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, regulars still rate the season overall as so-so at best. The flats season will re-open on May 16th for one fish a day from 18 - 26 inches in the flats catch and release area only. Anglers who are trolling are still reporting getting their limits on a pretty regular basis, but some areas are a little slower then others. But this is to be expected as striped bass are now on the move, some leaving the bay for the ocean and others moving out of the spawning grounds to settle in to other feeding areas. Shad fishing is tapering off and about over, white perch are on the move to the river mouths which means good fishing for them, but also a great spot to find stripers.
(Pictured above is fellow Tidal Fisher Susking's daughter Stephanie with her 40" rockfish. Susking and his family were fishing out of Matapeake this past week. Click here for the full report with pictures)

Maryland Fisheries News
Commercial watermen were very crabby this week at a meeting in Cambridge, MD to discuss the new crab regulations that went into effect this week. I was reading the local paper this morning and could not help but to be confused. The watermen are complaining that the regulations have poor timing and that if they are not allowed to catch female crabs in the fall they will lose a lot of money. Isn't it the point of the regulations to save the crabs? Is it plausible that the regulations have, in fact, perfect timing. The fall and late fall is when the female crabs are making their way down the Chesapeake and are in concentrations. Preserving and protecting them at this time of year is exactly the point. While it stinks that watermen are going to lose money this year, doesn't it make more sense the conserve now so there are some in the future? What's the alternative, harvest above sustainable limits for yet another year and then not have any crabs in a few years? Then what? If you want to know what happens when you keep harvesting above sustainable levels read what happened to the sturgeon fishery in the Chesapeake Bay. Here's a piece that I wrote on that sad story,click here to read. No one is trying to put waterment of business, the goal is to assure we have fish in the Chesapeake in the decades to come

I am often hard on Maryland Department of Natural Resources for them not doing the right things to protect fish, but in this case I have to applaud their and the Governor's decision. It was/is not an easy one, but the regulation is a demonstration of putting fish first so we have some for the future.

Weekend/Upcoming Fishing Events

Sorry, no events that I know of

Fishing Reports

Upper Bay Region (Susquehanna River/Flats to Bay Bridge Waters)

Ele and Captain Mike from Herbs Tackle reports that the flats has still be hit or miss, but there have a few days where the hotwater bite has been nothing less then great. The flats season ends today (Friday) and anglers can not target striped bass until the season re-opens on May 16th when anglers can keep one fish between 18-26inches.

The shad fishing is about at the end of its run. Anglers are still catching a few hickories in the Deer Creek, but with the rain we have had that might put a damper on the action. Anglers are catching some hickories and American shad in the Susquehanna river at the Conowingo Dam, but this action has also started to taper off and again with the rain we are having it could put a damper on the fishing .

There were a few reports on the Tidal Fish message boards from anglers catfishing in the upper bay and doing very well.

Anglers are also doing some trolling in the upper bay region. Areas that have been producing are: Brewerton Channel, The Dumping Ground above the Bay Bridge, and the sharp edge from Baltimore Light down to Sandy Point Light.

Mid Bay Region (Bay Bridge to Honga River Waters)

Anglers are continuing to troll as the main method of targeting striped bass, although a few anglers on the Tidal Fish message boards have reported that they are going to start chumming soon as the water temperatures are quickly climbing into the middle and upper 60 degrees. The stripers are still spread out in the middle bay region, so while light tackle and fly anglers are finding some fish on structure, the action has not been too hot yet.
(pictured right is Tidal Fisher John Roger's daughter, Micaela, showing off a nice catfish she caught in the Elk River this past week with her Dad. Way to go Micaela,! Click here for the full report and pictures)

The productive areas for trolling anglers in the middle bay region has been: the channel edge from the Gum Thickets, Bloody Point and south to Buoys 83 and 84, the channel edge on the western side of the shipping channel which extends from Chesapeake Beach south to Cove Point and the False Channel around Buoys 3, 4 and 5 at the mouth of the Choptank

Successful trolling spreads have been parachutes and bucktails rigged with sassy shads. Good colors have been the regulars: white and chartreuse.

I would expect the Choptank area action to really heat up soon as the white perch are moving out of the river and stacking up like cord wood in the channels. If last year’s action is any indication of what we can expect this year, the fishing should be excellent there for live lining. I have not heard any reports of this year, but I bet if you catch a few perch and drop them down on a live line rig the bite will happen. If the weather breaks I will make my way out over the next few days to give it a try.

Regular Tidal Fisher Jumbo made his weekly fishing trip this week and reported:
“Headed out this am with my Ol' buddy John henry...we had calm seas....moving tide that's all we needed.......
Put out our 10 rod spread and pretty quick we had 2 fish in the boat... A 35"er and a 41"er....ended up with 6 fish trolling........
10 rod spread consisted of 4 umbrellas and 6 tandems........We actually had 3 doubles for the day....with 1 hour intervals in between.........Man this Darkside stuff is Boring let's go try some real fishing...and real fishing it was....saw a few birds over near the 38ft ledge sitting...So I pulled up to them like Butch told me to do and asked them "Hey Guys and Fish around?"....They replied "None of your Stinkin' business"......... . Looked down at the fish finder and it was loaded. I just happened to have a 3/4 oz jighead with a Alewive color BKD and a dropper fly above it already rigged up.....the next 5 drops produced 10 fish up to 26".........

We stayed on them for about an hour and than the tide died and I had to be back early....I had more fun in that hour than I have had in the last 3 weeks trolling on the Dark side...not knocking the trollers but you don't know what you're missing.......2 decent fish on a LTJ rod is it!

We ended up with a little over 25 fish LTjing....biggest was 31"....had some pics but they show to much in the background (if you know what I mean).......
Here are some Darkside pics of our fish...
Great talking to Skip and Ron....Skip you guys almost had me on the Darkside..."
check here for the full report and pictures

Tidal Fisher "jnashed" fished out of Breezy this week and gave a great report:
"Got out agin for some work week fishing. Hit Breezy Pt late on Cinco de Mayo (Monday) at about 11:30am A little choppy and a little slow. Near the 80 buoy in 55ft water My wifes business partner John caught his largest rockfish ever (38 inches)of a white umbrella on the downrigger set at 30ft (seems if I match the thermocline I catch with the downrigger)

Next a lesson for me. I have been putting out 2 LTT lines per trip. (Penn 440s with 30lb braid) Got my first bite on a 2oz White chute with a 6inch bait on the planer board. Fought the fish for 10+minutes and got impatient, lost him. Gods were on my side as 15 minutes later another bite on the same rod/ lure. Got him to the boat and a 36 inch 20lb fish

Couple of more knockdowns (all on white in about 50ft of water on the eastern side of the channel. Went home happy.

Net day Cinco de Seis (today) hit the water at 7:30am. Went to same place as yesterday buoy 80, 55 ft water. Lost another on the same white LTT line as the day before then caught a short 26inch fish on the same bait.
Moved a little west and hit a nice 36inch fish on a white umbrella (4oz head) on the planehttp://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn318/jamesnashed/006-1.jpgr

A little slow, then things really picked up south of 78 on the western side in 60 ft of water. Found a scum line and trolled it. Landed my first 40in fish off the samt White umbrella as before.

Then another 36 inch one on the same bait., Had our limit . Kept fishing caught onother on the white umbrella in the same scum line then disaster. My first break off, off the umbrella rig. Hope that hook comes out. No stinger hook at least. Darn!! Got to learn to check the line after each fish!!! Hope that fish will live...

Then one off a mojo 20oz tandem with a 21 white Tony (hit the Tony) Then the green umbrella on the downrigger goes off. 2 quick fish landed and released. All from 34- 37 inches in 50-60ft of water just north of 78 again at the thermocline (I guess) at about 30 ft.

Then another bite off the the small white 2oz single off the board. Deside the real all the lines in while my buddy fights the fish. Landed a nice 38incher with a quick release. LTT is just awesome.
Last pic of the 40inch fish

All in all a great 2 days.

Jim"
Check his report report here

Lower Bay (Honga River down to the Maryland /Virginia Line Waters)

Mike and Christy from Buzz’s Marina in Ridge have been buzzing with hot reports from trolling angers as well as light tackle anglers who are starting to find a ton of bait and hot action for light tackle jigging.

Tidal Fisher Jay F had a great report that about sums up the action down in the lower part of the Chesapeake:

Grizzdog (Robert Schou), Garrett and I headed out of Buzz's Marina around 12:30 after I quickly finished my last exam of the year! We ran down to Point Lookout in near flat conditions searching for birds. We couldnt find any birds near the mouth of the river so we drifted a couple of spots in Cornfield Harbor for flounder. We had a few light bites on Gulp jerk shad and gulp minnows without any hookups.

We headed north and found scattered birds working around the mouth of St. Jeromes. The fish right under the birds and we hooked up immediately. My second fish was a 29.5" on a 4" storm shad, which was a blast on a 6 foot medium rod. We all found quality fish from the first group of birds, but only one keeper. After the fish dispersed we found another group about 1/2 mile south with a troller running right through them. (pictured is Jay F and crew) Immediately we had a triple on of fish in the upper 20" range. Robby got our second keeper right at 32" with a 6" paddle tail BA on a 2 ounce jighead. I then got a 31" on a topwater plug that we released. It was Garrett's turn to get a keeper,which did not take him long on a 10" Albino BKD. The birds had left by this point but we were able to stay on the fish and pick up a few more 30" fish and countless more that were barely under 28".

The bird action picked up around 5:30 and from this time until sunset we slammed them. Countless triple hookups and double hookups of quality fish. Fish were stacked up top to bottom and basically anything you threw in the water would get hit almost instantly. We threw topwater towards the end of the day and had multiple blow ups and hook ups on every cast. We left the fish biting around sunset.

By the end of this melee we our thumbs looked they had been chewed on and our arms were sore. We had caught 150+ fish, all 20-32 inches, it was an incredible day with great weather and great company. Christy and Mike at Buzz's couldnt be any nicer!

We hardly had any time to take pictures, but here are a few:

Robby and Garrett

check the full report here

Ocean City, Coastal and Offshore Fishing Reports

Ocean City Fishing Center Reported: Charter Boats are in the water and ready to fish. Many boats have been catching good numbers of Tautog and many keeper Flounder. Capt. Monty on the headboat, Morning Star, is inshore wreck trips for tautog. The headboat, Bay Bee, is Flounder fishing this weekend.

Sue Foster from Oyster Bay Tackle and Fenwick Tackle reported:

We didn't hear much from the Ocean City surf this week at all. We did hear of some stripers around the Ocean City Inlet.

Larger stripers hit the surf on Assateague last weekend. Only a few bluefish were reported along with lots of dogfish and skates. A few kingfish, a flounder or two and some black drum were also reported from Assateague surf.

Some flounder were caught from the Ocean City bay. Oceanic Pier continued to see some bluefish, skates, a very few flounder and a good tautog bite. Maryland has officially set the new flounder regs for us in the Coastal Bays. It is 17 1/2 inches with a three fish creel. Tautog limits are still 14-inches but the knew creel limit is 4 fish per person. Later in the season it will go down to two. In Delaware: "Roy Miller announced that the flounder regs have been signed by John Hughs and will become effective on May 11th. 4 at 19-1/2" open all year.

Assateague surf finally turned on with some nice stripers. Not many were caught, but the ones that were taken were really nice!

Shanon from Buck's Place (410-641-4177) reports on May 2nd: "I just weighed in a nice Rockfish caught in the surf at Assateague Island today!! Chris Miller from Littlestown, PA caught a 46", 23 1/2" girth, 35 1/2lbs Rockfish on bunker."

Others just caught sharks and skates. One local said he spend the weekend on Assateague and caught 9 stripers and one black drum. (He released some of the stripers.)

In Delaware surf, it was much the same. A kingfish here and there. Dogfish. Occassional striper or bluefish, but there seems to be no consistency with the blues. And I didn't hear much about stripers.

Remember to post reports and check for reports on a daily basis from other Tidal Fishers on the Maryland Chesapeake Message Board, there are so many Striped Bass Fishing Reports it's hard even keeping up.

Until next week, good times,and good fishing!

Brandon
Chief Angler, TidalFish.com

* I use a variety of sources to compile these reports and would like to give credit to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Weekly Fishing Report Staff as well all the local tackle shops, charter captains and guides in the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay and Tidal Water

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Chesapeake Fishing Maps
Get 3D Fishing Maps of the Chesapeake Bay click here

USEFUL LINKS

Tidal Fish Fishing Reports
Tidal Fish offers weekly fishing reports from the Northeast, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.

NOAA Real Time Marine Forecasts and Buoy Reports
Real time Buoy data and Marine Forecasts for different locations in the Chesapeake Bay

Rutgers University's Sea Surface Temperature of Chesapeake Bay Region and Offshore Waters
Great site to check out sea surface temperatures which are vital to know for fishing

Real Time Conowingo Dam Flow Information
Check this link before fishing the Susquehanna Flats to check flow level. High flow levels could mean muddy water and not the best fishing conditions.

Real-time water information at selected points in the Chesapeake Bay
This site gives real-time water information: water temperatures, water clarity, dissolved oxygen and more.

Susquehanna Flats Real Time Water Flows
This site gives real-time water information: water temperatures, water clarity, dissolved oxygen and more for the Susquehanna Flats area.

Maryland Public Boat Ramps Map With Locations
Find out where all the public boat ramps are in Maryland. Please note that some ramps in Maryland require a ramp permit which can be purchased at many local tackle shop in the county you are fishing.

Maryland Fishing Rules and Regulations
Check this link for the latest Maryland Tidal and Non Tidal Rules and Regulations

Maryland Fishing License Information
Fishing license information and link to get your fishing license online.

Locations Where to Buy Maryland Fishing Licenses
A listing of all the locations of where to buy fishing licenses in Maryland

Capt. Mike Benjamin Tidal Fish Sponsor
Herbs Tackle Shop Charter Fishing
410-287-3615
email: herbstackleshop@comcast.net

Capt. Skip Slomski Tidal Fish Sponsor
Jenny Beck Fishing Charters
410.746.6907
email: captainskip@cablespeed.com

Capt. Tom Hughes Tidal Fish Sponsor
443-690-3164
email: capttomhughes@att.net

Middle Bay
Light Tackle/Fly Fishing Guides

Capt. Pete Dahlberg Tidal Fish Sponsor
Four Seasons Guide Service
703-395-9955
email: WalleyePete@comcast.net

Capt. John Deering
Shady Side Charters
703-407-0319
email: deerings@verizon.net

Capt. Richie Gaines Tidal Fish Sponsor
Anglers Connection Guide Service
410-827-7210
email: fishster1@aol.com

Capt. Mark Galasso
Explore Delmarva
410-827-5635
email: capmarco@friend.ly.net

Capt. Gary Neitzey
Fish Hawk Guide Service
410-758-4262
email: fishhwk@aol.com

Lower Bay
Light Tackle/Fly Fishing Guides

Captain Dan Harrison
Salty Fly Guide Service
(410) 968-0219
Email: captdanh1@verizon.net

Capt. Kevin Josenhans
Josenhans Sportfishing
(410) 883-2648
email: kjosenhans@aol.com

Captain Matt Tawes Tidal Fish Sponsor
Chesapeake Angling
(410) 968-3286
Email: capttawes@charter.net

Capt. Bo Toepfer
410-535-6259
email: 410-535-6259

Maryland Coast, Ocean City, Atlantic Ocean

Inland Bays
Light Tackle/Fly Fishing Guides

Capt. Mark Sampson

Fish Finder Adventures

(410) 213-2442

Email: mark@bigsharks.com

* If you have a link that you would like to suggest that would be helpful to anglers please email me 1) the name of the site, 2) the exact URL, and 3) a short description of the information the site provides.