Fishing Blog
-
 It is with great enthusiasm that I am writing to tell you about Lateral Line. Lateral Line is a company that I started with my brother, Spencer, over two years ago with the goal of making a technical year-round fishing clothing system for striped bass anglers. The idea behind Lateral Line’s year-round clothing system is...
Fishing Reports
 Overall fishing though out the region has been good for striped bass. Light tackle anglers are putting away the trolling gear and finding some good jigging action in the lower portion of Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay. The Susquehanna Flats season ends today (Friday) and went out with a few stretches of some fantastic top water fishing over the last week and a half. However... The spring saltwater fishery is escalating, with catches improving most everywhere. And as expected, the emerging drum scene is motivating anglers to gather peelers and clams, and head for the Eastern Shore shoals as the chances of hooking into a trophy drum improve daily. The red drum continue to provide action among the breakers and sloughs near Smith and Fishermans Island, with scattered reports of bulls also coming from... WHAT’S THE STORY WITH STRIPED BASS? Don’t know about you guys, but my fall season was a poor one. There was a noticeable lack of those big fat pig fish that we all dream about. If it wasn’t for those albies I would have called it a bust. Last spring wasn’t so hot either. It’s not just me… There’s a growing chorus of anglers that are concerned about the perceived lack of fish over the 20-pound mark. And the farther North one goes the louder those complaints get...New Jersey is really getting going. Looks like the guys at Shore Catch Guide service may even have an IGFA all tackle world record weakfish on their hands. Lower New York Harbor essentially went off this week. Crazy good fishing… Across the Island, there are schoolie bass blitzes popping up in the inner bays and bass setting up at there usual spring haunts in the back bays, and there are big bluefish just about everywhere. There have been wonderful grass-shrimp hatches in the mud –flats. The best folks have seen in years… And the stripers and weakfish have been on them big-time! Really good fishing in some very shallow water. Out east the fishing seems to be kicking into gear also, with mostly schoolie bass and for sure some pigs are being taken by the sharpies. Big bluefish out there also. This may be the year of the bluefish. In Connecticut it’s schoolie city. Rhode Island is just really getting going with mostly small bass around with a few bluefish moving north. Same deal with...
 Fishing success rates were moderate-good in most modes this week when anglers were able to avoid the unfavorable weather conditions. Water temps in the surf throughout the region remain in the lower 60s. A brief warming trend is predicted for the coming week allowing anglers to access all modes of fishing...I'm seeing more tarpon around the Mayport jetties, which is encouraging. The pogies are scattered, but you can catch "greenies" on bait rigs at the jetty tips. Some bait size mullet can be cast netted on the outside of the rocks. Just when you think things are going to improve......here comes the wind, waves and wetness in force to keep most anglers inside rather than on the water. Strong winds have prevailed this week along the Treasure Coast bringing rain along with it.  Warmer water and less wind again brought this week brought some early rooster and jack action up toward Punta Pescadero and beyond to El Cardonal. Some better quality fish to 20 lbs. were found crashing on sardina close to shore. The bait also attracted a mixture of sierra, pargo and pompano,
Inshore the sierra and white bonito were concentrated in front of La Ribera and down to Punta Colorada.
Offshore there were rumors of a few marlin out beyond thirty miles and a few small dorado spread throughout Palmas bay.Up at Muertos, the grande yellowtail were still continuing their early season snap. Also some pargo and jacks were around to tear up tackle... I’ve said before that it’s the current direction and strength that is the most important factor when it comes to the bite being good or bad in Kona. The best news is that it’s finally over! The current has stabilized to its typical North direction and although it’s moving a bit fast, the fish are coming back. It started with a sudden influx of blue marlin and ...
Local Weather
You do not have a ZIP code set in your preferences. Please update your preferences.
|
Featured Article
|
|
| By Captain Mark Galasso |
|
 Perhaps no other fishery in the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay meets with more anticipation than the Spring Trophy Rockfish Season. Generally starting in mid April it affords Bay Anglers their best opportunity to land a true Trophy. In March waves of Rockfish leave their wintering grounds from the coastal waters off of Virginia and North Carolina and start the annual migration to the spawning areas of the Chesapeake Bay. A full seventy percent or more of the East Coast striped bass population heads for the fresh water lines up the Bay and in it’s tributaries. Rivers like the Potomac, Chester, Choptank and the head of the Bay wait for the spawning runs of the Rockfish as well as Herring and other forage species. For the Bay it’s like an awakening. Not only for the inhabitants under the water but for the fisherman who can’t wait to get on the water....
Arguably the best way to target striped bass during the Spring is trolling. Everyone has a little different technique. And some work better than others. So this is how I fish the Trophy striped bass season. For lures I tend to fish double parachutes with stingers and Shads and Silver #18 Tonys. I rig the Parachutes so that each pair match. White with white and Chartruese with Chartruese. I like dark heads. One is twice the size of the other. The smaller one is rigged on 12 feet of 80lb mono. The heavier one is on 6ft of 80lb mono. I crimp or use a loop knot for all connections. The lures are rigged to a 3 way swivel. Tonys are rigged with 20ft of 50lb mono to a 4 to 12 ounce trolling weight.... |
|
| Read More > |
|
|
| By Steve vonBrandt |
|
 The Upper Chesapeake Bay has been receiving a lot of notoriety over the last few years due to the improved catch rates and overall weight increases reported in the tournaments. While the “true” river rats have known of this bass fishing hotbed for some time now, the recent success is attracting clubs from all over Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and even as far away as New York. Most of this pressure has converged on the Elk River, and the Tyding’s Park area in Havre de Grace, Md., since these areas provide more than adequate launching and parking facilities that are necessary to hold the tournaments. Many of the smaller club tournaments also start from the Northeast and Elk River areas.
With this influx of angling pressure, many of the traditional “hot spots” have become increasingly crowded during the weekends, and have forced anglers to make longer and longer runs in search of untapped bass waters. Many of these anglers have now discovered that the twenty to thirty minute drive through sometimes rough and unsafe water, to the Sassafras River, has been well worth the effort. Upon arriving they realize that not only is this river not as pressured, but the fishing rivals or surpasses any that they previously encountered on any of the other Upper Bay rivers. Over the past five years, we have spent an average of four days a week on the Sassafras River, and over this course of time have learned many of the subtle intricacies of this scenic and fertile river. |
|
| Read More > |
|
|
| By Brett Gaba |
|
 Typically in saltwater fly fishing, and more specifically with fly fishing on the Chesapeake Bay, heading out into the big water and searching for breaking blues and stripers is option #1, and fishing underwater structure is option #2. Both of these options require a boat that’s capable of moving from spot to spot, or from school to school.
I personally own a small, humble boat and I am on the water often, or as often as time and work permit. On good days, my boat is capable of getting from spot to spot, but not when the winds are over 10mph. Because of my restrictions I’m not typically in the open water of the Chesapeake Bay proper, or even the middle of Tangier Sound, but mostly about as far as my 16’ johnboat will take me on a nice day—maybe to the mouth of a river, or near a rip that sets up in a tributary creek.
This restriction forced me to discover an underappreciated fishery, a nearby fishery virtually unexplored and unfished with a fly rod. From a realistic standpoint, I could wait for that perfect, windless day to come in order to get out on the big water for stripers and blues, or I could explore the fishery that I had access to, nearby areas that held good numbers of croaker and the occasional seatrout.
|
|
| Read More > |
|
|
| By Maryland Department of Natural Resources |
|
| Underwater bay grass acreage throughout much of Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay suffered a setback in 2006 as a result of high rainfalls in many parts of the Bay watershed. Total acreage in Maryland dropped to 32,586 acres in 2006, down nearly 9,734 acres from 42,320 acres in 2005. |
|
| Read More > |
|
|
| By Brandon White |
|
 My fishing roots go back to freshwater bass fishing with my brother Spencer where we would fish the ponds on our farm and those of our neighbors. The artificial baits that we found produced the best results were always plastics, specifically jerk baits like Slug-gos, plastic lizards, purple Berkley Power Bait were ous plastic of choice, and also purple worms with a curly tail.
Through all the years I have rigged plastics every which way, but a few common techniques have worked consistently. When fishing shallow and pitching weed lines we liked to rig our plastic weightless and weed-less. The picture to the right is a good depiction of how we would do it. One thing to note when you rig the plastics like this is that you want to make sure there is enough slack in the front part of the bait that when you set the hook the hook will come through the plastic. But you need to make sure that while you have enough slack that the bait is also straight or it will not swim correctly.
The second way (picture below) we have had success is using a freshwater hook with the weight on the bottom of the shank. The advantage of using this type of hook is that it has a plastic/worm holding pin like shank to hold the worm. This eliminates the need to thread the plastic up through the hook shank. But, you still have to make sure there is enough slack to allow the hook to protrude through the plastic when setting the hook. This set up also keeps your bait to stay relatively parallel to the bottom when reeling as opposed to a jig head that we will discuss next that gives more of a jigging/diving action. When we ever used this type of hook we usually fished a worm with a twist tail n the end and used it to cover a lot of ground looking for fish. It also allows an angler that is not that experienced in fish a plastic or jerk bait to be able to just slow reel the bait. |
|
| Read More > |
|
|
| By Brandon White |
|
 The member profile highlights the type of fishing the member does, tells about their equipment (boat, reels, rods, etc) and a little bit about them as a person. This member profile highlights me, Brandon White, Chief Angler here at TidalFIsh.com.C Check out a little about me, what boat(s) I fish, what tackle I use etc... |
|
| Read More > |
Latest Message Board Posts
-
Posted By: Capt. John Deering
-
Posted By: MidwestTransplant
-
Posted By: Clark W. Griswold
|
