Fishing Report - Mouth of the Potomac

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Southern
Location: Mouth of the Potomac NW of Smith Pt Light

On Nov. 24 I went out on my boat, Tight Lines. a 22' Grady White, with my neighbor/fishing partner. We launched from Pt. Lookout State Park. The bay was flat with little breeze all day. We ran south to about 1 mi north of the VA shoreline and fished under working birds following bait on a ebb current. There was a modest jigging bite on 3 oz crippled herring lures in silver and silver with blue backstripe (the latter has caught 82 on the last 2 outings - maybe I should mount the lure!). I also tried a 2 oz silver with blue backstripe (caught a couple on that one) and also a 2 oz white Specialized Baits Lil Bunker, but the fish wanted the bigger 3 oz profile although the 2 oz was jigging better in the light current.

We landed a 20" and a 21" keeper while working down towards the light. About midday with 2 keepers in the box, we kept jigging rather than put out trolling gear and play dodge boat, the chance for larger fish notwithstanding. We found a school of decent schoolies on the fishfinder while cruising towards some birds, and I pulled in a 24" keeper on a typical freshwater lefthanded baitcaster spooled with 20 lb test braid and a short 30 lb mono shock leader.

There were lots of fish on the bottom, and considerable feeding fish marking midwater. I got a couple of decent Water Wolf pics although the water was very murky; photo enhanced versions with this submission. 20+ fish checked out or attempted to hit the lure before the one that is shown hooked up. The fish were attacking the lure from every which way, no particular pattern. At slack water, video showed a lot of lookers but no takers. We landed 46 overall for 2 fishers. A troller who came in when we did had 6 keepers for 3 fishers, including two 24" and a 36".