Reds, Blondes, & Blues

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Eastern
Location: Eastern Bay

My son Jacob and his girlfriend Rachel are visiting for the holiday weekend. We left Shipping Creek late Saturday afternoon for the short run across to St. Michaels for the fireworks . Despite the nice weather, there weren't many boats fishing Eastern Bay, although I could see what looked like at least a hundred off in the distance out near the Hill. Not long after leaving the dock I noticed some breakers over a well-known oyster hump so decided to stop and throw some topwater spooks. The fish weren't concentrated, but spread out over about an acre and blowing up here and there. It was rockfish with some blues mixed in, mostly 2011 class fish in the 16-19 inch range.

The incoming current was running pretty good and I eventually drifted over a drop-off from 17-24 and saw some marks on my fish finder I haven't seen since about this time last summer. I had a chartreuse BKD streaked with red garlic dye tied on, so I casted back over the ledge and let the jig ride the bottom popping it up once in a while. Thump! Oh yeah, quick head shakes at first then a nice strong run told me just what I was hoping for. Reds! Maybe they rode the incoming in ahead of the storm last weekend. First one in the boat was 23 inches.

I quickly rigged another outfit with a 6" Gulp jerk shad on a 3/4 ounce head and handed it to Rachel while Jacob tied the same thing onto his baitcaster. My instructions were to just let it drop until the line goes slack, then jerk up a little and let it drift back down to the bottom and try to never get slack in your line. The fish were holding very tight on the ledge, right on the bottom in just a 4-foot-wide strip, so I had to reposition the boat frequently. Things got pretty crazy for a few minutes. Jacob landed a couple of blues and I turned around to see Rachel's rod bent. I thought she might have hooked a cownose ray but sure enough it was another nice red, this one about 31 inches. Jacob followed with another high 20's red and I landed one and lost one. Then, the little rockfish moved back onto the ledge. I think the reds were still there, but the rockfish were getting to the jigs first. That was the end of it so we turned the corner into St. Michaels to watch the fireworks. All the fish were released to fight again.