Cover Image: LJ of G-Eye Jigs and his parents Clyde and Carolyn found a great jigging bite using G-Eye Jigs Jig Heads and Z-Man plastics! LJ and Travis Long of Schooled Up Guide Service are our special guests today, and they will be here for Small Business Saturday tomorrow too!!
Rockfish: Finding birds still seems to be the way to go out there! There are definitely fish on channel ledges, around structure, and at the mouths of the rivers, but if you aren’t catching and see birds, go to the birds! Sometimes the birds will move or lay down, but the fish could very well still be there. Jigging is typically best, using heavier jig heads to get down to the bottom where those bigger fish will be hanging out. Metal jigs are working very well too. The schools of fish are often smaller with a few bigger fish mixed in, but we’ve also gotten reports of schools of more quality size fish (in the mid 20 inch range.. there are some 30s out there but not as many as what we would like to see!) You can also troll channel edges. You will want to use larger, 7-10 inch baits, and fish are in deeper water, from 30-60 feet. Look for submerged structure and reefs in the depth of water, and for ledges. If you can find a ledge that gradually drops from 30-60 feet, that would be a great place to troll over or drift over while jigging!
Red Drum: We got some awesome surprise reports of nice sized red drum still being caught all the way up to Chesapeake Beach and the mouth of the Choptank! They are being caught while fishing for rockfish, so the standard straight tail plastic or paddletail on a jig head is what you want to use! You can’t really target specifically this time of year, but it’s exciting to still see them. You just never know what you might find mixed in with those rockfish!
Black Sea Bass: We are still seeing large number of small black seabass being caught in the middle bay! We aren’t seeing many keepers yet, but that may change as we progress into the winter. They have moved into deeper water, from 30-50 feet and are schooled up over structure so once again you will want to look for those reefs! Use metal jig tipped with squid and bounce them off the bottom!
Pickerel: Head into the tributaries and creeks for pickerel! Target structure such as docks and downed trees, X-Rap baits are working great as well as live minnows. Use a slip bobber so that you can adjust the depth over structure.
