and trollers at dawn and dusk; and in the deep on most any moving tide. Both the Patuxent and Potomac have plenty of stripers.
First Image: Drew Stroter landed this 28 lb. cobia from near the Va. line. Second Image: Zack Norris landed this 47 lb. cobia fishing with Capt. Kyle Johnson.
Speckled trout are in Tangier Sound and in the salt islands. There are scattered catches of trout in the Potomac around the mouth of St. Mary's River and at Cedar Point. These fish are mixed with rockfish and caught by lure casters in the early hours along the shoreline.
White perch are everywhere in the creeks and in the rivers for lure casters and sinker dunkers. Bloodworms remain in short supply, but they will hit most frozen baits and night crawlers when hungry enough, spot too.
Fresh water fishing is excellent.
First Image: Issac with nice bass caught on a waky worm rig. Second Image: Capt. Bernie Shea's catch Saturday morning from the Patuxent.