June 16th, 2021 - Cobia Season Opens

The minimum size is 40 inches and the limit is one per person per day, with a boat maximum of two fish. The favorite locations to find these big bruisers is in the lower bay from the Target Ship to the Virginia line. The fish also foray in the shallow waters in the Mud Leads all the way to Richland (Richland Point).

Trollers use big surgical eels with success. Chummers grind alewife and drift chunks of cut bait or live eels into the chum line. Another technique is to visit a likely location and chunk pieces of cut bait and see if the fish show, if not, it is off to another location. There is a lot of water out there and the schools of fish seem to be always on the move,; the trick is to find them and present the bait and hope for the best.

The big bull reds (channel bass, red drum) tend to move around with the cobia.

I heard rumors of trollers and casters out of St. Jerome's Creek caught some Spanish mackerel and bluefish late last week. The Spanish are a favorite food fish for the cobia and reds.

Rockfish are in the Potomac for trollers and lure casters in the shallows and in the deep, but the major schools seem to be heading up the river all the way to Port Tobacco. The Patuxent has plenty of rockfish around the shorelines, getting one 19 inches can be a challenge.

There are tons of small spot in the Patuxent from the Line marker at Hog Point to Benedict. These fish will need another couple of weeks to grow big enough to eat. Plenty of perch now mixed with the spot. Bigger perch are available for spinner bait throwers along the shore lines of the Patuxent and Potomac and in the creeks.

There are catfish in the upper reaches of the rivers and one can fill the boat with these tasty fish using fresh cut alewife.

Intrepid anglers are loading up on large mouth bass at St. Mary's lake. One kayak fisherman reported landing 31 bass in an outing along with crappie, sunfish, and pickerel.