2011 is Coming to an End. Your Fishing Summary?

[Spot77]

Sum up your impression of this year's fishing.

My impression:

First half of the year SUCKED.

Both freshwater and saltwater fishing were lousy for the first half of the year. Although I fished mostly north of the bridge and well south of the Key bridge. I did get south of the bay bridge a few times but with terrible results. We took a charter out of Deale in June I think and did ok trolling off of Chesapeake Beach and a little south of there. I forgot the captain's name, but the boat was the Snow Goose and the mate went by, "Smitty." Caught our limit of decent fish up to about 30 inches at best I think. I know I posted a report on the trip here somewhere.

NO birds at all this year.

No Rockfish of legal size until about July I think, and even our usually hot Perch spots were pretty weak. We did find a few new Perch holes though and they paid off nicely.

Around July all of a sudden we started catching fish, and it hasn't stopped yet. Although it has slowed down a little. For about 6 or 7 weeks we could go out and catch so many nice fish that my back and arms would hurt the next day. All of this was in water from 3 to 10 feet deep. Even MONSTER catfish were hitting crankbaits, beetlespins and anything else we were throwing.

Croaker showed up for about 20 minutes this year. Seriously I think they were around the usual places (Like Podickery) for a few days at best and then we never saw them again.

Blues were thin this year too. We caught a few, although we weren't really fishing for them. There's usually a lot more caught as a byproduct of Striper fishing.

Did ANYBODY here catch any Spanish Mac??? Usually someone I know does and I get a few bags to cook up. Not this year.

Freshwater was ok, but my usual favorite ponds and the Pocomoke River didn't deliver as many fish as usual, nor was there much size to what I did catch. The good news is that I finally caught a Largemouth in MD that was over 5 pounds. My MD record previously had been 4 pounds 11 ounces I think. (I've caught bigger in Florida and Mexico though, with Bass topping 8 pounds.)

I started trolling this year! Prior to this year the only trolling I ever did was aboard charters.....and maybe once or twice on private boats over the past 20 years. It's definitely fun watching the rod get hit, but it goes against my freshwater nature to "sit back and wait" when I'm used to casting for hours at a time. Still love it though.

No Yellow Perch at all thbis year that I can recall, and I know we tried a few times.

[Skip]

Spring trolling was much slower then in years past - caught fish but took longer.

Summer was OK - livelining Spot was great but finding Spot often took 2-3 hours. They tended to be 7-10 inchers and that lead to nice Rock 26 to 32.

Perch fishing was awesome - lots over 10 inches.

Lee / Irene - I'd like to forget those storms. Wiped out September for me. Got a feeling more damage was done then we realize.

Fall school size Rock troll was not good but did get some.

The late fall big fish has been tough but getting at least a couple per trip.

Never tried for Macs or Blues.

[Spot77]

Skip I agree about the Perch...We caught a lot more big ones this year. Some days we would pull in multiples up to 12 inches and an occaisional 13 to 14". One of these days I'll put in for a citation.

The two storms didn't ruin my fishing. We did great before and after both storms. Motoring along at idle speed everywhere kind of sucked though, and coming back at night was downright agonizing at times.

Maybe the side effect of the storms will be more underwater structure built up in new places. Hey a fella can hope, right?

[Bend-Lure]

Spring trolling season was fine. I got out 3 days and caught some fish, biggest was 29#.

I didn't go shark fishing in May or June because we went straight into tuna season. The tuna bite was awesome early. I put in 15 days offshore over the summer and slayed BFT to about 60#, YFT to 70. Many multiple hookups, way more than in years prior. Also caught a huge blue marlin about 600# at the Washington. My other notable from the summer was multiple hookups in the WMO, and feeding ballys on circles to whites with good success.

Had some success fishing the suds in Hatteras as well landing a couple citation drum to 45".

I have fished 3 days in the bay this fall catching fish all 3 days. Not a particularly strong bite, but landed fish to 20#.

Summary: Slower year in the bay, but decent fish were around. Fun beach fishing. Awesome early tuna season and good marlin fishing. I'd take years like this anytime. I miss shark fishing though, so a couple mako trips are on teh calendar for 2012.

[Southerly]

i really enjoyed the year but it flew by. i didn't fish in muddy waters, i battled gas problems mostly ongoing, and busy at work which is appreciated of course. i was constantly reminded how much i wasn't fishing by friends that fish more and how noticeable it was that i wasn't keeping up.

i had a poor year for WP. i didn't go out looking for them when i was supposed to. finished a major home project at that time instead. mostly fished for the WP from shore in my community when there was a little time to kill. they came in late for me and ran small. late in summer, i was able to take advantage of muddy bay and found them pinned down for a couple weeks but just couldn't get on citation size. i hammered on this no holds barred for 2 weeks but the harder i tried, the smaller they got. eventually, this effort culminated in some 2" WP in the chesapeake aquarium and i had to go back to lookin for rockfish. not enough of them to please most folks but i had all i needed or wanted.

i was lucky to enjoy some very satisfying fishing trips. the kind that leaves a glow for a couple days after. i think mostly because i didn't have time for arbitrary fishing w/o a plan, long days on the water. i waited for each coming trip and focused on making the best of it. also started doing the kayak fishing and got out to more distant places. these trips are already starting to feel like memories of a lifetime.

as much as anything, i'm looking forward to next year and possibilities tht are opening up.

[B-Faithful]

Strange year for us. However we fished for rockfish from NJ to VA and did so Livelining, eeling, chunking, jigging, trolling, and any other way we thought we could catch these fish and have fun doing it.

Jigging in the winter was fun. Landed a lot of fish over 30" and a couple over 40"

Spring trolling was slow. We didnt have a great spring but we always found fish.

Late spring chunkingafter the trophy season wasnt all that hot either. However we caught a couple of big cats and never got skunked.

Summer -- this was year of the big striper. I think we averaged over 28" on summer fish caught. We did well both jigging and live lining. Hardest part about live lining was finding spot. The ones we found were HUGE and they resulted in big stripers. We even got some press with a good day at Wish-a-Fish: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/o...,6794988.story Because spot were hard to come by I spent more time learning to jig the bridge and now think I can hang with most in the area.

Fall was slow again. I didnt get to fish as much but when we did we caught mostly smaller rockfish jigging. A fish over 24" was rare. Most of this fishing was north of the bridge. Once trolling for migrants started we havent had a great bang up day like years in the past. We have caught a number of bigger fish but it usually has been only a few fish per trip. We also caught a few fish eeling. I think the water from the storms has made it for a tougher fall in the upper bay.

I am hoping for a few more trips before the new year. I want to get out once before the season closes in MD on Thursday and definately will make a run to PLO the week between Christmas and New Years. A C&R trip off of Bloody Point between now and Christmas may be fun too.

[crabby and son]

I did more crabbing this year than fishing. June and July were great for limiting out on crabs. Perch fishing was good with my Son. Did not fish for rock once this year. Working two jobs to make ends meet made it tough. Hunting has been great this year too! Meat for the winter. Tried to pick crab meat to save for the winter but it didn't happen...........I ate it.............Gary

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[Spot77]

Originally Posted by crabby and son

I did more crabbing this year than fishing. June and July were great for limiting out on crabs. Perch fishing was good with my Son. Did not fish for rock once this year. Working two jobs to make ends meet made it tough. Hunting has been great this year too! Meat for the winter. Tried to pick crab meat to save for the winter but it didn't happen...........I ate it.............Gary

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I crabbed a few times this year and I have to agree that it was another good year for crabs. Even into late August I had a great trip. I'd like to take my son out more next year for both fishing and crabbing. He caught his first Rockfish this year amd ended up catching 3 or 4 on one trip. Biggest was about 25 inches, but he caught it ALL by himself.....tied the lure on himself, cast, hook and retrieve all on his own. Not bad for an 11 year old. I hooked a few and let him reel them in so he knew how they'd fight.....glad he learned fast.