Hackett's Friday Evening 6/17

[Wyelife]

Friday morning heading to work accross bridge, every charter boat on the bay must have been fishing between Sandy Point Light and Baltimore Light. Stopped at Angler's on the way home and they suggested fishing same area instead of Hackett's. Took my 8 year old, a friend of his and friends father out. Left Mattapeake around 5:50. Tide should turn outgoing quicker at Hackett's then Podickery so decided to go there instead (been there once a week for 4 weeks now and have caught each time, hard to leave what you believe in). Tide had just changed to outgoing which was good. Maybe 6 or 8 boats total fishing there. Didn't really mark any fish but set up in 32' where we have been having luck. About 15 minutes in a rod starts vibrating strangely, pick it up and hand it to 8 yo friend who reels in a 12" menhaden that had gotten its mouth caught up in the braid. Cut him up for bait and got a 23 and a 28. The another 12" menhaden gets mouth caught up in the braid again (this is a first for me). Cut him up for bait and we get a 32 and a 35, a couple huge run-offs that pull loose, and a few unders. What a difference fresh bait makes. Never saw a school on the depth finder and it was a slow bite with the occasional fish coming thru the spread but the size was great. Good time had by all and back to Matapeake around 9:15pm.

Drove over bridge Saturday afternoon for the Chris Stapleton concert and the whole Podickery area looked like an absolute zoo. Coming to work this morning (Monday) and I have never seen so many boats congregated in such a small area on a weekday morning. Must be one heck of a school of fish over there.

Hope my season continues to go well.

Wyelife

[Chessie27]

Nice work staying out of the chaos and finding your own fish. I trolled near there first thing Sat morning and quickly moved out to deeper water away from the zoo.

[Botumfedr]

Got a late start this AM but was on the water about 0930. Had to see the action south of the bridge and ran over to the cluster. Everyone drifting, jigging, chumming and sitting on the water. Never saw a bent rod. Lot of boats from down south. Had seen enough and decided to check out the cluster off Podickery. Same thing. 25+ boats from all over the upper and mid bay. There had to be a lot of chum in the water. Time to boogie and find my own fish. Headed north and had not gone 1/2 mi when breaking fish erupted all around the boat with no company close by. Could have been finished in a half hour but decided to selectively fill the limit. A few just short but ended up releasing everything under 21". Best were in 27-28" range when we limited out and then chased them all over the channel and nearly to the LP doing our C&R thing. Gotta avoid the crowds and find the fish away from everyone.

[Mako mike]

Great work guys. Those fish have been north of podickory to almost the bay bridge from 17'-35' of water the last couple weeks. Trollers I have seen really not doing much with them, but those chumming, jigging or in my case love chumming/ live lining with cast net peanut bunker have been doing well. Out this evening with live peanut bunker and only spent about twenty minutes before we could have limiting out with fish to 34" but all released. Not many people there this evening but with the crowds that have been it will be over very,very soon. We caught a total of 15 and all were released. Left bodkin creek at 5:30 and in, tied up and cleaned up by 8:45.

[5th Tuition]

Didn't plan on fishing today. Had a Dr appointment this morning (dermatologist) and had to help a friend of mine get some lumber in my pickup in the afternoon.

I had a friend call me and ask if I was on the water I said, "No"; didn't have enough time. He told me he was into some keeper size fish NORTH of Magothy.

I thanked him for the info. About 30 minutes later, my buddy calls to say he still wants to use the truck, but can't get away until 3:30-4:00 pm.

You know where I headed

Of course he was off the water by the time I left my slip, but I searched his area and found some nice fish to jig. I was a tad late getting to his house The fish just kept cooperating

Yes, yes, yes; I'm wearing an inflatable vest. Wife bought me one for Christmas and I promised her I'd try to wear it when I fished alone.

Tough to take a selfie with a flopping fish
5th

p.s. use sunscreen
end of public service announcements

[Spot77]

This past Sunday was NUTS around Podickery.

We had planned on fishing elsewhere but somebody forgot the chum bucket so we made a stop at Bay Bridge Marina (Hemmingway's) and my lovely wife met us at the fuel dock.

I should have been a little more clear with her as we needed ONLY a bucket, not a bucket with 40 lbs of chum

Turns out though that it was VERY good chum and landed us a ton of fish even in the mix of 75 other boats in the area. (She got it at Chesapeake Outdoors, so there's my free plug for them.)

We took a high school friend of mine with us who had never caught a Rockfish before. He's a great Largemouth fisherman though.

Anyway we let him reel in most of the fish for the day. Most ranging between 22" and 30".

(Yeah, he's obviously learned the art of holding the fish at the proper angle for maximum appearance in size!)