A lot of the boats talk to one another. We were south of the gas plant on the bay going east to west. Only boat that reeled two in was by bay bridge and both of those were to small and had to be thrown back. The warm winter had the rock fish go up the bay and back out before rockfish season started. There are some stragglers out there but we did not find them, no bait schools, no seagulls in feeding frenzy. Bay was calm, sun was out, and good conversations happened.
I'm sure DNR has the answer - they are all knowing when it comes to our natural resources...
More than 3-4 years the trawlers are netting all the bait and Rockfish are legal after so many miles off shore so there you go and white perch very few last year used to fill up a 5 gallon bucket with them 2-3 years ago but they 2 are MIA(last year) I will say that a place I fish in Calvert last year off a sea wall we were smoking legal Rockfish just about every weekend casting rattle traps
I too, noticed the decline in white perch numbers last year. I just went more often to make up for it. I'm just glad I was able to freeze as many as I did. Very few bags with the same date in the freezer. I'm hoping they do better this year, but I'm readying some catfish poles just in case. I'd completely swore off of targeting cats, but a man's gotta eat.
Was just chatting with one of our local charter captains earlier today. He said they caught quite a few rock in the last week but none that were legal keepers.
The rapid expansion of the bay and river dolphin population is a factor...they love rockfish.
