Calvert Cliffs Outfall Report

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Lower Bay
Location: Calvert Cliffs Outfall

Location: Calvert Cliffs Outfall on 4-6-14

Trip Details and Results: I've been wanting to try the outfall, but for the first time in, I took my gear and went out on a catch-and-release make up charter. Although the morning weather was nasty, the boat got some fish including a 40" striper. By our afternoon trip, the chop had flattened. There were about 10 boats working the area. Our technique for working the area was working well in contrast to some of the other boats (not at liberty to elaborate). The boat caught and released 30+, mostly schoolies. My tally was 15 including a 26" and 33" striper. The jig color of the day was chartreuse, mostly BKDs. I started with one of my hotrodded jigheads (Kembro style) tipped with an 8" chartreuse curlytail. After catching 4 schoolies, I snagged a rock (the granite kind) and lost the jig. I tied on a light green jig with a skirt and a 6" BKD and caught a 26" striper. Then I snagged another rock and lost that jig. I tied on another hotrodded jighead with a chartreuse 6" BKD and caught another schoolie. Then slack water and the bite died. The bite was on the shorter jigs. The longer jigs weren't doing anything. However, having caught a half dozen, I switched to 10' jig shown in the pic. It is a hotrodded jighead with a 10" chartreuse Hogy bait, albeit about an inch shorter at the end of the day after being chewed up by the first fish it caught. The flood had started so I dumped it in, a couple of big fish marked on the scope, and about 10 seconds later I had a 33" striper hooked on my baitcaster. I caught and released an additional 8 schoolies. The big jig was showing up nicely on the downscan sonar - it looked like a heart monitor pinging along! A nice lady aboard for her first jigging adventure caught 5, including the other two bigger fish, 27" and 30" stripers.

Safety Note: The 27' boat lurched over about 10-15 degrees in the first boil above the underwater outfall which we tried a few times (overall the day's action was a little farther out). The chart safety warning is certainly on target. There's enough turbulence there to overturn or swamp a small boat. Obviously, one should approach and fish the area with great caution.

Technical Note: The gear I used is shown in the pic. As someone very comfortable with spinning rigs, a left-handed baitcaster is a quick adjustment for me and handles efficiently for stripper jigging in contrast to the right-handed baitcasters I use for bass. The baitcaster facilitates quick depth adjustments without switching hands, which facilitated keeping in close contact with the bottom. The reel is spooled with 20 pound test braid and a short mono leader that is also long enough to have something other than braid to grab onto for landing a fish. The only drawback is that it is harder to break off a snagged jig with the baitcaster than a spinning reel.