Put away your boards or trailer way south for last chance at the big fish
 

Just kidding... we had a fantastic day yesterday and good day on Wednesday. My parents are in town and my dad has never been here during trophy season so I wanted to get him a chance at a trophy despite the reports and widespread opinion that the big fish have left the upper and mid bay. Well, on Wednesday after he reeled in a 33 and a 37 and watched my buddy reel in a 40, he kept saying he wanted to get one over 40, even though he could barely reel in the 37. So on Thursday he had his heart set on a 40 incher. After reeling in a 27 that felt like a 50 (pretty sure there was a 2nd fish on the line that got off on way to boat), and then a 40... he still wasn't satisfied because the 40 didn't put up much of a fight and he announced that he wanted a 45! Just when we were about ready to pull lines in, a big one hit on a short board rod that had his name on it. This one was a fighter and ran back and forth across the short boat rods and managed to snag one of them, but we got her in the boat and measured her right at 42". He was happy with that fish, but still wanted a 45... tough to satisfy this crew! Moments later another big fish hit a board rod as we were pulling in lines. This one was Robin's. Another strong fighter and she got her to the boat and had a big smile when she measured in at 42 1/8th! Robin's personal best and also gets her citation for Maryland Fishing Challenge so now me and the boys, my dad, and Robin all have citations and will have a chance to win at the award ceremony in September. My dad doesn't really like to troll so much because he doesn't think it takes much skill for him since he is just reeling in the fish, not like jigging or livelining where he feels like it is him "catching" the fish. However, I managed to put him on the fish 2 days in a row and he had no choice but to have a great time!

What area were you fishing? I fished bay bridge area on tuesday and tore them up! Nice job

Nice job. When you stack the boat with ringers, the fish don't stand a chance.

Thanks for the heads up, was hoping the big fish were still around.

The big fish are still around in decent numbers south of the bridge this week and hitting board rods with big baits 20-100' back. I have small baits on boat rods - 6-7" tsunamis and spoons on spoonbrellas and spreaders.

The morning bite has been great... Just stay away from the charter fleet and concentrate on the western channel edge if you want to target the big fish... follow the charter fleet if you are happy with numbers of small fish. I am having a harder time getting my unders than overs and still getting a few over 40" on each trip.

Jigging under birds has been hit or miss finding the birds but this morning after trolling we jigged fish up to 31" on metal bouncing on the bottom and got a few on topwater also in the 15 minutes we had before having to run home and left them biting.

I am doing a rare afternoon trip tomorrow... hoping the weak incoming still produces a decent bite on the big fish and we can find some birds for jigging.