This year has been a busy one for me. I didn’t get a chance to update near as often as I like so here are some quick looks at some the great fishing we had throughout the year and a peek at some of the fishing yet to come.
Looking Back to Spring-
This Spring brought us some of our best Striped Bass fishing on the fly as typical this time of year on the Chesapeake Bay. We spend all of April and the first week or so of May each year fishing on the Susquehanna Flats. The season is catch and release fishing only and we catch lots of big fish as they make their annual Spring migration into the Chesapeake Bay.
This season’s fishing was a blast and we caught some great fish on both the fly rods and light tackle. Some exciting fishing was had as we caught some 36+inch fish on fly rod poppers in skinny 3 and 4 feet of water.
After the season ended on the Susquehanna Flats we worked our way south on the bay towards Eastern Bay. We fished this area of water of water south of Kent Island for Striped Bass throught the month of May. Again all of the fishing was catch and release, and we targeted the fish on fly rods when possible.
This year brought better than average fishing for May in this area and we took full advantage of it on both flies and light tackle.
Looking Back to Summer fishing on the Gunpowder River
Though water flows were low for much of the Spring and Summer fishing was all in all pretty good. We had good fishing during all of our usual hatches. Sulfur mayflies were offered good evening fishing in June and July and were often mixed with caddis. We had Trico mayflies appear in August and last clean into Ocotber offering good dry fly fishing to those anglers up for the challenge in the mornings.
Water flows have increased over the last month or two and held steady due to more than average rainfall and spillover at the Prettyboy Reservoir dam. Fishing continues to be very good, and anglers are reporting catches of some sizeable fish on streamers and nymphs. Expect good fishing through December as browns become aggresive as they ready to spawn.
Fall Fishing on the Bay and Fishing to come-
We spent October and November fisihing the waters of the middle Chesapeake Bay. Striper fishing was great and we had many days in recent weeks where we landed dozens of fish on the fly. The stripers were hunting schools of Menhaden, and when we crossed paths with them fishing was great. The fish were fiesty and ranged from 18 to 26 inches. Great fun on the fly.
I am headed South to Virginia’s Eastern Shore to fish the CBBT for the first few weeks of December. We may also do some fishing off the coast of Ocean City, Md depending where the fishing is best. Striped Bass and Blues will be our target, and migrating schools should offer plenty of them.
I still have a few dates open if anyone is up for giving it a shot. I hope to keep up to speed on postingn some reeports and pictures of the action.
Hope you all have an awesome Thanksgiving! Jeff