Matapeake Fishing Report

After an initial disappointing experience at Matapeake State Park a couple of years ago, it has quickly become my son's go-to fishing destination.  Now fishing on Kent Island is about as good as it gets for us.

To me, it feels like we're either in another state or somewhere so remote from where we live.  Being next to the water provides this amazing calming effect. I could go there and just sit and watch people, birds, and boats all day.

We brought my son's friend with us, as we seem to do most times.  We hit the road at about 5:45am.  After a quick stop at Angler's off of Route 50 in Annapolis, we pulled into Matapeake just after 7am.  This is, of course, after paying my $6 fee for crossing the 4.3 mile bridge.  I love that first look at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge when we get there.  It's like we're separated from the madness of everything that we don't like.  I took this with my iPhone, so it's a bit grainy, but I think you can appreciate why I like this view.  This is south of the bridge looking north.

The fishing was good.  It wasn't as good as the last time we were there.  But we certainly caught a bunch of blues.  I think we caught maybe 14.  Blues give you a nice fight.  We caught a few decent spot fish, and my son's friend caught 2 flounder.  I also added a 14 inch striped bass to my list.

I'm always jealous of the people with boats.  We just sit and watch them from the shore.  Check out this meatball's camouflage boat.

There aren't too many large ships traversing the upper Chesapeake anymore.  So when one passes, it's kind of exciting.  This is the Chesapeake Highway, and I'm pretty sure it's delivering new cars to the Port of Baltimore.  That is one of the few things that the Port of Baltimore still does.

Here's my neighbor's flounder.  It certainly isn't big enough to keep, but check out those teeth!  The Hispanic guys next to us were dumbfounded when we tossed it back, along with the 14" undersized striped bass that I threw back.  They kept EVERYTHING!!!  Small flounders, small stripers, small blues.  If the DNR police would have shown up, they would have had a field day.

You never know what you'll see when you're on the water.  We got to see this flying boat.  This is a creative dude.  He mounted a glider and a motor to a raft.

I think in total, we caught about 30 fish over the 9 hours that we were there.  Of course we were tired when we left, which means both of the boys fell asleep while I drove.  Why can't I ever be the one that gets to fall asleep???

All in all, another successful day fishing.

Matapeake State Park Fishing Report

Last Friday my son asked to go fishing.  Let me rephrase that.  He told me that we were going fishing. He requested that we go to Jonas Green Park in Anne Arundel County.  However, I set myself on fishing on Kent Island, to which he agreed.

My nephew wanted to come with us, and this kid is an early bird.  If you tell him to be up at 6am, he'll be up at 4am.  I agreed to get up at 5am.  My nephew took that to mean we were leaving at 5am, to which he got up at said 4am. We did get out the door at 5:20.

We made a quick stop at the new Royal Farms in Eldersburg for fuel. I would have gotten some western fries, but I didn't have the 20 minutes to spare.  As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I saw the first of three almost accidents.  A person was pulling out of the Exxon and turned left going south on Route 32.  You cannot turn left as it is a divided road.  Well, technically you can turn left, but you'll be driving against traffic.  The person suddenly realized their mistake, something Maryland Govenor Martin O'Malley is not wont to do, then did a u-turn.

We stopped at Angler's in Annapolis just off of Route 50/301 and picked up some razor clams.  We continued on, paid our 6 bucks to cross the Bay Bridge, and then headed south on MD Route 8.  After missing the turn for Matapeake State Park, just like last year, we turned around and finally found our way.  I paid the $10 parking fee to Martin O'Malley, then we hit the pier at 6:58 am.  We got there before 7am, which was my goal.

Our view of the Bay Bridge from Matapeake State Park.

For the history buffs out there, Matapeake served as a terminus on the eastern side of the bay for the ferry before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was built in 1952.  When the bridge opened and the ferry was discontinued, the terminus was converted to the state park.  It now services as a boat launch and a police boat dock.

The Matapeake State Park fishing pier.

We fished for a while, but only caught a few spot fish.  My son caught a croaker, the first of the year for him.  At about 10:45, my son had had enough and we decided to head down to the end of Route 8 to Romancoke Pier.  We fished there for an hour and a half, and my son caught a blue fish, which was all we caught. He had had enough there and was ready to go back to Matapeake.

On our way to Romancoke, I spotted this airplane in a field.  Then I remembered - there was a small plane crash recently.  No one was hurt.  But the plane is still there.

I checked the tidal information and learned that one of the peak tides would be at 2:30, or so.  This meant that the fish would be moving before and after this.  We hadn't fished for more than half an hour when suddenly we had to try hard NOT to catch a fish.  We were catching spot and white perch with nearly every cast.  My son added a striped bass, his first of the year (I have yet to catch a croaker or a spot.  Or a blue fish, for that matter.)

Other fisherman started taking notice of us.  Some approached us and asked what we were doing.  Just using razor clams.  Plus we hold the line with our fingers so that you can feel when a fish is nibbling on the line, then WHAM!!!  You got him.

At about 4:30, I had had enough.  The sun had drained me.  My son estimated that we caught about 60 fish.  I believe it.  We kept 9 fish -all white perch.  I made Eldersburg Jambalaya with them.  It was also the first time I had cleaned fish.   Normally I rely on my boyscout neighbor to take care of that task.  All in all is was okay.

Oh, the other two almost crashes.  I was driving north on I-97 where MD Route 100 breaks off to the right when a car in the fast lane decided he wanted to slide across three lanes of the interstate, but he only made it to the shoulder, swerved hard back to the left, then nearly taking out the sign before acquiescing to the fact that he wasn't going to make it.

The third incident was driving up MD Route 100 as we approached Snowden River Parkway.  I noticed a car making a u-turn up onto the on-ramp on the left, then swerve hard to the right and to the left to avoid hitting the on-coming cars.  Three crazies in one day!  It's like being in the Maryland General Assembly.

And that was my day of fishing and driving.