Fishing the Middle Grounds and South

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Southern
Location: Middle Grounds, Chesapeake Bay

As you may have guessed, I went fishing again today 8/11.

My buddy Andy and I met at his boat the Reely Hooked, then headed out for some fuel and on to the middle grounds. Once there, we dropped our lines and started trolling. Pulling two red tubes on planers and two spoons on planers too. We did the pattern for a few hours but then switched to all spoons the remainder of the day.

When we got there the water was somewhat kicked up, but still fishable. As we approached, there was a small fleet of nine other boats trolling the area. Several were charter boats. As we trolled we worked our way closer to the target ship, while the fleet slowly moved further south. They presumably were following the fish. We then trailed behind them, picking up their scraps. Several of the boats were kind of aggressive and moving between other boats etc. so we stayed north of the fleet.

By the time we started to head back in, the water had become increasingly rough. The fleet, by that time had moved far enough south that they were in Virginia waters. We caught mackerel, bluefish and an inshore lizardfish.