# Choptank news



## Dogg Fish (Jun 2, 2006)

Anyone been there in the last week or so? What's the news? I'd really like to go there this weekend.


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## cygnus-x1 (Oct 12, 2005)

Dogg Fish said:


> Anyone been there in the last week or so? What's the news? I'd really like to go there this weekend.


As of Sunday night the lights on the Talbot county side (long side of the pier)
were still out. Not sure about the fishing.


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## earl of DC (Jul 7, 2007)

Dogg Fish said:


> Anyone been there in the last week or so? What's the news? I'd really like to go there this weekend.


went there saturday before last. as cygnus stated the lite are off on the talbot co. side. as for the fishing the blues are there!!!


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## ABluesman (Mar 28, 2005)

*Have you called??*

Just a reminder for P & S members and lurkers who want to have some good fall fishing at the Choptank, you need to make a call to this ranger and inquire about the lights being out on the Talbot side of the bridge:

Lt. Oehler
MD DNR
Martinak State Park in Denton
410-820-1668


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## Dogg Fish (Jun 2, 2006)

Any more recent reports? How big are the blues running? Anything sizeable hitting other than blues? I am hoping to go this weekend.


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## John81 (Apr 24, 2007)

fyi 95% of the lights are on dunno what you all are talking about


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## cygnus-x1 (Oct 12, 2005)

John81 said:


> fyi 95% of the lights are on dunno what you all are talking about


They were on this weekend but the previous 2-3 the Talbot side was dark. I am usually driving over around 9:30-10 on Sunday and this was the first Sunday in a while that they were on


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## steve grossman (Feb 1, 2008)

On Wed the 8th, John81 and I fished our butts off for 12 hours. Live spot/perch on the pilings, cut spot/bluefish, soft crab,and bloods. John81 casted tandem rigs also. Very few bluefish from 11-14.5 inches. Very tough to find spot, with a majority being tiny, no Rockfish. Some keeper perch on the pilings, most small. A guy came down to fish, who had fished Matapeake all day, and said the fishing there was the same as the Choptank.

John81 is right, the damn lights, 90% were ON during the day, and Evening. I called DNR in Denton, and they told me they were off cause of wire shortages that had not been found. Very strange. Even a Private Klotz of the Maryland DNR WALKED out there, to check the few people for licenses, in the afternoon.

In all the years fishing out there in October, this was really strange. No bait fish, no fish, no crabs, nothing..

Will try it again in 2 weeks. Hey, thats fishing....


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## CrappieKid (Jan 21, 2008)

steve u just suck......lol u put your bait on upside down.. Thanks 4 the report.:fishing::fishing:


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## steve grossman (Feb 1, 2008)

Everything in my life is upside down at this point, SO that means it can only get better.....


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## sand flea (Oct 24, 1999)

There are rats there all summer long, but the nicer ones should start to show next time we get a cold snap and NE blow. Go out there on the snottiest night you can find and you'll clean up.


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## steve grossman (Feb 1, 2008)

Hey sand flea--It was about 4-5 years ago on the Choptank, in late September and October, a bunch of fished with cut spot, and peeler/soft crab at nite out there. We caught trout up to 8 pounds on the cut spot, and quite a few 20-26 inch stripers. There were also 3-5 pound bluefish being caught at nite. I think you are right, we need much colder wqater temps to shake things up. The other nite when John81 and I fished, we never saw any baitfish, in the lights, edges of the lights, in the shallows, oar anywhere. Ill be back out there, cause I still have 18 soft crabs left to use. When it gets really cold out there, at nite we fish with tandem bucktail/shad body rigs, and do well.

So patience will have to be practiced here, guess I will get back to my old stomping grounds at Matapeake, or the Point Lookout area for now....


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## gillmen (Sep 21, 2008)

Ill be down sunday night to fish normally i fish the cambridge side but i might try the other side. whats the benifit of fishing the talbot side. I mean it just seems like everyone on this site says thats the side they fish.


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## steve grossman (Feb 1, 2008)

The parking lot, just before the bridge, on the Easton side, if one is coming from the Easton side--Convenience, and just wanting to get out there faster on the pier..


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## chesapeakecarper (Aug 22, 2003)

steve grossman said:


> The parking lot, just before the bridge, on the Easton side, if one is coming from the Easton side--Convenience, and just wanting to get out there faster on the pier..


A primary reason bank/pier/bridge anglers limit their catches.

Just my 2 cents.

The average angler is lazy. Its just human nature.

Everyone says fish the Easton side and no one is catching fish. Whats wrong with this picture?

Gillmen, I've chosen my Choptank area to "camp" for 2009 and its on the Cambridge end...the odds are in your favor as I see it...study the river, put in the time. Tidal fishing regardless the species is all about the tides and timing. Look on the bright side, its a shorter walk


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## steve grossman (Feb 1, 2008)

I have fished the Easton side since the 1980s. Fishing is fishing. Sometimes great, sometimes good, sometimes it sucks, wherever one goes. If people want to fish the Cambridge side great. But what the hell does laziness have to do with it. I fish Easton, cause 90 percent of the time, it produces very well. Patterns over 30 years must have something to do with one fishing one side or the other. Cycles of fish have something to do with the Choptank, as well as other areas on the bay, wouldnt you say? Not laziness. The price of gas had a lot to do with people not getting down to the Choptank this year, and that is one reason the reporting was scarce.

Helll, like everything else in life, there are good times and stinky times.


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## Dogg Fish (Jun 2, 2006)

I always fish the Cambridge side, just force of habit. I love that pier, mostly because the size gives you plenty of room. From my experience, the fishing is much worse generally than it was five years ago. I don't like to go to all the trouble of going out there unless I get some words of encouragement from P&S that the fish are hitting there. I have been there four times this year and got mostly skunked three of the four times. I guess we are waiting for some kind of November run? Call me a wimp, but you won't find me out in the really cold weather without some serious words of encouragement from some of you that they're really hitting.


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## Wannafishallday (Aug 13, 2007)

steve grossman said:


> Hey sand flea--It was about 4-5 years ago on the Choptank, in late September and October, a bunch of fished with cut spot, and peeler/soft crab at nite out there. We caught trout up to 8 pounds on the cut spot, and quite a few 20-26 inch stripers. There were also 3-5 pound bluefish being caught at nite. I think you are right, we need much colder wqater temps to shake things up. The other nite when John81 and I fished, we never saw any baitfish, in the lights, edges of the lights, in the shallows, oar anywhere. Ill be back out there, cause I still have 18 soft crabs left to use. When it gets really cold out there, at nite we fish with tandem bucktail/shad body rigs, and do well.
> 
> So patience will have to be practiced here, guess I will get back to my old stomping grounds at Matapeake, or the Point Lookout area for now....


They are calling for SNOW today....


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