Fishing Report, Nov. 4

Type: Tidal
Region: Eastern
Location: Lower Choptank

On Sunday, Nov. 4 my fishing partner and I launched his 22' boat at Chesapeake Beach and ran north of Sharps Island flats to the Choptank. There were lots of birds on the north side of the channel.

We jigged 7 small rockfish. The largest was 12". The smallest, giving it the benefit of the doubt, was about as long as the 2 oz Lil Bunker in firetiger that was getting a lot of hits. Big appetite! We needed that size jig to hold bottom due fast drifts in the wind. Still some fun though on a light baitcaster. Since the overnight wind held on longer than predicted, it was still bumpy, and only small fish were under the birds, so we shifted to trolling to hunt for a better class of fish towards the SE.

There were 60+ boats pounding the area east of Sharps Island down there, mostly on the east side. Large bait balls were all over the east side close to the edge, but few fish arches. There was no bite. I saw two small fish pulled in by other boats.

At about mid-day, we had enough of erratic trolling fleet maneuvering madness and trolled off the NE corner of the flats dodging a bunch of crab pots. We picked up 3 undersized stripers, the largest was 15".

On the way back to the ramp, we swung by the lighthouse to cast in. Nothing on the fishfinder and no takers on our jigs. I took some nice pics of the lighthouse which was well guarded by cormorants. At the ramp, four other boats reported one 12" fish among them.

We received a good report of fish in the east side lower Bay islands, but had decided to try the Choptank instead due to the distance.