Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I worked last Saturday and had an admin day off from work that had to be used, so headed down to Chesapeake Beach early again yesterday with my B-I-L, Ross, keen to catch a few more Rockfish. Found the Spot, Croaker, and White Perch where we left them on Sunday and filled my makeshift cooler/livewell with 25 Spot in about an hour. My portable livewell pump decided to crap itself after only the 4th use, so we had to manually empty out the water in the cooler and refill several times to keep them alive as we crossed the bay. Wasn't too windy but the direction made it a bit snotty in my little boat so we took it slow and easy. Sounded around the place we got them on Sunday near Poplar and no marks anywhere. We ran a bit further south toward Tilghman and found a good showing of fish in 35ft. Anchored up, put out a 3 rod spread, and the action was on soon after. No real size to the fish - all 18"-23" again - but most of the time you were hooked up before you could even get the line to the bottom. By 9:30am we had our 2 man limit between 20" and 23" and then switched over to catch and release jigging. The fish were so thick at times that if they happened to miss the jig on the retrieve, a small school of fish would follow it all the way up to the boat. For anyone heading out, the water on the east side is much cleaner at the moment, with the west side water noticeably stained from recent rainfall.

We jigged 6" chartreuse BKD's on 1 - 1.5oz jig heads and the action stayed consistent through till around 10:30am. I lost count but we caught a good number of fish in the same size range as earlier, with maybe one or two being a hair bigger. After the bite shut down we picked up and ran back over to the Poplar Island shallows. Switched to lighter jig heads and 4" gulp curly tails. The current was ripping pretty good and we drifted around the island for the next hour picking off a few good sized perch and a few small Rockfish. 3 of the Perch went 12"-12.5" and absolutely inhaled the gulp.

Had a slow haul back across to Chesapeake Beach but another great day of fishing in the mid-bay. Fish Fry part II tonight!