Midsummer Daydream
We are in midsummer protective mode for striped bass.
No fishing or targeting stripers in either the Potomac or Bay. Come August 1st, the season reopens. The good news is that our bottom fishing is excellent with fabulous spot everywhere, and some decent croakers showing up.
The Patuxent is loaded with spot!
There are speckled trout to be sought in the mouth of the Potomac and the salt islands. Slot red fish are scattered about. Tiny reds are mixed with the white perch in the creeks.
Capt. Bernie Shea out of Solomon's continues to fill the fish boxes with spot.
On an outing last Wednesday, three of us on Capt. Brady Bounds' boat, the Miss Lena, ventured up the Patuxent at daybreak targeting white perch and rockfish. It was a couple of days before the summer closure and we threw some surface poppers near Sotterley and the mouth of St. Leonard's Creek. The stripers exploded on our lures, and we got many hits that missed. We then settled on casting tiny spinner baits to perch. We fished from the mouth of Miles Creek on the Calvert shore toward the mouth of the river along the clay banks.
It doesn't get better than this.
We steadily caught perch for a couple of hours. We culled the fish at 9 inches and kept 24. The best lure was a ¼ ounce orange Beetle Spin tipped with a piece of bloodworm, which far out-performed fancier lures. Some of the bigger perch took a white Perch Pounder. There were some rockfish prowling about eating the tiny spot that are infesting the river and they were not above hitting our lures meant for perch, but we didn't hook up. We were back at the Solomons boat ramp by 10:30 and temperature at 85 degrees. The cool of the delightful morning had worn off so we went home to clean fish.
Jay Ellis and Brady Bounds fished the Patuxent last Wednesday and found rockfish hitting surface poppers and white perch hitting Beetle Spins.
Cobia and spanish mackerel are coming. There were several big cobia caught at Smith Point Sunday. Cutlass fish are hitting lures in the mouth of the Patuxent. Bluegill, crappie, and pickerel are at St. Mary's Lake and local ponds.
Novice from PA caught these in less than an hour on an orange Beetle Spin tipped with Fish Bites as instructed by Tackle Box staff.
There are plenty of big snakehead in the upper ends of creeks seeking fresher water.
Cutlass fish are in the hot salty water in shallows, eager to hit cast lures.