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We (George & Leon) made the trek to the Wicomico River for some perch action.
Of course, it's mandatory to stop at the Chaptico Market for breakfast sammies.
Leon commented on the size of the sausage chunk in the sammie. Don't get 'em like that anywhere. They were good and we were ready to splash the boat at Chaptico Wharf.
We were on the water at 8a.
And catching shortly thereafter. Skunks off!


Our 1st stop was on White's Bar. It's a nondescript area in the middle of the river but there is a shallow bar that runs out quite a ways. The fish are all over the bar both shallow and deep.
This happened a lot today...
...maybe 30-40 times. It was ridiculous. I lost count of singles when we each had a dozen. They I tried to count doubles but that was a waste. Triples? I was a broken record, "another triple!"
At the bar, we caught more perch. This one was 10.5"!
Some stripers were caught...nice battles!


Leon caught a croaker!
George caught a glove!
Never did check to see if there was a hand in it! ![]()
In a tree like this...
...George spotted a rod/reel combo so we got got it.
The reel was toast but the rod was fine. I'll clean it up and one of the HS kids will get it as a prize.
We basically fished 3 areas:
1. White's Bar was out of control!
2. Shoreline #1 was good and we caught many here as well.
There was a couple fishing (in a small boat) for perch with 3 hooks up from a weight. Probably usisng shrimp. They caught a few but left after they saw us catching a bunch.
Also here, we say a maroon pick up pull up on the field and a man got out. I said "hi" and he said, "hi Ernie, I know that Cuban voice anywhere". It was Dennis Fleming form Fishamajig Guide Service (although he does not guide any more).
We chatted a while and he told us some cool history of the property that he is working on. It was good to see him.
Small world.
George also caught a flounder here but it got off as he was trying to get it in the boat.
3. This last shore line spot is one of my favorites and we hammered the fish here. Lots of perch and 3 decent sized Puppy Drum (or redfish, spot tail, channel bass).
We were able to get a pic of this one.
The other 2 have a story.
I hooked in to a nice redfish and was fighting him on my UL setup. He was having his way with me and was all over the boat. He then darted to the front and I got tangled up on George's lure. I was also worried about the fish getting in the TM. It was controlled chaos. We saw the fish. It was nice! George cut the lure and I felt a fish but not the redfish. The redfish got off and a small perch took his place. What a joke!
Anyway, I threw back in the same place a couple of casts later and hooked the one in the pic above. Great fight.
Then, I get stuck near the shoreline and as I was getting close to getting the lure out, Leon gets smoked! The run was on! I told George to get the net and the fish did the same to Leon as he did to me. He ran all around the boat. I was worried that I was going to cut it off with the TM because I had to get out of the shallows and there was a huge rock in my way. Anyway, Leon gets control and George is on the way to net him. Almost. The jig came off the spinner just a few inches from the net. Aargh!
We got to see it but we were disappointed!
Cool to see these fish here.
We called it at 1p because we were hungry.
Lunch was:
Ernie- Southern MD stuffed ham sammie
Leon- fried chicken
George- Souse (head cheese) sandwich
All were good...too hungry for pics.
I picked up 6 lbs of their breakfast sausage but I need to get more to last me through the winter. We will be back in August.
Great day!
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Wow! Sounds like the good ‘ole days!
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What a great day on the water! Congrats to all.
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Holy heck! What a day for you guys. It always starts well with a breakfast sandwich like that. But to catch the fish chart is amazing. I had no idea that flounder and reds came up this far let alone croaker. I'm always learning something new from you guys. Congrats fellas, I'm sure george and leon will be chiming in with smiles ear to ear.
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Classic report, WTG!
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backtofuturetoyota wrote:
Holy heck! What a day for you guys. It always starts well with a breakfast sandwich like that. But to catch the fish chart is amazing. I had no idea that flounder and reds came up this far let alone croaker. I'm always learning something new from you guys. Congrats fellas, I'm sure george and leon will be chiming in with smiles ear to ear.
That's what no rain will do. Bring those brackish/salt water fish up the Bay.
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What a day. Even lost count of how many doubles we had. Fish on almost every cast. That place is magical. Especially with ultra lights.
Ernie said once we turn down this road everything changed. It did. No more traffic. No more idiots. People are nice and courteous. Even on the docks the people were smiling asking us how we did and how we are.
I was afraid to look in the glove thinking I actually might find a severed hand. It was heavy - but it was also full of water. Thought it was a boot but turned out to be a rubber industrial glove. Hilarious.
Only one A hole tried to cut us off and the limo's horn stopped them. People really need to get off their cell phones.
We started laughing and having fun the minute we all started the trip. Weather was absolutely beautiful. Wind picked up the last hour of the trip and I felt each white cap when we motored around, but well worth it. Wife was happy because she got her piece of coconut pie. I got about 3 pounds of link sausage.
Memoral day spent. Ate well, causht fish, laughed allot. Doesn't get any better than that!
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drxfish wrote:
That's what no rain will do. Bring those brackish/salt water fish up the Bay.
Correct but....the Wicomico River was once a hot bed for croaker fishing. Bushwood (right next to White's Bar) was the place to go! They left a couple of decades ago. Flounder could be found as well. Only the redfish are new visitors.
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That's so strange. I use to croaker fish allot down on the Northern neck. They were like catching white perch - everywhere. Now I hear they're gone. Or the big schools are gone.
Wonder what the cause it? Migration? Over fishing? Weather? Or seasonal patterns?
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My conspiracy theory is that they got netted (fished out) by Omega Protein as a by catch of the menhaden reduction industry.
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We used to catch big Croaker near Solomons when my dad kept his boat there many moons ago. Definitely something caused such a decline.
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hookup wrote:
Memoral day spent.
I called Bill Skiver...it's memorable!
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I thing Bill gave up became I'm a lost cause
Or maybe I've just been fooling the AI spell checker?
Last edited by hookup (Jul-04-24 2:51PM)
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hookup wrote:
That's so strange. I use to croaker fish allot down on the Northern neck. They were like catching white perch - everywhere. Now I hear they're gone. Or the big schools are gone.
Wonder what the cause it? Migration? Over fishing? Weather? Or seasonal patterns?
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That'll do it
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There's no doubt nets take a toll on the croakers, whether commercially targeted or by-catch. As Ernie mentioned, the Bushwood area of Maryland's Wicomico was always the earliest croaker bite with good numbers and size. The last time I had a decent croaker bite there was eight years ago, and it was made up of 50/50 croakers and blue cats. Since then it's been all blue cats.
On another note, for the last five or six years there has been an abundance of small 5 - 6" croakers all over the upper bay. So many that it's difficult to weed through them to catch spot for live lining. Every year the comments on fishing forums is that they can't wait for the croakers to grow up. It seems the only thing growing is again, the blue cats
Last edited by Osprey (Jul-06-24 3:54PM)
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That is one awesome day on the water!! Love the variety and the little bit of chaos ?
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