Year classes of our sport fishery

[ronaultmtd]

Based upon my personal observation from fishing time on the southern bay water- not a fish scientists- just my thoughts...white perch have had a so-so year with their spawn..not their normal explosive spawn but not terrible either...striped bass seems subpar but not unusual for dink stripers...been another great Speckled Trout year with mutli- year catches of 12 inch, 17 inch and 25 inch fish all but one released due to too deeply hooked to survive...surprisingly catching a good number of multi- year redfish (puppy drum) of 11 inch- 15-16 inch and 24 inch redfish...the folks at Tackle Box in Lexington Park tell me they have never seen so many slot reds brought in...don't be fooled into rushing down with the high expectations of taking home redfish for the grill...I have caught exactly seven redfish to date with only one keeper yesterday of 24 inches...compare that to over a hundred of legal Speckled Trout in excess of 14 inches..like I said all released except one...and over a dozen Striped Bass in excess of 19 inches...including one yesterday...a 18 inch (minimum legal) redfish is still a very uncommon catch in our waters- but the multi-year fish bode well for the future as does the big bull reds being caught and released by boaters targeting them in lower Maryland waters...one surprising fish that I keep on catching is the big cutlass fish of 24-27 inches...had two yesterday of that size on as a "double header" while trolling swimbaits...these are some very unique fish and are really fast...they hit like a ton of bricks but have no stamina for a fight- some call them "ribbonfish" but their true name is cutlass fish...if you are so inclined they are edible...too much work for so little meat for me...

[J.A. Veil]

Ron -

You are correct about the rarity of slot-sized redfish in MD waters. I fished in Southern MD waters this morning. I fished for nearly 4 hours and caught just five fish. Three were lizardfish (up to 11"), one was a small striper, and the most exciting catch was a 21" redfish. I have caught sub-legal reds on several of the past years, but this was my first keeper-sized red (18" - 27") caught in Maryland waters since 2014. Catching that fish helped to make up for an otherwise slow morning.

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The redfish had a significant injury to the gill cover on its left side (the right side looked normal). I released the red and hope its injury is not too serious.

I know that you like to be on the water at first light, and seem to have better catches then. I was unable to leave home early enough for a first light launch. I launched shortly after 9:00 am (high tide was about then) and fished the outgoing tide. I am doing a charterboat trip out of Solomons tomorrow and hope to do another kayak trip on Wed morning before heading home.

[ronaultmtd]

Your results are mirrored by several of my friends reports, John...I had some decent luck Sunday, but my other friends did not..fishing after the recent storms seems off pretty badly...and we are forecast for several more days of rainstorms...