Fal fishing is heating up. The Striped Bass are staging around mouths of tributary rivers feeding the chesapeake as the bait fish start to flood out of the rivers. Bird shows are common every morning and evening making the fishibg very visual. There probably isn’t a more fun time of the year to fish. Early mornings are also producing good top water bites on the right tides. All of these photos are from this first week of October. If you have been wanting to go don’t wait. Give us a call now and lets go fishing.

Barry and James joined me the other day for a work trip and the fish did not disappoint. I did feel bad though as one person got their schedule mixed up and missed Barry’s trip. Boy did he miss out! The top water bite I’ve been on has brought a lot of smiles to my customers over the past few weeks with each trip producing fish 28-30” before we even get 10 minutes away from the dock! I’d also like to touch on the advantages of taking a private trip with JLS Light Tackle Charters. We take you for the time we agree on. There is no returning to the dock after you get a limit. Being a small boat you’re also only fishing with your party and unlike the big head boats we pick up and move until we find active feeding fish. There’s no grinding it out on fish that are sparse or not biting because we’re too slow or the fuel burn is too costly. Most days we caught quite a few fish, If you decide you’ve had enough we can go check out some sights like light houses or the bay bridge. We can also stop at a dock bar and grab lunch or a drink before heading in. My point, there’s no reason to be crowded on a boat with people you don’t know and stuck fishing a non productive area or even worse headed back in to dock in an hour after catching one or two fish. Come have a real Chesapeake Bay experience and enjoy the time you paid for on the water.

May came in with a boom as the fish had left the traditional spawning grounds up in the rivers a little earlier this due to the warm winter. We have found fish on shallow structure readily and aggressively taking top water plugs as well as in open water chomping on our jigs. The fishing is great and should stay that way until the july closure. If you e been thinking about booking a trip dont wait it gets no better than it is now. Each trip this week we landed a few fish over 28” including on top water.

With Striped Bass season opening back we hit the water and found our resident Striped Bass schooled uo and willing to eat. Last week we caught fish from 4’ of water all the way out to the main bay. Fishing is great and should stay that way until the july closure.

October fishing is great as it should be. The fish are fired up and were on a steady bite of 22-30” fish with few bigger than that on some days.

With the days getting shorter and the nights cooler the Chesapeakes migratory fish are leaving the bay until next spring. I took a shot at intercepting them leaving the bay and it paid off. We caught several Cobia and Bull Red drum.