Rock Hall MD Fishing Report 5-8-25

 Fishing Report for May 8, 2025

Location: Rock Hall, Maryland

Weather Conditions:

• Air Temperature: 77°F
• Wind: Light breeze from the SSW
• Water Temperature:
  • Swan Creek: 75°F
  • Chesapeake Bay (off Rock Hall): 70°F

Fishing Experience: Today was a quiet day on the water with no boats in sight. I ventured out mid-afternoon, which is typically a slow time for fishing. Despite my efforts, the results were as expected—minimal activity.

I tried my luck with a spinner bait off Swan Point, a spot where I usually catch something, whether it's a catfish or a white perch. Unfortunately, today was different, and I didn't manage to reel in anything.

Upcoming Season: We are about a week away from the start of Rock Fish season on the Chesapeake Bay, which begins on May 16th. Hopefully, the fishing conditions will improve, and the activity will pick up as the season starts.

Perch in Swan Creek and Stripers by the Love Point Rock Pile

I caught a Perch at the mouth of Swan Creek this morning.   That's not such a big deal but I did catch him on my Mepps "Rasta" Lure, which has been a fish favorite for perch, puppy drum, and any kind of catfish.  The Mepps name for this lure is the Hot Firetiger - Firetiger (#2 1/6 oz).  I'll have to pick a few more up at Molly's Outfitters in Kennedyville.   Speaking of which, they have really expanded their fishing department.

Later in the morning I took a ride out to the "Rock Pile" off of Love Point.  There was only one other boat out there fishing close to the rocks.  It was an outgoing time so there seemed to be some small rips on the northern side of the pile.  Two people on the boat seemed to be jigging with two fish caught in a span of about 15 minutes.  The first one was a schoolie the second may have been a keeper.

It was on the humid side with a slightly overcast and visible haze. At 8:40a the breeze picked up to about 8-10mph with a water temp of 78 degrees. 

Puppy Drum caught off of Swan Point

To my surprise, I caught a puppy drum by the mouth of Swan Creek.  Surprised, as they aren't normally caught this far north of the Bay Bridge.

I caught the fix in about 4' of water close to the shore.  I was using a Mepp's "Rasta" lure with a yellow deer hair tail.  The water temp was about 72 degrees with a light breeze on a sunny morning.   The morning bite is key and this fish was caught at 7:15am.

I also caught two catfish in this location.  One was a channel cat, the other a blue cat.

Perch and Blue Catfish abundant on Swan Creek (Rock Hall)

 It's been unusually hot the last few days on the Chesapeake Bay.  So hot that back creek water temps were in the mid-80s.  That doesn't bode well for rock fish but didn't seem to have an effect on perch and blue cats.

Here's a great video on how to get started with catching perch.

Spring Fishing in Rock Hall, MD March 15, 2024

 It was a bit early in the season for fishing in the local ponds but a warm day in mid-March made it all reason to give it a try.  Also, when you get an invite to a sprawling farm on the back creek of the Chesapeake, you don't pass those opportunities up.

The water may have been around 50 degrees but myself and Darryl were still able to pull out a few crappies and maybe one bass (got off the hook).  Not bad for March.  Things should start to improve from here as the temperature begins to rise this month.

Stippers hit in 40' of water in Chester River

It only took until November 17th to land two keepers, but at least it saved the season. Up until this point, every prior attempt this year has turned out to be a boat ride.  Yes, fishing was on fire over by the Patapsco River, but I didn't venture over there.

Today was an unusually mild day for mid-November but when it comes to fishing that's just fine.  Based on the local fishing report I heard on good word the fish were biting in Chester River by the Queenstown Inlet in about 40' of water.  It turned out to be true.

Conditions:

Air Temp: 64 degrees with light cloud cover

Wind: 8 to 13 mph out of the South

Water Temp: 54 degrees

Type of Fishing: Trolling 2.5 to 3.5 MPH in 35 to 45' or water

Lures: Mojo White and Chartreuse (4 and 6 ounce Bullet Weights)

Tides: High tide, slack tide, outgoing tide.  We did our best an one to two hours into the outgoing tide.

Fish: Three keepers 20 to 22"

May 29th 2022 - Things picking up in Swan Creek, Rock Hall MD

 Memorial Day weekend brought with it good weather and a noticable pickup in fishing.  With water temp in the 68-70 degrees, the fish are starting to come alive as well as amble boaters.

Today was a slow start but I did eventually land a spot and perch around 11am.  It was an outgoing tide, but not sure that made a difference.  Caught both on a hook, 1/4oz sinker and bloodworm power bait.  I also tried a white grub with a chartreuse head and chartreuse spinner, but nothing bit.

In other news to did see a bateau cruising about (I'm familiar with the guy) crabbing which means the pros are out.  He was trot lining in about 7" of water on the east side of swan creek.   Earlier in the week, I did hear crabs are being caught in about 14" of water. 

May 15th 2022 - No action yet on Swan Creek

 With the weather turning for the better (warmer) I decided to take the bass boat out to.... 1) see how's it running after winter maintenance and 2) to see if anything was biting.  One out of two isn't bad as the boat ran well.   As for fishing, I was out there a few hours and didn't get a bite.  Not even on my lucky chartreuse spinner which usually snags a catfish every fourth cast.  I also didn't get any perch on a hook, sinker and power bait "bloodworm."

Conditions were favorable with a light breeze and mostly overcast.  It was actually foggy the first part of the trip.  The water temperature was about 62 degrees in Swan Creek.

I'm looking to try a few crab traps in deeper water but I don't have too much optimism yet.  It's only mid-May and crabs don't start picking up until July.

In other news, Maryland oyster harvest hit a 35-year
high this year (2021/2022). That's great to hear. 

''

No luck on a typically lucky lure.

No luck on a typically lucky lure

Big Crabs caught on Tavern Creek in 4-5' of water 69-70 degrees water temp.

 Despite trouble with the crab boat that kept me at bay for the last month, I was finally able to get out today around 7am to try the legendary Fall crabbing season.  It was a rather placid day around 66 degrees air temp.

I started off in Tavern Creek and layed 10 traps baited with chick necks in about 4 feet of water.  I had crabbed here before throughout the summer picking up 3-4 crabs in an outing.  Not great, but being on the water made up for the lack of production.

While the crab traps soaked, I turned to fishing with a Mepps spinner right off of Swan Point.  I've had luck with this before so I knew I'd see action or some sort.  I month back I landed a 20" Rockfish that really made my day.  Today though I hooked into two blue catfish with one being over 5lbs.  I also caught the obligatory perch and even to my surprise a pumpkin seed.  Fitting I suppose for October. 

Chesapeake Pumpkin Seed caught in Swan Creek, Rock Hall MD

Best day crabbing I've had all year.  

August Fishing 2021 - Schoolies caught off of Swan Point, MD. Crabs running too!

I finally accomplished my goal (8/9/21) of catching a striper/s off of Swan Creek Point. This location is situated between Swan Creek and Tavern Creek mid-upper bay of the Chesapeake. I also caught a few crabs too on chicken necks in about 3-5' of water. Two were nice-sized keepers but good to see some crabs taking the bait.

Ideal fishing this day was about an hour before high tide.  The Water temp was around 77 degress.
 

The weather during the morning hours.

Later the same day 8/9/21 I was able to go commercial fishing on F/V Canvasback out of Rock Hall, MD.  We trolled with six lines and caught six stripers, but only three were keepers.

Two 28" striper caught at the mouth of the Chester River in moderate seas.

 11/20/20

We headed out on Friday with my Father and two uncles on a brisk and very breeze morning.  The wind was about 14mph out of the south with white caps, but an outgoing tide in the opposite direction kept the swells somewhat reasonable for a Grady 20'.  

We didn't spot fish until we got to our waypoint at the mouth of the Chester River.  We fished in about 28' of water where the sonar was active with fish in 15 to 28 feet or water.  As usual most fish were seen laying on the bottom.  The water temp was about 55 degrees. 

At around 12pm my uncle hooked into a 28" striper using 1oz. jig with 5 to 6" swim bait.  He slow jigged the bottom which proved to be the trick.  He caught two nice fish that day.

Week of 10/26/2020

 If been going out in the evenings to swan creek point to jig for strippers.  I've also been using spooks, which I did manage to get bigger fish but unable to land it.  I may try poppers just off swan point and casting into the shore. 

Typically, I can catch the schoolies on a small curly jig that looks like something below. 

Water temp has been in the low to mid 60's, though a cold front is coming in this weekend (10/31/20).

Here's a video of Yuri and I out by the mouth of the Chester River not far from Love Point. 

Fishing for Stripers on 9/20/20

Fishing Trip out of Rock Hall 9/20/20 with Yuri.

We left the dock around 6:50am on a relatively brisk September morning.  Air temp was about 50 degrees with water temps still in the low 70's.  The wind was light but picked up during the day and at times was a good 15kts.  Swells were light near shore with bigger ones towards the middle of the bay, as usual. 

The day entailed a good amount of trolling, but the majority of fish we caught were casting soft baits.  Yuri caught a 22 in. keeper around 11:30am.  About 15 minutes later he landed an 18in both which were caught south of 3 CAN a few hundred yards off of Bayside Camp Ground.

Fishing off of Rock Hall Harbor just north of #3 green can.

 Billy and Matt came down last week and we spend two days fishing off of Rock Hall Harbor.  Wednesday we caught about 15 fish with them mostly being Stripers.  I did pull in a small bluefish to my surprise.  Thursday we did a bit better with stripers using jigs.

Water temp was between 80 and 82 degrees with moderate wind on Thursday 8/27/20.  

Earlier this week ahead of the coldfront, it was foggy but very calm on East Neck Island.  The water disappears into the horizon.  Tundra swans swimming to the right and a pair of eagles perched to the left (too far to photograph).