May 1, 2019 - This Week

The bite is the same in both the Potomac and the bay, Trollers are using tandems, parachutes, mo-jos, and umbrella rigs in a rainbow of colors, but the success seems to come to those who stick to it and put in the time ,regardless of lure or color. As the spawn winds down and the water warms, we may get a spurt of activity. We can only hope we have our lures in the water when the bite turns on.

Boaters traveling to the salt islands found plenty of rockfish in the cuts, holes, and structures. The stripers are in the 14 to 28 inch category and have been carefully released. A 20 inch speckled trout was taken on a cast bucktail along with the hungry rockfish.

White perch and catfish are biting for bottom fishermen and shore casters. Some undersized rockfish have been caught off the beaches at Cedar Point and the mouth of the Patuxent. We can keep two rockfish per day with a minimum of 19 inches in mid-May (16th).

We await the first croaker, spot, and bluefish of the year. The cool evenings when the temperatures drop into the 40's are not an incentive to the summer migration.

Bass, bluegill, pickerel, and crappie are all active in ponds and St. Mary's Lake. The crappie love live minnows, and the bluegill will eat live crickets.

James Ropczynsky trolled a tandem rig noth of the Gas Docks and landed this 47 inch, 49 pound rockfish.

John Emelenson landed this 40 inch, 26 pound rockfish near buoy 68 in the bay.

Crappie from local farm pond this week