Re: What is Happening in the Upper Chesapeake?
I live in New Jersey but have a summer/weekend place in St Michaels MD on the Eastern Shore about 20 miles south of the Bay Bridge.
The Susquehanna River has been getting a lot of rain last fall and this spring, which has dropped the salinity level in the Upper Bay. The fish are further south and up in the tidal rivers that do not get freshwater runoff. There is one study that indicates it will take 3 years of drought to return the Bay to normal salinity levels.
Even without the rains, the trophy season in the Chesapeake was a bust. Last Year I fished 3 long 12 hour days with 16 rods and planer boards for one fish.
This year I did not even go out for trophy season, partly because I could not get a crew. Nobody was interested in helping clear 16 rods every couple of hours.
The Rivers were closed until June 1 but they held a lot of schoolie fish if you knew the regular patterns. The main Bay, particularly the upper Bay has been great for catfish but lousy for striped bass.
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