[Ele]

I was just curious to know if the fishing, this year, at the CBBT has been as good as years past. Are you catching as many fish? Are you catching as many big fish?

There has been questions raised lately as to whether the fishing in the Chesapeake is getting better or worse. Are we headed for another moritorium?

An inquiring mind wants to know.

I had posted this on the Chesapeake board and it was suggested by a couple of guys that I post it on the Virginia board where more people actually fish the CBBT.

Ele

 

[johnfish]

My biggest problem this past striper season at the CBBT was not the lack of fish but the lack of fishable days!!! It seems that when ever I had a day off the weather was 10 to 20 kts and 2 to 4 foot seas. I love to fish but I am not crazy enought to brave that in a 17 ft seachaser. That is why I am going catfishing this weekend.

Based on the reports I have read those lucky enough to catch a break with the weather have had excellent fishing with many quality fish caught!

John

 

[tonydivefish]

one of th best years i've seen. the not fishable days were a good thing cause a lot of pressure was applied to em this year, more than i've ever seen.

 

[gooosehunter]

What species are you refering? Stripers; average year. Flounder; incredible year (for small fish). trout; what trout. Spot; average; Cobia; they did not want my hook this year!!! Sea Bass, Taug, spades...did not target them as much, but caught/speared a few.

 

[waterbob]

Stripers in the Bay and Ocean

I think this average year has been the best one that I have ever experienced.:yes:

 

[Miss Christine]

Seems to get a little worse each year.....

 

[tom ny]

Fall striper season only OK this year. Amount of bait(menheden) was very low. I didnt get out as much this year due to un-stable weather but pods of bait fish were few and far between. Summer action for flounder,drum,croaker and spot about the same as last couple of years.

 

[labried]

The days I made it out there this year where quite bad. But after getting home and looking at the posts, they were for most out there. Days I could not make it out seemed like everyone was catching. So for me it was a very bad year but I would not assume that was the case for all. I also agree with the earlier post about alot of bad weather on "fishing" days.

 

[miss madison]

It was a bad year for us. The days that we fished in the bay we caught very few fish. We fished all the hot spots in the lower bay. We found very little bait or birds working. I should have been duck hunting with all the ducks in the in the middle of the bay. Just last year (2007) you would find birds working from York Spit to the CBBT and up the Eastern Shore. What happened??:helpsmilie:

 

[Al B]

I think you'll see that there's still a LOT of fish on the way to our area, and that the season is nowhere near over.... UNLESS there's a prolonged cold spell and the water temperature drops significantly, and stays low.

There's a problem w/assessing "good year" versus "bad year" at this time of the year: The fish migrate through this areas, or hold in this area, at different times and for differnt lengths of time each year. So, to say you fished the CBBT in December of 2005 - 2007 and did MUCH better than in 2008, isn't necessarily an accurate assessment of the fish population.

A better assessment would be to look at water temp data as compared to the number/size of fish being caught.

 

[racn35]

10,000 BIG COWS OVER 40 KILLED AT THE HIGH RISE IN THE PAST 90 DAYS ALONE THIS YEAR (2008) AT THE CBBT~

 

[Darren]

From fishing at the CBBT in Nov and Dec I would say the size of fish is a little better than in past years. The strange part is that a lot of the big fish were males. Number wise I would have to say it is way down. Past years a normal night was 20-30 fish on a tide, this year it was 8-10.