Rockfish for the Taking
Striped bass are hitting their winter stride.
Rockfish still plentiful. The Shea-D-Lady had this catch Sunday.
Striped bass are hitting their winter stride.
Todd Hileman caught this rockfish in the snow last Friday in the Patuxent.
The Potomac has excellent rockfish numbers from the 301 bridge south to Smith Point. The breaking fish are coming up daily near buoy 5 and off the oil docks at Piney Point. That is about the lower six miles of the Potomac. The fish will gather at the Triangle area between Smith Point and Point Lookout. Stripers from the sea will mingle with domestic rockfish there throughout the winter months before migrating to the creeks and rivers of the bay to spawn in late February. Recreational fishermen will be able to get their meager limit of one per day in the slot of 19 to 24 inches until December 31 in the Potomac and Virginia. The Maryland waters close to rockfish catches December 10.
Captain Greg Buckner topped off a limit of rockfish with this great catch of white perch out of Solomons.
The Patuxent River produced rockfish and white perch all last week in good numbers. Experienced fishermen did well with rockfish trolling most everywhere up and down the river and loaded up on perch in the deep holes from Sandy Point to Point Patience in the vicinity of the Solomons bridge. The perch suddenly started playing hide and seek on Sunday. There were good catches made but they had to be sought out as they (temporarily ?) left the hot spots of the previous week.
Those are snowflakes in this photo of a great catch last Friday in the Patuxent on the Shea- D- Lady.
The rockfish are there for the catch in the Potomac. The only limiting factor is the winter winds that will close out the fishing on many days. Take advantage of the calmer days as they come. Please, take no chances when the small craft warnings are up.
White perch became more elusive on Sunday in the Patuxent, but Captain Bernie Shea found them in 95 feet.