Maryland Fishing Report – July 2

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Forecast Summary: July 2 – July 8:

Expect slightly cooler fishing weather with stable conditions for Maryland Bay waters. There is a chance of thunderstorms on Wednesday, Monday, and Tuesday. As reported by the NOAA buoys, main Bay surface water temperatures are holding in the low 80s with river temperatures slightly cooler in the upper 70s. 

With the continued recent rains, Maryland’s drought is over and salinities are normal for most Maryland waters this time of year. However, some upper Bay areas are fresher than normal. There will be adequate oxygen down to about 10 feet for the Colonial Beach area of the Potomac River. However, there is plenty of oxygen down to at least 35 feet for all game fish in the rest of Maryland’s Bay waters. Keep an eye out for widgeon grass, which makes great fish habitat, blooming in the shallows with yellow flowers. In addition, this is the time of the year when oysters are spawning throughout the Bay.

Expect average water clarity for Maryland’s streams, rivers, and main Bay waters. In addition, expect reduced water clarity near the mouth of the Magothy River from algal blooms. To see the latest water clarity conditions on NOAA satellite maps, check Eyes on the Bay Satellite Maps. There will be above average tidal currents conditions Sunday through Tuesday as a result of the full moon on July 11.

As always, the best fishing areas could be further refined by intersecting them with underwater points, hard bottom, drop-offs, and large schools of baitfish. For more detailed and up-to-date fishing conditions in your area of the Bay, be sure to check out Eyes on the Bay’s Click Before You Cast.

Upper Chesapeake Bay

The water releases at the Conowingo Dam are in a more predictable pattern as power generation is occurring during the afternoon and evening hours this week. Anglers are taking long casts into the turbine wash to fish for striped bass with topwater lures, soft plastic jigs, crankbaits, or paddletails. Drifting cut baits in the dam pool is an excellent way to target catfish. 

Anglers continue to report good fishing for striped bass along the edges of the Susquehanna Flats during the early morning and late evening. Poppers, paddletails, and jerkbaits are popular lures for casting. Fishing for a mix of blue and channel catfish at the mouth of the Susquehanna continues to be very good. Cut bait of various fish, chicken parts, and scented baits are good choices on a sliding sinker rig with a float to keep the bait and circle hook off the bottom.

Water temperatures in the upper Bay are holding around 85 degrees this week. Anglers fishing for striped bass are finding some challenging fishing right now. The early morning hours and late evening hours offer the best odds on hooking up with striped bass. The mouth of the Patapsco River, the Key Bridge piers, and the Inner Harbor are good places to check. Drifting live spot to the bridge piers and channel edges is a popular option for striped bass fishing. Casting soft plastic jigs near bridge piers, old pier pilings, and docks is a good tactic to target striped bass, but the best fishing success occurs very early in the morning. Now that Bay water temperatures have climbed into the mid-80s, anglers should dedicate themselves to the best catch-and-release practices to ensure striped bass returned to the Bay survive. 

Anglers are searching for striped bass near the Love Point rocks and finding good results during a moving tide. Live lining spot has been one of the most popular and effective ways to fish at this location and wherever fish can be spotted suspended along channel edges. Podickory Point and Baltimore Light are always worth a look. Jigging is a viable option as is trolling tandem-rigged bucktails and umbrella rigs along channel edges.

Spot can be found near Sandy Point State Park, the mouth of the Magothy, and several knolls and shoals in the Bay. White perch fishing has been tough but the best chances of catching white perch are in the tidal rivers near structure. Submerged rocks, old dock pilings, bulkheads, and hard-bottomed shoal areas are all good places to look. The arrival of pods of bottlenose dolphins in the region is not helping matters, since fish tend to scatter when dolphins enter the area. 

Blue catfish offer reliable fishing action at the mouth of the Susquehanna and Elk rivers and the middle region of the Chester River; blue catfish and channel catfish can be found in all of the region’s tidal rivers. Chesapeake Channa are guarding fry balls at this time and can present a challenge to get them to strike a lure. Noisy lures dragged near the fry balls are perhaps the best way to get the parent fish to strike a lure that seems to be a threat. 

Middle Bay

Striped bass catches in the middle Bay have been a bit sparse lately but anglers who are out on the water before dawn stand the best odds. Casting a variety of topwater lures and paddletails in the shallower waters of the Bay and tidal river shorelines that look promising offers good fishing. Shoreline sunken riprap, dock pilings, and prominent points are all good areas to target. Water temperatures in the shallower waters of the middle Bay are in the upper 80s now and once the sun clears the horizon the best fishing action tends to shut down. The late evening hours offer the second-best time to fish the shallower shoreline areas.

The water temperature in the main portion of the Bay is holding around 85 degrees this week. Live lining spot is a popular option wherever striped bass can be spotted on depth finders holding near steep channel edges. The Bay Bridge piers and concrete abutments, Thomas Point, the Clay Banks, Sharps Island Light, and the mouth of the Choptank are all worth a look. Bluefish are in the region so bluefish will be part of the mix when fishing with live spot or cut baits.

Jigging along steep channel edges is another option when fish can be seen on depth finders suspended off the bottom. Trolling with tandem rigged bucktails, dressed with twistertails, Drone spoons or surgical tube lures in red or green or umbrella rigs. All are pulled behind inline weights or planers. Bluefish tend to go after the surgical tube lures and twistertails tend to get nipped off when bluefish are around. Some of the better places to troll have been the channel edge from Buoy 83 south past the mouth of the Choptank and the Breezy Point area. 

Spot can be found in front of Chesapeake Beach, behind Black Walnut Point, and Eastern Bay. White perch fishing has been fair to good in the region’s tidal rivers and creeks. The morning and evening hours on a running tide offer the best fishing. Deepwater docks and oyster beds are good places to fish with peeler crab, grass shrimp, or pieces of bloodworm on a bottom rig. Casting small spinnerbaits, soft plastic jigs, and spinners are a fun way to target the larger white perch along shorelines during the morning and evening hours.

Water temperatures are climbing throughout the Chesapeake Bay – the NOAA Buoy at the mouth of the Potomac River is registering at 86 degrees. The shallower waters along shorelines tend to be slightly warmer. 

The shallow-water fishery along the Bay, sounds, and tidal rivers continues to be one of the more popular and successful ways to target striped bass and a mix of bluefish, speckled trout, and red drum. The best action is occurring during the early morning and late evening hours, over grass beds, stump fields, and submerged structure.

Poppers and Spooks provide some fun topwater fishing and popping corks trailing a soft plastic shrimp or peeler crab bait are an excellent option when fishing over grass beds. Casting paddletails and jerkbaits in slightly deeper waters where grass is not a problem is a great option. The shorelines of the lower Potomac and Patuxent rivers, Tangier and Pocomoke sounds, and the Hoopers Island area are all good places to fish the shallower waters. 

Bluefish are being caught out in the open waters of the Bay near the Target Ship, the Middle Grounds, Tangier Sound, Smith Point, and the mouth of the Potomac. Most anglers are trolling a mixed spread of red or green surgical tube lures for the bluefish and cobia and perhaps a large chrome spoon in the hopes of some catch-and-release action with a large red drum. All are being pulled behind inline weights. Increasing numbers of cobia are being caught in the lower Bay this week, mostly along the eastern side of the Bay. Trolling, chumming, and sight fishing for the cobia is always an extra bonus to fishing in the lower Bay. The minimum size for cobia is 43 inches total length, with a limit of one per day and only two per boat no matter how many anglers are onboard. 

Spot are being found in the lower Potomac and Patuxent rivers, Tangier and Pocomoke sounds, and near the mouth of the Nanticoke River. Most tend to be on the small side for eating, but with a small enough filet knife one can get two nuggets off a fish. At times white perch will be in the mix and a few kingfish are being caught. The tidal rivers and creeks are the places to target white perch whether one is fishing bait or casting small spinnerbaits and similar lures during the morning and evening hours. 

Blue Crabs

Recreational crab catches are steadily increasing as we enter the month of July. A lot of crabbers will be under pressure to provide crabs for a July 4 gathering and they should not have too much trouble meeting those demands. Most crabbers can catch a full bushel in the middle and lower Bay with regularity and at least one crabber from the upper Bay reported in with a full bushel. Most are reporting the crabs in 12-15 feet of water, and razor clams always offer an advantage. Some crabbers set collapsible crabs in different depths while trotlining, always hoping to find better concentrations of crabs.

Freshwater Fishing

Trout streams and the upper Potomac can expect a little bump in water levels as runoff from recent rain moves through the western region. Fishing for smallmouth bass has been good, but anglers need to be out on the water at dawn for the best fishing. Casting topwater lures is always a fun way to fish for smallmouth and root beer-colored tubes will also work well. Targeting the edges of grass and current breaks is always a good tactic.

Anglers at Deep Creek Lake are enjoying a mix of summer species, boat traffic will peak over the weekend, but anglers can usually find some peace in coves, and the upper portion of the lake. Targeting floating docks with wacky rigged stick worms and various soft plastics is a fun way to entice a loafing largemouth or smallmouth bass to strike. Drifting along deep grass lines with fathead minnows is a great way to target a mix of smallmouth bass, yellow perch, crappie and chain pickerel. 

The central region reservoirs are always ready to provide some summer fishing fun. Loch Raven, Triadelphia, Liberty, and Piney Run are a few of the standouts for largemouth bass and a mix of crappie, chain pickerel and even landlocked striped bass and white perch. The many smaller lakes and ponds of the southern and eastern regions are all known to locals for excellent fishing. The DNR website has a list of freshwater areas to fish that you might not think of. Chesapeake Channa are in a phase where most of them are protecting fry balls of young Chesapeake Channa. It can be hard to entice them to strike in this phase when they are not eating, but posing a threat to their young can get them to attack a lure. Chatterbaits and buzzbaits can often do the trick if you harass the parents enough. 

Largemouth bass have slipped into a typical summer mode of behavior, they are mostly feeding in the shallower waters at night and doing their best to find cool shade during the heat of the day. Late evening and early morning are good times to fish for them just outside the shallow waters where they are staging. topwater lures are always a fun way to fish for largemouth bass and soft bodied frogs, poppers, and buzzbaits will often do the trick. Casting spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, and lipless crankbaits are good choices for working the staging or transition areas. Dropping weighted wacky rigged worms through floating grass mats or flipping them under overhanging brush or docks is a fun way to target largemouth bass seeking shade. 

Atlantic Ocean and Coastal Bays

Surf anglers fishing cut bait of mullet and menhaden continue to find some catch-and-release action with large red drum and a mix of inshore sharks and stingrays this week. Those fishing slightly smaller baits of finger mullet or cut mullet are catching bluefish. One angler reported in with a few flounder and blowfish caught on squid baits in the surf and they fished with bloodworms looking for kingfish but came up empty.

At the inlet and Route 50 Bridge area, casting a mix of bucktails, soft plastic jigs, and paddletails near the jetty rocks, bridge piers, and bulkheads during the morning and evening hours is a great way to target striped bass and bluefish. A high percentage of the striped bass are coming up a little short of the required 28 inches but offer a lot of fun fishing. At night anglers drifting cut bait are having good luck catching bluefish and a few striped bass. Flounder are always in play at the inlet and drifting Gulp baits along the bottom is a good way to fish for them.

The channels leading from the inlet area are always a good place to fish for flounder. Boat traffic will be at a peak this weekend so lesser traveled channels may be a safer idea. The channel opposite Ocean City Airport could be a good alternative. Anglers are reminded that the minimum size for summer flounder is 17.5 inches. In the evenings casting paddletails near the bridge piers of the Verrazzano and Route 90 bridges can offer fun catch and release action with sub-legal striped bass. 

Fishing for black sea bass is good at the offshore wreck and reef sites this week. At some of the wreck and reef sites closer to shore, anglers are finding large flounder. At the canyons, catches of yellowfin and bigeye tuna have increased dramatically and a lot of boats will be out fishing this weekend bringing in good catches. The first blue marlin catch was recorded this week; there have been white marlin releases and dolphin are rounding out trolling catches. The deep drop into the depths near the canyons is producing good catches of golden and blueline tilefish.