We had a great time! Started at 6am sharp and got to see the sunrise on the water. Caught a bunch of small perch that we used for live lining Rockfish later. Caught our limit!

Captain Chuck had a great plan going in. We will definitely go again!

I don’t like to give negative reviews, having been a guide myself in Ontario long ago. However, I would ONLY go again with Captain Hill with these circumstances: agree beforehand on what fish to target, take only 2 people (for room with casting), and take only expert casters.
First, the good. Nick, the mate, was great – always there, and very responsive. He freed up multiple lures. The Penn reels and rods and lures were good. I would have liked a longer fluorocarbon leader than 18” (I use at least 6 feet) from the high-visibility braid. Captain Hill clearly has a great range of tackle and lures.

Second, the less than optimal. I had suggested going for blue catfish, since I was going with 3 novice casters. Instead, we went for striped bass using jerkbaits. My three novice casters (I had practiced with them the night before) had great difficulty reaching any of the target areas. Particularly around Hart-Miller Island, none of them could reach the shore where the rockfish were. We never attempted to get closer so they could (I don’t know that area enough to know the dropoff.) With 4 of us, we spread out on one side, as suggested. The roof of the cabin prevented the middle 2 from getting enough room to cast. (I tried snap-casting and could not get even close to the shore.) I was the only one who could get close to the shore and had 2 good hook-ups. Expert casters would do well.

Finally, the one keeper we caught had red-pink sores on both sides of its body. See Unhealthy looking Striped Bass? | Virginia Institute of Marine Science **hidden content** This was – at least to me, as a doctor and biologist – clearly mycobacteriosis. Captain Hill explained that the striped bass “get injured being next to the rocks.” I have seen muskies run into the motor, but never rockfish getting injured by rocks. Plus, the scales were intact. Maybe he has seen this, but to me it makes no sense. He did filet the fish at the end of the trip, and did wash his hands at the conclusion. I made sure those who handled the fish used cleanser, and we did not eat the fish. (Don’t eat fish you would not buy at the market.) Others with less biology background might get infected. My daughter (a surgeon and expert filet-er) and I both noted that he wasted a lot of the meat on the fish when he fileted it (he was at least ¼” from the backbone.) That’s just my observation, used to filleting freshwater fish where every centimeter counts!

So, take the good with the bad. I won’t go again, but expert casters might. This was the conclusion of all 4 of us, independently.  He clearly knows the Bay and Middle River area, has great tackle, etc. and would be great for a group of expert fishermen.

As a shore fisherman, and based on prior communications with Capt. Chuck I had high expectations of landing a large quantity of perch. 

Capt. Chuck asked us to arrive 30 minutes earlier at 6AM, which was fine with me as the sun was up and we still needed to boat to our first fishing location.  Capt. Chuck made the day comfortable providing my 11 year old son an inflatable life vest instead of the standard, bulky life vest.  He also had water and his boat was equipped with misters which came in handy as it was a full sun type of day.  Travelled to about five locations landing 2-3 fish at each location.  Of course we missed a few, but we never seemed to hit a large quantity of perch like he mentioned in our communications prior to the trip.  Was it our technique?  He didn’t correct us if it was.  Was it the lure, lure color or bait?  My son stuck to the same lure as he was landing at each location until his arms got tired.  It was a good time to try bottom fishing while grabbing a sandwich and re-energizing, but no luck.  He changed baits at one point, but no improvement, so back to plan A for my son.  I was more inconsistent, we changed the lure color and that helped.  I tried a different lure at one point, but with no success, so I too returned to plan A.  Capt. Chuck did offer at one point to try a location for some rock fish, but my son wanted to continue with the perch search.  So as the fishing came to an end, I started tiring and that’s when one of Capt. Chuck instructions came true, “if you retrieve slow the catfish may strike,” WHAM!  Landed that fat cat.  Our 6 hours were up and we were still at a fishing location, when Capt. Chuck offered to continue, but we were beat as we were up early to drive the hour and 30 minutes to the marina.  I have had charters clock their time from dock to dock, and Capt. Chuck was not one of those guys.  He wasn’t making two trips a day and kicking you off his boat, like some charters.  Maybe it was a bad luck day, maybe Capt. Chuck is still improving on his hot spots.  Whatever it was, we were expecting a little more success.  We to returned to the marina.  Capt. Chuck doesn’t have a dock at the marina, so we had to wait for him to trailer his boat.  With no first mate, we had to wait for Capt. Chuck to move his truck to clean the perch.  They are small and difficult to clean and personally I would have had a smaller fillet knife.  He struggled through it and made my son happy.  Capt. Chuck is a nice guy and I hope his future trips out with customers are more rewarding.  Good luck Capt. Chuck and thanks for your time and effort.

I would recommend this charter
The boat and gear was clean and new
I wish we didn’t have to catch all the bait
Took a long time to just get 9 bait fish
Did a lot of driving to and from and also stayed in areas where we weren’t catching fish to long
Captain was very professional and he did give us an extra hour

Great time..great fishing guide, great results…book Captain Chuck Hill..