Sewer Pipes. Really?

[22Tango]

Winter scoping for new frontiers and now noticing water maps with "sewer" designation. Googled it ... saw some fairly nasty pics of underwater pipes with clouds of um ... something coming from them. Kinda nasty. Came to SL, and saw quite a few references to fishing various "sewer pipes." Ok, really?

I can't knock it because I've never tried it, but is a sewer pipe what I think it is? That is where the sink, toilet, car wash suds from the driveways, etc. all end up? And if they fish really like it, should I still want to eat them?

1) What are they really. 2) Are they really good places to fish (apparently they are). 3) Is it safe to eat the fish (though I've probably been eating it anyway already). I just wanna know. Thanks.

[EMSer]

The sewer pipes are the discharge pipes from the treatment plants so the effluent is not raw sewage. As to the waters quality and the general toxicity of the local fish, I can not say. I would imagine that since the fish move in and out of the proximity of these man-made structures, that they are as safe as anything swimming in the Bay. You can interpret that any way you choose....

One of the reasons many are so productive is that they produce an artificial barrier perpendicular (usually) to the current flow. That in turn attracts bait fish and provides an excellent ambush location for predator species.

[Shady]

The most popular is the one north of the bay bridge. That one is actually storm water runoff, I believe. The water coming out is normally warmer then the bay water around it, which attracts bait fish, which attracts game fish...

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[J.A. Veil]

The well-known Kent Island sewer pipe is a common destination for anglers in the Bay Bridge area. I think the reason fish are attracted there has little to do with the effluent exiting the pipe. The pipe runs well out from the shoreline in a westerly direction roughly parallel to the bridges until it reaches deeper water.

The pipe and its covering of rocks and sediments serves as an artificial ridge in an otherwise flat bottom. It rises up a few feet off the bottom. Currents moving north or south in that area bump into the ridge. This causes the water to move upward on the up-current side of the pipe and it creates a sheltered area on the down-current side of the pipe. Predators can lurk in the sheltered area and wait for food to wash over top of them.

Much of the Chesapeake Bay is flat and featureless. Anytime you introduce some type of structure to that landscape, it creates new sub-habitats that attract bait and predators.

I personally have not done well at the KI sewer pipe. But many others do quite well there.

[jhoss]

This fish came off the pipe at a very critical time (the CBKA tournament)