Acres & Acres of Breaking Rockfish
On 6/24/04 I had the pleasure of guiding John Keeler on the middle Chesapeake Bay. We launched at Chesapeake Beach at 6:00 AM and headed south just below the Calvert Cliff Power Plant. The water was slick as the sun was coming up on the eastern shore line.
A few keeper size rockfish were landed on 5" Bass Assassin Chartreuse Glitter soft plastic lures, fished on a 1/2 ounce jighead. These fish had large sores on both sides of their bodies and were immediately released. The current went slack so we used the time to cross the Bay heading for the Choptank River. John wanted to drift for some croakers. There are some excellent sand bars just outside this river that hold some big croakers.
We just crossed the channel when I saw a few small baitfish breaking approximately 1 mile to the east. I motored over to this area slowly and turned both motors off. Within the next 5 minutes there were striped bass busting top water everywhere you could see. For the next 2 hours we were landing fish on just about every cast in the 16 to 17 3/4" range. All the fish were healthy and pulled very hard against the light spinning tackle being used. The lures of choice were 4" Bass Assassin, Saltwater Sea Shad, in Crystal and Salt & Pepper Silver Phantom with a Chartreuse Tail.
The most productive technique was horizontal jigging. We left the fish while they were still busting the top water and headed back to the ramp. We discussed the trip while driving back to Catonsville and concluded it was a very enjoyable and productive fishing trip.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Tom Hughes