Chesapeake Beach has been one of the premier fishing destinations along the Western Shore for a long time. I first went there in the 1970s when big bluefish were the big draw and rockfish were in the beginning of their decline. Today the rockfish are back, and the blues, while smaller, are still available. Add to these the abundance of spot, croaker, white perch, and big black drum for a real smorgasbord of fishing fun.
On my first trips to Chesapeake Beach trolling was the most productive technique for catching both rockfish and blues. Boats would pull eight or 10 lines using both wire and mono attached to spoons and tubes. Today trolling is employed primarily in the spring for the trophy rockfish run, and while spoons are still used, you are more likely to find shads fished in tandem behind a bucktail or on an umbrella rig.
The boats still troll multiple lines and are now aided by planer boards. Some of these boards are so large they should require a boat license and will accommodate 10 or 12 lines. One mistake I see trailer boaters make is trying to imitate the larger charter boats. Running more than six lines from a boat with an eight-foot beam can be problematic. Adding large planer boards will not improve the handling of the boat, and with three or four heads onboard the crew will be hard pressed to control all those lines. A better choice is to run the number of lines you and your crew can handle and leave the big planer boards for the larger boats.
Small boat owners must also be aware of the number of planer boards running around the Bay when the rockfish run is on. Some captains will put a flag on their boards, while others will not. Even the largest planer can be difficult to see when the waves are high, so the captain must keep a sharp lookout. Believe me, getting fouled up with six or eight planer lines is not the most productive way to spend the better part of your fishing trip.
Some Chesapeake Beach boats will travel over to the Eastern Shore in the spring for a shot at big black drum. Captains will motor around slowly until the fishfinder lights up due to a school of big drum on the bottom. At this point all hands drop a peeler crab baited rig to the bottom and hold on. Multiple hookups are common, and with the boats so close together, things can get real interesting, real fast. If you enjoy exciting action, this may be your sport.
Once the spring season is over, light tackle fun can begin. My most recent trips out of Chesapeake Beach began a couple hundred yards off the beach catching spot and white perch. The perch were plenty big enough to eat but were returned to the water. Some of the spot were also large, but enough small ones were caught to fill up the livewell. A serious pan fisherman could have loaded his cooler in a very shot time. Once the livewell was full, we headed across the Bay to a location west of the Choptank River. Here live spot were dropped to the bottom and waiting rockfish gobbled them up. My first two drops equaled a limit, so I switched to a Tsunami shad, and the fish kept right on biting. Some of the crew took a bit longer to catch a limit of rock on the live bait, and the rest of us played catch and release until they accomplished their mission.
Now it was off on a run up the Bay where we encountered a school of rock and blues feeding on the surface. We played run and cast with them exchanging our plastic shads for metal lures in deference to the bluefish. These were small fish, so everything was released. We finished the day anchored up and chunking with cut spot. This technique was quite effective on the larger blues in the area. We did not have the fast and furious fishing found at the rockfish hole or with the smaller fish under birds, but the four- to six-pound blues invaded our chunk line in sufficient numbers to give all hands some excellent action.
In the fall, the top water fishing improves, and light tackle anglers have great action. This is also the perfect time for the fly fishing crowd to get in their innings. Another late summer/early fall fishing delight is catching big croaker at night. Apparently the big croaker’s favorite prey come out of the shell beds after dark, and the fish school up to enjoy the feast.
While no one would wish a hurricane on anyone, Gloria did bring about some impressive changes to Chesapeake Beach. The flooding caused by the hurricane left the waterfront destroyed. The rebuilding process has provided the town with one of the premier hotels on the Chesapeake Bay. Chesapeake Resort and Spa is a four-star hotel with fantastic accommodations that will impress the most discriminating traveler. As nice as this establishment is, they still cater to fishermen with an early breakfast and sit right next to the Rod ‘N’ Reel Dock where numerous charter and head boats tie up. Chesapeake Beach is a short drive from Washington DC, Annapolis, and Baltimore. It is the perfect destination for a group of friends to charter a boat for a day’s fishing or for a family weekend getaway.
by Eric Burnley