Chesapeake Bay Striper Fishing

It came to me this summer while striper fishing in Chesapeake Bay that just about everyone has a chance at catching striper which are also known as rockfish. They travel up and down the east coast from Maine to South Carolina and can be found in rivers and lakes where they are stocked. One day this August in my bass boat, I caught and released nearly 50 Chesapeake Bay stripers in a single outing! I got worn out and never moved from navigational aid #8 which is a local Chesapeake Bay fishing area in the Potomac River. The current really rips through there, and the striped bass bite was especially hot.

What I really like though is the spring trophy rockfish season in the Chesapeake Bay. I start shopping for the makings of my rigs, which I troll behind the boat, during the winter while Chesapeake Bay striper fishing is out of season. My favorite colors are chartreuse and yellow, with black thrown in for good measure. White is another good choice. Umbrella rigs with several baits simulate a small school of bait fish. Sometimes smaller fish will bite off the tails, but it doesn’t take too much to get one of those big horses hooked once he bites. I drag six or more rigs at various distances from the boat and use my downriggers to get a pair of baits down deeper. Whether we are striper fishing in Chesapeake Bay or in the ocean off Virginia or Maryland we have to sometimes find the fish in the water column. That could be down deep near the bottom, right on top feeding on baitfish, or anywhere in between.

Then the trick is to find the schools of bait, circling birds, and then ultimately the rockfish. Catching 40 and 50 pound fish can wear the stuffing out of even a big guy. It’s a good thing we’ve got a fighting chair onboard our Chesapeake Bay charter boat. We’ve taken as long as 20 minutes to get especially big rockfish into the boat. Chesapeake Bay striper will get about completely tired out, they get almost to the boat, and then they will have at least one more burst of energy and take off again. It can be a real see-saw battle. It’s especially fun when we get two or more fish on at the same time. The trick then is to keep the fish separated from one another.

Virginia Beach striper fishing and other east coast striper fishing regions for winter rockfish can be a different kind of challenge. We’re using about the same kind of rigs in January as summer or fall fishing and the stripers can run really big this time of year too. What’s different is the cold weather endured by the angler. Two years ago during the annual Frostbite Challenge tournament, it was so cold that the water and blood froze to the deck! Not good. We had to be very careful that weekend to avoid falls or worse. But we caught some great fish, and, as I recall, we also saw a nuclear submarine under way, making good speed as she headed out of the Chesapeake Bay for open sea.

Yes, Chesapeake Bay striper fishing is for everyone. And they are one of the best tasting fish I know of. There are many great rockfish recipes that will keep you wanting to put fish in the freezer all year long.