If the Chesapeake Bay fishing reports so far this summer are any indication, we can look forward to a banner fall season. Large flounder are being caught consistently in their usual haunts. The spot and croaker are fattening up and the numbers are up, too.
If you have your own boat you can pretty much expect action from these tasty panfish anywhere you drop your bait. The piers are also a good possibility, and success is practically guaranteed on any of the head boats that run out of numerous marinas on the bay.

Whether you fish from boat, pier or shore, the standard two hook bottom rig is the accepted terminal tackle. Consisting of a length of nylon coated braided wire with two stand offs made of twisted single strand wire, or even coat hanger wire, they are practically indestructible. They are so rugged that many bottom bouncers manage to keep using the same rig for many fishing trips; sometimes even more than one season. Unless the rig is broken off when it’s snagged on the bottom there’s little else out there that can damage it, including sharp-toothed fish, such as bluefish, dogfish and skates. The trouble is they are highly visible.

If you don’t mind an occasional broken rig you’ll get many more bites if you switch to the freshwater version of the two hook bottom rig. You’ll find them in most tackle shops and definitely in the big box department and sporting good stores. They are packaged by Berkley, the tackle company best known for its fishing line such as Trilene and Power Bait. The product is called a crappie rig. It’s an identical design to the two hook wire rig except that the center wire is replaced with monofilament and the stand offs are made of a much lighter gauge wire. Unfortunately, the crappie rig is not ready to fish right out of the package. The wire stand offs usually need to be re-positioned and the bottom end is not designed to accommodate the teardrop bank or pyramid sinkers we use in the bay. The small snap clip works fine with bass casting sinkers which have a wire loop instead of the loop that is molded into the lead. Bass casting style sinkers are available in the heavier weights like 6-8 ounces we use for Chesapeake Bay bottom fishing, but if you already have a good supply of teardrop bank sinkers you can create a loop in the end of your crappie rig by pulling the line through the snap or cutting the snap off and tying a loop knot. The small gold Aberdeen snelled hooks that come with the crappie rig can be discarded or put in the freshwater tackle box to await your next trip to the local crappie hole. Replace them with flicker snelled hooks in the #2-1/0 size range and you’re good to go.

The standard bottom fishing baits are squid and bloodworms. Shrimp is also effective but tends to fall off the hook easy making for more stolen bait incidents. A new alternative that is gaining popularity is the Fishbites brand artificial bait. This product is nothing more than a single layer sheet of gauze imbedded with artificially flavored hard gel. It comes in squid and bloodworm flavor, does not smell, and stays on the hook better than any natural bait. A bag of a dozen 9-inch strips is about the same price as a dozen bloodworms and can be cut into short segments just like we do with worms. I recently spent two days fishing from head boats in the Hampton Roads area and the fish bites performance equaled bloodworms and squid. On day three I fished the mouth of the Rappahannock River. For unknown reasons, Fishbites didn’t seem to interest the spot there. Bloodworms saved the day.