This angler is bundled up for some late season surf fishing. Soaking a piece of fresh mullet or menhaden in December could produce a striped bass, red drum or jumbo bluefish. Joe Malat photo

With November upon us, all angling eyes around the Chesapeake focus on stripers as they migrate en-masse down the Bay. Following huge schools of baitfish including anchovies and menhaden, aka bunker, rockfish will stop to feed where these swimming meal tickets congregate. Usually these baitfish social congregations occur around high bottom areas. But crashing the party each fall are wads of rockfish, which gorge themselves on an easy meal. Locate these high bottom contours out in the Bay this fall and you’ll find rockfish nirvana.

One of those legendary rockfish hangouts is at the Southwest Middle Grounds, located approximately 15 miles west of Crisfield. The SW Middle Grounds can host great fishing action almost year round, but its success as a hot spot is defined during those first cool months of fall. Beginning in late September, boats from both sides of the Bay will jockey for position to get a good anchorage on this sacred ground. On weekends picket lines of boats will form, and if you are off by only a hundred yards, it could mean going home empty handed. So it’s important to mark fish first before you ever toss a spoon of chum. The feeding frenzy is usually marked by screaming gulls and terns.

CHUM SLINGER
The preferred method of angling here is to anchor up and sling chum. Most boats use ground bunker, but others will use razor clams or even butterfish. With a good slick in the water, fish will stack up in the water column behind the boat, so most of the action will occur off the stern rail. But as the boat swings with the current, all hands usually get a good shot at schooling fish. “Sometimes tide and current are running against each other and it’s hard to keep a steady chum slick. But when that happens, everyone on board will catch fish. Conditions are usually never ideal out there,” says Capt. Butch Tawes of the charter boat Capt. Rocky.

Gear for rockfishing in a chum slick is pretty basic. A medium tackle spinning rod in the 6 to 7 foot range with 15-pound test line is often the ticket to success. I like to use a Pflueger President rod and reel outfit spooled with Supreme line. I connect my line to a quality barrel swivel and then to a 30-inch section of 20 or 30 pound test fluorocarbon line which is my leader. Depending on wind and tide, sometimes a small shot of weight should be added. This will also get baits down deeper, sometimes to a larger class of fish. Baits are usually just a piece of cut bunker laced onto a 2/0 circle hook. Some anglers prefer to use the liver of the bunker.

The quickest way to get to the SW Middle Grounds from Crisfield on the Eastern Shore is via Kedges Straits. En route you must pass over the deeper Mud Leads area, known for its fall trout runs. Looming in the distance will be the old Navy target ship the American Maid, also a perennial hot spot for red drum, trout and bluefish. The Southwest Middle grounds are approximately 14 to 20 feet deep and defined by a shell and round stone bottom. Matter of fact there is a legend that the stones there are actually ballast cast over by British war ships enabling them to cross the bar to occupy Tangier Island and then later attack Baltimore in 1814.

FALL BONUS
What’s great about fall fishing at the SW Middle Grounds is that if you limit out on rockfish by late morning you can move to other areas such as the Mud Leads, Island Rock or the Puppy Hole area and hunt down weakfish, fat spot, and big flounder. Also, depending on water temperatures, some croaker may still be lingering around. Capt. Gerald Dawson on the charter boat Carolyn D II usually likes to provide a mixed bag day for his anglers. “Most of my anglers like to have a mixed catch when they come back to the dock,“ he said. Another bonus is that on the way back from fishing, if you pass through Smith Island, you can stop there for lunch and dig into a big crab cake sandwich.

When fishing the Southwest Middle Grounds you won’t often connect on big stripers such as those that get trolled up later in the fall, but you will find lots of non-stop action on nice fish up to 30 inches. And on light tackle these fish are a blast. Also remember to use circle or barbless hooks and release those fish you don’t want to drop in the box.