June 15th, 2022

Fishing Report (June 1st-15th):

​Shallow! Shallow! Shallow! The rockfish are munching in skinny water. You can find hungry stripers from anywhere from 20 feet to 2 feet deep. Depth finders can be helpful to find these fish because they have been stacking up on ledges, but for the most part you can find them on main bay rocks/rip-rap and at the mouths of various rivers. Most charter boats can be found up in the northern bay past the bridge near Tolchester and Rock Hall live lining spot and throwing out chunks of L.Y. But, there is still plenty of fun south of the bridge around the Severn River, the South River, and the Eastern Shore. In these past few weeks we have been limiting out south of the bridge in these areas, even having to throw back many keeper rockfish. In low light scenarios you can expect to catch these rockfish on topwaters, especially poppers and as the day drags on we would suggest switching to four to five inch paddle tails and jigs. Other than rockfish there are plenty of perch all throughout the rivers pilled up on docks, lay-downs, and shade. Largemouth bass and especially snakehead are also being caught in designated lakes and rivers across Maryland. Good luck out there guys!!!
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What was working?

Rockfish:
​ -As the water heats up and the heat of summer replaces the spring temperatures, rockfish have begin hitting on topwater. We found that a topwater popper or spook provides the perfect amount of disturbance and noise in the water to get the summer stripers fired up. A cast to the rocks with shallow water around it holds the most potential for a bite. The main lure that has been working is a popper in the colors white, black, and chartreuse. The white popper has proved to be the most effective of the mix. 

-As the day moves on from ideal topwater conditions, we found that a jighead and swimbait combination provides the best presentation for shallow water rockfish. A quick switch from a lighter 3/8 oz jighead with a smaller swimbait to a 1/2 oz or 3/4 oz jighead paired with a 5 inch chartreuse swimbait proved to be the essential switch that brought in bigger fish. 

Perch:
-Perch can be caught all day long in basically all parts of the bay, but especially in the rivers. To find them look for docks, lay-downs, and other shallow water shaded regions. Once we have located these key areas tiny spinners/perch pounders have been the go to. Most colors work and if you want to fish with bait a bobber with a shad dart bellow it with some grass shrimp always does the trick.

Bass:
-Bass this time of year are in their post-spawn pattern, meaning they are aggressive and ready to eat. With no success on larger lures such as jigs, spinnerbaits, and senkos (soft plastic worms) we found that the best option was to downsize our presentation to a micro jighead with a white plastic attached. This smaller presentation increased the amount of bites, but decreased the size of our catch. 
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Main Takeaways (Lure Development):
​-White poppers for topwater rockfish
-3/8 oz to 3/4 oz jigheads with 5 inch chartreuse swimbait for rockfish
-Small micros jigs for small largemouth bass
​-Any color spinners for perch