Capt. Pete Ide, Charter Fishing, Solomons, MD

Hey all,

Fishing is now transitioning to full-on summer. The biggest rockfish have headed north to cooler climes (must be nice!) and the smaller resident fish have moved into many of their summer haunts. We have still managed to catch a few 30-inch plus fish here and there. There is some live bait fishing going on, but trolling has been more reliable, so we’ve generally been sticking with that. I will do some live-bait fishing this weekend and let everyone know how it goes. When the spot come in bigger numbers (mid to late June) we should transition to all live-bait fishing.

We ran our first couple of night trips over the weekend with mixed results. One trip was pretty decent and one was fairly slow. I am hearing reports of big croaker up the rivers and I’m hoping they just haven’t made it out to their usual places yet.

Remember that this year I am offering a ten-hour trip for the hardcore fishermen. This trip doesn’t cost that much more and you can do A LOT of fishing!

I hope to have some good croaker pics up after the weekend.

More great fishing news! For a solid week now, the big fish have been ganged up and fishing has been as good as it can get. Yesterday with long-time client Phil Wagner and his world-famous Monday fishing gang we had some kind of crazy scene. We had just put out the 15th rod when WHAM! I’m pretty sure ten rods ended up going off. One of the deck rods had a doubleheader with two 40-inch plus fish, the biggest being 47 inches. According to the guys at the University of Maryland there are still a few fish up the river spawning. We may see these big fish all the way through the month of May!

One of four 42-46-inch fish we caught Friday!

One of Art's crew with another jumbo. I'm pretty sure we had to let this one go...

Fishing has been great the past couple of days. On Monday the fish were up on the surface rolling and we had a big-time hook up with eight or ten lines down at once! We had a nice, fat 44-inch fish which weighed around 35 pounds. Today the same lure caught another lunker. We had six on at the same time today.

BTW, I need a couple extra people for a morning trip on Thursday if anyone is interested.

Justin Powers christened his new rod and reel with this 44-inch beauty!

This was actually the first fish Justin caught on that rod. A snagged bunker!

After a slow start, the fish are moving out of the rivers and back into the Bay. Fishing has really heated up this week. Yesterday, we caught 15 fish in an hour and a half. The fish are lean and a little beat up from the spawning activity. Fishing should be great between now and when they migrate from the Bay to the ocean. The fish will hang out, feeding heavily to fatten up for the long migration north. Toward the end of May, the fattened up fish will stage and school up. That is when we get lots of multiple hook-ups. It’s not unusual at that time to hook 4-8 big fat fish at the same time. It is wonderfully chaotic! I have an opening this Saturday afternoon if anyone is interested in a last-minute trip.

Mare great fishing today in the name of science. I will put some additional information about what Adam is studying with regard to the fish we are sampling right now.

Hopefully the fish hold up. Opening day is April 18. I’m getting anxious!

OK, we’re back in action! I had PhD student Adam Peer from the University of Maryland’s Center for Environmental Studies out yesterday. As you may recall, he is studying striped bass reproduction and we went out to collect samples.

We caught 29 fish ranging from 33 inches to 45 inches and nearly 40 pounds. It was quite chilly but we stayed warm by cranking in lots of fish and shuffling planer board rods. Indications are that we will have plenty of fish when the season opens.

I am available for pre-season catch-and-release fishing from now until April 17 when the season opens. Catch-and-release trips are only $525 for six people. Fishing is great and it’s nice to be able to fish with absolutely no other boats around. Come crank in a mess of fish and hit the market on the way home with the money you save by fishing pre-season.

I have been doing some work on the boat as I said I would. I have most of the inside of the cabin painted and I have ordered some new cushions and even a new seat for myself (as many of you will be relieved).

This gorgeous sunset was viewed from Cape Henry at Virginia Beach. The winter season ended abruptly this year. The frigid temperatures chilled the waters at the mouth of the Bay to below 40 degrees at times. The fish moved far to the east where it is illegal to possess stripers. They also stopped feeding every day. I tried to stick it out, but fishing just got too inconsistent. I brought the boat home and plan on doing quite a bit of sprucing up the rest of the winter.

Thanks so much to all of you who helped make this a great year for me and my family (that’s me and my little mutt Ladybug). Fishing was pretty good all year and business was brisk, despite all the bad economic news. I am more dedicated than ever to providing all of you with a professional, first-rate charter service. I assure you that I will work harder than ever to make sure that your trip is a special day on the water and not just ‘another day at the office’ for me and my crew.

I’ll try to do some updates occasionally throughout the winter. The book is open, so give me a call and get some dates for the next season!

Thanks Again,

Pete

These ladies can fish! Cape Henry was alive Saturday afternoon with hungry rockfish. We had multiple hook-ups, including a doubleheader.

More great fishing at The Beach! We trolled around out front for a while today and after an hour or so, picked up and ran south about 5 miles and found a big bird show at Sandbridge. When we arrived, the gannets were pounding the water and we dropped the lines in at 23 feet. The first pass we hooked four singles and a doubleheader, which we had to stop the boat to wind in. The next pass produced two singles and another doubleheader! The biggest fish was 25 or 30 pounds. Ten fish filled my 320-quart cooler half way, which is about 200 pounds. Fishing is really heating up. It seems the foul weather of the past couple of days has pushed some of the fish onshore.

If anyone is interested in weekdays in February, I’m happy to work a deal. The fishing should be good and I have quite few holes I’d like to fill.

Fishing is great in Virginia Beach. In three trips so far, we’ve caught the limit (two big fish per person) every time. We had to go a long way yesterday, but we caught them. On the way home we saw two huge whales. It was slick calm and they were right in near the beach. One of them showed its tail flukes nicely, but I didn’t have the camera ready! The fish are acting a little funny. The ones south of the inlet are feeding on anchovies and they are harder to catch than usual. Hopefully another shot of cold air will push the bunker down the beach and the rockfish will follow. There are still tons of big rockfish in the Bay!