Summer is Late
Cold and wind continue to plague us as summer is reluctant to appear.
Justin Dykstra leads the May Tackle Box catfish contest with this 34-incher; the big blue cat weighed 13 lbs. 11 ozs.
Our average highs will be a full ten degrees below average, and our lows will be about six degrees below average for the next few days. These will be breezy days too, making conditions poor for the fine art of fishing.
Erick Packard with the first speckled trout of the season that we have encountered. Caught in Cornfield Harbor last Saturday.
Eric found plenty of eager rockfish too.
However, there have been encouraging catches of stripers and trout by hardy fishermen in the mouth of the Potomac and by trollers north of Ragged Point.
Trolling in the Potomac, Captain Bernie Shea is getting limits for parties aboard the Shea-D-Lady.
The Patuxent River opens for rockfish season on Sunday, June 1. The river should have plenty of stripers for trollers and lure casters in the shallows and deep.
Rockfish catch in the Potomac for Memorial Day.
The Potomac on the Virginia side from Colonial Beach to the 301 bridge is hot for trollers catching schoolie striped bass. Other locations are good, but you have to work for the fish.
Hefty catfish will take a trolled lure amongst the stripers.
Kayakers casting plastics on jig heads are doing well on rockfish and an occasional speckled trout in Cornfield Harbor. There are reported good catches in Smith Creek and the St. Mary's River off the Potomac.
Justin Bressler with his 11 inch white perch entry into The Tackle Box big perch contest for May.
A good running tide is imperative for the fish to bite.
A good catch of about 30 spot was reported on the St. Mary's side of the Patuxent just north of the Solomons Bridge Sunday evening, off a pier. Many of the spot were eating size. The mouth of the Patuxent, as far north as Cuckold Creek, should have plenty of spot by the time you read this.
There are catfish in the upper regions of the Patuxent and Potomac.
There is a severe shortage of bait fish (alewife, bunker, menhaden) that is affecting crabbers and fishermen. The big bait dealers say they are having trouble finding bait fish, grass shrimp and even minnows. Crabbers are resorting to mud shad and even razor clams to bait their pots.
Summer will arrive and there will be complaints about the heat. But not from me [Ken Lamb].