Trout from up North - Sunday 8/11

[reelhandy]

Fished with 2 of my brothers off Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay Sunday and had some good fun. We caught big specks, small stripers and blues, a keeper red, and a huge croaker. The specks seem to be getting bigger each year up there, as are the reds. Used to be that speckled trout were pretty rare, and they were generally small, but now they seem to be getting bigger each year. We caught a bunch that were over 20", with the biggest a fat 24". All fish were caught on plastic paddle tailed jigs. They get big bull reds up that way, and they get undersized ones that are called puppy drum. In recent years though it seems that more and more slot reds are showing up. Maybe it's climate change that's causing it, or it could be just another cycle that the bay is known for. Years past there were lots of grey trout over 15lbs in the bay, but now they are scarce. Schools of 10lb+ blues used to terrorize everything in the bay, but now it seems that only the smaller ones show up. The Chesapeake is real pretty where we were, but to me the Big Bend is much prettier by far, and overall the fishing is better.

Mark and a nice trout

Mike and a nice trout

My first fish of the day

Red that just made the slot

[SS-342]

Nice pictures, good fish and an interesting write up. I liked it!

I didn't realize they had all our fish in the Bay

Those were nice trout!

Thanks for the report.

Were you fishing out of Virginia?

[reelhandy]

We were fishing out of Crisfield Md, which is right on the Va line of the eastern shore. The waters we fished though were in Va. The trout and reds may go further up the bay from there, but from that point south is where they seem to be fished for the most. The Mid to Southern parts of the Chesapeake get most of the southern fish during the warmer months, but they don't winter up there. I talked to one guy who said he had caught tagged trout in that area that had been tagged in NC. They evidently spawn in the bay because of the few that were kept some had eggs. Big Reds come up in there in the warmer months too along with rat reds. The slot reds have been getting caught more frequently in recent years. Schools of Spanish come up there in late summer, and there are even an occasional cobia. Down at the mouth of the bay though a lot of big cobia are caught. I've never heard of a jack getting caught in the bay, or a ladyfish. There are no grouper or kings and tarpon are very rare. The main fish that people go after in the bay though is the striper. They are in there in various sizes pretty much year round.

[SS-342]

Thanks that was interesting!

I have a friend who lives in Ivor Virginia and he talks a lot about the Bay. I've been in parts of the Bay on the submarine I was on but never fished there.

[Nevercaughtup]

I'm originally from Va Beach. The trout fishing is definitely better up there than it used to be. Nothing like the Gulf though. There is actually a decent tarpon fishery, just not a lot of people know about it. They catch them on the bay side of the Eastern Shore in the summer on dead baits fished on the bottom. There is good redfishing on the Shore's barrier islands in the fall, too. Big reds, too. One of my buddies caught a 53" fish a few years back. Second biggest I've seen.

[Nambleman]

That is the lightest colored Red ive ever seen! Really pretty!