Lower Potomac Report?

[WeCallEmRockfish]

Hi All,

Heading to a relative's house this weekend and will be launching from near St. Inigoes, so looking for any potential intel on the St. Mary's River and/or lower Potomac. I usually fish much further up in the Bay (Magothy, Chester), so not sure what to expect down there this time of year.

Stripers are my jam of course, but more than happy if I can find specks, blues, or whatever.

If I don't hear from anyone, I'll just troll/cast the usual and let you know how I do (will do that anyway I suppose)!

[Big Mike]

Piney Point has been hot (see numerous recent reports). I haven’t fished St Inigoes in awhile, hasn’t been very good this year. Should be some rockfish around points, specks on grass beds out near the Potomac are a possibility. If you’re way back in the creek for your launch I’ve got zero intel.

[ski357]

Pretty much all of what Big Mike said, but are you launching in St. Inigoes Creek proper or from the Kitts Point launch? Also recommend you try to target when the tide is moving.

[WeCallEmRockfish]

Pretty much all of what Big Mike said, but are you launching in St. Inigoes Creek proper or from the Kitts Point launch? Also recommend you try to target when the tide is moving.

I will be launching from inside Molls Cove

[WeCallEmRockfish]

Just got word that we will have access to a boat one day as well, so should be able to do a bit more exploring.

Anybody hear anything on that front? Up here it's been mostly "look for birds, look for bait" and that has been pretty damn productive, even by Rocktober standards.

[ski357]

Small world. I used to live on that creek, many moons ago. A couple of weeks ago there were breaking schools and birds working them in the main stem of the St. Mary's that were yielding fish. The breaking pods were numerous enough that we even chased them on our kayaks-running and gunning if you will. Not something I'd recommend though. Sending you a PM.

[WeCallEmRockfish]

Day 1.

Launched at around 3:30 PM to incoming tide (8 PM). Fished until 7 inside Moll's Creek. Got the skunk off quickly with a 14" striper and had some good bacon strips on the finder right by the coast guard station. Some sort of helicopter training going on today right over me, so that provided some entertainment. Had a few tugs jigging at those bacon strips, but no hook ups.

Trolled around for a good long while after that with nothing doing. Finally had another striper about the same size as the sun was starting to set. Switched to topwater and caught my best striper of the day (17"), and had a few other follows/tail slaps, but no more hook-ups.

All in all a bit of a bummer, but heading back out tomorrow. Hopefully have a day more like I see J.A. Veil did just south of me today!

[WeCallEmRockfish]

Day 3 was a washout...boo.

Day 2 report:

Launched in a boat at first light and headed down to the St. Mary's river. Saw a kayaker trolling across the channel near Piney Point - one of you perhaps?

Tried jigging in the channel with no luck, and the wind was picking up so we headed further up into the river for some protection. Beautiful flat water, but nothing biting on topwater. We headed back to peek under the St George Island bridge, thinking it was going to be too rough, but the Potomac had laid down nicely, so we went bird-chasing. Finally found some over small rockfish - my usual tactic of trying to get deeper than the breaking fish was unproductive. We kept moving around chasing the birds and bait, but never saw any larger splashes. A few rockfish up to about 15", but nothing exciting. The good news was that the weather and water were gorgeous, so we kept trying, heading south toward the mouth of the St. Mary's, jigging around the wreck that's there and keeping an eye on the horizon for any other birds. No luck. On the way back in, we tried the points along the St. Mary's, and managed a couple more dinks under a small group of birds, and a lizardfish.

We were back at dock around 3, so I got a bite to eat and took the kayak back out near Moll's cove. More splashes signaling small breaking fish, but again no luck under them. Had a couple light hits on topwater, but no hook ups. Not a bump trolling (Alabama rig w/spoons on it trailing a 4" black Storm paddletail, few different crankbaits - XRap, Crystal 3D minnow - in the 4-5" range).

I see some of the other reports from down there this weekend and am at least glad somebody did well! My total for the weekend was 8 dink rockfish, 1 decent at ~17", and 1 lizardfish.

Back home now; hopefully the Magothy picks up here soon...been quite dead the last few weeks, while at this time last year things were hot.