The huge rockfish from up the bay have arrived and the large schools of ocean fish aren’t far behind. In fact, limits of fish are now being caught daily from Cape Henry on up the bay.
One of the methods we use to target these fish is live baiting with eels. We drift or anchor up in certain locations and put out a spread of eels and wait. There are several places we do this during the day. We also do a lot of this fishing along the CBBT at night. The average fish is around 35 pounds and many are closer to 50 pounds. The largest fish each year are generally caught fishing this way.
If your primary goal is to catch what we call a trophy fish, this is the way to go. Just be aware that we usually don’t catch dozens of fish like we often do trolling. Also, the locations we fish are inside the mouth of the bay and that season closes on Dec 31st each year.
Lots of these fish have arrived and are being caught eeling and trolling!
As for our typical trolling season, it’s always a guess as to when it will become consistent. Most years, I can start doing well in the ocean around Dec 15th. Sometimes earlier. It’s really temperature dependent. It is almost always good by Christmas.
Well, this year the rockfish are here early and limits are being caught NOW! It’s much the same as far as the end of the season. It is safe to say that fishing remains good through early February. Many years, the fish are still going strong through mid March. The fish we catch later in Feb and into March are often a bit larger as well.
These fish are just hanging out all winter and gorging themselves with bait fish to fatten up for the spawning run up the bay. Two and three years ago, we had bitter cold winters and the fish showed up early. They also pushed way south and we had long boat rides most of the winter to get to these fish. They also stayed here into March.
Last year, it barely got cold. Most of the fish never left the bay. We had a period of incredible fishing close to the inlet, but the fish were gone at the beginning of February.
Like I stated above, these fish are here now, so beat the crowds and come get your fish.
Call me at 757-289-8862!
Date Added: 2012-12-06
Type of Fishing: Trolling
Reported By: Capt. Nolan Agner
Region Fishes: Chesapeake Bay