Anybody fish Honga River lately?

[AmberjackYakin]

Haven't been out this year and been on this site for some time due to work demands, have Wedensday and Thursday available and was wondering if anyone has been out to one of my favorite spots in Maryland , Honga River?

[jet]

i fished it on saturday, 10 rock from 16-19" and i'll consider myself lucky i caught that many because there was sooooo much floating grass. fouled the lure with every cast. the shallow areas did clear out a bit as the tide began to ebb. no specks or redfish. didnt even see any rays. not sure there are many specks being caught as walleye pete posted on his blog recently that, "What I know is the Specks just haven’t made it up here and I don’t think many survived the last two winters. Sad but a natural occurance and they will be back." he did have a picture of one caught on his instagram.

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[AmberjackYakin]

Thanks Jet,

For the report on Honga River, last year I didn't manage to catch many speckled trout like 2013. I did manage to catch a lot of redfish last year compared to 2013, seemed like redfish had taken over my speckled trout honey holes. Hopefully the trout rebound with the current 4 daily and 14" size limits.

[skinnywater]

I'm headed to the Honga tomorrow. I'll give you a report tomorrow evening.

[phoenixkeith]

what ramp do you guys use ?

[AmberjackYakin]

what ramp do you guys use ?

I use hoopersville boat ramp, but depending on wind I might go other side of Honga River. I like hoopersville because it gives me opportunity to fish bayside or honga river.

[AmberjackYakin]

I'm headed to the Honga tomorrow. I'll give you a report tomorrow evening.

I'll be out there as well on sunrise.

[Cowpokey]

I use hoopersville boat ramp, but depending on wind I might go other side of Honga River. I like hoopersville because it gives me opportunity to fish bayside or honga river.

Is there a fee for that ramp? I've been looking at that as a launch for wind out of the west...

[jet]

nope

[skinnywater]

Had no luck at all. I only fish top water and my buddy fished a Gulp Shad. Tide was ebbing the entire time we fished. Talked to another guy and he had no luck with rock but had caught some croaker on bait.

Dorchester County has free boat ramps. I use the last ramp down next to the wholesale crab house. I think it's Hooperville.

A waterman did tell me specks were just beginning to show in the river. That's what I was actually targeting. He also said crabbing was picking up and it looked like it going to be a good season down there. He was a crab pot crabber not a trot liner.

[MD Dore]

Sorry for the tardy post, but I fished the Honga on Sunday afternoon to no avail as well. The wind was blowing hard and there was grass everywhere to foul my lures. I gave up trolling and tried jigging a few ledges and casting to shoreline with no success. I was using a mix of gulp swimming mullet, paddletails, and crankbaits, and all worked equally (not) well. I spoke with one local power boater while there, and he said he had been out all day and only managed 2 small perch. I'm blaming the front that came through the day before...yeah, that must have been it.

After being blown off the water around 7, I returned to the launch to find that my jeep's starter had gone bad. Those that have been to Hooper's will agree that there aren't a lot of vehicle maintenance options on a Sunday, or any day for that matter. It took the tow truck 2.5 hours to find me. The silver lining is that while waiting for the tow, I was treated to one of the best sunsets I've seen in years.

[jet]

^wow, that really sucks, who did you call to tow you in those parts? might be good to know. thanks for the report

[MD Dore]

Jet, I called my insurance company and it found a company in Salisbury. I needed a flatbed, so I expect that was one reason why it had to reach out that far. I'll send you the name of the company once I find the receipt.

[AmberjackYakin]

I managed to hit the Hoopersville ramp in the morning at 630. There was barely any wind, surface flat as it could be. There was a lot of grass, but I managed to get to a area where fouling wasn't a issue. I managed one 13" rockfish on a crank bait with in first 10 casts along the shoreline, that's it until 9 AM. Then I headed through channel to Thorofare Cove to check out a couple of past hot spots. Had a funny moment on the way through the channel I noticed a osprey kept flying low behind my kayak, I figured maybe I was close to it's nest even though no trees were close by. I looked behind and noticed I had forgotten one of my fishing lines with a 4" gulp mullet in the water which at that point I was trolling. I managed to catch a nice decent sized white perch 6 ft from end of my kayak! I fished the cove and far out on bayside for 2 hours, no luck on spoons, crankbaits, gulp, and spinners. I decided to go catch white perch, I used my minnow trap to catch me some mud minnows inside the channel. I spent next couple hours in channel for white perch with minnows, managed to catch 13 decent sized white perch.

-The tide was very low... The rays are back in full force! Seen them in Honga River, channel, and cove.
-I also fished the incoming tide for white perch and crabbed at beaverdam creek bridge in afternoon after stopping at Old Salty's for lunch, fished on hoopers island bridge afterwards for croakers up to 730pm(didn't catch any and everyone else didn't either, seen a bunch of rays).
-DNR pulled up on me for a license check before I went into channel, they were telling me no one has been catching speckled trout or redfish but the other side of Chesapeake Bay they are.