Over the past 20 years, if I had a dollar for every time I asked striper fishermen where they caught that nice rock and heard “Bloody Point,” I’d have, well, a few hundred bucks. In fact, next month marks the 20th anniversary of the current Maryland striper record (Chesapeake division).
On May 13, 1995, then middle schooler Devin Nolan and his dad were trolling over The Hole off Bloody Point when the 67-pound, eight-ounce rockfish inhaled a chartreuse parachute. It took Devin an hour to reel in the cow striper, which sported a 30-inch girth and went 52 inches from snout to tail.
By now most us of know April 18 kicks off Maryland’s 2015 spring trophy rockfish season, and whether Bloody Point gives up another record rock is anyone’s guess. But you can make bets that boats of all sizes will converge on this fishy spot hoping to hook a trophy striper, perhaps one good enough to win the Boatyard Bar & Grill tournament.
Bloody Point Bar Lighthouse was constructed in 1882 off the southern tip of Kent Island in less than 10 feet of water and marks the entrance to Eastern Bay. Back in the day long before TDs and GPS waypoints, Bloody Point earned its keep with mariners by allowing them to make a straight run to Sandy Point, thus avoiding the shoals off Thomas’s Point and Poplar Island.
For striper fishermen, Bloody Point can be a great place to troll for spring rockfish because it has skinny water, which rockfish use to warm up; yet it’s so close to the very deep, colder, watery highways the big migrant fish use to come and go to their spawning grounds. The vast majority of fishermen will troll bucktails, parachutes, and umbrella rigs on planer boards. But a few will chum or jig.
Captain Jeff Eichler of the charter boat Southpaw says he likes to work the changes in depth by crisscrossing the natural ledges looking for trophies. “It’s a pretty tight edge with a quick drop off,” he says. “We also like to fish the eastern edge from Buoy 86 to Bloody Point, or sometimes trolling past Bloody Point to the Hill can produce fish as well.”
Another veteran professional skipper who fishes the Bloody Point area quite frequently is Captain Mark Galasso of Tuna the Tide Guide Service. He knows migrating rockfish filtering up Eastern Bay to get to the Chester River (and Miles River), as well as stripers heading up the Bay frequent the Bloody Point area. While he’ll certainly troll traditional spreads of tandem bucktails, parachutes, and umbrella rigs, he’s not afraid to jig with lead-heads tipped with soft plastics.
“It’s a great mixing spot! Rockfish also can be caught jigging. You just have to use a little patience,” he suggests.
Light tackle fishing has certainly become more mainstream in the past 10 years. I’ve caught spring stripers jigging Bass Assassins, and I’m sure BKDs and other soft plastics work, too.
Bloody Point is an easy run from several ports. Fishermen from the Annapolis area—West, South, Severn, or Magothy rivers—make the run regularly. It’s a bit longer boat ride from Sandy Point State Park, but worth it if the bite is on. The public boat launch at Matapeake on Kent Island is a good choice, as it dumps you a couple of miles north of BP. A word of caution: As the weather becomes sweeter, Bloody Point can draw a lot of boat traffic, especially just south of the light. Keep an eye out for the boaters heading to Kent Narrows or St. Michaels, mainly on weekends.
by Captain Chris D. Dollar
Over the past 20 years, if I had a dollar for every time I asked striper fishermen where they caught that nice rock and heard “Bloody Point,” I’d have, well, a few hundred bucks. In fact, next month marks the 20th anniversary of the current Maryland striper record (Chesapeake division).
On May 13, 1995, then middle schooler Devin Nolan and his dad were trolling over The Hole off Bloody Point when the 67-pound, eight-ounce rockfish inhaled a chartreuse parachute. It took Devin an hour to reel in the cow striper, which sported a 30-inch girth and went 52 inches from snout to tail.
By now most us of know April 18 kicks off Maryland’s 2015 spring trophy rockfish season, and whether Bloody Point gives up another record rock is anyone’s guess. But you can make bets that boats of all sizes will converge on this fishy spot hoping to hook a trophy striper, perhaps one good enough to win the Boatyard Bar & Grill tournament.
Bloody Point Bar Lighthouse was constructed in 1882 off the southern tip of Kent Island in less than 10 feet of water and marks the entrance to Eastern Bay. Back in the day long before TDs and GPS waypoints, Bloody Point earned its keep with mariners by allowing them to make a straight run to Sandy Point, thus avoiding the shoals off Thomas’s Point and Poplar Island.
For striper fishermen, Bloody Point can be a great place to troll for spring rockfish because it has skinny water, which rockfish use to warm up; yet it’s so close to the very deep, colder, watery highways the big migrant fish use to come and go to their spawning grounds. The vast majority of fishermen will troll bucktails, parachutes, and umbrella rigs on planer boards. But a few will chum or jig.
Captain Jeff Eichler of the charter boat Southpaw says he likes to work the changes in depth by crisscrossing the natural ledges looking for trophies. “It’s a pretty tight edge with a quick drop off,” he says. “We also like to fish the eastern edge from Buoy 86 to Bloody Point, or sometimes trolling past Bloody Point to the Hill can produce fish as well.”