Middle bay region Diamond Jim release for August

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Eastern
Location: Poplar Island Area

Our Diamond Jim tagging crew left the dock at Tighman Island at 6:00 am to try and get an early start before the sun shone bright in the morning sky and predicted thunderstorms arrived. It turned out to be an excellent call. We trolled #2 Drone spoons behind #1, #2 and #3 planers at distances from 50� to 180� behind the boat just south of the Hill and off Poplar Island in about 20� of water. We were fishing the top of the tide and for about 1-1/2-hours the action was fast and furious. Fisheries biologist Butch Webb was in charge of tagging the striped bass with the chartreuse tags and out youth anglers kept him very busy till about 8:00 when we used up our 23 tag allotment and the tide started to go slack.

It was soon time to head for the barn; as captains say as the western sky began to turn ominously dark with building thunderstorms. As a fisherman I was very impressed with the size of the fish we caught for this time of the year. We had 5 fish over 30� in length and most were in the 24� to 28� size range, very fat and clean looking. Most fishermen that pursue striped bass in the middle bay region have been talking about the evening bite where striped bass have been pushing bait in the form of small menhaden against the rocks of Poplar Island. Fishermen have been casting a variety of lures to them and trolling or live lining spot seems to be a good option early in the morning. Keep the tide movement in mind when planning your trip since we discovered that when the tide went slack the action came to a halt. I would urge anyone who wants to get into the action to either try the evening fishing or get out at dawn this weekend.